Varying parts family, community, and surfing.
A few years back, Rick Rubin was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes . Their conversation produced a clip that has lived on, at least in my corner of the internet. The clip features Rubin admitting he has no musical or technical ability and explaining to Anderson his value to the musicians with whom he collaborates. Take a look (0:29 - 1:01): His taste is what makes him valuable. I was…
🎄 Introducing: 12 Days of Agents Learn how to use AI agents to automate real work — not just chat. I’m running a fun (and practical!) series this December called 12 Days of Agents — a daily guide to understanding and using AI agents to save time and get real things done. For 12 weekdays in December, I am sending a short lesson that: Teaches a useful concept about AI agents Shows you exactly when…
My team just wrapped hiring for two Developer Advocate roles. I know the market is tough so wanted to share a few things I’ve noticed that could help you stand out if you’re looking. Lead with customer impact, not just activity. “I spoke at 5 events” is cool but “I helped solve a critical issue for our customers, then shared the solution at 5 industry events, resulting in 40+ follow-up…
This posts keeps track of some things I see that I don’t want to forget. The published date of this file will reflect whenever the most screenshot was added. Quote: Don’t confuse movement with progress. More to come.
Developer Relations, community, and marketing folks often grapple with understanding the impact of the content they create. Metrics like page views and unique page views tell one story. But it’s hard to grok whether the eyeballs are the right eyeballs. More telling metrics - like trials or other conversion-oriented metrics - can be hard to attribute to a specific piece of content or method of…
I recently presented at a GitLab meetup on how to write a winning CFP for our upcoming GitLab Commit conference. I figured I would share as some of the insights are helpful regardless of the conference. Note: the video will start at the 16:00 minute mark as the first part of the recording is specific to our Commit event. You can find the slides from the presentation here: GitLab Commit 2021 - CFP…
Disclaimer: I am a community practictioner. I follow the practice of community management closely and apply what I learn to the work I do and the communities I build. I do not take credit for the creation of these ideas. I have tried to give the credit to the original sources as much as possible. As luck would have it, I had the chance to follow last week’s FlylessWeekly with DevRel legend Phil…
This year is my first time participating in the Community Leadership Summit. Things are a bit different this year (which can be said about pretty much everything in 2020), most notablythe event is completely virtual and it’s now co-located with All Things Open (rather than OSCON). What hasn’t changed is that the event features a number of sessions intended to be conversations rather than…
Since March, GitLab’s meetups (which I manage) have been entirely virtual. This shift to virtual events is not unique - most industries from education to healthcare to media have similarly shifted to virtual events and remote work in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. I suspect our virtual events experience has been shared by thousands, maybe millions, of others. So while our experience has…
Just like you, I love my hometown. One reason we love our neighborhoods are the small businesses nearby. Owned and staffed by our neighbors, friends, and classmates, these businesses are uniquely ours. They sponsor our sports teams and support our local causes. They know your order and are the places we go to connect with each other. The reality of the current situation is that right now - these…