Off topic: Personal life thread

[Mori Chu]

Hi all! Since the offseason is long and dark and full of terrors, I thought it might be fun to make a thread where some of us give brief updates on how things are going in our personal lives.

The big news for me is that my wife and I are expecting our first child! The wife is about 16 weeks pregnant, and the baby will be due around March 1. We couldn't be more excited. A little scared, too, but I can't wait. (Hey, .net Dads, any advice for a first-timer?)

I've been off from work all summer because I teach at university. We get our summer breaks off unless we teach summer classes. I'll go back to work next Monday 9/25 teaching introductory programming in C++. Woot.

My wife and I still live in Santa Clara, CA with our three dogs and two cats (!). We rent a nice big house with plenty of rooms, so we will have space for the baby. We are wanting to buy a house, but the Silicon Valley real estate market is absolutely insane. To buy a modest 3 or 4 bedroom place with no frills will run you literally over $1.5 million dollars. So, yeah, um, we may need to wait a while.

I am also celebrating my 38th birthday today, Sep 19. Woo hoo! I don't feel as spry as I did at 25, but I still have a few good years left in me. When do I get to trade in my Subaru for a midlife crisis sportscar?

---

But enough about me! What about all of you? Tell me what you're up to! I love hearing about everybody and their exciting lives. Hope all of you guys and gals are having a great summer.

- Marty / Mori

[In2ition]

Congratulations, Marty! And, Happy Birthday!

[Cap]

Hi all! Since the offseason is long and dark and full of terrors, I thought it might be fun to make a thread where some of us give brief updates on how things are going in our personal lives.

Sounds like a good idea.

The big news for me is that my wife and I are expecting our first child!

But how's anybody supposed to compete with that?!

Congratulations!

[Indy]

Hi all! Since the offseason is long and dark and full of terrors, I thought it might be fun to make a thread where some of us give brief updates on how things are going in our personal lives.

The big news for me is that my wife and I are expecting our first child! The wife is about 16 weeks pregnant, and the baby will be due around March 1. We couldn't be more excited. A little scared, too, but I can't wait. (Hey, .net Dads, any advice for a first-timer?)

I've been off from work all summer because I teach at university. We get our summer breaks off unless we teach summer classes. I'll go back to work next Monday 9/25 teaching introductory programming in C++. Woot.

My wife and I still live in Santa Clara, CA with our three dogs and two cats (!). We rent a nice big house with plenty of rooms, so we will have space for the baby. We are wanting to buy a house, but the Silicon Valley real estate market is absolutely insane. To buy a modest 3 or 4 bedroom place with no frills will run you literally over $1.5 million dollars. So, yeah, um, we may need to wait a while.

I am also celebrating my 38th birthday today, Sep 19. Woo hoo! I don't feel as spry as I did at 25, but I still have a few good years left in me. When do I get to trade in my Subaru for a midlife crisis sportscar?

---

But enough about me! What about all of you? Tell me what you're up to! I love hearing about everybody and their exciting lives. Hope all of you guys and gals are having a great summer.

- Marty / Mori

1) Scared is the right feeling. My little bit of advice is talk now about parenting styles/techniques that you probably won't need for 5 years. Are you going to pay an allowance? If so, will it be for doing chores, or pay for grades, or neither? Are you going to expect private elementary education? Do you have an expectation of them learning a specific instrument or playing a specific sport. Are one of you going to stay home with the child instead of following your career? If so, which one? And does that one plan to go back to their career once the kid(s) are in school all day? And another 100 questions. Just make sure you both know each other's expectations on these (mostly meaningless) things so you can work together on the hard stuff and the easy stuff doesn't trip you up.

Oh, and don't be in any rush for them to roll over, or crawl, or walk. Once they do, you start to lose all control!

2) Happy birthday.

[O_Gardino]

Hi all! Since the offseason is long and dark and full of terrors, I thought it might be fun to make a thread where some of us give brief updates on how things are going in our personal lives.

The big news for me is that my wife and I are expecting our first child! The wife is about 16 weeks pregnant, and the baby will be due around March 1. We couldn't be more excited. A little scared, too, but I can't wait. (Hey, .net Dads, any advice for a first-timer?)

I've been off from work all summer because I teach at university. We get our summer breaks off unless we teach summer classes. I'll go back to work next Monday 9/25 teaching introductory programming in C++. Woot.

My wife and I still live in Santa Clara, CA with our three dogs and two cats (!). We rent a nice big house with plenty of rooms, so we will have space for the baby. We are wanting to buy a house, but the Silicon Valley real estate market is absolutely insane. To buy a modest 3 or 4 bedroom place with no frills will run you literally over $1.5 million dollars. So, yeah, um, we may need to wait a while.

I am also celebrating my 38th birthday today, Sep 19. Woo hoo! I don't feel as spry as I did at 25, but I still have a few good years left in me. When do I get to trade in my Subaru for a midlife crisis sportscar?

---

But enough about me! What about all of you? Tell me what you're up to! I love hearing about everybody and their exciting lives. Hope all of you guys and gals are having a great summer.

- Marty / Mori

I love it.

I like Indy's advice a lot, but I would add to it to keep the conversation open about all of those things. Your wants / needs will change once you hold the little bugger.

Also, most advice you get from parents etc. wont apply to your kid for the first 4-6 months. A newborn is an entirely different creature from a baby, and most people are so short on sleep those first few months that you don't really remember what it's like. Listen to advice, and try stuff that makes sense. If something doesn't work for you or the kid, it's ok to try again in a few months. Newborns mostly just need to be held, fed, changed, and told how much you love them.

And, about that Subaru - at this point, the baby is the mid-life crisis, you old man!

[O_Gardino]

As for me, I took a risk and accepted a job in Bossier City Louisiana. The kids and I love it out here, but the wife misses her friends a bunch.

