Tag: Reflections

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is go hiking, and the region around Portland has an abundance of diverse options. There are mountains to climb, hikes through the woods or by the coast, and even exploring the lava tubes of Mount St Helens. There never is a shortage of options, which is fantastic. A few weeks ago I hiked to the summit of Hamilton Mountain with a friend, about 9 miles total with 2,300 feet of elevation gain. I love getting away from everything, including technology, and enjoying the beauty of nature. I find that it helps me slow down to observe and enjoy the world around me more. I appreciate and enjoy technology and the many benefits that it has brought; one downside for me is the accompanying always on…

Retrospectives, when done well, can have a great impact on team environments and allow for various adjustments. These checkins become pivoting and adapting catalysts. Recently, I have been doing some self exploration leading to the desire for more focused learning. In talking with other developers and taking inspiration from Jason Lengstorf, I have decided to take on quarterly personal retrospectives. What are my goals for the remainder of 2019? An underlying theme I have noticed over the past month is the desire to be more intentional. This theme is also reflected in the three goals I have set for the next 5 months. I have settled in to the career transition and life has been finding its new equilibrium. I’m still discovering what I want…

Back in August, I completed my first quarterly personal retrospective as a means of being more intentional with life. I believe increased introspection allows for finer course corrections and recognizing the milestones of accomplishments along the way. For me, a setting intentions allows me to more proactively engage with life, rather than having it happen to me. For more details on the why, please check out the original blog post. Q3 saw a lot of progress in the focus areas I had set, with some exceptions. In this retrospective I want to revisit the year end goals, what went well in Q3, and what I want to invest in for Q4. What are my 2019 year end goals and progress? In my Q2 retrospective I set 3 goals for the remainder of the year…

I have long had a fascination with learning new things. However, it is generally unstructured and follows whatever the interest of the moment is. I have been and continue to be a proponent of motivation based learning, believing that we learn best when there is an internal vested interest. At least for me, one downside of this approach is a propensity for cursory knowledge on many topics without revisiting them in more depth. This large surface area of topics has resulted in consistently saying, “One day I will get back to exploring topic X in depth”. Anecdotal experience has indicates lower follow through. A Proposed Solution In a desire to explore topics in greater depth, I am engaging on a sort of gamified learning experiment. Over the…

Fear of speaking and feelings of an inadequate technical knowledge base can often be a paralytic combination, especially to those newer to a technical field. Imposter syndrome and feelings of inaptitude can easily become dominant, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy with high levels of inertia. Thankfully, I have a low level of unease regarding speaking in front of people, including to groups upward of 60 people. While my presentation experience has largely not been about technical topics, much of the skillset translates over. As I mentally prepared myself for the idea of giving a technical talk, I still had to overcome the serious sense of imposter syndrome that I could provide anything meaningful to the conversation as a developer…