personal

  • Camille, Lately

    Every time I see my good friend Sumana, we try catch up on books we are reading and other things that we have been excited about since last we met. I mentioned a book that I thought she really ought to read and she said, “Hey, why don’t you blog about it?” And I was…

  • So We Quit Blue Apron (Again)

    Image from here My journey with Blue Apron started like that of so many other people: with a free box of food from friends. We liked it immediately for many reasons: The recipes were creative and introduced us to techniques and dishes we’d never prepared before. The ingredients were very fresh and interesting. While we live in a…

  • Eyes Wide Widened: My ‘Evolving View’ of Developers on Support

    Having had a bit of a traumatic experience at a previous job, I came to my position as Customer Success Lead with a firm opposition to having any of the developers on the team respond directly to customer feedback. My concerns about devs on support (also known as All Hands Support) were manifold but boiled…

  • Talk the Talk

    This year I’m making a greater effort to try and speak at conferences. It appears to me that it is one of the popular paths towards tech stardom (for better or worse). Here are topics that I am (currently) interested in talking about in a conference format: – Graceful Exits (see blogpost on this topic…

  • More Will Be Revealed OR Thoughts On Engaging the Less-Engaging Customer

    More Will Be Revealed OR Thoughts On Engaging the Less-Engaging Customer From this XKCD comic I recently received a very blunt and critical email from a customer. He was unhappy about a marketing email we sent out and critical of the company in general. Now, as Customer Success Lead, I work at the intersection of customer…

  • Everybody Has One: Dealing With User Feedback

    (originally posted on my Blogger blog) “A mystic isn’t a special kind of person. Every person is a special kind of mystic.” — Brother David Stendl-Rast Look at you. You magnificent thing. You are not just the sum of ears and nose and skin and bones and teeth…. You are an inspired being…at least on your best days.…

  • OK. So. Yeah. I’m Done With “Diversity In Tech”

      I just finished listening to EricaJoy’s fantastic interview on the Re/code Decode podcast and yeah, I’m done. When asked by host Kara Swisher what would be [her] message to Silicon Valley, Erica Joy’s said “Care, just care.” This absolutely and totally breaks my heart. No offense to EricaJoy (I ADORE that woman); I just think we shouldn’t be put…

  • Burning Out, Bowing Out, and How Bridges Sometimes Burn

    Groucho Marx popularized the saying, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” I, however, am quite the opposite. For years, I have been honored to join so very many clubs that invited me to be a member, and, furthermore, when I felt a new club needed to…

  • The Beauty of the Unanswered Question OR the Death of the Black People Head Nod

    “How you doing?” “Sup?” “What’s happening?” “What’s good?” As far back as I can remember, whenever I went out with my father —  be it to the supermarket or the post office, the hardware store or the flea market — whenever he encountered another black person he invariably greeted them with such a question. As…

  • How to Be A Good Ally

    Michael Skolnik is an amazing person who does incredible antiracist ally work. Today he published his White Ally Playbook. In addition to being a great primer that I can send to others, it also hipped me to the universally applicable Ally Commandments by the (equally fantastic) journalist and scholar Professor Melissa Harris-Perry. They are as…