weekly write up: week of october 2

What did you do this week?

This week was all about real people doing real stuff in the real world, and I absolutely loved it.

Last Friday, I got to chat with Katie Seymour, who founded the Lenah Collective — a movement and mindfulness method for preteen and teen girls. I loved so much about our chat, and I might even ask Katie if I can write more about Lenah and the work she’s doing in coming weeks, but what stuck out to me most is how much I respect and admire the way Katie is building. Katie saw something her family needed, and she built it. She talked to other moms and families, she talked to professionals, and she kept going. I’m sure all of us can relate to the imposter syndrome Katie shared having, but the way she approached it felt so unique, and so important to learn from. Rather than talking about how she just had to push through and believe in herself when the imposter syndrome struck, she talked about how she made sure she built a group of people she trusted who were professionals and experts in their domain, and she just kept consulting with them over and over again. I know this also takes a lot of grit and perseverance, but the idea of taking your work so seriously, and knowing passion isn’t enough, that professionals and experts really can help was so inspiring. Just do it, but surround yourself with wise and kind people while you do.

Speaking of experts in the field, I got to run with a neighborhood mom-friend on Thursday. We chatted about potty training and cargo bikes and then she sent me a full list of resources and tools to get my kid out of diapers. I got to run with a few other friends last Sunday, and it was such a great morning, a short easy run, some playground time with my favorite toddler, a quick trip to the farmers market. I have a run on the calendar this afternoon with one of my smartest previous coworkers. I’m not sure if it’s the energy of the San Francisco summer (yes our summer peaks in October) or if it’s because I finally shipped a little project this week (wannarun.amandaa.me), but I am loving the gab-n-jog sessions.

And speaking of smart coworkers, I got to have coffee with my friend Kiara. Kiara and I worked at the same company, but never on the same teams or projects, and I always admired her so much from afar. She just started business school at Stanford, and it was great to hear how she’s thinking about what she wants out of the experience, what kind of job she is going to want, and what she’s been building on her own — a Colorado wedding vendor tool (weddingrecon.com) she put together and got some great initial traction with on Reddit.

Later in the week I had lunch at the Notion office with another previous coworker. I am in love with their office space, and we had a good laugh about how we had never actually met IRL when we worked together at our previous company. I am so thankful to have had so many really smart, really kind, really interesting people to call coworkers, and now friends. As I’ve looked at more and more companies, and more and more jobs, the thing I find myself worrying the most about is “Will this team be full of people I really care about and want to be friends with in a few years?” Maybe that’s too high of a standard, but I don’t think so.

Other notable things that filled my week were: Getting a covid and flu vaccine — woohoo! They’re available, get yours! Absolutely crushing a workout, and putting together a very rambly essay about my latest running goals and dreams for my incredible coach. I built a couple fun new things (win wall and wannarun!). I also did some work setting up email notifications from my latest app. I’ve been thinking about how to make it easier to access and use all of the things I’m tinkering with and writing about each week, and it’s really satisfying to see how just spending some time writing and learning each week leads to more and more ideas and things to play with. Hopefully some fun stuff is coming up soon!

Have you changed your mind about anything? What have you learned?

A short but practical learning for the week: ImprovMX and Resend to send email notifications for your vibecoded projects — it’s free, and it forwards to your Gmail, easy peasy! I won’t bother trying to tell you how to do it, just ask Claude.

What went well? What could be improved? What didn’t go well?

WWW: I feel like I nailed the scheduling with a lot of social time. Didn’t expect to get much done from a focused work perspective on the days I had things planned in person, didn’t schedule too many things back to back, and got a balance of sitting in a coffee shop, and being outside on a run.

WCBI: Too much time on my phone this week, blegh, time for a big break I think.

WDGW: Love a week where I can’t think of anything here!