“Someone once said to you that you didn’t have a romantic bone in your body, and I’ve come to think they were right…” My friend and mentor says. I forget where the conversation went from there, but I feel that she would have been shocked to find me curled up with Pride and Prejudice (free on […]
Recently, I heard about a school that has a mandatory “technology” class that students have to take in order to take CS classes in later years. It features: wood-working, circuit building, and Excel. This is horrifying. I want to go there with picket signs and stage a protest. Dress up as robots and chant things. […]
Since I heard about research showing that girls who self-identified as female before taking a math test tended to under-perform (compared to when they self-identified after taking the test) I’ve been wondering where else that effect is. Specifically, if you are always surrounded by guys, does that continually remind you? Does it affect your performance there? […]
My first proper day on my new project, and our PM says to me – “Cate, you seem to like to travel. How about you spend time in New York?” – I’m tasked with helping another team out, and being the bridge between that team and my team here. Initially I was a bit… thrown. […]
My article is out in the OSBR, in the issue on women and leadership. I was trying to make a point about how we should take a broader view of what leadership is, and be supportive of quieter forms of leadership, as well as talking about why I personally don’t want to be an entrepreneur. […]
The wonderful Serena invited me to join her for a panel at a women/tech conference in October. We’re still working out the details, but essentially we’ll be talking about role models – our own personal superheros. if you will. Some points that I’m thinking about: It’s great to see really successful women in tech, I adored […]
Slides and commentary for the talk I gave at Ignite Waterloo, June 15th. Missing two slides – title slide and end slide (with my twitter handle and website on it). Ignite is a tough format – 5 minutes, 15 seconds a slide, the slides auto-advance. The *’s are where I expect the slide to change […]
I can’t tell you how happy this xkcd made me. It’s a powerful statement on women in science (and engineering) but also contains this snippet of amazing advice. You don’t become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great […]
Recently, I was at an event. A colleague was giving a talk, which I’d worked to set up. Someone “important” at the location, who I’ve met, who in fact once signed a thank-you note to me and was, I’m told, part of a (positive) conversation about some of my work days before came down. I […]
When I was 5 or 6, the school thought I had learning difficulties because I couldn’t read. It transpired that it wasn’t so much couldn’t – as wouldn’t. I refused to read the nonsense little books about Little Jonny Red Hat. Clearly my aversion to things that I find pointless started at a young age. Once […]