Career

I've been meaning to write up what's been going on since I left Shopify last year. ADHD brain makes me want to come up with a long well-written post with a storyline and quippy section titles. Well, then ADHD brain aborts the process because I get decision paralysis and never write anything. I got laid off on May 4th, 2023. I was very upset by the whole situation, rage sold my SHOP equity, and then got rid of everything with the Shopify logo on it. Shopify was such a good fit for me and I was learning a lot. Losing that HURT. That catharsis helped me focus on how I wanted to spend my time being unemployed. I decided to start looking for a new job right away instead of taking a few weeks to decompress. I'm not entirely sure I'd do that again, but I wouldn't have found Figma if I had done that. ...

Martin Fowler coined one of my favorite phrases while on a panel at the XP 2000 Conference regarding change and if your employer isn't willing to change: If you can't change your organization, change your organization!I don't think much of eXtreme Programming but I think the phrase itself applies itself to many things in life. Whenever someone asks me for advice about their jobs or careers I usually bring this phrase up at some point. The idea is, if you don't like what you're doing and your company isn't willing to invest in you or your ideas, then go somewhere else. I just like how elegantly short the quote is! ...