Not to bury the lede (and in true meme manner) I have some ‘personal news’.
I’ll be leaving my role at the National Data Library / Government Digital Service at the end of the summer (September 4th to be precise) and before you ask, no I do not currently have anything lined up.
In the end I decided that my ongoing fragile health combined with a reorganisation process I did not particularly want to participate in outweighed my fondness for many of the individuals I have the privilege of working with. So me being me I gave my notice rather than play a game I would not enjoy.
If I’m honest even without the health issues I might not have stayed.
The role has been really quite a different shape than I expected as I’ve mentioned at various times and even at the best of times I hate these re-org exercises – they presume that all similar roles in all similar teams are created equal and are similarly interesting to you as a professional. You give up too much control of your destiny and at this point in my career I’m not inclined to do that.
There was an additional wrinkle in all this that is not my story to tell but really displayed a level of thoughtlessness on behalf of the reorganisation process that had me fuming…but was I think resolved by the thoughtfulness of other colleagues.
That is all immaterial though I guess – I did have the whole life threatening episode and I do still have a significant hangover from it and that affects every decision I make. Life is short. Certainly too short to be unhappy at work.
So while I really will miss many of the people I’m confident this is the right move. I’m sad though as I really did believe this would be my last go around on something big and important.
I do have some thoughts about what I might try and do next and I do regret closing my Limited Company down. More on that later though.
In other news I ‘launched’ the next ‘Product for the People’ event. It will be in Bristol on the 3rd September (so has by default become my leaving do!). We are trying something a bit different this time.
We have one big room, three amazing speakers, room for 60 passionate product people and almost six hours.
So the speakers are gonna speak then we are going to do a remix of the Liberating Structures 1-2-4-All that I am calling 2-4-More.
After Coco speaks and answers a few questions you will pair up and chat about the talk (or something else on your mind – no conversation policing here) for 15/20 minutes.
After Miranda speaks you will join another pair and talk about her talk or Coco’s talk (or something else on your mind – no conversation policing here) for 30ish minutes.
After Mevan speaks you can join another foursome – or more – and talk about her talk. Or Miranda’s. Or Coco’s. Or all of them (or something else on your mind – no conversation policing here) for 45 mins.
Then we will wrap up and go to the pub.
There will also be doughnuts from Small Goods.
I enjoyed Supergirl much more than some, it seems. I refer to it as ‘flimsy but fun’. I enjoyed the portrayal of Kara (and Lobo) and most of the set-pieces were great but the plot is weak (a pity as the Woman of Tomorrow comic it is loosely based on is first class) and even for a superhero movie it is inconsistent in tone and pacing. Worth a watch though for sure.
I binged The Bear season five, which wraps up the show, and I loved it. Definitely better than season three and four and maybe better than two (though it lacks a show-stopper episode in the same way as that season.)
Digital by Default 