World Peace
“Good morning! How are you doin’?” He keeps asking me that. Why? For many weeks now I’ve smiled and nodded, and been saying all is fine. I’m not sure that’s the correct answer. Does he know that something’s off? I mean, it’s not been the
Magic happens on mountains. There is a long, although not consistently documented history of this fact. A notable early example is from 1446 BC (disclaimer: this is a surprisingly-specific AI-generated estimate): Moses spent some quality time up mountain Sinai, and came down with the 10 commandments. Since then, a slew
Essentials
I couldn’t fall asleep last night. I had an epiphany. I grabbed my phone, opened SilverBullet and quickly jotted down a formula. “I need to remember this in the morning,” I thought. Little did I know that the morning was still far out. Plenty of time to start applying
There’s a rare gem buried in most companies’ secondary benefits: the training budget. Every year we’re allowed to spend a certain amount on “personal development.” Traditionally the intention of these budgets is to send you off on some training course, or attend a conference. However, it’s 2023.
No More
“We have this amazing idea. We’re going to apply the model of Tinder to... the jobs market! Tinder for Jobs, it’s a slam dunk!” It’s 2018, and I’m being pitched a new job. The product pitch is clear: we’re going to revolutionize the job market
No More
“Oh, you’re doing OKRs? Sweet. Ah, a feature lists masquerading as key results. Classic mistake. It’s where we were in my previous place two years ago. I know how to fix this, allow me to fast forward you two years. You’re welcome.” In the new place, I
Yesterday I accepted a job offer. I’ll start in a few weeks, and I’m very excited about it. I’ll share more specifics when I can, but not today. The search is over. I’m happy and relieved. As I’m still processing this, let me dump an
Dear recruiter, dear potential employer, dear future self, I’m reaching out to you during likely one of the more stressful periods of my life. I may be casually interviewing to “see what else is out there,” or may recently have been laid off, with no money in the bank,
Leaving a company is like attending your own funeral — people say the nicest things about you. Just a little late. I was laid off yesterday. I had hoped the lay-off epidemic sweeping across the industry right now would pass by Mattermost, but it didn’t, and I’m one of
“If you treat me like a boss, we will struggle. If you treat my like a colleague, we can do great things together.” Boy, do I wish I was quoting myself here, but I’m not. This is a quote attributed to somebody in my team who said it — so
No More
I get my best ideas while taking showers or taking walks. If you feel you don’t get enough great ideas, start taking showers. People around you will appreciate it for other reasons as well. And take walks too. Exercise you know. However, contrary to what you may have assumed
Some time ago I wrote about the challenge to turn punch holes into dynamic islands. A fun subset of this problem space is to frame tasks that may appear as chores as life altering experiences. At some point I’m sure I’ll do a world tour asking audiences to