Early in my engineering career I used to chase novelty - the shiny new idea that piqued by curiosity and let me explore solving new and exciting problems. The issue with this is, of course, you end up with a lot of half-baked/semi-developed projects. Once you've "solved" the core problem you were curious about, everything else suddenly feels like a bore and a chore - and then you never build up the skills required to deliver something. It's an easy thing to slip into when you're new to coding - you've been given a powerful hammer, and everything looks like a very hammerable nail. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled upon some sage words that helped me break the cycle: "There's novelty in nuance." Rather than chase the shiny new thing, stick with the old thing and instead the novelty in the details of the old thing. This strategy helps you stick with a project and helps you see it through to completion. As an aside, one of my long-time favorite bl...

And ... now, programmers turn to GitHub Copilot. You ask it to make a soffritto and instead of regular carrots, it references new things you've never heard of. Purple dragons?!? "What's a purple dragon?" you ask it, as you learn about the hip new carrot all the younger cooks use. You continue vibe-cooking and end up with a Marco Pierre White-level pasta dish , faster than you ever could on your own. Your guests love every bite. "How'd you come up with this??" they ask, in awe. "Purple Dragon carrots, obviously. Don't you know about them?"

I love a good roadmap. They don't get you to the destination but a good roadmap breaks down the milestones along your way, where you plan to stop for food, rest, gas, and they highlight whatever impediments you'll face along your way. Maybe you won't stick to the roadmap in the end but the act of creating one is like running a thought-experiment. You mentally go through the motions of your journey so there's fewer surprises. If you've ever done a roadtrip without a roadmap and decided things in the moment, playing things by ear it's probably felt very freeing and impulsive. But... you probably relied on a lot more on your wallet or your own willingness to do some extra work if/when things have gone wrong. It's a fun experience when you're doing an actual roadtrip but when you're delivering a product? In those cases, you may want to reduce impulsiveness, how much you rely on your wallet to cover unplanned costs, and how much you ask people to do a bit...

As a follow-up to my post about the post-UX-UX is a related question, this one about AI: Is AI shifting us to a post-UX world? My original post-UX-UX post was about considering the user's experience after using a product. As an example, when I use Google Maps to get directions to a business, what is my post-UX experience? Am I left frustrated because Google Maps navigated me to the business without factoring that I'd need to park somewhere?  Is the business I was looking for where I expected it to be? Does the neighborhood  feel safe? Can I easily orient myself around the neighborhood? Are there other places nearby I should be checking out that align to my interests? If Google Maps focuses on improving their user experience, great. If Google Maps focuses on improving my experience after I'm done with the app, even better. Now, with AI - and, in particular, agentic AI - the idea of needing a UX is really being brought into question. Not all buttons need pressing, and not al...

Playing around with NotebookLM, I wanted to try out its ability to generate podcasts based on topics. But ... I needed to give it some materials first. I figured: What better way to test its ability than to give it my own resume, links to my website and blog, and see what it could tell me. What it produced is... well, let's just call it ' candy for the ego' . In parallel, I've been mulling over what the 'future of resumes' would look like. While sending companies a 7 minutes AI-generated podcast about yourself may be a stretch - I definitely think there's something to be considered here...

When generative AI creates an image (aka 'Synthography') - is that a threat to creativity or is it just Clipart and Stock Photos for the modern era? Clipart, Stock Photos, Synthography - there's no shame in any of them. They're all super helpful when you don't have the budget or time to engage with a proper designer/artist. Sometimes the "good enough" is all you need because the focus isn't on the artwork - it's on the speed of information consumption. 20+ years ago, if you needed to represent a concept you'd turn to a vast clipart library.   Because there was no infinite library of clipart available, it often meant looking for generic ways to express your idea. And like any trend, it was cool when the kids started using it, started to get overused, then jumped the shark when your parents or teachers started dropping them into everything. As the internet grew, and data storage became cheaper, we were treated to a much larger library of stock ph...

