Akshay Shah

This is not a guide or a tutorial on how to post a listing on Craigslist. These are just a collection of strategies that have worked for me over a period of time. Some of it may or may not work for you, so use them at your own discretion.Pre-Listing Pricing strategiesCheck the current used prices on AmazonCheck existing Craigslist listings of the same itemThink about what would you want to pay for the item if you were buying itBe open to negotiate on the pricePrefer a cash-only transactionListing Pictures are the key Make sure your image is an accurate representation of the item Be honest with your item description Don’t sell anything that does not work Always add a note about the condition of the item Post a link of the item’s review on Amazon/review site Explicitly add a note about this being a cash-only transaction Add Postal code and neighborhood information Add information about what’s included with the item like accessories and warranty Include important information about the item which would help the buyer make a decision. One such example is to include camera shutter count when listing a camera. Optionally, state the reason about why you are selling the item. Again, honesty helps here. Contact Information and Privacy Don’t include your exact home location. Postal code and neighborhood information would suffice. Don’t use your work/personal email. Create a new email address for use with Craigslist. Use a service like Burner to have a temporary phone number to text and call Meet at a public place to conduct the transaction Use an app like ImageOptim, ViewExif or Metapho to strip EXIF data (location, camera information) from the photo before posting the listing Learn to recognize scams. Don’t reply to spammers. Share your contact information on inquiry. Some people like to add the contact information to the listing but I hate spammers and would not take that risk. Choose what works best for you. Post-Inquiry Once a sale is confirmed, setup a pickup time as early as the schedule of both parties permit. The more the gap between inquiry and pickup, the more are the chances of that transaction getting cancelled due to other similar items being available or the buyer having second thoughts. Prior-Sale Ready the item for sale. For example: If you are selling a phone, make sure it is sufficiently charged, all your data is backed up, your personal data is then wiped and the device is ready for transfer of ownership.

On the day of the sale Expect last-minute changes in schedule. If you generally have your phone ringer set to silent, make sure to regularly check your notifications to avoid communication lapses. Post-Sale Delete the listing Be Open to support for a couple of days from sale. A not so tech-savvy old person was having trouble in setting up the printer. He called me up and I provided him instructions to install the printer drivers over the phone and it worked. Be Human, Be Honest and remember to Always Be Closing ;)

As using electronic equipment is not encouraged at the Zen Center, the above photo is an un-edited scan from a Kodak Tri-X 400 film.

I took a 3-day trip to the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Ventana wilderness and agreed to do some voluntary work. I was assigned to help in the kitchen. After having some time to reflect on the Zen Kitchen practices, here’s my humble attempt to translate lessons learnt from the kitchen into my real-life job as a Product-driven Engineer.

Focus

Small talk during work is not encouraged. Utmost focus on work and always being present in the moment is appreciated. At office, there should be no meetings and interruptions during intense periods of focus.

Balance

When chopping vegetables, you can choose accuracy or speed. You cannot compromise on the quality but there are always people expecting food at a pre-defined time. So everyone has to make the right trade-off’s to make sure that the task at hand gets done. It’s easy to either get obsessed over tweaking the code for performance or to sacrifice stability of an app to hit a deadline. Achieving the right balance between optimization and shipping is extremely important.

Doing it the right way

One of the doors leading into the lunch area swung both ways. But somebody pointed out to me that there is a right way to open it. Similarly, just because your code works does not mean its clean code or the most efficient, pull requests should be used to discuss the right way to do things.

Ritual

Everyday one chapter from “Tenzo Kyōkun” (Instructions for the Cook) was read to re-iterate the philosophy behind cooking instructions. It could be fun to discuss a hacker news article or pickup a chapter from Clean Code and discuss it for 10-15 minutes everyday. Dissecting and discussing the arguments and philosophies from such sources leads to better understanding and improvement of pre-existing processes.

Positive Attitude

Just because the outer layer of onion is bad does not mean you throw away the entire onion. You peel the bad layers, try to extract the good parts (if any) and then finally throw it away. When reading negative user reviews of a product, make an attempt to cut through all the bullshit and get to the good recommendations. What exactly is the user’s problem with the product? Often times, the best gems are hidden in those negative reviews.

Design

All doors leading in/out of the kitchen were equipped to be opened by foot (hands-free door). This was very convenient as you are often lifting heavy utensils with both your hands. Always design keeping the end-user in mind. How is the product going to be used by the user? What’s the use-case?

Communication

If you are carrying any sharp object like a knife in/out of the kitchen or washing it, it’s mandatory to shout “Knife” or “Sharp” so that people are alert and don’t get hurt. Whenever you think something might not be right for the users; shout, scream and raise a stink so that you don’t end up hurting the product/users or both.

Consistency

One of the tasks could be to fetch a box of fruits from the “Upper Shack”. Once you familiarize yourself with the term “Upper Shack”, everyone working there without fail uses the same term to describe the place. So, you will never be confused about where are you supposed to go. In projects, it is important to have consistent terminologies to define various components of the projects so that everyone from Engineering, Product, Design and Marketing speaks the same language and leaves little to no room for ambiguity.

Organization

Everything in the kitchen is neatly organized by functions. For example: vegetable scrapers and cutting boards are placed together. Organize your project files in some well-defined structure and make sure that everyone else on the team follows the same structure.

State the Decision-Makers

In case of any doubts/issues with the job, you talk to the fukuten (assistant to the head cook) or the Tenzo. Always clearly define the authority on a per-project/product basis so that you know where is truth.

Training

For every job, precise hands-on instructions are provided. Have a well-defined training program for new people joining the team.

Immediate Feedback

After training, fukuten would do early rounds across the entire kitchen to keep an eye on the jobs being performed and immediately report any issues. Try to get Product feedback as early as possible in the development cycle while it could still be improved upon without extra effort.

Compatibility

It was ok to use the same cutting board for oranges and lemons because they belong to the same ‘tangy’ tasting family but different cutting boards are used for onions. Hire people that are a good culture-fit for the company.

Decomposition

“Cut 26 scallions to fill this cup to the brim. Use more scallions if required.”

Every recipe was precisely broken down in order to make the job easier. Decompose the business requirements into detailed set of tasks, goals and objectives.

A defined process, organized approach, laser-sharp focus and sharing the same beliefs were probably some of the reasons that day after day they were able to consistently cook one of the best vegetarian meals in the Bay Area. I was just glad to be a small part of it and happy with the newly acquired ninja-like vegetable chopping skills :).

Disclaimer: I have never worked in any capacity in a commercial kitchen before.