Week in Review #8

Had a bit more energy this week, thank goodness.
  • Monday - Agile for Humans #078. It's amazing how quickly one can fall behind even with a few podcasts in rotation. This was a short one. I always enjoy Ripley's perspective on the business, and it's good to hear someone articulate the extent to which this really is a lifelong journey. One of last week's meetings appears to be bearing fruit. 
  • Tuesday -  Code Newbies Ep 1, because I always like seeing how podcasts get their start. These episodes are really long, which makes it something of a challenge to figure out how and when to listen. I only have a half hour or so commute, and I can't listen to a podcast and do much else at the same time if I want to actually retain anything I've heard. So any given podcast is either a multi-day affair, or I need a quiet space during the work day I can devote to listening and somehow not feel like I should be doing something else. (One of the joys of having two jobs is that whichever one I'm doing, I feel like I should be giving more time to the other one.) Listened in on another product group's sprint review.
  • Wednesday - More CodeNewbies Ep 1. I rather wish someone had explained to me about the nature of doing development work is to be frustrated back when I was thinking about doing that for a living. This was a "no meeting day", a habit I'd like to get into more regularly. Spent most of it working on documentation deliverables. 
  • Thursday - Lots of meetings day., and wondering what extent I should push back against people asking me to schedule those. More documentation work in between meetings. One of the meetings was about the employee engagement survey, which is a subject on which I Have Thoughts, but am not sure about their suitability for blogging. 
  • Friday - The day got off to an excellent start, followed by a struggle to keep it that way. In between meetings and documentation work, I finally put some thought into a personal statement I've been asked for regarding my direction at work.  
Social media remains a struggle for balance. It's weird to me that these days, maintaining a professional image and identity requires that one be present on a platform -- or multiple platforms, realistically -- that operate in ways that are fundamentally anti-human. Surely there are better ways to network with peers and identify learning opportunities than a site famously lax in protecting its users.

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