Reflections
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Insufficient Whitespace
→: Insufficient WhitespaceSome time ago, Derek wrote this amazing post titled Needs More Whitespace. I was thinking about it lately because it seems like things are so hectic, and no sooner does one thing end than another begins – I got back from California, was on a panel, my boyfriend moved to Canada, then my friend moved…
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Confronting the Brutal Facts of Reality
→: Confronting the Brutal Facts of RealityIn Good to Great (Amazon), one of the things they found to differentiate great companies is that they confront the brutal facts of reality. It’s a question I’m asking myself more often since reading the book – am I being brutally honest with myself? Is this how reality actually is? Am I ignoring anything that will come back…
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No Drama, Please
→: No Drama, PleaseThe other day, my boyfriend said to me, “One of the things I love about you is that you’re incapable of bullsh*tting. But I think that gets you into trouble, because people who do bullsh*t just assume you must as well.” This is his explanation for my latest headache. Where I make the argument…
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Stop Waiting; It’s Today
→: Stop Waiting; It’s TodayMy boyfriend is supposed to be moving out to Canada at the start of April, but his visa application got held up. He was contemplating keeping his apartment in London and staying another month. I said, Don’t do that. Spending an extra month living in limbo will suck. I give great advice (sometimes). I should…
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What is Leadership, Anyway?
→: What is Leadership, Anyway?The harsh truth is that no-one cares about your idea the way you do. I tell you this, not to be mean, nor to suggest your idea is not brilliant, or that you are somehow lacking in your communication of it… just because if you think that someone else is going to fill in when…
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One Positive Thing
→: One Positive ThingI have a simple rule when I get overwhelmed. One. Positive. Thing. It’s so simple that whatever state I’m in I can’t argue with it. It’s so easy that there can never be an excuse. But, applied diligently, it can change pretty much everything. When I’m in a tizzy, one of the first things to…
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Simplicity and God Objects
→: Simplicity and God ObjectsThere’s an anti-pattern in Object Oriented programming called “God object” or “God class”. An pattern is a design to follow. An anti-pattern is something to avoid. A God class is a class that knows and/or does too much. Breaking a problem down into well-defined units of limited scope is part of writing good code that…
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Don’t Panic. Don’t Procrastinate.
→: Don’t Panic. Don’t Procrastinate.I spent the weekend trying to write the paper I was stressing about in this post. By trying, I mean fixating on how I wanted to clean my apartment and throw out most of my belongings, cleaning my apartment, skimming back issues of the economist (because then I get to throw them out!), and periodically sitting…
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Fear is Not an Acceptable Excuse
→: Fear is Not an Acceptable ExcuseIn the aftermath of my decision to quit grad school, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and seeking out advice. I called Julie from Escape the Ivory Tower, and we talked about whether it was possible to write a thesis alone, and my fear that if I switched schools I would just fail again,…