Me: Now, for my next trick, I will attempt to open this 47MB PSD file with Fireworks. Should be no problem.
Alert: An internal error occurred. [ok]
Me: Fireworks, I’m not in the mood today. You WILL open this file or die trying.
Alert:
It’s not even 9:00am yet.
In her article for Inc., Margaret Heffernan speaks plainly about how flexible hours inspire productivity. I am totally on board with her take on this, but what struck me most was this bit on rules in general. Makes me wonder what the implications are for parenting, because she’s right — monitoring and enforcing rules is no fun.
“…I have always resisted rules, for myself and for others. Why? Because once you have rules, you have to enforce them—and there’s no more tedious task in life.”— Margaret Heffernan
I hate the process of moving. Its one of the times in life where teleportation, transmogrification and The Force would really come in handy. But as much as I dislike it, I’m actually looking forward to doing it this time because of the exciting opportunities that lie ahead. Last week I accepted an offer to join The Nerdery in Bloomington, Minnesota. And about a month from now, I’ll be moving there to start the new job — up there in the Land of [Frozen] Lakes.
For several years now, we’ve been wanting to move out of Texas. Somewhere closer to family, maybe. Or maybe a place with lots of trees. Or maybe to a place with mountains – or the beach. Actually, we weren’t sure where we wanted to go, but we’ve kept an open mind. We never really targeted Minnesota, but when the opportunity at The Nerdery came along, we took a long hard look at Minnesota and the more we thought about it, the more appealing it became. Yes, I know its cold there. Its cold in a lot of places. I have family in the area (I lived in Minnesota during my elementary school years before we moved to Texas) so its not a completely foreign place — to me, at least. In addition to being close to some family members, we are looking forward to lots of outdoor activities like hiking, camping, tubing, skiing and generally a slower pace of life. And yes, snow.
Working at a place with outstanding company culture is huge for me. That was one of the “must have” items on my list and The Nerdery definitely embodies that. This is from the The Nerdery Profile Page on LinkedIn:
Based on staff surveys of nearly 200 web pros who blur the line between work and play, The Nerdery ranked #1 on Mpls-St. Paul Business Journal’s 2010 Best Places to Work list. A popularity contest? You bet. We’re also #6 on Minneapolis Star Tribune’s 2010 Top Workplace list. Founded by three programmers in 2003, The Nerdery has made the Inc 5000 and Biz Journal’s Fast 50 list of fast-growing privately owned companies for the past three years. The Nerdery was honored in 2010 with The Quality of Life Award and The Jefferson Award for corporate philanthropy/nerdy-deeds-done-dirt-cheap through our Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, at which volunteers have donated a million dollars worth of web development services to 39 nonprofits.
I’ll be working as a UX Designer on the User Experience Team. I’m really looking forward to joining a talented band of professionals and working on exciting web projects and expanding my skills on projects like mobile and social media applications.
These are some pretty big changes, but we, as a family, are excited about the opportunities to grow, learn and experience new things. If you have any tips for living in arctic climates or any suggestions for exploring the greater Minneapolis-St.Paul metropolitan area, please do share.
Love this: "Networking is bogus, though. We live and work in a world based on relationships, not transactions." →
In just a few short days I’ll be writing the end of one chapter of my career and starting a new one. I’ve been looking forward to the next chapter for some time now. Over the past year or more while contemplating the next step in my career, I made a mental list of characteristics that might comprise the “ideal” place to work for me. I’ve never written those things down until now.
In addition to some basics that go without saying — good pay, location, nice people to work with, etc. — there were some more specific and harder to find aspects that I desired.
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After 2 tours of duty over the past 4 years, I am leaving Rosetta Stone. Some of you may not be surprised, as I’ve been looking to make this move for some time now.
I started working at Rosetta Stone on the web team in 2006. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about web development and I’ve learned a great deal about myself. The company produces an absolutely top-notch product and I’m sure they will continue to be successful. But for me, it is time to move on. Read the rest of this entry →
Last night I finished reading Rework, the new business book from the guys at 37signals. Every part of this book was excellent (great illustrations to go with great content). I’ve read quite a few business books – Good to Great, Primal Leadership, First, Break All the Rules, Built to Last, etc. Rework is easily the best business book I’ve ever read.
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This 128-slide deck is chock full of awesome. →
You are reading Oaktree, the digital home of Chuck Mallott — a UX Designer from the Twin Cities.
@zacknaylor: ha! Well, I wanted to be sure I used the official, approved version. :) #
Find my twitter musings @chuckmallott
Foundation Fireworks CS4
