We have a really bad habit that needs to be broken of ignoring that. We just say, oh, thanks. Take our coffee and go, oh, thanks to the person working at the bank. And go. And that's a real problem, because it really ruins our motivation. It really prevents us from performing even better, from pushing for growth, for getting up and coming back and doing that same job again. Hello, and welcome to the Py Bytes podcast, where we talk about Python career and mindset. We're your hosts. I'm Julian Sequeira. And I am Bob Valdebos. If you're looking to improve your python, your career, and learn the mindset for success, this is the podcast for you. Let's get started. Welcome back to another Pie Bytes podcast episode. This is Julian, and I'm here with, well, Baldivos. How are you doing? I am a good man. What about you? Yeah, great. Great. Not going on. Having good. Yeah, yeah, it's good weekend. And the funny thing is for everyone listening, all of you, listening, you listen to the last episode and. Was I on the last episode, Bob? No. Okay. All right. So it's. I apologize, everyone. You get. You didn't get to hear me, but hopefully you enjoyed it. There's my ego. I'm sorry. You got to enjoy that interview with Will. That was a really, really great session, but I apologize to Will. I was not going to wake up at one or two in the morning for that podcast. No. I hope everybody's writing more tie pins now. Yeah, take the hint. I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. All right, so, Bob, let's kick it off. Do you have a win for us to share go through? Yeah, I reconnected with nature, so we always take the weekends off. And I was reading a book. I pinged you on Twitter. Now I forgot the name. It's a book about the trend that kids are increasingly at home, especially since the pandemic screen time, blah, blah, blah. Take them out. But not only take them outside, but also take them into nature. Um, and that's actually really beneficial for everybody. So it can be hard to find something, but I set the bar very low. Um, I went for a couple of trees and actually finding, uh, and a park, which we have on a five minute drive, which is ridiculous. Nice. Um, and super nice pelicans and. And stuff. So, uh, yeah, the full thing. And it was really relaxing, and you just come back recharged, and there's. I think we're wired for that stuff, man. Oh, that's awesome, man. And what did the kids think? Yeah, they. That that's the thing. You have to set the scenery for them, right? Like, if you just rationally say, like, we're going to do XYz. Yeah, whatever. Just drive. Just go. And they just having. They have a blast. They were laughing, they were talking. It was great. What about you? That's cool. Happy to hear it, man. Yeah, no, we had a great weekend. Things have been moving quickly, just so much happening. But probably the highlight for me over the past week is that I have a friend who's come over from the US for a visit with a boyfriend. And we went down to see her. We took the time. It was a well over an hour drive with the family, the five of us, and went and met up and said hey, and hung out and really had a wonderful day. Just, I guess, catching up. It's been quite a while since we saw each other in person. And it's just really nice, like, making that time to spend with, with a family friend. And what's actually quite cool is that her grandparents were best friends with my grandparents. So from a generational perspective, it's. It's kind of trippy that we were hanging out, but, yeah, it's just, just awesome. And so that was my win. Just the family hanging out with them. And then another birthday party after that. Just a long day out with the family. But, yeah, when we got home, kids were just spent, they just passed out and everyone was. Was asleep. I had a nice, quiet night, which was good. Uh, but that's it. It was good. Nice, easy win. Yep. People take weekends off. It's really helpful. Yeah, that's why we, that's why we're sharing. We want to. Want to make sure that, as we've said before, with boundaries, that you're taking the weekend off for yourself and for your family and friends and stuff. Um, but that. Moving on, like, we have a topic to talk about today with regards to recognition, gratitude, thankfulness, all of that sort of stuff. And, you know, these are things that you're probably hearing these days on, especially on LinkedIn and at work. You're probably getting more focus on it, and, you know, it is a really big topic at the moment, so that's why we're bringing it up. Bob, is it something you've seen around the place? Yeah, I've seen some things here and there, but, yeah. Explain to us, please, what's the deal? Why it's more of a thing right now. A lot of it is to do with the stuff that I've mentioned over previous weeks. You know, this whole resignation thing, trying to make people feel valued at work. And, you know, part of it comes down to just being recognized for the work that you do. So there's a few things I wanted to talk about with regards to this, if you would humor me for a few minutes. Yeah, go. You sure? Everyone at home? You ready or in the car? You ready? Just Julian's getting on a slight rent. I'm sure I got to get technical next week, so this is your moment. Hey, you. You had Will and tie pins and everything last week. All right, come on. It's my turn. He sandwiched you in. Yeah, that's right. So. All right. I wanted to start off by saying, recognition where it's due. Right. We give recognition where it's due. It's the bare minimum we can do when someone does a good job at something, say thank you, recognize them, but do it in the way that they like. You know, if they want to be publicly recognized, do it that way. If they want to be done in, like, an email or just a one to one conversation, that's the way to do it. Figure it out. Ask them. Be. Be blunt and ask them, how do you like to be recognized? And then. Or how do you like to be thanked? And then do it that way. Work with