In early 2013, while working for a previous employer, I realized that we had a problem. I learned that a client for whom we were actively developing software had not been paying their bills. I had a large development team working very hard, and we were in the middle of a multi-month project. This client […]

We all have times when we experience negative feelings like unfairness, lack of control, or frustration. When this happens, we can play the victim or we can choose to take responsibility for making the best of our situation. I recently read Fred Kofman’s book Conscious Business, which gave me a new way of looking at […]

Here’s the thing about self-help books: They contain wisdom, but something about them makes my eyes roll. As I read, I often agree with their thesis, but my inner soundtrack of “yes, but”s disputes the advice. I am so adept at contradicting the advice of self-help books that I’ve become immune to their teachings. Then […]

I recently had to give a short talk for a conference. All the talks at this conference were about 20 minutes long, and it got me thinking about what I like about short presentations.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what makes me feel trusted at work. There are a lot of great articles written about why trust is good and important to have with your team, so I won’t go into detail about that. To me, it seems obvious that you need to trust those you work with in […]

I’ve been working at Atomic for a little over a year now and, in that time, I’ve grown as a consultant, a software developer, and a person. Reflecting on year one, I realized three important lessons that I want to share with anybody entering their first job, regardless of the field.

Generative art has consumed my free time for a few reasons. First, there’s few experiences that match creating and holding your own art. Second, my degree didn’t prepare me to make paintings, but I did build the skills for generative art. Finally, generative art focuses on writing code to make something you enjoy. Much better […]

There is a lot to be gained by walking to work. I know. I’m lucky—I live within walking distance of the office. In fact, depending on traffic, it is often faster for me to walk than to drive, especially in the winter. Since starting at Atomic nearly a year ago, I have only driven to […]

Let’s be real for a minute. Remote meetings usually suck. Even when everyone has the best intentions, laggy video and the inability to use shared tools like whiteboards can hamstring what should be a productive gathering of highly engaged teammates. At Atomic, we work with a lot of people from all over the country, so […]

We all have strengths–activities that drive us and energize us. They leave us wanting more, and we think about them long after we’re done. Our strengths can form an integral part of how we work, and we do our best when we focus our work around them. Unfortunately, many people never put any thought into […]