Personal

Just stuff.

Hello burnout my old friend…

I am struggling. There. I said it. Yes, I’m middle-aged. Yes, I have kids. Yes, I have an aging parent who has health issues. Yes, I’m building a house. (shhhhhh: yes I’m perimenopausal). But it’s not just that (just! Ha!). I want to help people. I LIKE helping people. I like learning. I like trying … Read more

Flaky Fashion

From left to right: Baruch, Trisha and Brian, wearing "F*ck Flaky Tests" t-shirts.

During the last four weeks, I've been to a few conferences. Sick of wearing the same t-shirts and jeans, I've been experimenting with different outfits. By far the most successful t-shirt (yes, I know, I said I was sick of wearing t-shirts) was a new one I designed for the Develocity Developer Advocates showing our disdain for intermittently-failing tests.

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Working Smarter, not Harder

This is a post I've been meaning to write for eight and a half years. Inspired by this tweet from Ceora, I'm finally doing it.

I have a question for parents in tech, especially moms.

How has having children impacted your career?

I wanna hear the good, the bad and the ugly. Tell me whatever you’re comfortable sharing 😛

— ceora🌸🌺 (@ceeoreo_) May 15, 2024

The most immediate impact having a baby had on my career is I needed to work much smarter not harder. Babies (and children) take up all that so-called free time, and and almost all of your not-free-time, that you used to have.

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Time Management for Parents

Photo of my desk area

I wrote a 3000 word blog post in response to a Tweet about how having kids changed my career (which in retrospect probably doesn't even answer the question). So I decided to pull this section out into its own post. It became a 2000 word blog post about planning, sigh. This is why I find it hard to find time to blog.

So here are my Top Tips For Time Management And Planning for Working Parents.

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End of an Era

Tomorrow, 22nd December 2021, is my last day at JetBrains.

I can't believe I've been here a whole seven years! I've never stayed anywhere even half that amount of time, I usually jump jobs every 1-2 years. I spent 4 years at LMAX, but I did have a tiny break in the middle to go and work for ThoughtWorks for 3 months.

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2020

Sad

OK so here we go, my almost-regular annual roundup. Of 2020. Deep breath.

Right so first things first, obviously 2020 SUCKED. For everyone. Anything I say that's negative is not meant to be "oh poor me I had it worse than anyone" and anything positive is all about focusing on the positives, I hope I don't make anyone feel weird about good shit happening in a horrible year.

So caveats and disclaimers up-front:

  • None of my close circle of friends or family died or was hospitalised with Covid. Yes, friends of friends, family of friends, and some people in my much wider circle of acquaintances and friends. I consider myself extremely lucky.
  • I also got very lucky with how old my kids currently are - old enough to be fairly independent (compared to a baby), young enough that school is not mandatory for them.
  • I'm also very fortunate in my working situation. I've been working remotely for 8 years already, and my company is a) extremely caring about its employees and b) in a financial situation to be able to support them.

How to start?

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Procrastination

I’ve had a fantastic week of meeting with colleagues and friends, getting to know some of my organisation, brainstorming ideas for next year, working out how to prioritise and plan, being handed greater responsibility and freedom… Now I’m sat in Berlin airport with loads of time until my next flight and what am I doing? … Read more

2019

Right so yes. 2020, hello. One of my 2020 resolutions is to get back to my personal blog. Weekly. Yeah right. Let's
aim for weekly and be happy with monthly.

For my first post let's do the obligatory look-back-over-last-year. Not because it's trendy (I'm 41 now, I don't care about being trendy any more), but because it's super important for me to understand what I went through and what I achieved last year (every year), otherwise I get caught up in the hamster-wheel of the-next-thing-and-the-next-thing-and-the-next-thing. Progress should be celebrated, not just ignored for the next item on the ever growing, ever pressing TODO list. Also, looking back helps me to plan the next year. Doesn't have to be super-planned, but setting some goals, objectives, ideas for which direction I'd prefer to go in helps me decide how to prioritise that ever-growing, ever-pressing TODO list.

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Me Mum

Photo of Therese and Trisha Gee

I didn’t see what an enormous impact Mum made on my life, because she was always there. There’s a quote in the book Good Omens: “It’s for the same reason you can’t see England when you’re in Trafalgar Square” - Mum was a constant, important, dependable presence for my whole life.

I wrote something for Mum while I was on the plane from Spain to spend what was to be our last two weeks together. I’d like to share some of that with you all now.

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Ode to a Resting Warrior

Photo of Therese Gee

This July my Mum passed away, apparently cancer was the one opponent she couldn’t beat in an argument. Mum had a huge impact on my life, as you might expect, not only personally but professionally too. Maybe I’ll talk about that some more in time. For now, I want to publish the poem my very talented cousin Izzi Giles wrote in tribute.

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