Sometimes your code runs way longer than you ever predicted, even well beyond what some call obsolete. This gets me to my favorite website in the world - which would be the first website in the world . Still alive and going strong. A few highlights I particularly appreciate: It refers to the World Wide Web as a "project." There's a section dedicated for "how you can help" the WWW expand and grow with ideas like: launching a website, or simply telling your friends! Many of the browsers are in Alpha or Beta, and some just don't exist anymore. It's delightfully devoid of CSS, JavaScript A list of people behind the WWW, and a catalog of websites. Anyway, if you're interested in helping the WWW continue to grow... maybe launch your own website. Be sure to reach out to the webmaster and ask to be included on their catalog of websites.

Got a Facebook memory today. Sharing here because as hard as it is to believe it's been 5 years, it's also hard to believe it's only been 5 years. A lot of people will tell you that work isn't family. Maybe that's often true - but if you're going to spend 10 years people, it's really special when they become close like family. To all my HPA brothers and sisters who were there for the wild ride, I love and miss you all. -- April 24, 2020: Today is my last day at HPA. 9 years, 10 months and 19 days. 75+ people. 70+ hires after only starting with 5. 2 acquisitions. 5 awards! 8 weddings, welcomed 10 babies. Said goodbye to 1 good friend, and then to my brother.\ Traveled all over the country. Traded the AMEX points for a patio set we still own. 3 laptops, 2 desktops, 5 monitors, 4 office chairs, just 2 keyboards. And who knows how many lines of code... Most importantly: Played "We Built This City" 219 times. Way more gray hairs than when it all starte...

I coded with GitHub Copilot for the first time recently. Since moving over to Product Management, I haven't coded much except in small bursts for personal projects. But, at 9:12am I decided to download VSCode and just see how long it would take to get myself up and running. 9:20am, I was up and running and asking IT to do all the things I'd normally spend time doing through IntelliSense, and other shortcuts. 9:25am, I hit a snag - and before turning to Google, I just asked the built in Copilot. It pointed out what I'd overlooked, and let me resolve with a button press. 17 minutes and I'd written a basic app. I started to build out an imagined user story - user types in a texbox, clicks a button, event triggers, etc. As I built and refined the workflow in my head, I used the inline Copilot to rapidly prototype the code. Sometimes it gave me a less efficient solution, other times it referenced objects that hadn't yet been declared... But the capabilities were all ther...

A question I'm thinking a lot about: "What's your post-UX-UX?" After your user is done interacting with your product, how does your product continue to shape their experience? If your product were an alarm clock, how has their experience with your product continued to shape their day? Was it a jarring experience where they hit the snooze button several times, only to begrudingly get up at the last moment, and then drag on through the rest of their day? Or, did it ease them into their day? Do they hate your product, feel a slave to it, and can't wait for the weekend when they don't have to use your product? Or is it refreshingly user-centric, that's it's helping them get on a path where they can achieve things completely unrelated to your product simply because you've mapped your product to a part of their identity that they're proud of? Are they looking for ways to use it more? Are they recommending it to others? If your product is a blog post ...

There are a lot of stupid questions that never get asked. Personally, I've found it's easier to ask the stupid question when the audience knows I'm new to the topic/area. In those instances, I try to ask all my stupid questions because the longer I wait the more I'll fear asking them when I'm no longer as new. I know I'm not alone in this - I've seen many people over the years struggle with some concept because they never established the basics and now it's too late. And, often, it's more obvious than they realize that they clearly haven't grasped the basics. It's probably just as obvious when I'm struggling on a topic too. So... how do ask the stupid question when it's too late to ask the stupid question? I like holding "No Stupid Questions" meetings where people can ask any question (anonymously, if they so choose). Sometimes I, or other experts, would ask the stupid question - not because we didn't know the answer, ...

  Just a reminder, no matter how hard you try, you can't please everyone. Also, some people have an irrational fear of running out of wine. These facts may seem unrelated - but for a very  specific and small population it can reveal repressed angst.

