Tag: technology

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The Rise (and Fall) of my Actionscript Anxieties

I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing lately — trying to find parallels between what’s happening in the world today and what I’ve lived through. As they say, those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.

And recently, with all the hype around AI, I’m reminded of feelings I felt early on in my career as a Web Developer. But, let’s start at the beginning. I knew I wanted to work on websites way before I took a class on them. I taught myself how to do basic HTML / CSS and even started making websites for local bands in high school as a very minor side hustle.

When I took CS 201 (building your own compiler – often a make or break for CS majors vs folks who would instead take it as a minor), our professor joked about how this class was likely irrelevant for many of us. I knew that was true for me so, once I had the opportunity to take electives, I packed in as many courses as I possibly could to learn the ins-and-outs of web development. In doing so I picked up Javascript, Perl, Shell Scripting and really started to understand how the underpinnings of that customer experience was served from a technical perspective.

Before YouTube shorts and Instagram reels had a stranglehold on attention on the internet, there were websites we’d go to that would feature animated comedy shorts (think Homestar Runner). Most of these were built using a scripting language called “ActionScript” and you had to use a tool called Flash by a company called MacroMedia. And I remember feeling woefully inadequate that I hadn’t mastered “Flash” as we’d refer to it as developers. I had initially worried that the entire internet would turn into these experiences and I just couldn’t cut it.

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The Hubris of It All

Early in my professional life, I took on a Web Developer role at a big media company. Back then, a welcome package from the company with its very familiar branding arrived at my doorstep. To some degree, I felt like I had “made it.” I felt like I knew so much about the working world (in truth: I was Jon Snow, I knew nothing – it was my 2nd real job out of college).

I remember deciding I was ready to give back and go back to my alma mater, the high school I attended, to do career day. They encouraged more recent graduates to attend since it was sometimes easier for the students to envision themselves in roles seeing someone that might be closer to their age.

Before the session, I remember talking to the administrators at the school and telling them about how “slides” are a thing of the past, especially for technologists. And the Jen of today thinks back on that and chuckles (as I work on 3 different presentations, all likely due in the next week).

In a lengthy career in technology, it seems like you live long enough to laugh at the hubris of your past self and develop the humility to know that you will often be wrong, but at least not catastrophically so.

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Cash Rules Every AI Around Me

I debated whether I should join the fray of technologists talking about AI but, as an elder millennial, I think there’s an angle to this story that isn’t really being discussed — and it has a lot to do with money. Or rather, the tenuous balance between innovation and profit.

Right now, everyone’s talking about how AI is our future and will deeply transform the way we live and work — this has already begun and I don’t think it’s far fetched to believe that we still don’t quite yet know the ways in which this will fully change us until we are living in the change. However, it’s also true that all the large operators in this space are desperately seeking profitability more than they are the lofty ideal of artificial general intelligence. And the need for a return on investment, especially with valuations reaching the trillions for some, will ultimately create winners and losers.

I think back to the early days of the internet — at least as I knew it. When I was an adolescent, a personal computer in our home and a subscription to America Online would routinely tie up the telephone line (before cellphones were ubiquitous). In that time is when I started learning how to code by seeing HTML side by side with the website I was creating. And it was incredibly accessible to get started; whether it was HyperMart, Geocities, or AngelFire, you could very easily spin up a website for free, no ads.

With age and hindsight being 20/20 and all, I now realize what was happening.

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How to Decide When to Get in the Weeds

I’ve been having trouble even starting to write about this topic because it’s such an interesting topic and something I’ve learned quite a bit about over the years — and continue to grow and learn about as I take on new teams!

As I’ve advanced in my career, I’ve gone from feeling like I need to learn every new technology or programming language (and getting overwhelmed and feeling inferior by the impossible feat) to realizing it’s impossible to know everything well. In the spirit of ruthless prioritization, I have to prioritize what it is I choose to know deeply (where I get in the weeds) and what I choose to only know at a surface level (usually relying on or deferring to the expertise of someone else who is in the weeds).

This approach to staying on the surface works really well when you can to defer to a colleague who you respect as an expert on their work (e.g. I understand we use XYZ technology but for any additional detail, talk to my colleague Jane in Engineering). And often times, a colleague will see this for what it is: trust that you will mind your own business because they’ve got their area under control!

It gets much more difficult when you need to do this with people who might report directly into you. Stay at surface and don’t know enough about their work? You seem out of touch (and isn’t it their job to “manage up” anyway?). Get in the weeds about everything they are working on? Now you are the dreaded micro-manager.

So how do you decide when to go deeper? There are tactics I’ve employed over the years that can help.

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Flavors of Agile

Many years into my career in software development, I was introduced to the concept of “agility” and specifically leveraging the “scrum” methodology. We were trained up over the course of a couple of days which included silly activities to prove a point like making paper boats. I learned about 2 week sprints, sprint ceremonies (like sprint planning, daily stand-up and retrospectives), and best practices around estimation.

At the time, I was on a very lean team responsible for operating a platform that was licensed to a competitor for what I understood was a large sum of money. Our product was important to the bottom-line so consistently delivering value was the name of the game. I enjoyed the structure that sprinting offered and the constant tangible value delivery to our customer appealed to the dopamine receptors in my brain that get excited when I check something off my “to do” list.

During that time, I also learned about the “agile manifesto” and that there was a real career path for people like me who enjoyed solving human-centered problems. And since then, I’ve worked with a number of different large enterprises that employ various flavors of agile.

