Nathan Do

Mobility = Life

2024-07-28T00:00:00+07:00

Immobility = Death

A few months after my knee surgery, I took a short vacation to the beach. However, when I looked at the photos from that trip, I felt disappointed with how I looked.
That was the turning point when I realized it was time to make a change and fully commit to a healthier lifestyle.

In my journey to improve health post-surgery, I’ve started to follow more youtube channels on health.
There are these that I’ve learnt a lot from:

Habit building - Health improvement through Neuroscience: Huberman Lab
Diet awareness - Intermittent fasting: Dr. Eric Berg DC, Healthy Immune Doc
Self-improvement in general: The Diary of a CEO

Intermittent fasting proved to be somewhat effective, but it wasn’t quite right for me. I found there’s a trade-off between muscle loss and weight loss, and the timing often disrupted my work rhythm.

Mobility = Life

In that period trying to get into better shape, I’ve found this mind-blowing clip about Mobility from Dr. Vonda Wright:

There is this picture showing thigh muscle of 3 people:

40-year-old triathlete
74-year-old sedentary man
70-year-old triathlete

And from this we can clearly see the 70-year-old triathlete has almost perfect muscle while that of the 74-year-old sedentary man is almost unrecognizable.
My profound realization is that losing muscle and mobility isn’t an inevitable part of aging. By staying active, eating healthily, and lifting weights, you can not only maintain but even reverse the effects of aging.

This insight became my driving force, keeping me committed to the gym and running

Stay healthy

2024-05-25T00:00:00+07:00

This is a continuation from previous post: Start with health

My procrastination

Throughout most of my youth, and well into my mid-20s, I struggled with procrastination. Nearly every morning of my school years, my mom’s loudest yell was my alarm clock.

I was the student who never arrived on time, even with a school just a 10-minute walk away. During my university years, I often found myself cramming the night before exams, yet somehow managing to pull through.

For me, adhering to a strict schedule or a good habit has always felt impossible… That is until the accident.

The inspiration

About 4-5 months after my knee surgery, I came across someone famously known as “the ice guy.”

One night, driven by growing curiosity, I ended up watching over 100 of his videos. I watched them in the dark and without sound because my child was already asleep.

Each video showcased a 1-minute cold plunge accompanied by an inspirational quote that he personally articulated.

What surprised me the most was his video from the fourth day. In it, he appeared utterly miserable, swearing and doubting himself profoundly. Yet, he persevered.

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So as I am lying there, feeling depressed, I thought to myself: I have to make this happen.

Reasonable and sustainable > Extremes

Long ago, I’ve read a book “Mini habits”. The science behind habit revealed in the book is quite profound. But I got nowhere with the action back then.

Now after more than half a year of practice, here are the few keys to build a healthy habit:

1. Start small, one good habit at a time.
One mistake I’ve used to make is just try to add too many habits at the same time.
This is put immense pressure on your body and mental strength, which easily causes break-downs.
Remember the most important thing is to have consistency.

2. Focus on day-to-day targets.
Do NOT even think about 30 days or 2 months target.
With the way our brain works, expecting the end at 30 days or 2 months will just make the time feel longer.

3. Be reasonable and flexible.
Don’t push yourself to breakdown because an injury will interrupt your habit forming process
If your schedule is tight, you won’t be able to commit too much time, try to make it compact and still powerful

4. Tap on existing good habits.
Once the first habit set for a month or so, start trying to add more habits gradually by attaching it to the existing ones.

Example for mine:

Cold shower in the morning (first good habit)
Push up set before cold shower (the hook)
Weekly running 2km x 2 times after cold shower (the hook)

Health observation

Health is something we never know it’s there until we lose it.

I would never have imagined being able to jump or run normally could mean so much to me as it has always been a given.

But I think it’s a blessing in disguise.
Now, whenever I lack motivation to keep running I can tell myself: “Being able to run is already a reward”

Stay healthy, my friends!

Start with Health

2024-05-19T00:00:00+07:00

The glorified hustle

It has been almost a decade since I’ve started working as a Healthcare IT.

We have always dreamt of a shared platform that will make all health care problems simpler to solve. It should be a common place to educate, connect and rolling out solutions that are cheap, secure and scalable.

And as the first employee, my biggest commitment was to make that platform alive and growing.

That is what’s starting-up about, isn’t it ?
Working hard on your ideas, grinding, crunching and everything ?

