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Childhood stories Non-tech

The Orwellian Surrealism of Saddam Hussein-Era School Assemblies

How schools were the most important part of the brainwashing machinery.

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Childhood stories Non-tech Unpolished thoughts

Home Country

Sixteen years old and a naïve devout typical Sunni Iraqi boy, I had a big solid identity with all sorts of strongly-held beliefs. An average Iraqi teenager, with a regular mix of nationalism, belonging, and a general tribal tendency of connectedness with everything and everyone around me, although with a dash of rebelion. Being a […]

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Non-tech

Buying Cycling Gear – Advice From an Absolute Noob

Given my limited experience in this, I can’t help you choose the right bike; the selection is huge, and your type of usage is key in deciding. I’ll just list the mistakes I made, hoping to save you from making them. This post is meant for other noobs like myself, if you have any experience, […]

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Non-tech Tech

Do Not Use Your Employer’s Email Account to Negotiate Anything Legal

TL;DR: because they can delete everything. By employer’s email account I mean something like you@youremployersdomain.com. I recently parted ways with my previous employer. It all went super smoothly and my previous employer was nothing but super nice and compassionate. However, after a while, they naturally shut down my email account. And I was so close […]

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Non-tech

On Lying

If you think exercise is hard, try being honest. In July last year, I listened to Sam Harris’s book Lying. It is a one-hour quick audiobook that I semi-randomly picked up for the mere reason that it is authored by Sam Harris. Not a book I read had such a profound impact on my life. […]

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Non-tech Tech

My Thoughts on Working Remotely, One Year in

The social, the efficiency and the health factors A little intro It’s been a little more than a year since I joined Starcounter. Working full-time as a Javascript developer mostly on Palindrom, JSONPatcherProxy, and fast-json-patch. All the team I work with is in the same timezone. We use Github, Slack and Google Hangouts for meetings. Worth mentioning that I […]