them on it. Right. So it's really important we do that sort of thing. And. And I definitely engage with that a lot and support that sort of initiative. What I cannot get my head around is recognition where it's not you. And this is going to be maybe somewhat political or, you know, debatable, but the reality is there is a lot of recognition going around where it's not due. You know, I see it all the time on LinkedIn. I see it out and about. People taking praise, people accepting the praise when they had no part in the project or the program, people giving praise to the wrong people, people not recognizing the people who actually did the work. Right. And that's a surefire way of losing your stuff. That is a guaranteed way of making sure that those people who did the work will not do it again. It's. It's pretty. It's pretty obvious, but it's something that just keeps happening, and it's, uh. It's grinding my gears when I see it, which is why I brought this up. But to that end, I think, you know, that's a very company driven thing, right? So, very corporate thing. I like to bring it back to the actionable stuff. What can we do as individuals? What can you do listening? What can you do with recognition and thanks and gratefulness. The first thing I want to say about on this side of the fence is that we live in a society where we take everything for granted. We take it for granted that things work, that services run on time, that services happen, that the lights just turn on, uh, that when we go to a restaurant, we get our food and coffee within a couple of minutes, all of those things, right. And we only speak up when things go wrong, when the coffee comes out cold, when they get the order wrong, when the food takes half an hour instead of five minutes or ten minutes. Um, you know, when this podcast doesn't come out on time. Uh, sorry, I had, I had to, uh, those sorts of things. What we don't do is recognize that all the other time, when things are going well, it's because people are doing what they're meant to do well. They're doing their jobs, they're playing their part, they're doing their role. The thing that they've decided to do, they're doing it well. And we have a really bad habit that needs to be broken of ignoring that. We just say, oh, thanks, take our coffee and go, oh, thanks to the person working at the bank and go. And sometimes we don't even say thanks. There are plenty of people I remember from working in retail who never said thank you. That's a real problem because it really ruins our motivation. It really prevents us from performing even better, from pushing for growth, for keeping getting up and coming back and doing that same job again, perhaps. And the reality is that when you receive praise, sometimes it can be even more valuable than financial incentives. Right. And that's going to be debatable. People say, oh, no, it's not. I'm talking about the way that money can't make you feel super valued for what you do. It can't make you feel good about what you do, as opposed to the way that you feel when someone honestly looks at you and says, thank you so much for what you did, that made a profound impact on me, that really helped me through my day. That sort of gratitude, that sort of recognition really makes a difference in someone's day. And furthermore, what we need to remember is that, that gift of time that they gave you to give you that feedback, that is something invaluable. We all know time is a finite resource. So when someone takes that time to give you that feedback, it's something you need to accept gracefully. It's something you need to say, well, thank you. Don't respond with, oh, no, it's nothing. I'm not good enough for that. No way. You're crazy. That's no. You have to respond with thank you so much. I really appreciate that. It's kind of you to say, right? Because then it validates what they're saying to you and vice versa. When you give that feedback to someone else, it's going. It could potentially change their day. So today I received feedback from a friend of mine on this podcast, and it made my day. It made my week. It was just such wonderful feedback. It really, really filled my bucket. Right? It really made me happy. So something I won't forget anytime soon. So that's that. I'm going to stop there and stop ranting and just say, wrap it up with this quick public service announcement. Get out there and show some gratitude. The next person that you speak with that has done something for you, like giving you a coffee or washing your car or, I don't know, driving the bus that you take to work every day or something, right? Look at them and honestly say thank you. And say, I truly appreciate what you've done. Thank you. It means a lot to me that you got me here safely, that you made me this coffee and have a fantastic day, you know? So, Bob, I'm just going to ask you quickly before we wrap it up. Have you ever received feedback or thanks from someone that's just really made a huge difference to you and impacted you that you still remember it now? Yeah, certainly. And thanks for expanding. That's really insightful, by the way, you mentioned the gift of time and that sounded familiar. And that was actually episode 73. So just for reference, I can't believe you remember that. Thank you for remembering that. Thank you for looking it up. Dega, thank you for complimenting me. Yeah, yeah. I got a fun example, by the way. Actually, I found it this weekend. That was a few years ago when, you know, in the job and hit it pretty low. And of course we were talking about it because we talk about everything. And I think I was at this very low moment in my career and it was just very dark, you know? And you sent me like an email basically explaining why I was better, what then, the place I was in, you know, and what I should remember a bit, like how we do now with the successful and all that, you know, the wins. Yeah. And, yeah, I printed that out. I remember I had that stuck to the wall