Up at 7am. Check the outfit, the professional outfit, on the floor to make sure it still fits my mood. Adjust as necessary. Shower and put on the outfit. Consider wearing shoes, but don’t. My shoes are lonely. Upstairs. Coffee (black) and a glance at the view. Santa Cruz Mountains. No fog today. Walk into… More
Ok, I’m in Darkshore, and It Just Started Raining
(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
Spidey-Sense
You see James on the 8th-floor cafeteria. You haven’t seen him in weeks which is fine because while you’ve worked together for years, your paths are currently not intersecting. “Hey, James.” “Hey! Long-time, I was just thinking about you.” “Really, why?” “Randy just called you out in the launch meeting. He said the project was… More
The Important Thing
Welcome to The Important Thing — a frequent collaboration between myself and Lyle. On a regular basis, The Important Thing valiantly attempts to discover and discuss one important thing per episode. Sometimes there are two. Roll with it. You can find The Important Thing wherever fine podcasts can be found: • Episode List • Overcast • iTunes •… More
The 2018 Emoji Report
I do a lot of work in Slack. It’s been almost three years since I started working there and can’t remember a world where I needed to wait anywhere from two minutes to two days for someone to get through their inbox and respond to that urgent email. I take it for granted that everyone… More
Kobayashi Maru Management
Ted’s feeling pretty good. He sits across from me in the conference room and says, “Program launch is solid. We’ve been working on the details for almost a month. We vetted the concept with all the affected teams and made tweaks, and now they’re fine. The only step left is sending the announcement to the… More
Two Keyboards at a Bar
INT. EVENING. CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA. BJ’S RESTAURANT AND BREWHOUSE. A RECENT FRIDAY NIGHT The bar is full. Two keyboards sit at the bar: APPLE EXTENDED II and MACBOOK PRO. The front door opens, TOUCHBAR looks around, sees the two keyboards at the bar, grins, and heads their direction. Skipping. APPLE EXTENDED II sits at the bar… More
Climbing is Not an Annoying Grueling Tax
I’m a hockey guy. Picked it up in college and spent the next two decades playing all forms of hockey: deck, roller, and ice. The Sharks arrived in San Jose and made my chosen sport official. I was set. However, there were two sports before hockey. It started in junior high with cross-country running and… More
Say the Hard Thing
The majority of people-related disasters I’ve created originate with my choice to not say the hard thing. On my short list of critical leadership skills, the ability to “say the hard thing” is right after “delegate until it hurts.” I didn’t give feedback when behavior was off because the person was new and I told… More
Your Professional Growth Questionnaire
Do you know what time of year it is? It’s not performance season. Given that I have no clue when you read this piece, how do I know it’s not performance season? For many of the companies I’ve worked at for the past three decades, performance season is three weeks once a year. More progressive… More