Taipei 101, more walking around the city, a short hike, and total collapse. We missed the night markets because we were just too tired.

Beef noodles and dumplings. @westminsterfox and I had this for lunch. Basically $11.55 with tip for both of us. Delicious.

So much Studio Ghibli

Pictures from our first day Taipei, which involved napping, beef noodles, napping, walking through some residential neighborhoods, Chiang Kai-shek changing of the guards, napping, Shilin Night Market, and now sleep.

6:20am in Tapei. Devices are recharging and we have chosen our noddle place for lunch. And I have a TV in the tub. Time to catch up on lost sleep from 16hr flight.

Vacation mode activated.

I hope my mild panic about taking a long vacation is understood entirely as fomo and not as mistrust.

Things I did not do today:

• prep at all for international travel coming up
• attend 50% of the meetings I was supposed to go to
• get my life together.

Things I did do today:

• write a lot of SQL

I’m pretty ok with this.

Baltimore is starting to spring.

About 6 or 7 years ago, Elsa and I visited San Francisco. I think we were there for a conference, but all I remember is wandering the city and that it was the last time I saw our mutual friend Winnie, whom I miss.

Elsa was trying to solve my usual hangry when she pointed out a café across the street and suggested I pop in. She accidentally led me to wander into the attached bookstore, Borderlands Books.

I have long loved sci-fi/fantasy, and it has always made me feel cast out of the mainstream. I never felt different as a nine year old for loving Star Wars, but reading A Wrinkle in Time, The Golden Compass, and The Dark is Rising all before the release of the first Harry Potter book meant I was a true nerd. It didn’t matter that I played sports or that I wasn’t introverted or that I had no social anxiety to speak of. I read a lot, and it was mostly SFF, and that meant I was doomed to the sidelines.

Even in my mid-20s, Borderlands felt affirming.

My friends are not SFF nerds. I don’t have a book club, I don’t go to conventions, I don’t have a fandom, I don’t play TCGs, and I don’t feel connected to the stereotypical nerd community. I still needed Borderlands, or maybe, of course I needed Borderlands.

As much as I hate Excel, let me remind you that every day you talk to someone who has never used a Pivot Table and you can save that countless hours by teaching them your black magic. 🧙🏻‍♂️🔮

Working at a startup means tiny effort can have a huge impact on you, your company, and most importantly, your customers’ success. Sometimes it means doing everything well and tackling something hard but finding only anguish and failure.

Training as a scientist prepared me well.

Find you a job that goes from demoing with potential vendor and client partners, figuring out product strategy for the rest of the year, reviewing release plans for the quarter, helping individual employees grow in their career, and optimizing a database view in the same day.

Weekend win: I felt like I was good at my job the last 7 days.

Posit— one reason people tend to “fail up” is that failure enables open outreach to professional networks that is more likely to result in good job market fit.

The new Apple Store is gorgeous. I feel like you always see it from the river, but what impresses me is the richness of architecture in view.

I still have anxiety about every single user of our product, constantly hoping we empower and delight them while always fearing we will disappoint them in some way.

I hope I never lose that.

This is totally the content I want as a @theincomparable member.

If you’re hired to express your ideas and your ideas are bad you should get fired.

Yes, ideas can be bad.

No, freedom of speech (even outside of the constitutional context) does not imply freedom from consequences of your speech.

This week I’ve put about 10 hours into creating an automated way to do a task I’ve been dreading. It’s a one time use, but has lifted a lot of mental baggage. This has been really good for my soul.