01 May 2012
My time as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Victoria will run out fairly soon: until the end of August at the latest, four months from now. It’s time, then, to look for another job, and to make some important decisions about who and where do I want to be. For reasons that deserve a blog post of its own, I decided not to look for professor positions, and to broaden my scope instead.
Ideally, I want to find a job that fulfills as many of these needs as possible:
- First, do no harm. I won’t work for an organization that deals in violence to others, to the environment, or to fairness.
- Second, do as much good as possible and still get paid. I would love to work for an organization that’s trying to make the world better, especially with respect to social justice or environmental issues. I would work hardest, and for lower pay, if this was the case. Alternatively, I would like to work for an organization that has enough freedom built in so that its members can pursue these goals in their available time.
- Geography. Val and I like Victoria and Toronto, we’ve built networks in both cities, and they’re currently our two top choices.
- Stability. I want a permanent position with a sustainable salary, because I don’t want to be looking for another job again a year from now.
- Work-life balance. Reasonably low overtime and travel requirements, and flexibility in work hours to be there for my daughter when she needs me.
- Good teamwork and work environment. This is harder to assess than the others, but I think a commitment to team self-organization, autonomy, and co-location are good indicators.
- Technically hard problems, because I want to feel challenged and engaged at work.
And here’s what I think I can offer in return:
- An unusual perspective: I’ve studied dozens of software organizations and interviewed hundreds of professionals, who have shared with me their ideas of how their teams work and how they could work better, especially with respect to coordination and communication.
- Pragmatic knowledge of useful and state-of-the-art empirical research in software development, which I regularly blog and write about.
- Skills that I learned while getting my PhD and that are transferable to (and, I think, welcome in) the software industry and elsewhere: observation, active listening, data analysis, communication, estimation, and self-management.
- More conventionally, experience developing software and managing projects.
- The assurance that, as long as my employer fulfills the needs I listed above, I’m in it for the long haul.
There’s nothing in my wishlist about specific positions or job titles—the ideal position for me might be hard to pin down with a label. I expect that for most organizations my best current fit would be around project management, although I would also love to develop software again, and to work in the intersection of research and practice. If you know of a place where I could be of help, or if you’d like to discuss possible collaborations, please let me know!
03 Jan 2012
Happy New Year! Alright, 2011 is gone, and I wanted to share some of the books and things I discovered throughout it that got me excited.
For me, this was a good year for books. Among the new ones, I enjoyed “The Tragedy of Arthur”, by Arthur Phillips, which presents itself as a newly discovered Shakespeare tragedy, with a long introduction in which Phillips tries to convince the reader that the play that follows is not actually Shakespeare’s, but a forgery made by his father. Colson Whitehead’s “Zone One” is a good zombie novel—like in most zombie stories, the real villain is ourselves, though in this case it’s specifically the bullshitty, bureaucratic, superficial patterns we’ve grown so fond of. Patrick DeWitt’s “The Sisters Brothers” is fun and engaging: a Western that’s both literary and pulpy at the same time. I also finished (and loved completely) Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”, a novel that explained my own mind and soul to myself like no other book has, and in a way I did not believe was possible.
I also found several great books in Spanish. César Aira’s “Cómo me hice monja” and “Las curas milagrosas del Doctor Aira” are whimsical gems. Enrique Vila-Matas’ “Una casa para siempre” is a fascinating crime and guilt novella in which neither the crime nor the guilt are mentioned nor alluded to in the text whatsoever. On the other extreme, the confessions of the repugnant philosophy professor gone bad in Guillermo Fadanelli’s “Lodo” are told with a dirty, captivating voice, and they are a great read too.
As a new father, it was pretty hard to keep track of new movies in 2011. Val and I watched lots of older stuff though—among them, I liked Broken Flowers and Persona a lot. We’re currently caught up with Breaking Bad, a great TV show about a chemistry professor that is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and becomes a crystal meth manufacturer to leave money to his family. And if it was hard to keep track of new movies, it was practically impossible to try out new boardgames. I’m still playing a lot of Go, though, and I enjoy it even more as I peel out more of its layers.
I’ve been growing tired of most of the webcomics I usually read, but Zach Weiner’s Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is still frequently brilliant, and Nicholas Gurewitch’s Perry Bible Fellowship is again updated, now and then, with some great strips (Gurewitch’s collection of strips, “The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack”, is wonderful too).
