The Case against Hunger, Enthusiasm and Other Useless Buzzwords

After interviews with prospective candidates are concluded, when I ask fellow interviewers for impressions on the candidate, I sometimes get very strange answers.

"I dunno, the enthusiasm wasn't there."

"Has the skills. Not sure if he has the hunger."

"He just didn't seem excited enough at the prospect of working here."

I'll be honest - that mode of thinking is alien to me. I understand why the owner of a company would think his company is special, the same way the mother of the ugliest child on Earth would think her tyke was Heaven-sent. My question really is: why should others be expected to feel the same way? 

A face only a mother
could love.

Why, pray tell, should anyone, much less a fully qualified tech worker, be excited to be working for your company in particular? Is this really a reasonable expectation? Are you genuinely at the level where being allowed to work for you should be taken as an honor? What loses me is when people start giving themselves airs. Buddy, your company sells spaghetti and cheese fries. That's perfectly respectable. But stop talking about your "sacred mission" like you're solving world hunger.

What they probably really wanted

I suspect what they really meant was - we don't want people to just show up for the money and give the bare minimum. Which sounds more reasonable and actually even sympathetic.

They probably also meant that they don't want this thing to be too transactional. But here's the thing, cupcake - it's all transactional. You're literally running a business here. People need money to pay their bills. They need jobs to have that money. You're offering a job - look, I don't really need to explain this part, do I? 

And let's just quit sugarcoating it: Many of the employers who are fetishizing "hunger" can't handle genuine hunger. That level of hunger involves going above and beyond, yes. It also involves constantly looking out for the next better opportunity and coldly leaving their former employer in the dust if needs must. How do I know this? Well, I was young and dumb once. And yes, I was hungry. Starving, even. My employers were happy to benefit from my hunger, as they should. They were less happy when I left, and my hunger started benefitting other employers.

Here, eat some shit.

No, an alarming number of the employers who say they want "hunger" and "enthusiasm", generally mean that they want someone more exploitable. Someone who will eat shit, smile, and thank their employer for the opportunity to eat shit.

Now, making some grandstanding claim about how exploitation is morally wrong, would make me a huge hypocrite. All my professional life, I have been exploiting my employers' need for labor and tech expertise, the same way they've been exploiting my need for money. It's mere capitalism; very mutual, very respectable.

I just wish people would be honest about what they want, instead of abusing the thesaurus for fancy terms like "hunger", "grit", "self-starter", "go-getter" and the usual cringe LinkedIn buzzwords. Employers, employees; we're on different sides of the chessboard but we're essentially playing the same game. No need to get all self-righteous about it.

The case against enthusiasm

If I wanted to be crude (or compare myself to a sex worker), employers like that remind me of a line I heard in a movie once, and for the life of me I can't remember which one, or even who said it. Was it Al Pacino? I'm certainly hearing it in Pacino's voice, specifically the one he used in The Devil's Advocate. He was talking about how ridiculous a guy was because he hired the services of a hooker and actually expected her to enjoy the sex. Basically, not only did the unfortunate woman have to blow him, she had to pretend it tasted like candy.

Just like candy.

These employers not only want their employees to run through brick walls for them, they want these employees to act like they've been given the highest privilege. Come on, now. Are you grateful that your employees choose to work here? If not, why should the reverse be true? I'm not even asking for humility here; that might be a step too far. Perhaps something more manageable, like dialling that hubris down to less cartoonish levels.

Do I have that requisite level of bright-eyed enthusiasm? Is that why I've been in this company for the last five years? Hell no, it's just the way I work. And that's exactly my point. Asking someone to be in the company out of "enthusiasm" is like asking someone to marry you purely for "love". All these are feelings. And feelings in human beings are even less predictable than an LLM's responses.

Nothing wrong with feelings either, but at some point you're going to need something more concrete and dare I say, sustainable.

What you want is work ethic. Something that persists regardless of a worker's feelings. After all, you don't pay for their feelings. You pay for their time, and their output.

