Accidentally in Code

Tag: travel

2024 Highlights
As the year wraps up I spent some time thinking about how it went, and what I’m hoping for in 2025.

Personal

My word for 2024 was connection – a correction from a multi year pandemic that flowed neatly into [living under a rock] writing a book. I wanted to prioritize being a better friend, and rebuild my sense of community locally. As a guiding principle throughout the year, this was so helpful, and I feel dramatically better about this aspect of my life than I did a year ago. I’m looking forward to more connection in 2025.

This was also the year that we finally finished the multi year building project of renovating the attic. It’s been a bit of an ordeal for a number of reasons that I won’t get into, but super happy to have the house the way we want it with an extra bedroom and bathroom, and moving things around such that we can each have an office.

Adventures
- A wedding in Sydney, where I got to see many old friends from when I lived there. A brief but fantastic layover in Hong Kong. 10 incredible days in Bali.
- A weekend in London for my birthday, we saw the Sister Act musical (amazing), the Cruel Intentions musical (pure nostalgia), caught up with friends, and saw some fantastic exhibitions at the V&A and the Tate.
- A weekend at Castlemartyr for the art show (beautiful).
- A trip to the Inchydoney spa (2023’s birthday present from my parents).
- Another weekend in London, this time to see Nils Frahm (and also many friends).
- A brief overnight trip to Glengarrif for a friend’s birthday, we took in Garinish island and the ever weird, ever wonderful, Ewe Experience.
- A week with my parents visiting Killarney (the Muckross hotel, right in my favorite part of the national park) and returning to the beautiful Liss Ard estate.
- Another wedding, this time in Dehradun, India, with a few days in Chandigarh (to see the incredible Nek Chand’s stunning rock garden) and an all too brief but fantastic stop in Delhi, where we saw Humayun’s tomb and did some important shopping for Hamper Season.
- One night at the Cliff House in Ardmore for Bas’ birthday. Absolutely gorgeous.
- A few days in Venice for the biennale, always amazing. Stayed at the wonderful Ca’ Bonfadini. You can read about it in a (rare) public edition of Where the Hell is Cate.
- A brief visit to Sheen Falls (beautiful) for Lorge chocolate for Hamper Season.
- A weekend in Dublin for the ballet and to see friends.
Professional

2024 will always be the year my book came out, in print in April, and as an audio book in November – a product of years of work. Aside from locking myself away [at Castlemartyr] for a brutal week of edits in January, and having to read it 2-3 more times during proofs, most of the work was done and I got to think about what comes next. Still no answers there but I’m trying to give myself time!

I didn’t do a great job at promoting the book, but I did do a number of podcasts, a book signing at LeadDev, and a talk at Leading Eng. I have some more things planned for next year already, so that’s exciting.

This year I also took on another advisory role with Twill. I’m really excited about this, because I find the product compelling – currently hiring feels a bit like candidate and hiring manager AIs talking to each other, and it’s tough to separate the signal from the noise – making for a bad experience on both sides. Twill cuts through that directly to well qualified, vetted candidates. I also just genuinely love advisory work, and am super happy to have another opportunity to do it.

For my own professional development, I took the Co-Active Leadership Workshop – which was really great and I want to try and figure out the time and money for the full program. I also did my first back of the room assisting for Fundamentals, which was interesting. I’m fascinated by the Co-Active facilitation model, and the idea of experiential learning.

I passed the four year mark at DuckDuckGo, which was interesting – in previous jobs this was the time at which I decided to move on. I thought about it, of course, partly because I think it’s healthy to think about this every year, and partly because passing the 4 year milestone for the first time invited deeper thought. Ultimately though, I decided to stay put because 1) I’m working on something huge and interesting, 2) I’m enjoying being with a team I’ve built up and the work of good-to-great, and 3) this market is terrible, why subject myself to it unnecessarily.

2025?

I’m not a big planner and I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I do like the act of setting a word and an intention. For 2025, I picked “health”.

