Dungeon Master Skills You Can Bring to Work #6 – Teamwork

Prestidigitation is a low-level spell in Dungeons & Dragons that allows the caster to perform a subset of minor effects, such as lighting a single candle or cleaning a square foot of a piece of clothing. It’s a spell that most magic-casting classes can learn, but it has few benefits in battle. One of my […]

How Teaching Board Games Makes Me a Better Consultant

For the past two years, I’ve attended a little-known convention called Gen Con. Okay, depending on who you ask, it might not be that little-known. It draws over 60,000 unique attendees (over 200k visits throughout four days). Besides spending time enjoying everything at the convention—from visiting exhibitor booths to making purchases, trying out new games, […]

Dungeon Master Skills You Can Bring to Work #5 – Adaptation

Things don’t always go the way you expect them to go. Sometimes, you have to improvise. You roll with new information and new events as they unfold. Dungeons & Dragons actively invites uncertainty with the randomized dice-based system. Because of this, I know that it’s impossible to plan everything. Instead, I have to rely on […]

Dungeon Master Skills You Can Bring to Work #4 – Communication

Dungeons & Dragons is a game that is almost entirely based in oral storytelling. From my players explaining what they want to do in a battle to my role as the Dungeon Master (DM) describing the nefarious villain, words are the foundation of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. That’s why communication is key. We need […]

Dungeon Master Skills You Can Bring to Work #3 – Preparation

A few weeks ago, I was involved in a D&D game where my players had just infiltrated the temple of a cult that they were investigating. They knew their disguises might not fool every cultist they passed, and everyone felt tense. Huddled together and sneaking along the passageways, they found a door and tentatively opened […]

Dungeon Master Skills You Can Bring to Work #2 – Deliberation

Solid decision-making is a valuable skill in any context, but it’s an area where I’ve really grown since I started leading my D&D friends on adventures that require a consensus on a course of direction.

Four Reasons to Attend a Specific Conference as a Generalist

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the Chain React conference in Portland, Oregon, hosted by the nice folks over at Infinite Red. It’s a React Native-focused conference, hosting talks by those who work on the core team, members of the open-source community, and developers who use the framework in their everyday work. Here at […]

Dungeon Master Skills You Can Bring to Work #1 – Inclusion

In my free time, I like to play Dungeons and Dragons with a group of friends. It’s a fun way to keep in contact with friends who don’t live near me. It gives us a space to create our own adventures. It’s great for de-stressing, exercising our creative energies, and just having fun together. But […]

The 12 Stages of a Hero’s Journey: The Non-Traditional Developer

Many people want to become software developers. Some of those people, like me, have decided to change their career in order to pursue that passion. The great news is that it can be done! However, it is by no means easy. I wanted to share my non-traditional process of becoming a professional software developer through […]

Creating a Developer Escape Room, Part 1 – Why & How

Creative problem solving. Collaboration and communication. Working calmly under pressure. These are traits that can make for a good developer or just a good coworker in general. They also happen to be excellent qualities for breaking out of an escape room!

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