The Takeaway

Any idiot can demand enthusiasm. And any idiot can fake it.

It's not wrong to ask for enthusiasm. But you need to know what part this enthusiasm is supposed to play. "Enthusiasm" is a fuzzy metric that too many employers use to identify employees whom they can subsequently exploit.

Hunger cuts both ways. If you want anything less, you don't want "hungry". You want a wage slave asymmetric employment relationship. At least acknowledge that.

Stay hungry, but stop being foolish!
T___T

Working has different goals from working out

The last time I spoke about swimming laps in relation to software development, it was to discuss Brooks' Law. I've had a couple more insights recently, though those are more about work in general.

See, I'd gotten a bit smug about how little effort it took me to swim from Point A to Point B. I was averaging one stroke for every three that others were doing, but travelling at the same speed, or better. Then I took a closer look at the metrics I was using.

Getting smug in the water.

That's when I knew I'd lost sight of the big picture, and allowed work philosophy to cloud my judgement. Here I was, patting myself on the back for becoming a more efficient swimmer when it was never even the goal.

Working

Larry Wall summed it up elegantly when he said that laziness was a virtue in programmers. He could have meant it as a joke, but philosophically, this cuts to the heart of the matter. Work for the sake of work is not admirable, at least not in the corporate context. You are not paid to work. You are paid to get work done. You are paid to add value through your work. If you think otherwise, you're basically a (admittedly very industrious, good on ya mate) buffalo in the shape of a human being.

Beast of burden.

Thus it stands to reason that at work, you want to produce the most output for the least amount of effort. Both current and future effort. Which is why software developers try to write good code - not because writing clean elegant code is a virtue unto itself, but because code that conforms to those standards minimizes the amount of effort needed to maintain it down the road.

Therefore because I was travelling through water at the same speed as others while putting in less effort, I thought I was nailing it. I forgot that I was working out, not working.

Working out

What are the metrics for working out? You want to put on more muscle. You want to lose weight. You want better cardio-vascular conditioning.

Unless being an athlete is literally your job, you're not cycling primarily because you want to be a better cyclist, or swimming because you want to be a more efficient swimmer. No, when you're working out, your goals are very different. Burn calories. Get your heart rate up. When working out, doing more work is precisely the goal.

Now, at my age, putting on more muscle isn't a goal. Decades of staring at my abs have made the prospect less than interesting. Losing weight isn't that big a deal; as long as I can see my toes when standing, I'm good.

Heart health.

But cardio-vascular conditioning? Oh, absolutely. That's what I was swimming for in the first place. And because I was going at the same speed I've been doing for years, without putting in much effort, my heart rate wasn't going up at all. Which effectively meant that while I was in the water congratulating myself for having become better at swimming, I was pretty much wasting my time.

Conclusion

Swimming faster was never the goal. Swimming more efficiently was never the goal. Putting in more physical effort was always the goal. Not only did I take my eyes off the prize, I forgot what it looked like.

Mission Swimpossible?
T___T

A Software Developer's Vacation In Singapore: Coast-to-Coast Trail Edition (Part 4/4)

In the weeks that followed, I would constantly revisit these sub-routes. I would do them again, and in reverse. The point was to get myself familiar with the entire route. Prepare myself for the day I attempted to the entire thing in one go.

And then the day came. I scheduled it, right on Good Friday, 3rd of April, and prayed it wouldn't rain.

In the morning, I had a McDonald's breakfast at Jurong East Mall, then headed off to Chinese Garden MRT where I prepped two bottles of water and a sandwich, and a Snickers bar from the Cheers store. Minimal prep, I know. That's me - minimal to a fault.

There, the Anywheel bike was rented, and I started off from Checkpoint One. Things were smooth-going much of the way; I was pretty familiar with the route by now, after having gone back and forth over it obsessively.

This time, I rode on the other side of Bukit Timah Road just for a more varied experience. This took me right past the Rochor River, and this was surprisingly beautiful. I might have caught it at a good time.

Rochor River was
quite the eyeful.