Except it isn’t! Especially when you are working on Healthcare.

There is an irony I’ve found in this industry: It is those who are trained to take care of others’ health often have to neglect that of their own.

The wake up call

The year is 2023.

We have been so hopeful when it kicked off, as COVID had been finally over.
I wouldn’t have even remotely suspected how calamitous the year could possibly become.

After years of work swallowing personal and family time, my lifestyle’s gone pretty much sedentary and my body went out of shape. To be honest, I have been noticing and trying to resume frequent badminton sessions by then.

And standing out of all the bad lucks of 2023, my knee ruptured after an accident on badminton court.
So my first ever surgery had to be done.

The early part of the recovery process has surely given me some bitterness I’ve never felt my entire life:

The loss of freedom.

No freedom to move around
No freedom to do basic personal hygiene like bathing or going to the loo.
Lack of mobility also surrounds me with depressive thoughts

Only then have I realised that I would NOT even trade my mobility for creating the next unicorn.
Nah, not going to happen. Not in my lifetime

Start with Health

So the first priceless lesson learnt: nothing is as precious as your health.
But more often than not, nobody notices that until it starts fading away.

Without health, money or success is meaningless as you would suffer most of the time instead of enjoying them.
Without health, quality of time is depreciating too as you would spend much of time fixing your health.
Without health, there is simply NO happiness
A normal healthy body is essential for a fulfilling life.

Another lesson learnt: boundaries are important.
The earlier you learn to set it the better.

My recovery process has been slow but steady since that wake-up call. And in the attempt to put health on top priority, these are what I’ve done (but more details on that for another post):

Increase the amount of weekly exercises (2-3 x Swimming, 2 x Walking)
Daily cold exposure to boost dopahmine and immune system
Adjust my diet and lose weight (- ~4kg)
Try out intermittent fasting. It works somewhat but with some side effects

Our company’s motto right now changes: Healthy first, World second.

Bà về với Phật

2023-05-21T00:00:00+07:00

Bà về với Phật

Nửa đêm choàng tỉnh nghe tin dữ
Bà đã đi rồi, gấp quá chăng?!

Suốt đời lam lũ chăm con trẻ
Một tay bà gánh cả cửa nhà
Cả đời dù thông minh, sắc sảo
Tránh sao khỏi nghiệp, khỏi hờn oan

Đến khi già bệnh, nằm một chỗ
Trăm ngàn khổ ải, vạn lần cay
Bà về phương ấy, toan rũ bỏ
Yêu thương hờn giận ở chốn này

Bà đi nhẹ nhàng, lòng thanh thản
Chúng con tiễn bà, cản lệ tuôn
Chỉ trì niệm Phật mang thanh tịnh
Mong được soi sáng lối vĩnh hằng

Bà về với Phật, về an nghỉ!
Gần trăm năm chẵn, kiếp hư không.

21 May 2023

Back to Singapore after 2 years

2022-03-29T00:00:00+07:00

I hadn’t paid enough attention to realise that I missed Singapore until landed that afternoon in Changi.

It’s February 2022 and both Vietnam and Singapore’s borders are still both relatively close, due to COVID.
Tan Son Nhat looks like a ghost airport. On that Scoot flight, there were probably less than 20 passengers

It’s a weird feeling when passing throughcustom took literally 15 mins.
And even weirder was sitting on a plane that empty.

There I was, traveling alone, leaving my family behind for a call of duty.
Part of me feels happy when able to travel after 2-3 years of lock-downs.

The trip was made by last-minute arrangements: SHN (7 day Stay Home notice) hotel booked, a short term accommodation secured and office is always ready.
Though 7-day being locked in a 10m2 hotel definitely got the better of me, in the end, it’s still about seeing my beloved second home again. Home is where your heart belongs. And here I have my own family and friends that I have longed to meet.

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Orchard was pretty much alive then. It seems that not much has been changed as I strolled through not-that-crowded places along the road.
Singapore appeared great and neat as always. My driver from the airport told me it’s bad but it’s manageable and has been recovering well.

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That was the anxious and slightly exciting start of the next 2.5 months of grinding works and homesickness. But that was for another post!

Upgrade ERPNext from v5 to v13

2021-08-24T00:00:00+07:00

Why ?

