WARNING: The contents of this article might adversely affect your information consumption habits. A few weeks back, the sitting President incited domestic terrorists to storm the Capitol, so they did. For reasons I still don’t fully understand, this was a relatively straightforward process for the insurrectionists. It was also an incredibly well-documented events thanks to… More

Morning. I sit down at my desk. Meeting starts in thirty seconds. Let’s run through the pre-meeting checklist: Turn on the video. Am I presentable? How’s the hair? And the outfit? Right, I look like I’m working. Start the call. While in the green room, make sure the camera is on and the microphone is… More

There’s a lot of Slacking on the planet right now. The essential practices of shelter-in-place are forcing us to rethink how we get work done especially when that work is dependent on a vast amount of interconnected humans. Pre-Pandemic, one of my opening pitches to current and future customers as the VP of Engineering for… More

Rands HQ continues to experience unprecedented usage. We’re in week five of shelter in place and the home office is poppin’. As described earlier, I did an intense clean of the office two weekends back and am happy to report that the tidiness remains primarily because there’s a night 15-minute cleaning window where all things… More

The best part of a deep cleansing of the space is the next morning. You don’t get a sense of the total difference while you’re doing it because you’re there for each part of the gradual change. After a night’s sleep, you forget a bit, and the results are shocking. (click for larger versions) I’ve… More

I love my Cave. Earlier this week, I finished the book. This is the third book I’ve mostly written in the Cave. There’s been lots of outside writing spots, coffee shops, vacations, and airplanes, but the bulk of the work has been completed right here. Sitting in a hoodie, coffee to the left, Bear fired… More

I’m a manager type, which means the calendar is usually full of meetings. Now, it is my goal in life to make sure that every single meeting must actively defend its right to exist, but even with that constant fight going on, I am in a lot of meetings. 9am until 5pm is 85% meetings.… More

As much as possible, make sure to hold existing staff and 1:1 meetings as usual. Structure in these times of flux is critical. Lots of folks have more family at home and will need to shift their schedule. Full support. Make it a non-issue for being off the grid for folks to focus on the… More

(Ok, first hit play on the above video. This article has a soundtrack.) In World of Warcraft, Darkshore is the first major city outside of the Night Elf starting area and stands in dark contrast to the mystical and deeply saturated pink realm of Teldrassil. It’s where you discover that the game is full of… More