First and most obviously, this is about prioritizing physical health. 2024 was a bit up and down here, and I would like to be more consistent.

Secondly, I think there’s a broader meaning here – about healthy behaviours and patterns. I’ve been thinking a lot about garbage in garbage out for the mind – this stage of capitalism is so intent on making us consumers of low value content, and I know I personally need better quality inputs there to have better quality thinking myself.

As always, the word starts as an intention and my experience with it will no doubt evolve over the course of the year. I’m looking forward to seeing where this one goes!

Thanks as always for following along; wishing you a wonderful 2025.
December 31, 2024
Happy New Year!

I’m on my third New Year’s adventure. Last year I went to Montevideo, and the year before to Paris. I’m not big on the holidays, or on New Year’s resolutions, but I like this time of year to escape. The day to day slows down, and for all the markers of time are arbitrary, I find it worthwhile to spend some time chilling out and winding down, going for long walks and trying to find some clarity about the year that’s (nearly!) passed, and think about what I want in the one to come.

2017 has been super tough. I feel like I’ve barely stopped all year, except when I’ve been sick – which has been more than normal. There’s been a lot professionally, and personally – and against a backdrop of the world ending it’s been a lot.

I think I’ve achieved a lot too, but that’s hard to remember right now. I’m hoping the next few days roaming my favourite European city will help me remember what – and come up with some better hopes for 2018 than “less exhausting and terrible”.

