Tagged “work”

Ethan assembles numerous technology articles, some of which are enthusiastic about generative AI and LLMs while others highlight political, social and health impacts and risks.

The last week was challenging at work. A minor restructure is underway and with it the possibility of redundancies. My job isn’t at risk; it affects team and group managers rather than me directly. But it will impact upon people I know, like and respect. It may also lead to teams merging or disbanding altogether so there’s an air of unease.

To unwind after that week, Friday night consisted of watching Scotland play Finland at Hampden. A 2–2 draw to send Steve Clarke’s men off to the Euros.

On Saturday morning I headed to Cathkin Braes for a walk with Rudy. What a view you get up there! You can see pretty much the entire city, and even beyond as far as Ben Lomond.

Later that day I visited Davie at his mum’s place in Troon. He’s over visiting from the U.S. following George’s death. I spent a little time chatting with Marguerite. Her garden is really beautiful.

Davie and I went to River Garden Cafe, Auchincruive for a lovely lunch and walk. We chatted about family and life in general. From there we had a drive around some of his old haunts in Ayr including a stop at Renaldo’s for ice cream before a walk on Ayr Beach.

While I was in Ayrshire I got the bad news that Linda, a dear friend of Clair’s family, had passed away. It must have been a real shock for poor Mel.

On Saturday evening Clair and I had a lovely dinner at Maison by Glaschu.

On Sunday we dropped Rudy at “his gran’s” (he’s a dog but anyway, it’s his gran!) then we headed for Bridge of Allan for Alexander’s first communion with the charismatic Father Louis at the controls. Mick and Laura had us back at theirs afterwards and it was nice to chat to a few of the other guests.

A busy one, but a good’un.

I’m not the most confident public speaker these days. So I had mixed emotions when my neighbour asked me to talk about my career at Pollokshields Primary School where he teaches.

However, I liked the theme of helping the kids to expand their horizons. And I’m keen to be involved in the local community, so this was a good opportunity.

I also had my fears dispelled somewhat when I heard that although there’d be lots of kids they were all around 11 years old. I’m working on my presenting and workshop facilitation skills at the moment so again, a good opportunity with – hopefully - a captive and gentle crowd!

I’m pleased to say it went well and generally gave me a warm glow. On reflection I think I prepared well, my nerves were manageable, and I communicated clearly. The kids were lovely and asked lots of questions! What characteristics do you need to be a good software engineer? Did my parents support my career choices? And so on.

They also gave me a lovely certificate and a large Dairy Milk bar (something that’s always welcome in our house).

In this talk at State of the Browser, Amy offers some suggestions for making work feel more meaningful.

Here’s a half-formed thought (the sort of thing personal websites that nobody else reads are perfect for). As a web developer, something I’ve noticed when interviewing candidates and hearing how they do things, or when I myself am being assessed in expectations reviews is that our industry seems obsessed with discussing the organisation of work. You know – PR review protocol, agile ceremonies, organising a Trello board, automation, linters. All of which is really important, of course. But the amount of airtime that gets leaves me frustrated. What about the actual job?

Are responsive strategy, web typography, layout, interactive JS components, animation (to name but a few very high-level topics) not interesting, complex and impactful enough as to warrant a higher percentage of the conversation? I want an insight into other folks’ knowledge of and opinions on how best to build things, and feel it gets relegated behind organisational topics.

Or do people just see the nitty-gritty stuff as the domain of enthusiasts on Twitter and personal blogs, or as “implementation details” that are secondary to the organisation of something – anything – that will “get the job done”?

As I say, a half-formed thought and probably just reveals my leanings! But writing it helps me gather my thoughts even if I eventually decide I’m in the wrong.

Recently, during a period when pandemic woes were taking their toll and likely making me a little cranky at home, I found some funny and helpful words of wisdom on Adam Buxton’s podcast and when re-watching Ricky Gervais’s interview with Larry David.

On sustaining a happy marriage, Buxton said:

Every now and then you think “they’re not doing what I want them to do and I think it’s important that they do do this thing that I want them to do! (But) you have to think really hard: is this thing actually important? Is it worth getting bent out of shape about?

It’s good advice. He mentioned that he’s slowly getting better at that, and I’m trying my best to, too.

Meanwhile, on the reasons why he got into acting, Larry David said:

it gets you out of the house!

So simple but true—it’s good to get out of the house! We’re now emerging from a period of sustained isolation and I should probably avoid being completely remote (and going stir crazy) and get back into the office occasionally.

Basecamp—makers of project management, team communication and email software—have taken a controversial new stance against (amongst other things) political discussion at work, “paternalistic benefits” and 360 performance reviews.

These are difficult enough waters to navigate in life, but significantly more so at work. It's become too much. It's a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places. It's not healthy, it hasn't served us well.

Since November 2019 my day job has involved working on a “Majestic Monolith” coded in Ruby on Rails. I loved this conversation with Rails’ creator DHH in which he speaks with great passion and makes interesting points about finding a programming language that speaks to you; why single page apps and microservices are not for him; and how our working days have too many interruptions.

My first Christmas working at FreeAgent. Strong Christmas Jumper game!

I just made a first visit to Chicago. It was primarily to attend An Event Apart but I was lucky enough to have a little time to check out the city, too.

Firstly I want to thank all the friends who provided tips for things to do and see in The Windy City – Aleks, Susan, Jenny, Lucy, Alan and Karen, Collette etc – cheers!

Thanks also to Davie for jetting in from NYC to join me and Liam for a couple of days. I doff my cap to your knowledge of beautifully designed restaurants with really expensive menus 😉.

I also got the chance to catch up with old friend Nick Calingaert AKA Common Factor, a lovely guy and talented producer who DJed for me and my friends at a couple of our club nights back in the early 00s.

We only had a few days, but I felt we managed to cram in some good stuff. Here’s a summary of the highlights.

Eating out #

• Swift & Sons
• Momataro
• Chicago Athletic Club (with its appropriately posh tag-line “Dine and Libate”…)

Bars #

• Danny’s Bar
• Rainbo Bar

Record Shopping #

• Gramaphone Records
• Dusty Groove
• Shuga Records, 1272 N. Milwaukee Ave
• Reckless Records

Cool Neighbourhoods #

• Wicker Park area

Culture / History #

• Architecture Boat Tour
• The Art Institute of Chicago

Things to do #

• Millenium Park
• Cloud Gate (AKA The Bean)

And if we’d had more time… #

• Go see the Cubs playing baseball at Wrigley Field
• Green Mill Jazz Club

Rubadub have a new mobile app that delivers the RaD crew’s top vinyl recommendations (the best around) direct to your phone.