A lot has happened since I wrote about leaving Microsoft in 2014. Since then I’ve worked at two start-ups, had two kids, and returned to Microsoft to find what I was missing the first time around — a meaningful role where I felt I was learning, growing, and making a difference. I returned to a great team solving an important set of problems, and really began to feel at home.

I distinctly remember the night I was to return from paternity leave how excited I was to return to work, and commenting to Katie that I finally felt I was…

Last weekend Snapchat ran its first ad. And while the trailer for the movie Ouija is being heralded as a success, I think it reveals much about the shortcomings of the social network.

Maybe I’m old (not in Snapchat’s core demographic), maybe I’m slow (didn’t have much use for Twitter originally either), and maybe I just feel excluded because of my unshakeable Windows Phone addiction. But I’ve always been skeptical of Snapchat’s long term prospects, and here’s why:

I won’t try to convince you that your naughty pix aren’t as secure as you think, or that the founder is a…

Yesterday Lu turned two months old. Do know what present healthy babies get on such a day? They get their first big dose of vaccinations. Not exactly a pizza party, but beats the heck out of polio.

The shots made her scream like crazy. We held her as she shook and wailed, and she eventually reduced herself to whimpering as she lost her energy for crying. It’s hard to watch, as they’re so scared and confused and don’t know that the pain is behind them, nor how much pain they’ve avoided in the future. …

I had been meaning to write to you while you were in your mom’s belly, but you surprised us by coming a little early! Maybe that’s the first lesson — you can’t plan everything, which knowing your genes you’re likely to think you can. But I’m glad you’re here now; I couldn’t wait to meet you either.

I wanted to impart upon you some fatherly advice for making your way in the world. Granted, it’ll be a few years until you can read this, and many more until you’ll understand it. But as much as a letter to you, it’s…

Let me save you $400, 6 hours of your life, and considerable frustration by imparting upon you the key takeaways from the Tufte course I attended here in Seattle last week.

I may have gone in with hopes too high. I expected him to discuss the general principles of visualizing data, to work through some examples of information displayed poorly, and most importantly how it could be improved using said principles. But we didn’t get that. Instead, we got a rambling collection of the fetishes and grievances Tufte has built up over the past few decades, including:

An obsession with maps

He thinks maps…

I had a great July 4th weekend here in Seattle, spending most of it grilling meat on various roof decks and patios. During one such session, I had a friend pitch me their idea for a new business venture.

On Monday, July 7th, I wrote back on my walk to work:

Been thinking more about your idea, and I think it’s bigger than <redacted>. An area that hasn’t been much impacted by the sharing economy yet is minor housework. …

There’s no question I get asked more often about leaving Microsoft. Sure, people want to know what start-up culture is like (Ping pong table? Check. Kegerator? Check.) And folks who have never worked at a start-up want to know about how risky an endeavor it is. I would have expected that. But I never would have expected the fascination with my choice of phone OS.

The Haverford Center for Careers and Professional Advancement asked me to write a post about the importance of using LinkedIn for college students to connect with alumni. Here’s what I said…

I used to think “networking” was a pejorative term, one that described the unsavory, backroom schmoozing that gave the unqualified-but-well-connected an express lane to the corner office. …