Happy New Year, y’all! Thanks for reading 💕

December 29, 2017
I Send Love Letters from Airports

January 3, 2016, I sent an email to 66 friends from CGD. In it, I wrote about falling in love with the Eiffel tower, spinning around in circles, and the entwined history of luggage and travel. July 1, 2017, another email from CDG. This time to 322 people. I wrote about an early morning walk through Paris, about going between a social whirl and being alone. In between, 70 of these. Postcards, love letters, something in between. I call it “Where the Hell is Cate”. It is an art project, an embracing of the transient, a map of the path taken, a musing on the in between. Most of them from airports, two of them from shipping ports. One from a train station. The subject line just the code. A handful sent from places. A letter from Pablo Escobar’s abandoned mansion, the one with the hippos (Hacienda Nápoles). In one I told the story of the kettle I left in Australia… I called it “Home”. There’s a format. One picture – I’ve found I look at the world, experience photography differently, when I am trying to pick out only one. One favourite thing – a reminder to find the unique experience, the best moment of appreciation in every place. An essay. In the first letter I included this idea of “unexpected joy”. When I flew out of LHR after the Brexit vote, I forgot to find the piece of happiness. When I arrived at EZE still shaken from seeing a corpse on the street the night before I had nothing else to say. When I flew out of BUD, I shared a cab with a random woman, who turned out to be a friend of a friend and there was no essay. Each exception has it’s own story. When you travel a lot, especially when you travel a lot for work, it’s easy for everything to blur, to lose sight of what you love about it, to decide to explore next time rather than right now. The act of choosing a favourite thing, the act of appreciation, connects me to the place and time. Sometimes it’s easy. When I saw a giant sea turtle lay eggs in the middle of the night (SJO). Or when I edged around a rubbish dump, walked along an abandoned runway, and found myself standing on an abandoned WWII lookout point at the edge of an island that felt like the edge of the world (FUN). When my friends and I snagged last minute tickets to the Harry Potter play (LHR). Sometimes it’s hard to choose or describe. The river of five colors (LMC). Guatapé, the view from the top of El Penol, or the beautiful, eerie, abandoned La Manuela. The owl cafe – or the hedgehog cafe – or the bunny cafe (HND). The aquarium, or finally seeing the DMZ from the other side (ICN). The month I spent skiing every morning before work (TCL). My birthday adventure (MXP). And sometimes it’s hard to find a moment of joy. When the startup I was working at failed, and I packed up my life (MDE). When I said goodbye to my east coast home (EWR). When I was being stalked and threatened (SEA). When I visited the ghost of the life I left behind (SYD). It’s easy to start selling on social media. Selling an idea of a life we’re not really living. We’re not really that happy, or that angry, or that good– not all the time – life is made up mostly of in betweens. A blog post always needs a point. A thing to take away. I need to succeed in public, on the internet. As my “followers” have ticked upwards, my ability to be myself has slid down. My photo blog would lead you to believe I lead a charmed life – and in many ways I do – but the nuances of that are more safely explored in another place, without a character limit, or a “like” button. A place to be imperfect, and incomplete. At the end of each one, I include a postscript. People write back. By email. By Twitter. By iMessage. By GChat. In person. They join me on my adventure as it ends, or sometimes weeks later – that’s the nature of email. Sometimes people write me an airport goodbye, as they begin – or end – an adventure of their own. Often these are my “IRL friends”, the reason why this started, who I’m closer to as a result. We plan our next adventure, and exchange snippets about our lives. The burden of keeping a correspondence is high, and so we embraced the “ambient awareness” of social media. But this project has created a new kind of space, where we correspond without pressure, and we know there will always be this prompt to resume. Another airport. Another adventure. Another story. Another goodbye. Sometimes they are internet friends. I went straight from ORD to meet friends for dinner. One of them had hired a designer, given her a brief, and made stickers. She put them in a card, with a lovely message. It was the most beautiful thing that anyone has ever done for me, and this project – that grew out of postcards I sent my friends – was paper once again. And sometimes they are strangers. One of them called me his “imaginary friend”. Another wrote me this:
“First, you talk about feeling a sense of gratitude for people who go first. The implication seems to be that you don’t, but I disagree. The fact that you let strangers into your life via these personal updates is very “Where the Hell is Cate?” to the point where I have to remind myself that it is, in fact, a very asymmetric friendship.”
And one of them, went from a friend of a friend to being my boss. She forwarded him a letter. He subscribed. As my last job ended, he reached out. I created this project to stay in touch with my friends, to create a space to be real – vulnerable – long form. Whilst it hasn’t grown in scope, the meaning has grown beyond what I ever imagined. It’s given me a different format, helped me grow as a storyteller and a writer. It’s prompted me to step back and see how I’ve grown as a person. There are three letters total from CDG. The first, the most recent, and one other. In that one, I talk about how I found my friend Natasha at the Gare Du Nord. I sent a letter from SXP and she realized we were both on trains, heading to the same place, at the same time. We got something to eat, and walked underneath the Eiffel tower and along the Seine to the miniature Statue of Liberty. Now she’s in Thailand, and I’m in Colombia. But soon, we’ll be reunited in NYC. And she’ll know I’m coming, because I’ll send an email with subject: MDE.

August 15, 2017
Item: One Passport

I keep my passport in a case that says “without this I’m nothing”. I love this case, because I love the friend who gave it to me, and because that is exactly how I feel about my passport. I’m sure in German there’s a word for the adventurer’s fear of being separated from their passport.

I lost a passport once. Returning to Sydney from a ski trip to NZ. I’d wiped out and banged my head, so I was walking through the airport slightly dazed. The case survived. In North Korea I got into an argument because they take your passport away from you. I lost that argument. They are pretty rigid about things in North Korea.

So much anxiety about the physical thing. It turns out, the biggest risk to my passport was the quasi-democratic process that has led us to Brexit. I say quasi-democratic, because the leave campaign was so full of misinformation they actually took the website down days after they “won”. I say quasi-democratic because I don’t understand how something of that level of importance gets decided at less than 52% (surely a 2/3 majority is standard). I say quasi-democratic because it’s not at all clear what people were voting for (which is probably why so many of people who voted to leave regret it).

So many Americans have told me that they feel the same about El Cheeto. But what they don’t seem to understand is that with El Cheeto there’s hope. He could die. Be impeached. Or at least, not re-elected. What’s the best case scenario with Brexit? That 10 years from now, once the financial industry has left London, the NHS has faltered (because it depends on EU workers), and the economy has collapsed… Britain begs to rejoin and goes through the process to qualify again?