It was just before 12 noon when I arrived at Checkpoint Four. So far so good. I was feeling fine, and barely even breathing hard.

The First Break

I sat down at the Kheam Hock Park to eat my sandwich. The sky was overcast and I was concerned it might rain and cockblock my entire day. It was maybe ten minutes past noon.

Kheam Hock Park, right at the
end of a boardwalk.

I hadn't had time to really take a look at the tiny park. Charming. Good for a dog walk.

Once I reached the overhead bridge at Lornie Highway, I got over the bridge, passed MacRitchie just like the last time, and audibly groaned when I arrived at the construction going on at Bishan and Ang Mo Kio. Damn, I really hate this part.

Once I got that part behind me, the best part of the journey began - starting from Ang Mo Kio Linear Park to. the entire Waterway stretch at Punggol. I took some time to settle in and eat my Snickers bar.

Huddling under this bridge
for my Snickers break.

Once done, I was on my way again, passing Checkpoint Ten at Coney Island without bothering to stop. The sun was blazing but I soldiered on out of the beautiful cycling paths and onto the hellish landscape of Punggol Tingkat.

By this time, my ass was killing me and my right leg had gone numb. I was conscious of a light but persistent burning sensation on the back of my neck. When I finally crossed from Punggol Barat back to the mainland and was greeted by the sight of the entrance to Rower's Bay Park, it was like water in a desert.

Rower's Bay Park entrance.

The sun was high in the sky, and it was making the water sparkle. The beauty of the sight was indescribable. I'd just completed the Coast-to-Coast Trail, and it was glorious.

The alternative route from Checkpoint Seven

On a separate occasion, just out of curiosity, I returned to Checkpoint Seven at Sengkang Swimming Complex, to explore the alternate route to Checkpoint Ten. This was actually the Sengkang Floating Wetland, a patch of swamp that was somehow eerily beautiful in the day. I had to dismount from the bicycle and push.

The bridge over the wetland.

Nice park after the wetland.

The route led on to Sengkang Riverside Park, which I largely skirted to embark on a long stretch of road leading west, parallel to the Tampines Expressway.

Road leading out of the park
and under a flyover.

Long stretch ahead
next to TPE.

After some riding, I arrived at the Seletar Aerospace Flyover, and headed north again along Seletar Aerospace Way, right up until I came to this idyllic green patch called The Oval. 

Very nicely manicured
infrastructure at The Oval.

I was pretty much winging it at this point, with a rough idea as to which direction to my destination, but no real clue as to the paths I needed to travel to get there.

That final stretch!

Aerospace greenery. Pretty fly!

The next twenty minutes saw me meander around the aerospace until I discovered Seletar West Link, after which I simply rode the green stretch all the way to the welcoming entrance of Rower's Bay Park.

Thoughts on this route

Now this was underwhelming, and I suspect this was because I really didn't know the official route. In fact, part of the problem might be that this part of the Coast-to-Coast Trail simply wasn't meant for cycling. It was akin to trying to find semicolons in a Python code base. Sure, you'll probably be able to find them, but they won't mean the same thing to you especially if you cut your teeth on Java.

I don't feel like revisiting this part anytime soon, though the other parks around the area do look promising for exploration.

Epilogue

This little foray into cycling in Singapore, would soon expand into a more extended exploration of similar trails in Singapore. The fact that I had also quit smoking at this point, also meant that I was able to spend more time in these parks.

This was a side of Singapore I hadn't appreciated up to now. And I intend to remedy that.

Where there's a wheel, there's a way!
T___T

A Software Developer's Vacation In Singapore: Coast-to-Coast Trail Edition (Part 3/4)

The next time I tried this stretch again, it was with an eye to getting all the way to Rower's Bay Park, which was Checkpoint Ten.

Because I enjoyed the ride from Checkpoint Six to Seven so much, I decided to do it all over again, taking a bus to And Mo Kio Linear Park and renting the Anywheel bike from there. Once I hit Sengkang Swimming Complex, the exploration started in earnest.

