the greatest privilege
Of course, every engineer, mathematician and scientist — every artist — knows that the greatest privilege is being able to do the work, and the greatest joy is to actually turn yearnings into reality.
the feedback sieve: critically applying feedback
***Author’s Note*** My target audience for this piece is primarily people who are undergoing a large responsibility shift, like new grads or founders. Thanks to Halle Kaplan-Allen, Tyler Churchill, Sadhika Akula, Drew Henderson, Nasjaq and Mindy Zhang for your help on this piece. ****** One of the best decisions I’ve made this past year was …
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the secret is there is no secret: lessons from a stingray
Did you know the antidote to a stingray sting is submerging the sting in boiling water for 40 minutes? I learned that the hard way a couple weeks ago. At my favorite surf beach, there’s a group of 20 folks who hang out, tailgate, and share surfing stories in the parking lot. As I started …
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the beginner’s guide to angel investing: etiquette, expectations, logistics
Think of angel investing like enriching your community. It’s symbiotic – you help empower someone you admire and trust to do what they love. In return, you get a close-up look at how they run their business, the social capital of being an investor in them, and a small chance of outsize returns. As on …
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On Engineering Developer Joy: My Year at WorkOS
Sweat rolling down my face, I turned off the AC in a tiny rental car in a Starbucks parking lot in Mexico. A strawberry sarong serving as my background, I began to speak about Engineering Developer Joy for our WorkOS Customer Event. As I rerecorded the talk I had recorded last night in a quiet …
The Case of the Missing Letters: On Shipping Early & Embracing Imperfection
I could have ignored a mistake in the printing of Seed to Harvest and silently replaced the messed up print.
Instead, I embraced the imperfection and reframed the experience. I wrote about it because tough times often make for great stories. There will be hiccups and missteps and obstacles along the way — but I know embracing imperfection and these bumps along the road with a positive mindset and a sense of humor will better equip me for times when the going gets tough.
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on self-directed work: a cartographer’s journey
i share this in hopes of it resonating with others on this journey, and especially if you’re in a low now – to remind you to reflect on how far you’ve come. self-directed work often feels like you have a compass but no map. you walk towards peaks of inspiration, wander in valleys of confusion, …
on quality conversations: how to have intro calls that don’t suck
Tonight I’m writing about a topic that is dear to my heart – how to have a quality conversation in an introductory call. Coincidentally, it’s a question I’ve received five times recently – which is usually my proxy for sitting down to write a longer piece on it. We often discuss the technical skills that …
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on keeping a notebook
I was first introduced to the formidable Joan Didion in my junior year of high school in AP English. My teacher was a character, but more importantly she insisted we write a one page essay everyday on rhetoric pieces. One of the pieces we were assigned to analyze was Joan Didion’s landmark “On Keeping A …
a cold outreach workshop
what I covered in my cold outreach workshop on Zoom this past Monday for San Diego State’s Finance & Investment Society