I needed a new desk area. I love my main desk. It's an exercise in maximalism with a 1940s film-noir private-eye motif.  The challenge, as many others are having these days, is that the dedicated home office space is a shared space. I needed a secondary space that I could comfortably work from when I'm at home. Decided to go in the opposite direction with this style - more of a modern minimalist chic. Pretty proud of this build. Turns out measuring twice and cutting once is advice worth heeding.

I don't typically go looking for inspiration in vinyl stickers, but this one ... *ahem* I got stuck on. Good things come from responding to anxiety with creativity.

What was the best lesson you learned from a teacher, that you have carried with you into your career? Seriously... share your story with me on LinkedIn . I'm looking for inspiration. Tuesdays are good for that (while Mondays are for good for spaghetti). The best lesson I learned was from Prof. Brown in my first year of college. Before assigning us our first essay of the semester, he went on a long rant about how high school failed us by making us think a good essay is a long essay. He elaborated about how, in the many public and private positions he held, brevity was critical. If we wanted to be persuasive, the critical first step would be to ensure we were being brief. He gave us a controversial topic we had to outline in 1,000 words or less. Every word over would get a 1% deduction. For our next essay he reiterated the importance of brevity but also challenged us even more: We had to pick a side, and persuade. 750 words. 2% deduction for every additional word. Final essay. The to...

My daughter ran across the term "Growth Potential" the other day and asked me what it meant. She's long ago come to learn that asking daddy a question usually results in a much longer conversation often with colorful analogies, and the occasional Venn diagram. Whether you call it Growth Potential, a Growth Mindset, or just "Potential" - even for adults, it can feel ambiguous when you wonder how it can be demonstrated and measured.  When I think back to the people I'd interviewed, hired, managed, there were 2 common traits that among those with "growth potential". More importantly it wasn't just about potential - they went on to grow. Those folks managed to find the perfect balance between Confidence and Humility. Let's start with Confidence: A lack of confidence leads to self-doubt, it delegates decisions, it avoids risk (and really - everything begins to look like a risk.) Too much confidence is a label we often apply retroactively when hi...

How often should you be updating your resume? Frequently. Regardless of whether you're looking. In fact, update it especially when you're not looking. Not because you need to be looking. Not because you should never not be looking. Not because the market changes rapidly. Not for any reason other than because it serves as a great reminder of who you are, where you are in your career, why you do what you do, how you have grown, where you are growing next. Your resume is your perspective. Update it. Every 3 months. Every 3 months and, in between, whenever something significant happens. Whenever your perspective changes. Even slightly. If in 3 months you haven't changed - if you can't update a single sentence, replace a single word with a better one, then challenge yourself by asking why. Why has your perspective not changed? 3 months is a long time to grow, even if in small ways. And the power of a refreshed resume can be huge. It should remind you of your valu...

The not-so-interesting-man-in-the-world says... If you've been following taylor desseyn and I, you'll remember we used to have more regular live streams where we review resumes and do mock-interviews in a live stream, offering our honest feedback. Excited to share we're back at it again tomorrow! Hope you can join us! 📆 Friday, January 31st ⌚ 2PM EST Sign up here

After watching the Barbie movie on a flight and being brought to tears (honest question: does anyone else get more emotional on flights?) I remembered how I always felt Barbie's dad, George, is my celebrity-look-alike. Maybe I'll get cast as him if there's a sequel? Not sure if I'm Kenough - but I am Georgequate.

Whether it's your resume, LinkedIn profile, annual review we often face the simple question: how much credit should we get for our team/group/org/company achieving something. Maybe it was a huge revenue win, a massive cost savings, a substantial improvement to some KPIs, an industry award. Simple answer: you should take (some) credit. At the very least, more than none. I say this because too often we're more comfortable diminishing our contributions than we are with the feeling that we've received undue credit. But regardless of your role, if you were there to see it happen, you contributed (sometimes in less tangible ways) towards the achievement. And - more importantly - you likely witnessed some of the work that went into it, the decisions that were made, the impact felt before, during and after. And that makes you and your experience valuable. And if for some reason you were completely out of the loop - you should get right away to asking others about it. It...