There was a point, sometime around the illegal war in Iraq, that I was so ashamed to be British that when people asked me where I was from I would say “Europe”. Last year I would dodge the question and respond “I live in Colombia” (to which people would reply, “oh your english is so good!”).

I hate beer, and football. I speak conversational French and functional Spanish. I’ve spent years roaming, but I always planned to come “home” to Europe, which probably didn’t mean the UK. Brexit put a ticking clock on that, and I thought, well, maybe it’s time anyway. I’ll just go and claim residency somewhere, and it’ll be OK. And then at every point it’s been so much worse than I thought it could go. This thing that is so clearly – look at the plummeting value of the pound (down 15% against the dollar, and 10% against the euro) – a terrible idea. I hear politicians tell this story about how they are respecting the democratic process, the popular vote. I think they’re all just playing chicken. They didn’t stand up for Europe before the referendum, and they won’t stand up for Europe now. They won’t stand up for the younger generation – who overwhelmingly voted against Brexit, and our future. They’re too busy pandering to old racists.

It’s a disconcerting and horrible thing to discover that you can be stripped of a core part of your identity. That the premise on which I’ve built my life – of free movement within the EU – could collapse. It’s become this thing, that hasn’t quite overtaken my life, but that I think about every day.

March 14, 2017
2016 in Travel
According to Air Canada, I racked up 89,121 miles this year. I don’t know how accurate this is, because it includes bonus miles and excludes a number of flights – including a flight I had rebooked from Seoul after a delay (somehow no-one has a record and I never got the the points – grr), and round trip from the UK to Tuvalu (miles / different airline).

I sent 52 Where the Hell is Cate letters, some of them from “home”, but almost all of them when I left one place to go to another. Each of them contained a favourite thing – which really helped me get out and explore places I went, and find something to appreciate – even on rushed work trips.

Countries Visited
1. France. I started the year in Paris, taking a little trip to practise my French and fall in love with the Eiffel Tower.
2. UK. I went back and forth to the UK in order to maintain my insurance, but spent very little quality time there. Highlights were a weekend in London catching up with friends, and The Lead Developer.
3. Colombia. My home for most (well, ±5 months) of this year. I spent most of the time in Medellín, but ventured more deeply into the country as my Spanish improved.
4. USA. Frequently for work. I spent a lot of time in New York, which was great because I have so many friends there. I also returned to San Francisco for the first time in ages, and it was great to hang out with so many friends there, too. I visited Detroit and Austin for the first time.
5. Canada. I flew through Canada several times, but mainly didn’t leave the airport. I did have one night there where I got to see a friend, which was awesome.
6. Japan. I spoke at Try!Swift, but I also managed to achieve a life goal – and meet some owls.
7. South Korea. Vacation! Finally got to see the DMZ from the other side – something I’ve been wanted to do for ages. Another life goal.
8. Portugal. Spent two weeks in Lisbon, exploring by night and catching up with a friend for some quality time. I didn’t see many of the tourist sites, but I had a really nice, productive time.
9. Argentina. Went to Córdoba for work, and returned at the end of the year to Buenos Aires to spend a few months.
10. Costa Rica. Vacation. Saw a giant sea turtle laying eggs – amazing! And engaged in adventure tourism – super fun! [postcard]
11. Hungary. Between-jobs break. Roamed around Budapest, and spent a lot of time in the spa.
12. Tuvalu. Life goal. Indescribably beautiful. Wonderfully remote. Extremely chill. [postcard]
13. Fiji. Part of the Tuvalu trip, for the break between jobs. Really enjoyed Suva especially.
14. Australia. Returned to Sydney for the first time since I lived there. Great to see some of my favourite people again.
15. Brazil. Quick trip from BA to São Paulo for the Bienal. An amazing weekend!
16. Uruguay. Took a boat from BA to Montevideo for a break over new year. It’s a wonderful city!
Highlights

A lot of my travel in the first half of the year was dictated by work and commitments, but the second half of this year I travelled more for fun, which was awesome. I feel like I really took advantage of the time I took off between jobs! And I was happy that I got to experience 3 life goals this year – the owls, the DMZ, and Tuvalu.

