Notes: I still have a "things I have learned this year" in my daily to-do-list. But decided to write about today, since it is almost like a life-changing day for me.

Yeah, it is the happiest day since I started my job. Why? I was out in the marsh at below 0 Degree Celsius. Well that's not really the reason that made me happy. The people who I worked with does.

But let's see why my job (not the startup) make me happy. Most of my time in the office I was either doing insignificant tasks or re-occurring action. Everyone will think engineer saves the world and do exciting stuff right? At least that's what I was told when I was a freshman. HOWEVER, I really enjoy having my brain fucked, a.k.a. someone/something that constructively challenge my brain. In addition, working in a large thing is just "HSBC" - How Simple Becomes Complicated. That gives me super low arousal and hence, my brain's insula and orbitofrontal cortex just keep activating (my negative emotion), till a point I stop feeling life is good.

Whom I worked with today are a crew of very interesting and cool people who usually not talk about their families and shit happened around their house. We talked about deep stuff but took shit on each other in a harmless way.

From them, I figured out the qualities the best people who we should work with, regardless in a startup, or corporations:

1. Love what they do.

How to convince a crew of people stay in the cold (below 30F) for 12 hours a day? Give them what they love to do, of course, in a challenging environment and with good teammates.

2. Understand "inappropriateness" ≠ "insult", make fun.

why are "Victoria's Secrets" "policy", etc. not appropriate in office setting? who get insulted if these words are mentioned? Relax. They are human's basic needs (Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs). There is no need to make them a taboo. Sometimes you just run out of topic and/or try to understand each other more. If someone feels uncomfortable, walk away, we are not talking at a house.

3. Allow a lot of questions and "concerns".

This one is obvious. Yes many of them are older than me and married and have many years of experience and stuff like that. But it does not mean that any opinions (from the young) should be ignored. They do it. All I can feel is that we can all contribute to a project in one way or another.

4. Super nice to each other and be patient.

It's cold outside. Everyone is stressful too. But it should not give anyone a reason to scream at someone for a small mistake. We all are almost frozen and have a lot of stresses too. Be understanding and be kind.

5. Make your shitty day slightly better.

Just like the guy from Alabama, they do tiny little thing to make any individual with them feel good, from waiting to tell us there is a hole on the walkway, to allow you to make fun of their interesting action. Then we realize we all actually feel better.

Actually, these 5 qualities are for me as well. #LearnAndKeepImproving.

By the way, it is also a super nice day. Pictures followed: