2024-04-18: Context Switches, WTFs, Chinese App Stores
(If you work at FF/FFDW 🄽 links will send you to a local, editable page in the Filecoin Foundation Notion. If you are in the Filecoin ecosystem, you may be able to join the #monologue-danny Slack channel where I answer questions, take meeting bookings, talk to myself and the other voices in my head. In the glorious decentralized ocap-enabled future, such data-hoardings will be a thing of the past, but we live for now in a fallen ACL world.)
Three Things I Did At Work
1. Briefly Switched to Other Stuff
Eek! The next FIL-RetroPGF-1🄽 deadline is fast approaching — it’s on Monday. I’ve been focused on STFIL🄽 and Fil Plus🄽 almost completely this week, so had to zip back to bring a few people up to speed on what we need to do for the Retro PGF. Also there were a few misunderstandings about what was involved: fair enough, given how improvisatory we are being this round.
2. More Meetings In Real Life
As an individual contributor🄽 (I’m so glad I found this term — it definitely describes what I am these days), I try to be super-careful about just helicoptering in to someone else’s domain, firing off a few suggestions, than yoinking myself out. THAT SAID I did in fact, helicopter into some meetings, fired off a few suggestions, then waved goodbye. I even did the other bad thing, which was arbitrarily volunteer other people for work. But at least have self-knowledge, and will spent the next few days running around making sure I was actually useful, following up, and checking with the volunteered people that they, in fact, want to do the thing. As long as everyone is honest with me it should be ok. But how to get people to be honest with me? I aspire to not being scary, and take criticism well (and don’t you ever tell me I don’t): hopefully that is enough.
3. Bridged Work Styles
Much of the Filecoin Universe has a working style of being extremely direct: the Anglo-Dutch Geek Default. We’re much more loveable at the Foundation, as befits our human-shaped non-profitish ways. It sometimes leads to some awkward confrontations — well, confrontations on one side, and probably just an average Tuesday on the other. I’ve always had a soft spot for the directness default, but it can wear you down, and has multiple pathologies. Plus I can definitely be a bit of delicate flower myself. I had a couple of conversations today with others which were along the lines of “do we think X is very angry at Y? Or just delivering information?”. A question I ask myself all the time.
TIL
- A WTF Notebook. When you join a new institution or team, write lists of things that surprise or confuse or annoy you. Then give yourself time to find out what the deal behind them was.
- The Filecoin CryptoNet🄽 researchers keep an open research notebook folder. Endlessly browseable.
Links Du Jour
- Apple ordered to remove WhatsApp, Threads from Chinese App Store. I wonder if you can get them by travelling to Europe, side-loading, and then flying back. How did we recreate borders online?
- When a Microsoft team bought a whole computer stores’ stock of Windows apps. Oldie, but goodie. That’s how you do compatibility. Related.