Archive • Craft & Practice • Buttondown

Craft & Practice #6

September 4, 2025

It's been 42 days since my last update; 'cuz I've been buildin', writin', and readin'. These are the high-level highlights.

Craft & Practice #5

Dear humans, It’s been a month, this time, since my last update—leaning more towards every few weeks than every week. If you would like more consistently...

Craft & Practice #4

Highlights from the past month of digital gardening: 4 from garden; 4 new beds; and top 5 links from soil cultivation.

Craft & Practice #3

I've launched my Chrysalis Essays reflecting on 2020 and shared insights on productivity and digital gardening!

Craft & Practice #2

Hello you lovely lot, Friday, I made the two-hour trip down to my parents to celebrate Santa’s twin brother’s birthday. A photograph of my mom and dad,...

Craft & Practice #1

This is the first of starting back up my newsletter. You haven’t heard from me in a while because I’ve been busy. Now getting to a point where I’m confident...

Weekly Wanders #1

The first edition of a weekly newsletter where I'll share things I got up to this week.

Migrating to bluer skies

November 18, 2024

I joined the mass exodus a few weeks ago—rekindling spirits of blogging

Neurodivergence and habit building

November 1, 2024

Missing the daily routine of writing; acknowledging transitions through change

No-code, low-code, gen AI; oh my!

October 15, 2024

Product management in an evolving software development life-cycle

Structural sensemaking and content-first

October 14, 2024

Delving into databases, definitions of design, formative lessons, and the day's context

Incubators, Accelerators, and VC in North Carolina

October 11, 2024

A compiled list for reference and to share with someone

Did you miss me?

October 9, 2024

6-days; now the longest I've broken my writing streak

Colorado Springs, Colorado

October 1, 2024

Learning about where I'm working this week

Leadership Values & Purpose

September 27, 2024

Written during my time in Booking.com's Partner Tech Department's Leadership team. Published to the 300–400 people in our department; written in March 2019.

Tools I use in my development practice

September 26, 2024

A list of tiny web tools I've routinely used

Thoughts, after Strengths

September 25, 2024

Today, in Power Shift, we're talking about Strengthsfinder results. Since I didn't post yesterday, there'll be two today—a before and after of the session.

Thoughts, before Strengths

September 25, 2024

Today, in Power Shift, we're talking about Strengthsfinder results. Since I didn't post yesterday, there'll be two today—a before and after of the session.

Shitty First Drafts

September 23, 2024

The process is the point—sometimes you have to take the long-way-'round.

September 20, 2024

It's been a long time coming, but today was the first time I’ve felt energized at the end of the week because of its events. Start of the day I began the day...

My leadership values

September 19, 2024

Five stories of typographic, geometric, and illustrative tattoos

Origins of leadership

September 18, 2024

Son of a preacher-man and nurse-woman; starting buffets; cliff-diving into a frenzy

Metaphoric method and semantic gradients

September 17, 2024

Colors squeezed onto the palette; type, heavy with ink; moving in rhythmic vertical flow.

Sitzprobe and wandelprobe

September 16, 2024

Words from the theatre that align to product, design, and tech

What does the word “power” bring for you?

September 13, 2024

Reflecting on the coincidence of the question that book-ends my professional path

Influence of John Cage

September 12, 2024

A memory of a memory coming from one of my first presentations while studying graphic design

What do T, Pi, and Comb all have in common?

September 11, 2024

Hint: metaphors with figure-ground relationships to literal meaning

The violence of weird

September 10, 2024

There are far more accurate and better words to use than weird to describe these people, this party, and their priorities. Use them instead.

Naming Poet & Scribe

September 6, 2024

Where my business' name comes from; a hybrid mix of creation and curation, product and process.

Become the leader only you can be

September 5, 2024

Next week starts Power Shift, a 10-week leadership program for people who want to stand out—not burn out.

Word-collecting and accurate language

September 4, 2024

Throughout my life, I’ve been a a word-collector. It’s taken me a while to figure that out, or to put a name to it…but I like that Title for now: “Word...

My first NaNoWriMo?

September 3, 2024

Writing about National Novel Writing Month, some of its recent events, and working through if I'm going to participate

Will I work on Labor Day?

September 2, 2024

All last week, there was a question internally looming & looping: will I work on Labor Day? Labor has been talked about in the Tech, Design, and Product...

Leadership lessons from Border Collies

August 30, 2024

Once upon a time, I attended a leadership training where we herded sheep.

University workshop proposals

August 29, 2024

Potential workshops to give, lead, and facilitate for design students

Portfolio thinking

August 28, 2024

Evolving from an artifact-based portfolio towards a story-based career portfolio

Thinking, speeds and processes

August 27, 2024

On onboarding flows and prepositional thinking: fast and slow; bottom-up and top-down

The hustle of Hustle Culture

August 23, 2024

Finding the words for opinions in response to people who think the only way to succeed is through hustle.

The Humorous Book Club

August 23, 2024

Today starts the second book club I've ever been a part of; reading Design that Scales

Where in the world has Trump not crimed?

August 21, 2024

An idea for a game inspired by the classic "Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?"

Solve together, execute apart

August 20, 2024

Reflections while reading the necessary second edition of Mike Monteiro's "Design is a Job"

This is now the longest continuous writing practice I’ve ever kept

August 19, 2024

Considerations on writing length and practice's purpose

Preparation and informed impulsivity

August 16, 2024

The hidden, internal layers of decision-making

Part One: The Metaphoric Method

August 15, 2024

Giving shape to a way of asking questions, seeking insight and shared understanding

Letter distributions and languages

August 14, 2024

Scrabble, alphabet data, and playing in different ways

Part one: Polders, dykes, and decision-making

August 13, 2024

Communicating cultural influences & differences of getting work done

Fingers, soup, and lessons in accessibility

August 12, 2024

I did not find any finger in my soup

When my brain plays keep-away with words

When you're searching for word and you know you know the word—you just HAD the word!—but now your brain's hiding the word.

Why every company is a tech company in 2024

The tech industry impacts virtually every surface & society on the planet—here, I acknowledge it.

28: Year Overview and Retrospective

Today, typing's more difficult than usual. This is a post I published on birthday in 2017, reflecting on my 28th year, entering my 29th.