Top 10 takeaways from "How to become an aspiring architect" meetup
Tags: architect, selfawareness
Published: 2020-01-30 12:46:04

---
title: Top 10 takeaways from "How to become an aspiring architect" meetup
published: true
description: 
tags: architect, self-awareness
cover_image: https://www.weetechsolution.com/upload/Technical-leader-Roles-and-responsibilities.png
---

I got an opportunity to attend a meetup, ["How to become an aspiring architect"](https://www.meetup.com/Chennai-Microsoft-Azure-User-Group/events/267373337/) by [Karthikeyan VK](https://twitter.com/karthik3030). The whole meetup was so informative and enlightening. Most of the techniques/topics covered are something that we have to practice to grow as **a better individual personally and professionally.**

The whole session was completely interactive and the questions and opinion differences were addressed with open mind and facts. 

Karthikeyan was supporting all his statements with the book reference. He brought all those books with him. **"Showing and Telling"** has its own power of being in your mind for a long time.

At the beginning of the day, Karthikeyan gave us a form that had around 20 self-awareness questions. All those aligned with the agenda of the whole day. It made us bring out all the answers from within. 

We know 
1. what our goal is, 
2. how to achieve it and 
3. what we are not doing to achieve it. 

We just have to take to **bring them out and act** accordingly. 

One part of it that stuck with me was,

At the beginning of the session, he asked us to write our five primary goals in our lives for the next five years. Halfway through, he asked us to write what we want our spouse, kids, relatives, and colleagues to say about ourselves and our lives when we die. And the next question was, what we should do to achieve that.

Now he asked us to check if it actually aligned with our primary goals. This was a real eye-opener for everyone there.

I felt so inspired after the session that I want to share a part of what I learned there. 

**1. Why? Have a burning WHY.**
   Know why you would want to become an architect. Only then you will have the fire to become one.

   This is the main point that was stressed throughout the session. Once you have burning WHY, you will start to take responsibility. When you take responsibility, we start to give your 100% in whatever you do.
![Find your why, and you'll find your way.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/rfywh8r69p2pdmlf7lv5.jpg)

**2. Beware of self-talk**
This resonated with what I have read before “Your mind is a supercomputer and your self-talk is the program it will run. " by Jim Kwik. So you have to be very conscious about what you tell yourself. 

Know that everyone has imposter syndrome. Just don't let that bother you more than what you have to do come out of it.
![Imposter Syndrome](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7i1ohciah9k3ij0a7ki2.png)

**3. Four Quadrants of Time Management:**
![Four Quadrants of Time Management Matrix](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/vxi8l4npe6yi6e7tz7sm.jpg)

To live a stress-free life, Move all your time from Quadrant 4 to Quadrant 2.
 
**Unimportant, not urgent --> Important, not urgent**

It was so well articulated that now when I do something that is not so important I try to think if there are any important, not so urgent tasks that I can utilize that time for.

![Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of the things which matter least.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/vvdb3i0sido76uiuk61s.jpg)

**4. 55-10-55-30**
He mentioned this technique that he read from a book, to increase productivity. When you want to do work efficiently,

**Spend uninterrupted 55 minutes on it. Take 10 min rest. Then again uninterrupted 55 minutes on it. And rest for 30 minutes.**

Overall you would have given two hours of complete focus to whatever you wanted to do, be it work or reading a book. So you would have definitely made some progress on it and feel so much accomplished. 

**5. Accept people as they are**
Some might come into the office after 12pm and leave late. Some might be more efficient if they work from home. Some won't work if they are micro-manged. Some will work only if micro-managed. 

You can't change them. Accept them as they are and do what you can do. Don't just blame!

![Don't critize, condemn or complain.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/xu2mbr4oh8idupwfrz9t.jpeg)

**6. Know 12 factor App**

**7. Master Solid principles**

**8. Know how to prepare an architecture document **
Karthikeyan discussed various points that should be covered. And a hands-on exercise giving a use-case.  

**9. Never argue**
There is no such thing as winning an argument. If you argue, one person has to definitely lose at the end of it. So always aim for a win-win situation. 

But if the intention is to learn, then question. That is how you learn.

**10. Exactly copy the master first, then improve**
The example he gave was so me.

When I want to try a new technology and I open a step-by-step tutorial, often halfway through I start thinking it is too simple and try to learn some more advanced concepts about it and totally go offboard. And at the end of the day, all I end up with is the 3 windows open with 30 tabs each to read and "No working POC". 

First, follow what the master(tutorial) says. Finish it. Learn and understand that. Then improve. 

There is nothing undermining in following the manual. More often it saves a lot of time than trying out on your own. 

These are only a small part of what was covered. All these and much more were delivered in such a way that everyone left that day feeling inspired and motivated to change the way they work and most importantly, **change the way they live!**

All thanks to [Karthikeyan VK](https://twitter.com/karthik3030) for an enlightening session.

(All the images in the blog are from Google and not a part of the presentation. But the quotes were shared by the speaker.)