What followed was something that felt like a masterclass in urban planning to a layperson like me. The paths were beautifully flat. This was made for cyclists, and it showed. I cycled right through Sengkang Riverside Park, absorbing plenty of sights on the way. Honestly, I never thought any place outside of the usual tourist attractions could be so damn pretty.

This part was actually the
least extravagantly pretty.

I crossed this charming little bridge over Punggol Waterway, and the view was... let's just say my photos don't do it justice. They call it Jewel Bridge.

View from the bridge.

This route took me right by Waterway Point and Punggol Sports Center. At this point, I think my gushing over how picturesque everything is, is just getting repetitive. Amid all this beauty, I encountered Checkpoint Nine.

So pretty.

Even prettier.

Checkpoint Eight.

This route eventually led to this aquaduct called the Waterworks, by Waterway Ridges Rain Garden. This was quite a pretty neighborhood. Looked expensive, too.

Fancy-looking canal.

Turning in, I could see Coney Island as I cycled along Punggol Promenade Nature Walk.

Coney Island across the water.

And this was the entry to Coney Island, Checkpoint Nine. I actually went in to take a little tour, but didn't go that far.

Checkpoint Nine.

Now, at this point I had to make a decision. The actual path to Checkpoint Ten was from Checkpoint Seven. Yes, Checkpoint Seven was a fork in the Trail where the branch I took led to Checkpoints Eight and Nine, while the other branch led to Checkpoint Ten. Which meant that if I wanted to do things the "official" way, I needed to ride back to Checkpoint Seven and then proceed to Checkpoint Ten.

Nah. Fork that noise.

I pushed on to Punggol Beach and continued riding west along Northshore. Eventually, I emerged into Seletar Link North, onto the manmade island known as Punggol Timor. This was a markedly different vibe - mostly industrial. Much of the traffic was heavy trucks and pickups.

A lot of sand.

The first landmark I passed was this entire section of sand mountains. If I had to hazard a guess, this would be where they keep the sand they used to reclaim this island.

This was... nice!

Much of the scenery ahead was green wilderness. But I did come across this little channel, and simply had to stop to take a picture. With the wind and all, it was pretty surreal. This was the channel that separated Punggol Timor, which I was currently on, and Punggol Barat, which I was riding through next.

The rest of the ride from that point on, was a slog. The path was narrow and I was going past some extensive construction work. On the other hand, the sheer simplicity of the path ahead, held its own appeal. It was as ghetto as the crap I had to slog through in Ang Mo Kio and Bishan, but at least it was a largely uninterrupted path.

Soon, I crossed another bridge and found myself back on the mainland. Across the road was the verdant entrance of Rower's Bay Park, Checkpoint Ten and the final stop on the Coast-to-Coast Trail.

Checkpoint Ten

I had tracked down all ten checkpoints; now all I had to do was familiarize myself with the route so I could do it in one attempt.

Thoughts on the last part

This was without a doubt the best part of the trail. It was like entering a code base where everything was current tech, pristine and not tacked on with legacy shit. All of the exciting new features, none of the scars. As a software developer and thus a bit of a builder myself (even if in a non-physical sense), I could not help but really appreciate the planning that went into this.

The route itself did not cover a wide area this time; this was largely a circular path I took. A very picturesque circular path, to be sure.

Next

Conquering the entire trail at one go.

A Software Developer's Vacation In Singapore: Coast-to-Coast Trail Edition (Part 2/4)

I would continue the next part of this exploration on my own, on another day. The plan was go to from Checkpoint Four to Seven. I had no idea what to expect, thus I kept the scope of the task small.

On that weekend afternoon, I headed for Adam Road Food Center and began the journey with another Anywheel rental. I cycled on my merry way until, to my surprise, I came across the Japanese Association (from which I had recently obtained my JLPT) and turned into a little path that seemed to be made of wooden planks and dead leaves, part of the Adam Park Connector.

The wooden boardwalk
Park Connector.