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Dark Patterns Law in California

I’ve previously written about dark patterns because, on their face, they represent an ethical problem in technology. Just because you can make it difficult for a customer to close a pop-up, for example, doesn’t mean you should. And, as we know now, technologists do not take an oath to behave ethically (quite the opposite with the proliferation of the ethos “move fast and break shit”) and the government has neglected to regulate.

Until now, that is. California has a new law on the books to address this that complements the California Consumer Privacy Act.
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A Fitness Tracker for Lightweights: the Motiv Ring

Over the summer, I was complaining to a colleague about my love/hate relationship with fitness trackers. I fell in love with the Fitbit for a few years but I found their trackers didn’t really last. That’s something I’m less inclined to be okay with given how much more I pay attention now to where my waste goes. And, the other factor important for me is a tracker that fits nicely under my boxing gloves — something that sometimes wrist-based trackers aren’t always great at.

My colleague then suggested I check out the Motiv fitness tracker.

On the surface, I was excited so naturally I ordered it immediately. The price point ($199.99) made it not so expensive that it seemed unattainable but definitely pricey enough so that I had some expectations about it being moderately good going in. After using it for a couple of months now, I can walk you through the good, the bad and my closing thoughts on whether it’s a good buy or not.
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Another Perspective on Stuff You Fill Out

I was scrolling through Twitter today when a Tweet by someone I don’t follow about a topic I’m privileged not to be intimately familiar with happened to catch my eye:

I say I’m privileged because, while I joke about being blind because I’ve been wearing glasses since 2nd grade, I’m not actually impaired. I’ve never had to experience this wild and wonderful thing we call the internet without the gift of sight. And, throughout my career as a web developer, accessibility was often an after-thought.

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A Small Omission: Gran Turismo Sport and Female Gamers

The other day, my husband decided to share a trailer for the latest Gran Turismo game that was unveiled for the Playstation console at the latest E3 events. I remember playing Gran Turismo games with my little brother way back when on the original first Playstation! I also really enjoy, now as an adult with a driver’s license, having the opportunity to drive high performance cars from time to time; though, most of the time, I’m rolling around in a compact car with good fuel economy thanks to Zipcar. All that said, we watched the trailer together and were in awe of the beautiful graphics that made sleek sports cars look even sleeker.

However, while the game graphics look fantastic, I noticed a small omission in the trailer I watched. Let me explain.

At about 45 seconds into the video, multiple world flags appear circling the globe with some text overlayed that says “Driving is for Everyone.” I thought that was cute and chuckled softly to myself. Yes, driving should be for everyone because, personally, I find it fun and convenient for getting across this giant country we live in.

By about 2 and a half minutes in, they start presenting images about live tournaments they’ll be running regularly. I think to myself, “How the hell are they going to manage that?” but I’m sure they’ve figured out some way to automate it so that people can play in these tournaments online and it works fairly seamlessly.

At 3 minutes in, the screen now reads “Open to all ages, anyone can enjoy” but all the faces I see feverishly playing the new game are men. Eight seconds later and I think I’ve spotted ONE woman deep in the background at this tournament event they are showing footage from. Another six seconds go by and I see a crowd of people clapping for the game, not sure if they are fans or journalists but it is fairly clear that they are also ALL men. By 3 minutes and 38 seconds into the video, it is still a sausage fest with a group of male victors celebrating.

By 3 minutes and 50 seconds, I finally see a woman in the foreground and she is congratulating a winner, who is of course male. Continue reading “A Small Omission: Gran Turismo Sport and Female Gamers”

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A Serious Commitment: Co-Watching TV

We are living in a golden age of television.

Seriously, how great is it to be a television fan? What used to be relegated to HBO and Showtime (and sometimes Starz) has now been extended to all methods of consumption. There are great long-running shows that first aired on cable like the dramatic Mad Men and the often ridiculous It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Then there have been amazing shows on Netflix like the addictive House of Cards and the adorable Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And don’t get me started on all the programming on network television! Shows like Flash and New Girl come to mind immediately, but there are many others.

And, on top of all the great programming that has been developed, we have more ways to watch than ever. Netflix and chill is a thing because pretty much everyone has Netflix. And since a lot of people have Amazon Prime membership, Amazon Prime Video is also a thing (it doesn’t hurt that they have the entire HBO back catalog — now I can watch Six Feet Under and The Wire!). Finally, there’s also Hulu which amazingly has carved out a niche for itself with original series content as well.

With so much great stuff to watch, it’s often hard to find the time. What can make it even harder is if you are part of a couple that co-watches. My husband and I typically try to watch shows together because we enjoy talking about them when we aren’t watching them, but also because it’s another way to spend time together. And you know that co-watching is a real cultural phenomenon when even the New York Times devoted some space to it, touching on how it impacts real relationships.

And, while I fully acknowledge this is a total first-world problem, co-watching can be really challenging! My husband, Anthony, and I want to watch things together but sometimes I’m at Muay Thai class late or he’s off covering a soccer game. The reality is that because we are two fiercely independent people, our schedules don’t always line up. We don’t always watch the same things, but when we do, it can be something that we literally need to schedule on our calendars to ensure we can watch together.

But, this can put a strain on a relationship and cause a partner to stray — and watch TV shows without their partner (instead of patiently waiting for a co-watching opportunity). I’ve often said that Anthony has “cheated on me” with a particular program that we wanted to co-watch. Like most things in this day and age, thankfully, there’s an app for that!

Screenshot of Phones from SeriesCommitment.com
Screenshot from SeriesCommitment.com

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