My ERPNext venture has been halted for a long while. However, we do have an existing customer to support.
They have been using the system for a long while without any issue. However, no upgrade means no new features and this time they are really in need of that

First attempt - total failure …

So the first thing I’ve tried was just going head on with upgrading (on a brand new clone of the server, of course).
And it turned out … terribly. How’s so ?

If there are custom change on your erpnext repository, you have to reset it to master branch first
If you have custom modules, of course, disable them first
Script to upgrade then run based on your current database and the amount of changes are crazy
v5 was using python2 and v13 is using python3 (of course)
There is no minimal success baseline for you to build upon. Everything just failed.

In fact, after spending a few days on this, I was about to give up all together…

Second attempt - finally see some lights

Now, breathe and take a step back. This is not the only (real) way.

Back up the data (the database and the media files)
Back up the changes you have customised on
Install the completely new version
Restore the database on this new instance
Run migrations (–skip-failure)
Try to fix migration issues one by one
Manually migrate certain data that has been changed
Reapply changes from modules and customizations

Steps that I have taken

Back up old Instance bench backup —with-files
Install new install v13 vanila
Download all files to new instance and make sure have enough space. So that when you restore it doesn’t fail because not enough space.
bench mariadb and Repair table in mariadb

Then restore the database and files with

bench restore path/to/sql --with-public-files path/to/public_files.gz --with-private-files path/to/private_files.gz

Migrate but skipp all failed migrations: bench migrate —skip-failing From here on it depend on what errors will you encounter.
Set Email Account uidnext = 0

set sql_safe_updates = 0;
update `tabEmail Account` set uidnext = '0' where trim(coalesce(uidnext, '')) = '';
set sql_safe_updates = 1;

Delete Custom Field sales_uom -> might want to copy data

select * from `tabCustom Field` where name like '%sales_uom%';
delete from `tabCustom Field` where name = 'Item-sales_uom';
delete from `tabCustom Field` where name = 'Item-purchase_uom';

Quotation Item: Copy Stock UOM to UOM for existing items

set sql_safe_updates = 0;
update `tabQuotation Item` set uom = stock_uom;
set sql_safe_updates = 1;

Solve patch issue Patch: erpnext.patches.v11_0.create_salary_structure_assignments

pymysql.err.OperationalError: (1054, "Unknown column 'sse.from_date' in 'field list'")

Fix:

alter table `tabSalary Structure Employee` add column (from_date DATETIME DEFAULT current_timestamp(), to_date DATETIME DEFAULT current_timestamp());
set sql_safe_updates = 0;
update `tabSalary Structure Employee` set from_date = '2021-01-01 00:00:00';
update `tabSalary Structure Employee` set to_date = '2021-12-31 00:00:00';
set sql_safe_updates = 1;

Solve patch issue:

Patch: erpnext.patches.v12_0.move_item_tax_to_item_tax_template

Fix:

insert into `tabSingles` (doctype, field, value) values ('Accounts Settings', 'allow_stale', 1);
insert into `tabSingles` (doctype, field, value) values ('Accounts Settings', 'stale_days', 2);

Solve patch issue Patch: erpnext.patches.v13_0.rename_issue_doctype_fields Fix:

update `tabIssue` set resolution_by_variance = 1;
update `tabIssue` set response_by_variance = 1;

After fixing all patch issues, run bench migrate again without --skip-failing
Install vuejs npm install vue (first time)
Run bench update bench update —reset
Remember to enable scheduler bench --site all enable-scheduler

At this point, hopefully you would also have a working version of new ERPNext v13 already. To be honest, that was a lot of hours (even days) of mine. And I hope someone else can find that useful.

Of course, the biggest lesson would be update earlier when the work is not too intimidating…

Enjoy!
Nathan

2020 - Thời gian là tương đối - 2021 Sài Gòn bị thương

2021-07-03T00:00:00+07:00

Năm 2020

Tháng 2 năm 2020 đánh dấu ngày An ra đời giữa lúc đại dịch bắt đầu bùng phát.
Năm 2020 trôi qua vừa nhanh vừa chậm, theo một cách khó diễn tả.

Như thể có một ai bấm Pause ở trước đại dịch và tua thật nhanh qua phần còn lại của 2020.
Cụm từ BC (Before Coronavirus) ban đầu mình nói đùa với bạn bè hoá ra thành trend thật.

Và nó cũng có nghĩa là đây sẽ là một cuộc chiến dài hơi.