I also visited 7 new countries, which is really cool! South Korea, Argentina, Costa Rica, Hungary, Tuvalu, Fiji, and Uruguay. Eventually I’ll make it to all of them.

The 12 coolest things I saw were pretty amazing. I collected them in a list.

2017?

My plan is to travel less but more deeply in 2017. I’m planning on spending February in a place that I adore.

As ever, I hope to go somewhere new. Kazakhstan and Bhutan are high on my list.
January 10, 2017
The 12 Coolest Things I Saw in 2016

Ages ago, I set myself a goal that I go somewhere new every year. If you know anything about me, this might seem ridiculously low – but we all start somewhere. I didn’t leave Europe until I was 22.

This year was a good year for adventures, though! Mainly my travel writing goes in Where the Hell is Cate, but as the year ends, here are the 12 coolest things I saw.

12. Pablo Escobar’s Vehicles

Escobar’s first plane

Helicopter

Model dino for Escobar’s son

Model dinos for Escobar’s son

Model dino for Escobar’s son

Model dino for Escobar’s son

Hippos!

Capybaras!

Cuteness

At Hacienda Nápolés, Pablo Escobar’s country retreat, is the collection of cars – many of which were burnt out. It’s not your average mogul mansion, because it’s a ruin – it was decided that it was unconscionable to preserve it. You can also find a herd of hippos, surprisingly dangerous creatures (just the thing to eat your enemies, provided there’s space for them). Although there’s a special hippo, “amiga Vanessa”, who was more like a family pet.

There’s also a museum that documents the horrors – most people in Colombia were affected in some way.

Hacienda Nápolés is a bizarre place, not like anywhere else you’ll see. But if you’re in the vicinity (it’s between Medellín and Bogotá) worth checking out. You can take a tour in a golf cart, which sounds very lazy, but it’s extremely hot. There’s also an African museum, and capybaras, and enormous model dinosaurs for Escobar’s son.

11. The Statue of Liberty

View from the boat

It’s shocking how many times I had been to NYC without seeing this – a hazard of going mostly for work, I guess, since it takes a while. I walked to Battery park, where I met my friend G, and we took the boat. The statue is a pretty amazing sight as the boat approaches. Afterwards, we went to the museum – which is fascinating. Later the same day, I saw the statue again from the top of the Empire State Building. Another cool thing to do in NYC.

10. Giant Mechanical Flower

The Floralis Genérica is one of the sights of Buenos Aries. The petals are more open during the day, and close at night. After seeing it during the day, I sat there for two hours waiting for them to close. Eventually everyone was kicked out because the park shut. It was worth the wait to watch it light up purple, though.

9. The Eiffel Tower

Me! Up at the top!

I didn’t expect the Eiffel Tower to be so cool – I felt somewhat inured to it, because there are so many images of it everywhere. However up close it’s incredible – the scale is so impressive. When you get up to the top, the views are amazing, and Eiffel’s apartment at the top, wow.

8. Degas’ Ballerina

I saw a lot of cool art this year, but my favourite was two more of Degas’ ballerina, La Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans – a piece I first fell in love with when I saw it in Copenhagen. I saw one at the Musée d’Orsay (Paris), and another at the Met (NYC). I love her pose, like she’s just doing her.

I saw some amazing pieces at the São Paulo Bienel, and at the newly reopened SFMOMA. The weirdest piece of art I saw was Maurizio Cattelan’s America.

7. The DMZ from the other side

In 2013, I went to North Korea. This year, I finally made it to Seoul where I got to see the DMZ from the other side. Seeing this place from both sides, and hearing the story that each side tells gives a pretty unique perspective on the history.

