Jim Graham

Writing for an Audience

2022-06-11T00:00:00-04:00

My day job is Senior Eng Manager at Shopify. Which means I manage a group of teams that ship software. I’ve tried writing about dev managing before, but never had much luck getting on a streak.

There’s lots of ~~thought-leaders~~ writers writing about being a dev manager, from Lara Hogan, Gergely Orosz, the anonymous manager of 138, and Shopify’s James Stanier. I’m trying to write more, like they do. I was facing a two-pronged problem; wanting to write more, and feeling I have nothing interesting to add to what’s been said by the folks above. So instead of trying to write in the abstract for my blog, I took their advice, and started writing for my reports.

I’ve been writing a Friday summary email for the ~20 folks in my org. The topics have mostly been things that I’ve heard in meetings or 1-1s, or things I find interesting. The last few weeks’ topics have included

Reactions to our new compensation framework
Addressing the departures of two well-loved managers who’ve taken new opportunities
Some early thinking on our technical strategy for improving a service we run

I’ve written for five weeks so far. In the first three, I asked “let me know if you find this valuable.” I don’t ask this question anymore because the response has been overwhelmingly positive. People want to know and want to be in the loop. The topics are current, and I can async share what I’m hearing and thinking. And I have a backlog of topics for weeks.

I know it all sounds blindingly obvious in retrospect. The trick of finding and personalizing for whom I was writing unlocked the topics I wanted to write about, and the motivation to go out and write. I have a Friday deadline every week, and no excuses not to write.

COVID and the End of the Streak

2022-05-29T00:00:00-04:00

I was pretty fired up by James Clear’s Atomic Habits. The idea of building a habit and a streak over time resonated. I had managed to three months of exercising every day.

Then I got COVID.

Honestly, COVID wasn’t the worst. The miracle of vaccines meant that my COVID experience was about as bad as my reaction to the first vaccine dose a year ago. But it really did mess up my streak. I was hoping to go the entire year.

I’ve been slow to get back into it. I’ve heard that if you rush back too quickly, your odds of Long COVID increase. But now I’m just too bored and the weather is just too nice. Going to get back to it.

I will get back to every day. I’ve done it before, so I know I can do it again.

However, the goal of 4,000 km is probably not going to happen. C’est la vie.

Dogwood Blooming

2022-05-22T00:00:00-04:00

We landscaped our backyard about three years ago, after the big renovation we did almost ten years back!

My favourite piece of greenery is a dogwood tree that my wife insisted we plant.

The dogwood is the provincial flower of British Columbia. Cindy thought it would be a nice reminder of where I grew up.

The dogwood starts blooming much earlier than anything else in our garden. It’s the first indication that spring is coming, especially after the snow that always happens in April (the “false spring”).

Within a few weeks, the flowers have opened, and I feel confident that spring will actually happen.

Then the dogwood fully blooms and that’s it! Done before anything else comes up.

The tree is a nice reminder of home. And the rejuvenation of spring every year. And of the foresight of my wife.

Habit Tracker

2022-01-29T00:00:00-05:00

You know that recency bias that happens when you learn of something, then you notice it everywhere? Well, that’s been happening with Atomic Habits.

First Cindy brought it home, then I read it, then we had the author James Clear present at our yearly kick-off at work!

During the virtual presentation, while he was discussing habit tracking, I shared that I use Notion.so to create a monthly tracker. I like that I can update it from my phone or desk, and I like that it gives me the percentages of days I completed a task.

I shared a screenshot in Slack

and was asked “how hard was that to make?”

It wasn’t that difficult, but adding each day as a row turned out to be painful.

Instead of creating the next months, I wrote a script to use Notion’s API to do it automatically.

It was a fun Saturday morning to work with an API, an open-source client, and hack together something I find useful. You can find the scripts and instructions on my Github, or if you prefer, you can just get this year’s trackers that you can copy and modify directly on my Notion pages.

Two caveats. Because the APIs are not fully formed, there are some things I wanted to do that were not available;

Columns created via the API alphabetically sorted, so I had to add a prefix (e.g. “a Date”, “b Exercise”) to get them in the order I wanted. I have to go and manually edit them to remove the prefix.
The “Calculate” feature for a column can’t be added programmatically. This is one of the features that I find really useful in tracker. It’s not too hard to add manually.

Desmond Has a Bunker

2022-01-16T00:00:00-05:00

Anyone remember Desmond from Lost?

Every day, I’m feeling more and more like Desmond. Wake up. Follow my routine. Play some vinyl. Stay in the same house all the time. Occasionally type some keystrokes into a computer. Repeat tomorrow.