Năm 2021

Rồi năm 2021 đến và 4 tháng đầu trôi qua nhanh chóng với mọi việc phát triển bình thường. Cả công ty lên văn phòng và hầu như không còn ảnh hưởng của đại dịch… Cho đến khi …

Biến chủng Ấn Độ xuất hiện ở Việt Nam cùng lúc với kỳ nghỉ lễ lớn 30/4 - 1/5. Đây là giây phút bất cẩn gây ra làn sóng thứ 2

Giờ thì mình nghĩ là với vắc xin thì sớm muộn Corona cũng chỉ trở thành 1 loại cúm mùa tiếp theo.
Điểm khó khăn là vượt được qua giai đoạn này. Sài Gòn hiện này mỗi ngày đều trên 200 ca, một số ngày 400+ ca.

Singapore đang làm cực tốt đối phó với chủng mới. Và họ dựa vào vắc xin.

Dù sao hiện giờ mình đang rất may mắn khi công việc tiến triển bình thường online trong khi người lao động đang khó khăn kinh khủng. Chắc chắn sẽ tìm một quỹ nào đó để quyên góp cho thành phố trong vài ngày tới

Sài Gòn cố lên, chúng ta sẽ bật mạnh hơn gấp nhiều lần sau dịch !!!

Death and FOMO

2021-05-08T00:00:00+07:00

The Shock

A friend of mine since secondary school has passed away last week. We have been sitting together on the same table (only the 2 of us) for a whole year. So much laughter and so many class rules broken. After high school, however, we have sort of gone down different paths but in my mind, he was still always very close. Always smiling and talk a lot. That’s him.

Pains in my heart thinking he is still too young, in his early thirty’s, just like me. Why? When? How? Just happened that I had disabled my Facebook newsfeed months ago. The news, hence, has broken down to me really late. Tearing up slightly when joining his funeral. I don’t feel having enough time to comprehend how it was happening. I remembered coming home that day slight feverish. That whole night passed, blurry.

He’s left, but his smiles stayed for all of us. The life and the impact he has was tremendous.
I hope he have found peace prior to passing because of the wonderful life he has.

FOMO

Today, a few days later, still being stuck at the comprehension of his passing, I just somehow remembered a movie that haunted me most of my childhood. It’s about the afterlife.

In that movie, I remember vividly an image of a guy holding an umbrella jumping from place to place from cliffs to caves. Mind you, it was all dark. He met a lot of people just like him holding an umbrella, jumping around. And the generic rule of this world is if you are lighter (the more goods you do the lighter you are) then you fly to the higher level where it is more lively and if you are heavier, it’s the reverse. That seems to be the whole movie. This guy, however, keep falling no matter how hard he tried. He can jump together with several people, and they are all going up, just him going down. Finally, he is just all alone with an umbrella.

Simple and non-sense movie ? Since the day I’ve watched it, that still remains my biggest fear, being that guy after dying. What if, eventually, there would be no one left ? In my funeral and way after that ? I was super annoyed when I knew we would all be dead one day. But it was still nothing comparing to that loneliness. My fear of death doubled ever since.

Growing up, I gradually learned to control that fear, that fear of being left behind, that fear of having no one around. But deep down it is still there. And it’s just in our nature, I guess, which is why there is a term for it FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Watching others moving forward while own self stuck at no where is not an easy feeling.

His so-sudden passing made me realize that there might be no time left tomorrow for FOMOs on minor stuffs. Think about it, truth is most of the FOMOs we have today can suddenly become incredibly petty when facing Death. Essentially, to me FOMO is the same as the fck we’ve given in life (refer to The Art of not giving a Fck).

It feels like someone just hit me in the face with a brick to remind that I really have to prioritize and focus. Time is precious and limited, spent it wisely with the people and to the works that are most meaningful to me. Let us end this with a quote from Steve Jobs regarding the same topic:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

Viet An 2020

2020-03-29T00:00:00+07:00

Việt An 19/Feb/2020

Ngày 19 tháng 2, từ nay trở thành một ngày hết sức đặc biệt. Ngày con gái chào đời. Blog đầu tiên bằng tiếng Việt của mình đánh dấu một hành trình mới.