6. El Peñón

One of my favourite places in Colombia, I went solo and loved it, and later I returned to with my Alice when she came to visit. El Peñón is an enormous rock that you can climb. From the top, there are extraordinary views of the reservoir and surrounding areas. The best time to climb is first thing in the morning – if you make good time, you’ll get to be alone up there for a while. I also love to go up at the end of the day and watch the sun set. It’s a special place.

One of my favourite little stories about the rock is the partially written name on it – because of the disputed ownership between the towns of Guatapé and El Peñol. We rented a jet ski and drove around it (the algae jammed the engine and left us stranded…). We also hired a boat to go and explore La Manuela, Pablo Escobar’s bombeed out mansion. They have paintballing, but we just took the tour.

5.Feminist Shark

It me, gazing upon Feminist Shark

Of course, I wore my “FEMINIST” hoodie.

In January, Feminist Shark made the news because she ate a male shark for being annoying. This was at the COEX Aquarium, in Seoul, so when I was in Seoul I went to pay homage to her and see if I can learn anything. Bonus: the fish tanks are so creative and cool! I love the telephone box!

4. IRL Owls

Seriously, I just LOVE owls, and in Tokyo I got to meet some. They are soft and beautiful and wonderful. I went with my friend Michelle and took a lot of owlfies.

Bonus: I also met bunnies and hedgies. Cat cafe’s are so 2010.

3. Caño Cristales

Caño Cristales is an extraordinary place. It’s also known as “the river of five colors”, because the river is extremely colorful – due to a particular kind of algae. It’s right in the middle of FARC territory, but the town is safe, although there’s a big military presence. I hung out with a boy named Jesus.

2. A Sea Turtle

I watched a sea turtle laying eggs and burying them, then slowly making her way back to the ocean.

1. A Lookout Post at the End of the World

I went to the indescribably beautiful Tuvalu. I rode my trusty scooter to the end of the island, made my way around a fence, walked past a trash dump, along an abandoned runway, and climbed through a swamp. Then I found myself at the remains of a World War II lookout post. It was amazing.

0. My friends

I had some amazing adventures this year, some with people and some solo. But I also hung out with people I adore on four different continents. We did some cool things (including being pet by a Grover in Times Square), we also just… hung out. I’m so grateful for the amazing people in my life, because time with them was the coolest thing of all.

December 27, 2016
7 Months of Leaving

2016 in Pictures

At the start of the year, I had the idea to kill postcards and instead send a digital postcard from everywhere I left in 2016. The year is half over, and so it seems like a good time to reflect on this project.

It has bought me so much joy – I’ve struggled to find a way to share my adventures long form, travel blogging requires some kind of completeness and recommendation that I just can’t quite live up to. I can never curate my pictures. Uploading them all takes hours. This is a perfect compromise. No need for completeness. Just a snapshot. The kind of email I would send a friend, only a little more edited, a bit more context.

My friend Diana observes, “Gravity seeps into the things that stick around.” and at the half way point I look back on a collection of letters – 28 in total – and this project has been so much more than I imagined it would be, and I’m so excited to see how it progresses as the year goes on. It’s definitely helped me stay in touch with people, but it’s also become a record of how I spent this year, the things that were amazing, and the things that have been hard.

I also like the idea that this is an idea of nomadic life shared by a woman. There was an interesting article on the subtle sexism of minimalism recently (to be honest, not that subtle), which I appreciated. So much of what it means to have adventures has been defined by men, I’ve often felt there’s not a path to follow, that I have to carve out my own. It’s nice to be able to share what I’ve learned in a forum less inviting of judgement.

Anyway, if you want my musings on adventures, life and leaving, you can sign up at wherethehelliscate.com.

August 2, 2016
My Current Policy on Speaker Travel Costs
Tiny Raccoon would like to always travel in style. One day.