[Indy]

Oh, and be prepared to be puked and pooped on. When they are just breast feeding/formula the puke isn't bad at all, but the poop is never good.

[rant]Last thing from me as to not to overwhelm the thread--Don't find out the sex ahead of time! I know most want to find to plan, but for god's sake there are no more surprises in this world, so let this one just happen. [/rant]

[Indy]

As for me, I took a risk and accepted a job in Bossier City Louisiana. The kids and I love it out here, but the wife misses her friends a bunch.

Congrats on the new job!

Sounds like me last year at this time. I have been out of AZ for about 55 weeks now. Feels like a lot longer, and my wife really misses her AZ friends and family. My kids have adjusted well and besides missing their family, they like Michigan better. Me, I didn't have any friends IRL in AZ anyway, so not much of a change for me.

[Indy]

I would add to it to keep the conversation open about all of those things. Your wants / needs will change once you hold the little bugger. [/b]

That is great advice.

[Superbone]

Congratulations, Mori, and happy birthday! The best thing in my life was having my 2 kids. I've been through the whole process from birth through college graduation and out on their own so ask anything that comes to mind along the way.

I am also celebrating my 38th birthday today, Sep 19. Woo hoo! I don't feel as spry as I did at 25, but I still have a few good years left in me. When do I get to trade in my Subaru for a midlife crisis sportscar?

Funny you should ask. I just picked up this baby a week and a half ago:




I've already put 1300 miles on her. The break-in period is almost over. So fun!

[ShelC]

Not a huge fan of Camaros but that's pretty sweet, especially the black rims.

[O_Gardino]

That's a practical car. Lots of trunk space!

[bajanguy008]

Wow Bone that's a cool looking ride . Wouldn't have guessed you have a "Blue Bumble Bee" , must be cool when you and the other Autobots roll out

[bajanguy008]

Nice thread idea Mori , kinda hard to follow up your post though so I was stuck here wondering what to say lol and I unfortunately don't have much going on . I signed out without saying hope you enjoyed your Bday and I'm not a father but looks like the others giving solid advice so all the best man

[jonh]

Im in year 4 of a 5 year phd program, so my summer was full of reading, writing, and throwing things at the wall. This summer, I gave a presentation at an academic conference about star teams and their consequences for organizations. Outside of work, my daughters turn 1 and 3 this fall.

Regardless of make/model, I am incredibly envious of anyone driving a car newer than 10 years old.

[O_Gardino]

Im in year 4 of a 5 year phd program, so my summer was full of reading, writing, and throwing things at the wall. This summer, I gave a presentation at an academic conference about star teams and their consequences for organizations. Outside of work, my daughters turn 1 and 3 this fall.

Regardless of make/model, I am incredibly envious of anyone driving a car newer than 10 years old.

You have my curiosity,sir. What constitutes a Star Team, and how do they affect organizations?

[ShelC]

Not sure what a "star team" is but Derrick Rose called the Knicks a "super team" last season. So there's that.

[jonh]

Im in year 4 of a 5 year phd program, so my summer was full of reading, writing, and throwing things at the wall. This summer, I gave a presentation at an academic conference about star teams and their consequences for organizations. Outside of work, my daughters turn 1 and 3 this fall.

Regardless of make/model, I am incredibly envious of anyone driving a car newer than 10 years old.

You have my curiosity,sir. What constitutes a Star Team, and how do they affect organizations?

Without getting too into the weeds, individual stars (in the management literature) are defined as someone with both exceptional performance and status (these are found in sports, academia, sales, etc.). On the other hand, a star team is defined as a team that has both exceptional performance and status attributed to the team, rather than just individuals on the team.

For example, in 2006, Kobe Bryant was a star, but no one would have considered the Los Angeles Lakers an exceptional team. On the other hand, I think its fair to assume that the San Antonio spurs over the past decade has been considered an exceptional team (that also had exceptional players on it). Id be willing to bet that GM's around the league believed that even if Leonard went down, the SAS would still be a good/great team because of the systems in place by the team/coaching/culture/etc would allow players to play better than expected.

The key takeaways (again at a very high level) is that (a) it is possible to have multiple stars on a team, and not have the team be a star team (ex: 2004 US mens basketball team), (b) its possible to have a star team without any individual stars on the team (ex: 1980 US mens hockey team), (c) the value of each star on a star dense team (teams with more than one star, like the 2011 Miami Heat) decreases (e.g. Chriss Bosh, Kevin Love), and there is higher conflict on the team because stars that aren't used to sharing the limelight get jealous of the other stars, and (d) organizations capture less value from star teams as the number of stars on the team increases.

This is important for organizations because because the external market tend to overpay to acquire stars (See Carmelo Anthony to New York, Googs to the Suns), even though stars aren't as productive after changing teams (I've got some interesting citations here, if you are interested). Ultimately, organizations would be better served trying to build, rather than acquire star teams.

There is a lot of other stuff in there that wouldnt fit this forum, but that is the core of the paper at a high level. Hopefully that wasn't too jargony.

[jonh]

Not sure what a "star team" is but Derrick Rose called the Knicks a "super team" last season. So there's that.

Its actually been pretty cool to see things like this come out in the media about superteams over the past few years. I've been studying this for 2-3 years now, and there has been a huge facination with superteams like the Warriors, the Celtics, the Caveliers, etc. But the term has been used in other settings too--I don't know if anyone remembers the band Velvet Revolver, but that was dubbed a Supergroup back when they first came out. A better example would be the Traveling Wilburys (Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison)

[Superbone]

Wow Bone that's a cool looking ride . Wouldn't have guessed you have a "Blue Bumble Bee" , must be cool when you and the other Autobots roll out

Ha ha. Yeah, me and the Autobots have a good time.