• Creating Meaning Through Analogy

    One of the most profound findings from Godel’s incompleteness theorem is that meaning can be mapped onto a system that was specifically designed to prevent it.

  • The Jump to Remote Work Universality

    Remote work has not yet made the jump to universality. We’re still in the phase of “specialized work objects” which are a combination technology to perform the work, jobs that can be performed remotely, and businesses that can operate anywhere.

  • Run an AWS ECS Task From the Command Line

    To run a one-off ECS task from the aws CLI in Fargate you need to specify the subnet, set assignPublicIp to enabled (otherwise it will fail to pull the container image), and optionally include overrides to run the command you want.

  • Designing for Non-Experts

    Building tools to help users that are not experts in the thing they are using the tool to do presents unique design challenges.

  • Remote Work Is a Supply Side Problem

    There has always been strong demand for remote work and it wasn’t until the global COVID-19 pandemic that the supply side (employers) briefly caught up.

  • Broken Escalators Are Still Stairs

    Like the Mitch Hedburg joke, “when escalators break they become stairs—sorry for the convenience” reminds us about the importance of designing systems that fail gracefully.

  • Outsourced Thinking

    Having to think about everything all the time would be impractical so people rely on other people to think certain thoughts for them.

  • FMLA and Remote Work

    The rules for when a company must provide federally mandated medical leave to employees may change due to remote work.

  • Is Your Pricing Too High?

    How do you know if your price is too high? A few things could be happening: the product isn’t actually as valuable as you are selling, you’re talking to the wrong customers, you’re not conveying the value, or any combination of the three.