Posts
10 reps, 3x a day: Burnout recovery and PT
I don’t know why I thought burnout recovery was a single event. Nothing is like that. When I went on leave, one of the things I did was go to my doctor and get signed up for physical therapy to rehabilitate my elbow, because I have tendinitis, possibly from yanking a 30-pound suitcase off a…
2020 Technology Forecast: Stickers
I’m leaving for my first conference of the year tomorrow! It’s going to be awesome. I’ll have my notorious sticker bag with me for all the lucky attendees at DeliveryConf. I don’t remember when I started this, but by now I’ve done 2 talks (Write the Docs and DevOpsDays PDX), and I have a whole…
What I learned about my brain from playing 300+ hours of Stardew Valley
Yes, I got the Switch at the start of November. Yes, that is a lot, so many hours. Many of them were on planes and in waiting rooms, but many more were not. Yes, I do have a lot of internalized shame/misogyny/self-criticism about playing vidya games that much, and I’m working really hard on not…
Like butter across too much bread
I knew it was coming. My team knew it was coming. My peers knew it was coming. One of the things we know about developer advocacy is that there is a really high rate of burnout — it’s because we care so much. There isn’t any time that I’m not running a constant background process…
Lady Conference Speaker Food Problems
Content warning: I’m going to talk about voluntary and involuntary food restrictions or limits. Conference food is hard to do Pity the conference organizer! I mean that seriously. They need to get the entirety of the conference fed in a relatively short period of time. They need to make sure food is available for people…
What did you think was going to happen?
My mom taught 6th and 7th grade (often a gifted/STEM) class for the better part of two decades. If you think back, you may remember this as not your peak decision-making time of life. You can spot my mom’s former students by their love of history, language, learning and connections, and by a slight flinch…
BuJo Pig
It’s a joke about bourgeoisie performative productivity and how it intersects with bullet journaling… Nevermind. Bullet journaling is: a) a productivity system that uses a journal to capture to-do lists, stray thoughts, and planning, with various levels of elaboration b) an art form ostensibly about planning journals, but also worth time and devotion in itself,…
Lady Conference Speaker Headshot
You’re a technologist. You got accepted to this conference because of the excellence of your proposal, and now they want a…. picture? ARGH! The last time you had a professional photo may have been senior pictures. I’m sorry. I understand your reluctance and complicated feelings, but it’s a part of the process. The conference needs…
Book Review: Strategic Writing for UX by Torrey Podmajersky
Disclosure: I got a review copy of this book. Further disclosure: Torrey is part of the pink-haired tech people. We are legion. This book is a snappy and sharply-focused exploration of the words that make the magic happen in user interfaces. Podmajersky accurately identifies places that more needs to be said, and then avoids them,…
Upcoming appearances
Velocity Berlin
Minneapolis DevOps Meetup
DeliveryConf