Three Lessons Learned from Year One as a Professional

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.

Five Reasons Generative Art Is the Ideal Hobby for a Software Developer

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 […]

Why I Walk to Work Every Day

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 […]

How to Make Remote Meetings More Pleasant with Zoom

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 […]

How I Learned to Use My Strengths at Work (And How You Can, Too)

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 […]

Why You Should Try Meeting Segues + My Top Five

I commonly walk into meetings thinking about all kinds of topics that aren’t the real focus of the meeting—my last meeting, the nagging to-do I have to complete, my overflowing email inbox, my promise to my family to pick up dinner on the way home from work, etc. These types of thoughts and concerns aren’t […]

Four Tips for Processing a Colleague’s Departure

People naturally form bonds with colleagues at work. A team of people who work together will spend a lot of time with one another every day, and an individual’s departure from that team can have ripple effects on one’s morale and relationship with work.

Being a Boss at Context Switching, Part 2 – Daily Habits

Yesterday, I talked about context switching between projects and how smart preparation can help you prevent cognitive overload when context switching. The post focused on how to set up your projects and plan your week to prevent forgetting tasks or missing deadlines. Today, I’ll focus on things you can do day-to-day to maintain a clear […]

Being a Boss at Context Switching, Part 1 – Proper Setup

People are often surprised when I say that I am comfortable with—and even enjoy—working on more than one project at a time. For me, this comfort lies in my ease with context switching. Over time, I’ve developed a series of habits that make it easy for me to switch between different projects. These mental tools […]

You’re Doing Feedback All Wrong

Managers are expected to give feedback. It goes with the responsibility of leading a team of employees. The idea is that by giving compliments and constructive criticism, they will correct errors and improve the performance of their employees. If they do this task well, their teams will excel. This will lead to happy employees and […]

Atomic Spin

Atomic Object’s blog on everything we find fascinating.

Personal Optimization