Beta

Many people look at me with my little achievements in life and think I am a production-ready version. However, I’d like to think that I’m still in Beta testing, for now, and probably for a little while.

Did I tell you about how I became Beta? It’s a great story by the way, and every great story starts with a legend-wait-for-it-dary moment: Birth! My parents were studying the Beta distribution when I arrived. That’s it! End of story!

No, it’s just a joke. I did not become Beta when I was born. The life-changing event that made me a Beta was, as much as I remembered, pretty plain and boring: Graduation. After 12 years of being in school as an Alpha, 4 years being Alpha 2.0 in university plus various extra curriculum and internship updates from 2.1 to a finite n, one day, I rolled out of bed with a new name: Beta.

It was a hard time for me at first. The hardest thing was I hardly acknowledge the fact that I am a Beta. I had a simple thought back then: “Oh, come on! Years of experimental education and months of internships should be enough for all the building and testing phases. Yes I know I still have lots of debugging tasks to handle, but I can deal with those along the way when there will be experiences and feedbacks. Overall, I should be able to be a final release now, ready for commercial sales with annual upgrades.”

Little did I knew back then …

It was super easy being an Alpha. I’m not bragging here, but in my mind, I did achieve a lot of things. Everything was so clear: clear subjects, clear exams, clear target scores, clear club activities, clear internship reports, and clear mind of what you want. You had a good vision of what you will become if you follow this and avoid that. You could fully plan your next five years with milestones and detailed to-do-lists. You prepared everything, oil your gears, pump up your tires, charge your machine, and ready to roll those wheels into your future life. Some people did have a good run on such a straight road, worked hard, climbed the ladder, jumped jobs a few times, dated a few partners, finally got a big office chair and a big home. They will eventually become the final builds for which users are willing to pay. I thought I would become one.

However, most people will end up on a bumpy road like me. Being Beta, I got pushed into the market when I might not be fully aware of how life works and how I work. Within a blink of an eye, bugs, and complaints were coming in, I was overload with things I could not do and became frustrated thinking about things I could have done. I started to look around and saw successful friends going ahead of me, made me feel doubtful about myself, both on professional and personal life. When I lost sight of the road for just a second, I hit the rock, had heartbroken, and my world turned upside down. I became malfunction and experienced a severe server crash. I had to shut down, got lost, and went completely off-line.

“How could this happen to me?” Shit! I took a detour back to school studying dry subjects for my M.Sc. Degree at a strange place with strange people. Did I just go back to be an Alpha? Will I ever be a final release?”. After roughly one year on this less traveled road, I then knew the answer to the question: “No!”. No, I was not going back to be an Alpha, and I might not ever become a final release. I’m still a Beta and would probably remain a Beta for the rest of my life (unless you want to call me Gamma, Delta, or whatever continues the Greek alphabet). And being Beta is awesome.

Do you know that Gmail had been on Beta for 5 years from 2004 to 2009 (not to mention a prequel of internally testing years)? By the end of that Beta period, most people on the Internet already had at least one Gmail accounts. And I honestly missed the old ad-free-less-spam Gmail. As a Beta, I still progress. I learn after every single mistake, fix it, and make sure it will never happen again. I update the “me” versions frequently enough. I pay more attention to criticism than awards or sales figures. I added features that people demand, not what I can offer. I have faster personal development. I can freely be experimenting with changes and testing features that a final release version won’t dare to due to a high opportunity cost. There’s always room to grow, things to learn, stuff to do and people to meet. I would never stop this continuously advancing progress since I’m a Beta, not a final build.

On the other hand, being a Beta allows me to be deeply in touch with some selective users, whose opinion has weights, rather than a vast majority of “just another customer”. I listen, I observe, I care and mean it, and they do care about me as well. The deep learning helps me realize what users will be my target segment: my family, my best friend, right type of person to date or to marry, the right mentor, the suitable business partners and coworkers, the ones I want to travel with, the ones I want to eat cheesecake with, and how I honestly love to be with them all the time. I also get to know people that I do not want in this Beta life, and I would not let them in actually since I’m not a final release opened to the public.

I’m a happy Beta and plan to stay as a positive Beta for good.

If you are at your quarter-life of mid-life crisis like I was, think of yourself as a Beta version of yourself, fix bugs, and update as quickly as possible. Be an awesome Beta!