An sinh ra giữa lúc đại dịch đang làm xáo trộn tất cả mọi thứ. Chính phủ phải phong toả thành phố, mọi người phải giữ khoảng cách với nhau đề phòng dịch bệnh. Hàng quán phải theo lệnh đóng cửa. Điểm tích cực duy nhất là mức độ ô nhiễm của Sài Gòn giảm đáng kể, phố xá vắng lặng. Điều mà nhiều thập kỷ qua không hề thấy được. Học sinh có kỳ nghỉ Tết dài nhất trong nhiều chục năm, có lẽ là trong cả đời đi học.

Lúc đang viết thì thế giới đã có hơn 600K người nhiễm bệnh, hơn 30K người đã tử vong. Từ đây đến cuối năm, khả năng cao là sẽ có suy thoái kinh tế. Hệ luỵ của việc này chắc hẳn cũng to lớn không kém thiệt hại nhân mạng. Tình trạng thất nghiệp sẽ gia tăng và đi cùng nó là tỉ lệ tội phạm.

Trong cái sự hỗn loạn đó, 1 tháng vừa qua có vẻ như là 1 tháng dài nhất mình đã trải qua. Nó là 1 khoảng thời gian hết sức kỳ lạ với tất cả mọi người. Ngoài việc sức lây lan và huỷ diệt khủng khiếp, COVID-19 dường như đã ép thành công gần 70-80% dân số toàn cầu sống chậm lại. Ngay cả mẹ mình, 1 giáo viên văn cấp 3, người mà mình cho là workaholic nhất thế giới, vì COVID-19, mà đã bắt đầu phát triển sở thích riêng, ngồi học vẽ bút chì. Còn vợ chồng mình thì tự nhiên cả 2 được ở nhà chăm An.

Đối với nhiều gia đình, đây là thời gian gần như duy nhất cả nhà được cùng quây quần bên nhau. Làm việc ở nhà (Work from home) trở thành cụm từ hot, hashtag #stayhome hay social distancing toàn trên top trending. Trong cái hỗn loạn đó, lại có đôi phần bình an.

Hầu như đối với mọi thảm hoạ, những người lao động phổ thông, thu nhập thấp đều là những người ảnh hưởng đầu tiên. Hy vọng niềm tin và lòng nhân ái sẽ là ngọn đuốc soi đường sau thời kỳ đen tối này của dịch. Và hy vọng năm An ra đời sẽ được nhớ đến bởi sự nỗ lực của con người chống chọi với dịch hoạ thay vì những bóng đen của khủng hoảng. Và cũng như tên con, mình mong nước Việt được bình an qua khỏi sóng gió.

Để bớt chán …

29 Mar 2020

A new decade

2020-01-01T00:00:00+07:00

Life was not designed to give us what we want but life was designed to give us what we deserved

Jim Rohn

Today, 01-Jan-2020, marks a new decade. In 2010, I was just graduated for 1 year and still working in the University as a Research Officer.

The last decade has been great to me:

Celebrate the decade long of love with wifey soon and will welcome our first kid next year
Been to 7 different countries, experienced a few of different cultures. Learnt Mandarin though not fluent still.
Jumping through a few jobs ranging from Academic Research to Game development, experience totally different working environments (both good and bad).
Joining a startup and following through for the last 5 years have taught me various skill sets from development to managing people.

The transition from 20s to 30s, however, is rough. And it feels like a mid-life crisis is hanging there somewhere waiting for me.

But at the same time, coming back to Vietnam last year has made my mind clearer.
During the decade-long staying in Singapore, my mission and vision of the future got pretty blurry.

Granted that Singapore was clean, safe, and more advanced in almost all aspects but I really don’t know what I have been doing there. In Vietnam, I can tell surely that I will try my best contribute for a better environment and education.

Another thing only recently I have realised is the science of how we can grow better. Since young, I have been pretty confident about my own intellectual capacity. And for that reason, most of the exams in my life, I usually only spent the short period right before them to study and still passed. That was bad, in the sense that it has given me a totally wrong idea of how to master a skill or a subject.

1% daily does beat 10% for 1 month by a far distance (if anyone counting then it is 1.01^30=34.7% vs 10%). It applies to not only money but also our growth. A bit everyday is the best way to grow.

Habit is king, not perfection (so don’t waste time trying to make it perfect). It determines our behaviors, our characteristics. And therefore, our future, our successes. Habits make us that magnet which can attract success, habits make us what we become, therefore, what we deserved.