Because “Hacking your Brain” sounds way cooler than “Taking Notes” I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. Someone yesterday asked me what kind of writing I did, and as I listed off my side projects, my husband chimed in with a reminder that I also wrote really good notes. Huh. Up until last night, I had never really considered note taking as part of the writing that I do. I’ve got several novels in-progress,
Read moreThere are three pieces of media that have been calling out to me recently, in what I interpret as an inner battle being waged between my soul and my ego1. It’s an eclectic crew, but inspiration strikes in uncertain places when you’re open to its messaging. So today, I’m here to talk to you about my idea of quantum creativity, and its origins in Outer Wilds, Big Magic, and Frozen 2. Mild spoilers ahead. Buckle
Read moreI talk a lot. The thing about talking a lot is that people generally assume that I’m talking because I want to be heard and listened to. Surely someone who is rambling on – and on – and on wants to be heard, right? That’s what we’re socialized to believe about communication. Why speak, if you aren’t trying to be listened to? Most times, though, I’m not speaking to be listened to. I’m speaking to
Read moreI came across a Twitter thread authored by Ken Norton, a former Google Product Manager who coaches and writes about product management, this morning. The thread explores a sentiment that I’ve been feeling quite a lot recently, with an exciting proposal to actually enact something I’ve been telling my friends and peers that I’ve been wanting. I started to reply on the Twitter thread before realizing that I had more words to say, so I
Read moreI left my job at Mozilla back in March. After a year of re-orgs, late nights, and layoffs, I reached a point where the emotional impact of my job was unsustainable. Leaving a company, team, and project that I loved very much was a difficult experience – it feels weird to talk about “grieving” a workplace, but I do. Mozilla was one of the first jobs that I had where I felt deeply supported by
Read moreI’m watching The Good Place, and at this stage of my life, I’m relating an awful lot to Chidi Anagonye, the overthinking protagonist who often is portrayed as having difficulties making a choice: even the seemingly mundane option of which muffin to choose presents an opportunity for a crisis. I’m on Season 3, but I’m really hoping for a flashback where we get to see how Chidi ended up as a professor of ethics, because
Read moreThis is a new series of mine exploring collaboration as a function of communication principles and community norms. In Part One, I explored some initial framing that I’ve developed internally about the process of communication. In this post, I’ll briefly talk about the initial considerations that come to mind with communicating across individuals with social technologies in mind. While the process of generating and translating a thought or feeling occurs internally, the act of sharing
Read moreThis is the skeleton of my current thoughts exploring the collaboration processes by which we translate thought into societal action, and opportunities to improve these processes via technology. It is but a moment in time that captures my current thinking on the subject; subject to significant change and constantly evolving, but shared in some small part with you today. Community and communication share a root (com – together). When we think of collaboration, it is
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