That was actually a fun little ride, at the end of which I ended up at a charming little spot of green called Kheam Hock Park.

The underpass
at the foot of
Kheam Hock Park.

Next to the park was a tunnel that led under the Pan Island Expressway. From there, I passed a few ancient-looking gravestones and carried on my way up along Kheam Hock Road till I reached this humongous overhead bridge that spanned Lornie Highway.

This one was a pain in the ass.

It had a bike ramp which was absolutely torturous going up and worse going down... but the view of the highway from the bridge itself, overcast sky and all, was something else.

And then it was a long smooth ride along Lornie Road, alongside MacRitchie Reservoir. Things were nice and quiet, with occasional downward slopes which were an absolute joy. Eventually, things petered out at MacRitchie Reservoir Park.

A nice ride along Lornie Road.

After that, the most frustrating, tooth-grinding part of the journey began. I was supposed to travel along Bishan and Ang Mo Kio, passing the Ang Mo Kio-Bishan Park. However, the construction works around the area made wide detours necessary, and the entire experience thoroughly unpleasant.

Construction works.

Arrived here after
many detours.

Checkpoint Five.

It was a while before I got to Checkpoint Five due to all the detours I had to take, and all the obstacles I had to navigate. I wasn't riding the bike; the bike was riding me.

The track along Ang Mo Kio
Linear Park and
Luxus Hills Park.

Once I reached Nanyang Polytechnic at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, that part was thankfully over. The architecture along this stretch was interesting, and so was the greenery. This was Ang Mo Kio Linear Park, and immediately after that, Luxus Hills Park.

Checkpoint Six.

Also, Checkpoint Six at the end of Luxus Hills Park. This signboard was located oh, so innocuously. After Luxus Hills was this rickety bridge made of concrete blocks, spanning a nice view of the canal.

This lovely bike ramp.

After turning in northwards into Yio Chu Kang Road, I was confronted by a nice bicycle ramp on some steel steps. This one was far more pleasant to use than the last one, the incline being a lot less steep.

Houses opposite the river.

The Singa at a bike stand.

From there, I turned into Punggol Park Connector right by Sungei Tongkang, where I had a nice view of the houses opposite. There were also quite a few people fishing even though I'm pretty sure it's illegal. Still, it was a smooth ride from here. Also, check out this Singa on a bench!

Nicely cultured green.

I don't know why, but I was rather taken by this cultured patch of greenery right here. It looked particularly fetching amid the wild shrubbery. Around the area was also a nice view of the widening river.

Breathtaking river view.

As I went on, a particularly low underpass made me glad I wasn't a basketball player.

The underpass.

Checkpoint Seven.

Checkpoint Seven was right where Sengkang Swimming Complex was, and I ended my exploration of the Coast-to-Coast trial for the day.

Thoughts so far

Honestly, this was a mixed bag. The construction works at Bishan made this super annoying. But if I had to evaluate the trail excluding this, it would actually be a lot more pleasant than the one I endured the week before - because the trail here was at least meant to be bike-friendly. Let's face it; at some point the work on Bishan will be done, but Bukit Timah Road will remain a pain in the ass.

The fact is that this part of the Trail had plenty of interesting features. Whereas the previous part of the Trail felt like a legacy codebase with a new feature (bike paths) shoehorned in, this part at least felt like a codebase that was meant for this particular function.

Next

Checkpoints Seven to Ten

A Software Developer's Vacation In Singapore: Coast-to-Coast Trail Edition (Part 1/4)

It all began when I started wandering around Singapore and exploring the places I used to hang out in, places I used to work at. I started noticing the green spaces that Singapore is famous for. Sure, logically I know this, but all along, I had always dismissed it as tourist propaganda. Until I took a good look around and saw what tourists see - without needing to go to the likes of Gardens By The Bay, or Singapore Botanical Gardens.

Singapore does have some pretty nice green spaces. And from the looks of it, more foreigners seemed to be enjoying those spaces than locals. Not that I begrudge said foreigners their leisure... but it felt weird to me that as a citizen and taxpayer, I wasn't getting nearly as much out of all this as they were.