in my previous apartment and I still have it laying around when times get dark. So, you know, one email, one message, and I still carry that around, you know, it's funny. So, oh, man, I have no idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. So you're. That's cool. It's kind of. It's kind of related to, like, handwritten notes that people sometimes deliver. You know, it's. It's very easy to do. Right. That email took you like five to ten minutes. A handwritten note can even be like 1 minute, but it makes such a difference, right? And it's. Yeah, the details matter. Oh, that's awesome, man. I actually had no idea. So everyone listening, I had no idea that I was even going to ask Bob that question that just came out of the blue. So it was not the stage? No. Yeah, pretty much. This entire podcast, 95%, is just on the fly. We have no notes, no script, nothing. So just crippled. Wow. I'm actually blown away. Thanks, man. I'm going to shed a tear in a minute. That's pretty cool. But, yeah. So there you go. There's the power of that. It just. It can really change someone's life. It can turn something around. And you never know when your piece of recognition, when your thanks, when your gratitude can make the difference someone needs. So there you go. Things are pretty gloomy in the world at the moment, and hopefully we can influence just a little bit of color and a little bit of light and get people feeling good again. So. All right, thank you for listening. We're going to wrap it up with a book, of course. So, Bob, you kick it off. What are you reading? What's happening? I finished the code of the extraordinary mind. Vishen Lakyani, founder of Mind Valley. So a whole bunch of mindset in there. False beliefs, he calls them brules, or B's rules. Like all this stuff you get ingrained from very young on, and it's all about changing your thinking. So I found it pretty interesting, and it talks about gratitude, actually. So on page 139, while we're on topic, a study by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough showed that people who simply wrote down five things they were thankful for from the previous week showed a 25% difference in happiness levels compared to people who wrote down five negative things from the week. They also exercised more and said they felt healthier. So there you go. Right? Like, gratitude, even if you're known, express. That was a point I wanted to bring up earlier. Like, even if it's not, or you should do it, as you said, like in communication. But even if you just write down the things you're grateful for every single day, that seems to boost your happiness by 25%. So there you go. That's cool. Oh, man. I like that. And that's kind of scary that you even say that and bring it up that you're reading this book, because I was going to kind of surprise you, knowing we were going to record this tonight. I just started listening to an audible, a book called Think Again by Adam Grant, and it just piqued my interest. Have you read that? Yeah. You've read it? Yeah, yeah. And I just. I was like, you know what? I'm going to read that. Because it was just about thinking essentially, outside the box and not succumbing to the stories and everything that we've known to be true. And I say true in rabbit. He's here. Only you can see me. The things that we've been indoctrinated to remember and believe since we've been kids, right, since we grew up. We have to be able to challenge our reality, challenge our beliefs in order to really succeed. So I love it. I've only just listened to the bloody prologue, and I'm hooked. So, yeah, there we go. I'll have that done. Are you already at the firemen story? Yeah, done that one. Done that. So, not go around a fire or something, but battle was the fire or something. That's right. The guy thought outside the box and burnt the grass around him so that it wouldn't burn. So the fire had nothing to burn and then lay down in it. And that's how he survived the fire, because it went around and over him instead of actually through him. So, sad story, because not many of the other firefighters made it. But the point stands, he survived because of his ingenuity and thinking outside there's box. There you go. Oh, yeah. Now, before I forgot, actually, another example to your question, a few weeks ago, somebody actually quoted me on a pr, had nothing to do with, but purely to give me a shout out and thank me for a python decorator Beatriz decorator tip. So that was a nice surprise, right? Took him, what, 10 seconds, maybe 30, to find my handle on GitHub, you know, and it was just a nice surprise and super cool. So, again, it takes nothing, but it means a lot for the other person, so. Yeah. And look at that. You still remember it three weeks later, which is really cool. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Pulled on your heartstrings. Get it? Pull request. Oh, my God. Well, you know, you just tacked that story on right as we were about to wrap up, so I think I'm entitled to a joke. So, like a decorator wrapping it up. I will stop. Okay. All right, everyone, thank you for putting up, I mean, for listening to us. We really appreciate you being here, as always, on the podcast. And we will be back in a week, is that right? Yeah, of course. Every week a new episode. And as always, if you have any feedback or ideas, things you would like to hear us talk about, then just send us an email to info pybit es. I think that's the easiest way to reach out to us. Brilliant. We appreciate you listening. Thank you for being here. Gratitude from us, and we'll catch up next week. Indeed. Thanks for tuning in every week. Take care. We hope you enjoyed this episode. To hear more from us, go to Pibyte friends, that is Pibit es friends, and receive a free gift just for being a friend of the show and to join our thriving slack community of python programmers, go to Pibytes community. That's pibit es community. We hope to see you there and catch you in the next episode.