For my computer, I used and liked f5 for transcribing interviews. Backblaze works great for backups; I don’t even need to think about it anymore. On my phone, after Scott Leslie‘s pointer, I’ve lately been using buddhify to help myself learn to meditate, and I’m really enjoying it.
That’s it, I think. Let me know if there’s something you found that I might enjoy, too!
14 Nov 2011
Hace algunos meses leí “Albercas”, de Villoro, y su epígrafe se me quedó grabado:
Agua del nadador que la divide.
Parece un verso sencillo, pero en él nos amalgamamos todos—nuestra voluntad, nuestra estupidez, nuestra elegancia—; en él se esconde el Universo, fluído, eterno, un mar y una gota.
Villoro informa que el verso es de Pellicer, y yo, que nunca había leído a Pellicer, me lo repito como una mantra, dislocado, sin querer conectarlo con el resto del poema al que pertenece por miedo a que pierda su conexión conmigo. Pero recientemente la curiosidad me venció y una búsqueda en Internet me dio el resto del poema, que es luminoso y que reproduzco a continuación:
—
El Agua, de Carlos Pellicer
Aguas horizontales
con hombres y peces y nubes.
Aguas azules y verdes,
espacio palpitante, atmósfera del paraíso submarino
cuyas medusas arcangélicas
mudan ojos y manos en huertos coralinos.
Aguas reales del viaje fabuloso
manchadas como tigres por las guerras.
Aguas víctimas o insaciables en la sed de la tierra;
sorbo de sed, aguas vírgenes.
Una gota de agua
salvó la última espiga del sembrado
o hizo temblar el dorso de Susana
entre las barbas bíblicas del baño.
Agua del nadador que la divide
y la vuelve laurel o vida nueva.
En las tinajas familiares
el agua se hace negra
de silencio y frescor. Y el ritmo de los mares
vira el buque ladrón que halló en las islas fiestas.
Aguas verticales, horizontal, cerámica y primera.
07 Oct 2011
Long time without posting, but I’m back. To break the silence, here is a quote from Lucretius I like, as cited by Montaigne.
For when he saw that nearly all that use demands
Already was prepared for use by mortal hands,
That men were powerful in honor and in fame,
In riches affluent, proud in their sons’ good name,
Yet nonetheless within were anxious in their heart,
In painful quarrels of the mind forced to take part:
Then Epicurus knew the vessel caused the vice;
That all good things that enter, of whatever price,
Within us, by that vessel’s vice, became corrupt.
I remembered it because of the news and reviews about Stephen Greenblatt’s new book on De Rerum Natura. My copy of Lucretius still sits unread in my shelf, patiently waiting for me. I think I should attend to it…
13 Jul 2011
In a very good article in Rolling Stone, Al Gore lays out the reasons for the sorry state of the climate change debate in the public arena. (He dishes out a lot of his criticism to the media; the media, true to form, seem to have interpreted the article as an attack on Obama.) He closes with five ways in which you can help fix things. Slightly abridged:
First, become a committed advocate for solving the crisis. You can start with something simple: Speak up whenever the subject of climate arises. When a friend or acquaintance expresses doubt that the crisis is real, or that it’s some sort of hoax, don’t let the opportunity pass to put down your personal marker. The civil rights revolution may have been driven by activists who put their lives on the line, but it was partly won by average Americans who began to challenge racist comments in everyday conversations.
Second, deepen your commitment by making consumer choices that reduce energy use and reduce your impact on the environment. The demand by individuals for change in the marketplace has already led many businesses to take truly significant steps to reduce their global-warming pollution.
Third, join an organization committed to action on this issue.
Fourth, contact your local newspapers and television stations when they put out claptrap on climate — and let them know you’re fed up with their stubborn and cowardly resistance to reporting the facts of this issue. One of the main reasons they are so wimpy and irresponsible about global warming is that they’re frightened of the reaction they get from the deniers when they report the science objectively. So let them know that deniers are not the only ones in town with game. Stay on them! Don’t let up!
Finally, and above all, don’t give up on the political system. Even though it is rigged by special interests, it is not so far gone that candidates and elected officials don’t have to pay attention to persistent, engaged and committed individuals. (…) To make our elected leaders take action to solve the climate crisis, we must forcefully communicate the following message: “I care a lot about global warming; I am paying very careful attention to the way you vote and what you say about it; if you are on the wrong side, I am not only going to vote against you, I will work hard to defeat you — regardless of party. If you are on the right side, I will work hard to elect you.”