About a year ago I wrote about how I get myself uninvited from unflattering speaking invitations (TL;DR I use them as negotiation practise). And last August I wrote about the different options that speakers have when it comes to travel costs – including not going.

I was pretty public about not speaking if there was no real code of conduct, and I shared my costs for becoming a “public speaker” in 2014, but the thing I didn’t directly address last year was how I approached the money aspect.

My general rule last year was no travel, no Cate. I made a couple of exceptions and accepted accommodation-only where it worked for me (basically I wanted to go somewhere anyway, and if I gave a talk, I could make a case to write the flights off against tax), and covered my own very minimal costs to get to a local event that I loved the year before.

I said no to some things, but mostly just didn’t apply to things – I also find it useful that Technically Speaking highlights what travel costs are covered. And a big part of the reason why we do that is because we think it’s an inclusivity issue. This post covers it really well.

Anyway I learned some things last year about speaking and travel and what I was and wasn’t OK with. For example taking 4 flights because the conference had a limited budget. Turns out I’m not willing to spend one of my limited 24 hour days taking extra planes just because. We eventually found a compromise, but I learned something important about conferences that agree to cover international flights – check how much they think an international flight costs, especially if you are not flying from a major hub. Because you might expect max 1 change on the airline you have status with and they might think 3 changes $random_airline is acceptable.

This year I’m limiting myself to 6 talks, and getting more invitations, which means more opportunities for negotiation practise. But also, I can ask work to pay for travel, which also changes things.

However I’m not changing my policy, really. Because even if I don’t necessarily need my travel covered, I don’t want to speak at or attend events where only speakers who can have their companies cover travel can speak.

So in 2016:
- For more community events, especially where I know the organisers, I’m willing to ask work to cover my travel in exchange for being listed as a sponsor if there is also provision for other speakers to have their travel covered. In one instance me doing this meant that the organiser could invite another woman speaker. Amazing.
- For corporate events (I have a definition of this in my head, but it lacks diplomacy and seems unwise to share it), I want travel / accomodation covered. Star Alliance, minimum connections.
I’m not a diva. Well OK, I’m not that much of a diva. But my time is valuable, and to me this is an extension of the Code of Conduct thing – I only want to speak at or be associated with events that make an effort for inclusivity, and I believe that travel costs are an inclusivity issue.

Two years ago, I didn’t know what I was doing and frankly as an unknown couldn’t afford to be that hardline about it. I’ve worked (and paid my own way to speak) to get to this place of privilege where I can say “this is what I want” and where I don’t feel like I’m missing out if I can’t get an agreement. I hope being public about it encourages other people (who also have this privilege) to as well.
February 8, 2016
AirBnB Travel Tip
Credit: Wikipedia

I stay in AirBnBs a lot (referral link), and my strategy is as follows:
1. Filter on the things I care about (entire place, washing machine, location).
2. Pick 2-3 that would be fine.
3. Message them expressing an interest, asking a question, and saying something along the lines of “as it’s a longer stay, are you open to giving me a discount?”
4. Accept the first that comes back.
You might gather from 4 that I don’t really care about the discount, and you would be right. It’s normally maybe 100 USD or so and because I book entire apartments for > 1 week it’s pretty negligible in the scheme of things (offsets some AirBnB fees). I find it useful for a couple of reasons:
1. Test of responsiveness. I figure the person who replies to this in <1 hour will be better when say… there’s no hot water in the apartment (I didn’t run this test there, because my admin booked it. This experience confirmed it’s utility to me).
2. Test of goodwill. I have great reviews on AirBnB and want to stay with people who want me to stay with them!
3. When you get an offer you can instantly accept it, so it’s great when hosts don’t have “instant book” turned on. Otherwise after making a request you have to wait 24 hours and the service puts a hold on your card, which can get really annoying if you have to request a couple of places.
Anyway I have explained this strategy to a couple of people recently so I figured it was time to document. Happy travels!
January 25, 2016