My expectation early in my career was that promotions just showed up. You worked hard, and you figured out how to get along with your teammates. Every year or so, my boss would have a one-off conversation with me and alert me that I had a new role along with increased compensation. This hands-off cycle… more
If you want to teach a Californian kid about cold, have him fly out to New York in January. Have him pack poorly and then have him walk out of JFK airport at 3pm with aforementioned poor packing, and watch what happens. Wait until the sliding door opens. Wait for it. And watch. I did… more
An idea just comes to me. I’ve been writing for a long time, so the ideas come partially formed. Not written but formed into the beginnings of a familiar shape. It is critical in the next hour that I write this idea down somewhere accessible because it’s just an idea, and failure to capture it… more
I didn’t much like Wally from the first time I met him. We worked in the same circles, but not on the same projects. I was aware of his work, but not involved or dependent on it. My initial reaction to Wally, “Complains. Nitpicks. Doesn’t act.” I made this judgment in a moment. Months passed,… more
In our 92nd episode, we talk about the ongoing battle with productivity tool swirl. Again. Enjoy it now, or download for later. Here’s a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes. https://traffic.libsyn.com/rands/theimportantthing0092.mp3
Your robot experience started simple. You typed a question into a chatbot… just to see. Can it answer that question? I’d be impressed if it did. Your query was simple. A simple knowledge question that with a little effort using legacy tools like Google, you would have discovered yourself, but the robots made it trivial,… more
There’s a lot of content hiding in the Rands archives from the past three decades. Over the years, some of that content keeps showing up. I keep forwarding the same links to the same articles; I get asked the same questions at Q&A. I’ve decided to synthesize the advice into a single artifact. My writing… more
One of the more interesting robot-assisted tools I’ve built in the last few months is tracking the various metrics for Rands-related properties. Think social like Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads. Think blog analytics like new users, session duration, and popular articles. I’ve been plopping this data into a spreadsheet every month for the last two years.… more
In our 91st episode, we talked about Founder Mode long after everyone else had moved on. Enjoy it now, or download for later. Here’s a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes. https://traffic.libsyn.com/rands/theimportantthing0091.mp3
The robots and I were tinkering with the script, and I somehow asked ChatGPT to make three sentences sound like me, but… just a bit. There’s enough writing out there that the robots have a rough idea of my style, but this prompt somehow triggered deep research. The robot did a full analysis of all… more