Author: lux

In The Spotlight

So today, some news broke about a big disconnect between the organizers of the Palm PreDevCamp and Palm.

I have no idea what really happened and I don’t want to speculate. I’m more interested in what can be learned here.

As someone who spends her time working with passionate user communities, I’ve been wondering tonight, what would we have done? If it had been our team, would we have made the same mistakes, different ones, or would we have gotten it right?

You like to think that when push comes to shove you’ll do the right thing. Still, anything involving humans and communication has a chance of going off the rails. Even with the best people and the best intentions you can still end up with a bad outcome.

There’s no way to know until you get there. The best you can do is prepare as much as possible and hope that when it’s your turn under the spotlight, you’ll rise to meet the challenge.

UPDATE 5/23: Looks like Palm is responding well. Kudos all around.

One Year Later

One year ago today I started working at Adobe and my life completely changed.

I have 100+ pieces of e-mail backlogged in my in-box, and more projects to work on than hours in the day. There’s a user group meeting tonight, which means a 12+ hour work day today, and my dinner is likely to be cold pizza, consumed while sitting on the floor of a conference room.

You might think I’d be hating my life right now. You’d be wrong. I’ve never been happier.

It’s a good thing that I had no real clue what I was in for when I walked in my first day. If I’d known, I think I would have been too scared to move. With no expectations, I could just stand under the firehose and take it all in without anything getting in the way.

And what a ride it’s been.

I can’t find the scene on YouTube & don’t have time to rip it from my DVD, but there’s a snippet from early in Season One of “The West Wing” where new White House employee Charlie Young is watching his first Presidential TV taping from the back of the Oval Office:

Charlie: I’ve never felt like this before.
Josh: It doesn’t go away.

I know the feeling. 🙂

Time has never flown faster than it has this year, and if I’ve ever worked harder I’ve blocked the memory out. (Actually, that’s not true. The summers I worked 1-week summer stock theater, I worked harder, but that was only for 3 months at most.)

I’ve also had the privilege to work with a team of intelligent, funny, hardworking colleagues both inside and outside Adobe. A better or more passionate community you cannot find. I’ve found a home here, I think, and I hope it continues for a long time to come.

I know that some day I may look back at this blog entry through the eyes of an older, more burned-out self and feel sad, disillusioned, or cynical. It could happen. But after a full year of full-throttle, it’s not even close to going away.

I am a lucky, lucky girl.

Thanks to all of you who’ve been along for the ride and made it so worthwhile.

Point, Counterpoint

Point (Thanks Mike):

Here’s the rule: If you even suspect that you’re at risk of becoming complacent, you probably already are.

Counterpoint (Thanks Richie):

Inspiration is not linear. There is no map to find it by. That book that lit your fire a year ago might seem completely foreign to you now. But the constant pursuit of inspiration is what’s going to make you better. You have to search it out.
…
If you’re not inspired, it’s your duty to seek out whatever it is that gets you going. Re-visit. Talk. Laugh. Read. Listen. Love. Fight. Debate. Get angry. Feel elation. Let pain in. Just don’t deny any moment that might move you forward. At the end of the day, inspiration might be what ends up getting you through.