Category: The World as I See It

In praise of simple tools

I write using Emacs and LaTeX. I'll grudgingly copy and paste to other formats because the organization demands it but I do better work with...

Broadly vs. Locally-useful skills

Early on, I programmed on mainframes in COBOL... I'm sure I could do it again. But I'd be tossing away some highly valuable, broadly-applicable and...

How I got hired at AWS

Being yourself matters as much as anything. And be nice to the airline staff. They can really make or break your life....

What the fuck are you doing there?

"Hey man. You're not gonna believe this, but I'm calling from Frankfurt..." "What the FUCK are you doing there?" It was a pretty good question....

Lessons from the top of a snowy hill

Things are rather treacherous out there. In my neighborhood, we have new-fallen (unplowed) snow, on top of wet (now frozen) fallen, partly-decayed, slippery leaves that...

How I became “glue”

As has often been the case in my life, I was in a category of people who were not supposed to exist. I was that...