"If it weren't for the last minute, I'd get nothing done." Those are words I live by, though they're not my own. They were written years ago by my amazing (now gone) oldest brother. When I think back on my best projects, products, presentations they've all been the result of the last minute. It's not to say I'm a procrastinator, disorganized, or don't plan. I just know that, without that last minute, I'd never reach done (or as some people call it " done-done ".) Lin-Manuel Miranda once described his own creative process - intentionally taking time away from what he's working on, giving himself time to daydream, to do anything but the thing he's supposed to be doing. It's part of the process. It gives the idea room to breathe, to germinate and grow and become something it never could be if it were constrained by your constant attention. None of this is to say planning, preparation and pre-work are a waste of time. You need...

My little lovely turns 10 today ... Reposting something I wrote almost a decade ago in honor of her. Slight spoiler: Yes. There have been more. Ma ny, many more. The love of adventuring was instilled in me at a very young age: walking through thunderstorms and down pours with my brothers, sneaking through office buildings with my Dad (and even getting kicked out by a security officer!) This carried on through highschool (with my best pal Andy) and later in college with co-adventurers Alex & Kieran. Yesterday, I went for a walk with my daughter (she was strapped to me, facing outwards, in the Baby Bjorn.) It was a bright, hot and sunny evening. As we rounded the neighborhood block what started as a puffy cloud became an ominous gray rain cloud. Being already past the point of no return, I knew I had to double time it before it started raining. (This was partly my decision, but mostly a decision my wife had made on my behalf and had called to inform me of.) As I neared the final bend...

I was thinking about a lot of the connection requests I get. All too often it's an impersonal message asking for something - a referral, to be a reference. As a principle, I only do this for people I know well and who have a good track record. But this made me think... how do I go about building my network? With that, here are 5 tips on how to build a better network. 1. Start early, before needing to make an ask, by engaging in their posts. 2. Make it about them, not your ask. 3. Create a conversation that is specific about them and their insights. 4. Feed their ego in specific and authentic ways. 5. Give them something of yours they can react to: share code, projects, whatever it may be and ask for their advice. Then, after enough time has passed and you've built a good reputation, make your ask. This takes time... hence, repeating #1: Start early. I'll also add ... My little "networking menu" is more of a guide than a guarantee. Those times are also best case sc...

For some years now, instead of going with an annual resolution, I've instead adopted a new aphorism to shape and refine my perspective . With 2025 around the corner, and mid-way through my 40th year on this planet (I won't share how long I've been on other planets), something that resonated with me was how we "live the life of old plans." While life is filled with unplanned and unpredictable events, old plans still take a shape. Maybe the sharp edges that once defined the plan have softened, maybe the shape is more of an approximation, but the plan is still there. When I reflect on the plan I had as a kid to where I am today, I am so grateful to be fortunate enough to live the life of the old plan (blurred edges and all) but three points in particular stick out: Patience : We live the life of OLD (as in "age") plans - a reminder that plans don't bring immediate results. We live in an increasingly impatient world, and I'm very guilty of being impa...

  On my first day of coding,  My PR was returned to me... My program's leaking memory. On my second day of coding, My PR was returned to me... I've two ints overflowing, and my program's leaking memory. On my third day of coding, My PR was returned to me... I've three new exceptions, two ints overflowing, and my program's leaking memory. On my fourth day of coding,  My PR was returned to me... I've four calls deprecating, three new exceptions, two ints overflowing, and my program's leaking memory. On my fifth day of coding, My LinkedIn sent to me... Five Senior Roles! four "Lead" titles, three "Architects", two "Managers", and they all offer way more money. On my sixth day of coding, I have no coding responsibility. Had six major meetings, five One-on-Ones, four Strategy Sessions, three Brainstorms, two Escalations, and I rejected a PR 'cause it'll leak memory.