My sister, who is a Ph.D. sociologist, first introduced me to the sociological concept of intersectionality. Like many academic sociological terms, it is often misunderstood and misrepresented in popular discourse. But I found a simple way to approach it by thinking about it with my math brain1. I think I can explain it in way that is easy to understand, however you might feel about math.
Continue reading “Intersectionality is nonlinearity”Six years ago, I wrote Is GraphQL The Future? for the Artsy Engineering Blog. At the time, I thought it was possible devs might bypass REST and reach directly for GraphQL when designing APIs. We can now confidently say that the answer is “no”, but I’m still very proud of that piece, and I think I was right about a lot of other things.
I find myself revisiting GraphQL for the first time since working at Artsy, and the piece has been a useful refresher. I think I really nailed describing what GraphQL actually is, rather than analogizing it to things it has fundamental differences with.
So, what happened to GraphQL?
Continue reading “GraphQL was not the future”
Since 2015, I have been trying to get selected for the Empire State Building Run-Up. I just learned that I’ve been accepted for the first time. I’ll be climbing 86 stories to the top.
Believe it or not, this is almost as exciting to me as getting picked for Jeopardy. My history with climbing stairs for fitness runs deep, and it goes back about as long as my love of Jeopardy. It certainly had a bigger impact on my life.
Continue reading “Up, up and away”
I truly hate to say it, but Meta is crushing it with Threads. I have avoided it until now, disinterested in investing any more of my attention and data in Meta products, and annoyed by them injecting Threads posts in my Instagram feed. But having tried most of the Twitter alternatives, Threads instantly set itself apart in the immediate experience.
Continue reading “Threads is a winner (ugh.)”
My new company uses Rust heavily for its backend systems. I’ve been interested in Rust since its beta days, but only from a distance. I was very intrigued by the ownership system, which is Rust’s most distinctive and innovative feature. I also knew it inherited a lot from languages like Scala and OCaml. How hard could it be?
Read on for some loosely organized hot takes.
Continue reading “Rust: First impressions”It is always helpful to have a roadmap for an unfamiliar experience. I did not, as I embarked on an intense job search. But maybe my reflection will be useful to others.
I noticed that the process has followed an arc. Much like chess, it has a distinct opening, middlegame, and endgame. Each of these phases has a very different feel, and has required me to optimize in different ways.
Continue reading “Arc of a job search”
“I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”
This is one of the big takeaways of my job search, as it nears its end. This is hard for me to acknowledge, as someone who can get along with nearly anyone and with a track record that highlights my versatility.
I don’t mean this in terms of getting along with interviewers. I mean in terms of people’s vision for the role they’re hiring for and whether I’m a high confidence match.
But I think that’s OK.
Continue reading “Rejection is a gift”
Last week I learned of the death of one of the grownups from my childhood church, George Shores. Mr. Shores was my assigned mentor for an academic competition. Winning it may well have been the first event in a virtuous cycle1, setting me up for a tremendous amount of opportunity. Learning of his death made me reflect on the ways in which relatively small acts of altruism can make a huge impact.
Continue reading “The butterfly effect of kindness”
For the first time in my life, I am unemployed without having my next occupation lined up. For years, I have felt that this would actually be the best way to search for a new job. I have never felt I had the chance to see more than a glimpse of the market. For months, I’ve been considering taking the plunge into a full-time job search.
As 2024 arrived, events overtook me, and the hypothetical became real.
Continue reading “Leaving the nest”
Protect your notification space. This is my #1 tip for managing time and attention.
My goal is to to only get notifications for things that require my timely action or awareness. Everything else needs to be out of my notifications, especially marketing and news. Unfortunately, enforcing this is a continuous job.
I want to talk about why I think this is critically important and then some concrete strategies I apply.
Continue reading “Silence is golden”
Never Down, Always Up 