Delightful Reveal #42

“Great minds don’t bamboozle alike”

What we did:

• (Soft-)Launched Madison Ruby 2024 website
• Attended RubyConf 2023 in San Diego!
• Guided Jarrod through his first conference and helped him craft a Lightning Talk which he presented
• Met and talked with a lot of talented early career Rubyists
• Started a blog post on hotwiring buttons
• Created a sticky nav and re-learned how to smooth transition animations
• Investigated and identified the source of a data import error
• Sketched through the implications of specifying packages at the quote level *and* the expense level to create more bullet-proof acceptance criteria
• Researched how prices in the system have changed over the past 5 years to see how closely they match the running assumption of a 5% increase year-over-year (they don’t)
• Followed up on outstanding questions from our last ecosystem working group (identifying and clarifying boundaries between different product teams)
• Created an indeterminate state for a checkbox using tailwind and stimulusjs
• Began fleshing out the flow for users to create a text message broadcast to an audience that could be in different area codes
• Tightened up websocket security (authentication and authorization) on a client app
• Went to see Bert Kreischer in Milwaukee
• Giving feedback on implementation of a design for a homepage
• Worked on Flagrant coffee branding
• Flagrant gift design revisions
• Color for Madison+ Ruby pages
• Revised Greenlight Group Tours banners
• Had in-person Donut Time
• Researched interview processes and how to improve them

What we’re reading:

• Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
• The Name of the Flower by Tomone Matsumoto, Kuniko Mukoda
• A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
• Matter by Iain M. Banks (a Culture novel)
• Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri
• User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product by Jeff Patton
• The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier
• The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow
• A City in Tennessee Banned Public Homosexuality—and We All Missed It by Tori Otten
• “The unequal landscape of civic opportunity in America” by Milan de Vries, Jae Yeon Kim, Hahrie Han

What we’re watching:

• Great British Bake Off S14
• Brother Bear
• But, I’m a Cheerleader
• Dresden Files
• Queer Eye S7
• I’m a Virgo
• Insidious: The Red Door
• Face Off - A competition show about special effects makeup
• Mimeographing Techniques (1958)
• Leave No Trace

What we’re listening to:

• On My Youth by Wayv
• 락 (樂) Lalalala by Stray Kids
• Northern Attitude by Noah Kahan ft. Hozier
• The Dandy Warhols (woo bringing back the late 90s and early 2000s)
• ‘손오공’ Super by SEVENTEEN
• Amigos by BIBI (비비) & Becky G

What we’re interested in:

• Mimeographs
• The deadly synergy between the Sickening Radiance and Wall Of Force spells
• Randomness 101: LavaRand in Production
• LavaRand in Production: The Nitty-Gritty Technical Details
• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla - 40+ hours in and I only just scratched the surface
• FCC removed their symbol rate limit
• Hypercolor t-shirts

What we’re struggling with:

• The night starts too early. Thanks, daylight savings time.
• Poor sleep
• Sore muscles
• Mimeographs

What we’re buying:

• New water cups and a carafe
• Rancho Gordo Souper Cubes
• Plants: Part 12,748,830
• Beautiful greeting cards to send randomly to people
• Paxlovid
• Nueske’s Bacon
• Tickets to Hozier in Madison
• Gym membership (finally)
• New winter hat!
• Cat laser light for my dog
• Too many Steam games, like Word Factori

What we’re celebrating:

• 60ºF weather in late November?!
• End of crazy fall garden season; start of relaxed winter garden season
• Potentially have a byline for SD Times
• Getting to visit all of my siblings at the same time (it’s hard to get them all in the same place at one time)
• Kelly! Such a great human +3
• Beating my sister at arcade games

If you’re looking for a team to help you discover the right thing to build and help you build it, get in touch.