Level 1: NOT BUSY My schedule is wide open. I can choose infinite paths. Zero commitments. The weekend. I sleep like a baby. Life is good, but am I living my best life? Level 2: STUFF TO DO I have a few commitments wandering around my brain. They are reasonable, knowable, and not deadline-based. I… More
Tech Life
Don’t Panic
Elden Ring, developed by FromSoftware, wants you to rage quit the game. This is an undocumented feature of the game. You’re introduced to this feature promptly. After choosing your character, you’re plopped into a castle wondering Why is there no onboarding training? You walk through dark hallways reading warnings on the floor from other players.… More
How I Slack (2022)
Each Slack team I’m on has a different set of humans building their own unique communication culture. I’m actively on six teams: Work, Leadership, Destiny, two private nerd Slacks, and a private family Slack. Three out of my six teams have 100+ active humans, 100+ channels, and are high traffic with hundreds to thousands of… More
What We Lost
Who is this? Princess Leia, right? End of Rogue One. Wrong, this is not Princess Leia. This is. A photograph of Carrie Fisher in her role of Princess Leia. Chances are, your brain can tell the difference between the two photos. The first is a computer generated image (“CGI”) and the second is a straight-up… More
Doomscrolling at Scale
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
Good Meetings are Jazz
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
Channels Are Free
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
The Cable Situation, Pt. 1
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
Weekend Project: Cave Renovations Pt. 2
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
Weekend Project: Cave Renovations
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