Last year I wrote about feeling 70 percent. And all the things I wrote in there are true; I am really lucky. But man is this “new normal” weighing on me. I’m desperate to meet up with some people. Have a laugh in the pub. Play soccer.

We’re going to push on back to Tofino in March, and that will nicely bookend the pandemic. We spent March 2020 there panicking if we were going to be able to get back home. And yes I realise lots has changed since then. PCR tests, vaccines, and rapid tests are all available. I’ve been able to travel since then. But it’s still not right. We are missing something and it weights on everyone.

P.S. I know people hate it, but I love Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, especially the Yesterday version by Himesh Patel.

Should We Even Do Resolutions?

2022-01-03T00:00:00-05:00

no new years resolutions. it is the circumstances turn to improve
— Sarah Lazarus (@sarahclazarus) December 16, 2021

Last year, I went through all the goals that I had set for the year. And then I wrote a few more for this year.

The goals were broken into “health,” “finances,” “career,” etc. I managed to accomplish about half of them. I rode the bike. I did manage to get promoted to Senior Development Manager at Shopify, even in the midst of our product line being absorbed into a different organization and a move to Shopify Retail. I read 11 out of 25 books I set as a goal. I still can’t do ten pull-ups. I painted four of the five painting I hoped to complete. I practised the bass until I had a COVID-related fall-out with my teacher.

But I’ve started reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and he points out that goals are a measure of outcomes, not the habits that achieve the outcome itself. Instead he reframes success in terms of who you want to be. And then do the things that type of person would do.

It reminded my of something my friend Gabe said to me in a practice coaching session; “Maybe you just want to be the kind of person who commits to things.”

Okay Gabe, here’s what I want to commit to. What I want to be.

I want to see myself as an athlete. I’m a good skier. I’m an okay cyclist. I’m a poor soccer player. But I want to see myself first as an athlete. Someone who listens to their body, improves it, and doesn’t take it for granted.

I want to be a good spouse, father, and friend. My best friend called me out recently for not being present enough. And he was right. Cindy’s been there for me; it’s my turn to be there for her now. Iain’s in Grade 12; I don’t have as much time with him the house left. And I rely on my friends; time for them to be able to rely on me.

I want to be an artist. I’m painting more and getting better. It calms me down. It’s a different exercise for my brain.And then I want to play the bass with people. Pat’s learning guitar and when it warms up, we should be able to jam.

Maybe this is a better way to achieve things. Let’s see.

Last Year in Riding

2022-01-02T00:00:00-05:00

Like I said in Riding Goals, I had two goals in terms of riding this year:

Break 2,000 km
A long ride of 100 km

I smashed those goals and it feels great to be honest.

2021 Summary

My “Year in Review” on Strava says that I was pretty consistent throughout the year. Getting the Wahoo trainer helped with that, as well as with the distance goals. Kept up riding with the same group of folks; Mulley, Hatto, Mike, Rob, and Sacha.

Managed to get to 3,405 km (1,400 more than my goal of 2,000 km).

Also managed two (double!) 100+ km rides. The first was to Oakville in May. I slept in when Mulley, Hatto, and Sacha went the week before, so I pushed myself to do it the following week solo. Then in July, Mulley took us around Prince Edward County for a 120km out-and-back, stopping at four breweries along the way. Nearly killed Tim, but it was worth it.

First (real) ride

I was on the trainer in January and February, but the first real ride was a 30km loop in February.

Last ride

Last ride was on Friday! December 31st. Quick rip through Taylor Creek just to say I did it. Riding February to December in Toronto is a scary thing; climate change is real, folks.

New routes

I really liked that we tried some new (to us) routes this year.

Lindsay

Cindy and I rented the same cottage in Bobcaygeon as last year. Iain was at camp the entire time, so it meant I had a bit more time on my hands. Managed some rides up north, including 50km from Lindsay to Fenelon Falls on the Victoria Rail trail.

The “Vancouver” Trail

Rob found a lovely trail north of Eglinton that reminds him of Vancouver.

Vancouver

Finally, got out to Vancouver in September again, and rented a Norco from Cycle City Vancouver. Had that for about a week and did some rides along Ambleside, and then a few laps of Stanley Park. The photos were amazing

2022

Looking forward to 2022, although my goals are getting up there. I want to

Ride 4,000 km (80km a week for 50 weeks!)
Do five 100 km long rides.

Starting to feel real!

Jim Graham

Writing for an Audience

Archive

COVID and the End of the Streak

Dogwood Blooming

Archive

Habit Tracker

Desmond Has a Bunker

Should We Even Do Resolutions?

Last Year in Riding

2021 Summary

First (real) ride

Last ride

New routes

Lindsay

The “Vancouver” Trail

Vancouver

2022

Archive