Time to rectify that!

Stop going out of the country on break. There's plenty to discover on this island. It was high time I coded less on weekends and explored more.

During the tail end of 2025, I began my exploration. In particular, a colleague of mine pointed me to the Coast-to-Coast Trail, a cycling/hiking route that starts from Jurong Lake Gardens and ends at Rower's Bay Park.

From what I managed to Google of the task, it seemed to be too big an undertaking to take on without seeking some guidance. To that end, I sought out the help of an ex-Navy buddy, who also happened to be an avid cyclist. He was familiar with the route and even knew what signs to look out for, such as the one shown below. Honestly, I'd never have figured that one out by myself. All I actually had was this map.

I met him at Lakeside MRT Station at 7AM on a Saturday. He had his own bike while I used an Anywheel rental. It had just stopped raining and the ground was wet. He had a helmet, padded tights and gloves. I had... slippers and pluck. And we set off, going through Jurong Lake Gardens and ended up at the signpost for Checkpoint One.

Checkpoint One.

The surroundings were pretty lovely. I was going to have to explore this another time, but for now, I was squarely focused on the Coast-to-Coast Trail.

My buddy took me on what felt like a bicycle trek through an urban landscape. This felt like a bit of a mood whiplash after the lush idyllic environment of Jurong Lake Gardens.

The bicycle paths were built pretty close to the road on this portion of the trail. Basically this was a common feature of bicycle paths that had been retrofitted into urban infrastructure, which struck me as an uncomfortable but necessary compromise. At one point, the trail led right under an MRT track!

Right under an MRT track.

Up a zigzag ramp bridge...

...and over the Pan Island
Expressway

This led straight to a ramp bridge which took us over the Pan Island Expressway eventually led us to a canal behind Bukit Batok Industrial Estate.

Behind an industrial estate.

This bike ramp.

At the end of it, we crossed a traffic junction and rolled the bike down a solid, if not totally friendly, bike ramp.

Zodiac statues.

There were some pretty amazing visuals on the way, such as this Animal Zodiac display.

Checkpoint Two.

From there, we arrived at Bukit Batok Nature Park. And just like that, we were at Checkpoint Two. Now, that was a fun, if short, ride away from the bustle of the main road.

Riding through Bukit Batok
Nature Park.

It was here my buddy observed that I seemed almost oblivious to the uphill inclines he was pointing out even though my Anywheel bike had no gears. My habit of swimming almost daily certainly contributed to my cardiovascular conditioning. My bike technique, however, was woeful. I was wobbling way too much, even with the wet road as an excuse.

Then we turned in to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. It was another fun ride along Upper Bukit Timah Road, and soon we arrived at Checkpoint Three.

Checkpoint Three.

Downhill from there, we passed the Rifle Range Park to Bukit Timah Road. The ride downhill was exhilirating.... and then the fun abruptly stopped because we were staring at a long stretch of road ahead. Not a proper bicycle path, but a narrow one right by the bustling road.

A long unpleasant ride ahead.

It would have been a long an uneventful ride, but for one thing - I took a spill over the slick path and skinned both knees. My buddy was right - my technique was woeful. And my eventual fall along Bukit Timah Road felt inevitable. Honestly, I was lucky. A meter to the left and I might have been squashed by oncoming traffic. Still, I got back up, back on the bike, and we continued all the way to Adam Road Food Center where the next Checkpoint was.

Checkpoint Four.

And that was it for this episode. We got this far in a couple hours, not that we were speeding or anything.

Thoughts so far

Singapore's generally neat and well-organized. A lot of thought has been given to the issue to safety for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists co-existing on Singapore's paths. The result is a largely safe, if restrictive experience.

Going through the first few checkpoints of the Coast-to-Coast Trail felt like traversing through a legacy codebase that has seen several updates from several different development teams with very different approaches... which somehow still works as intended. Probably because users use it as intended.

Next

Checkpoints Four to Seven.