Years ago Melissa introduced me to New Orleans Jazz Fest, a two-weekend long festival of music, food, and culture. Given the festival’s title you’d think it was all about jazz, but it offers a wide variety of music. Here’s a short list of some of the acts we’ve seen there:
The Rolling Stones
The Who
Stevie Wonder
Foo Fighters
Lionel Richie
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Buddy Guy
Trombone Shorty
Joan Jett
Pearl Jam
The Black Crowes
Heart
The Eagles
David Byrne
Aerosmith
And the list goes on and on. Along with these big names are countless other acts, some local and others from around the world. We discover so much incredible new music every time we’re there.
One of the many things we love about the festival is it ends at 7pm every day, giving us time to explore before making our way home. There’s always music going on in New Orleans, so after the fest we’ll sometimes catch another show.
We look forward to Jazz Fest every year like kids waiting for Christmas.
I turned 59 this year, which in my mind is almost old (but younger minds might disagree). I’ve been fortunate to witness many big shifts in CompSci, including the rise of PCs, the advent of the web, the switch to object oriented programming, and the mobile explosion.
But all of these pale against what I’ve witnessed with AI this year.
I had a three-month sabbatical from September to December. Prior to my sabbatical, I could use AI for basic programming tasks, but it wasn’t capable of heavy lifting without a lot of assistance. When I returned to work in December, everything had changed.
In those three months, AI became capable of carrying out large requests, reviewing PRs, and planning complex tasks. My job changed from writing code to reviewing code created by AI. I switched from using an IDE to using Conductor to manage multiple AI tasks in parallel.
I’ve read some concerns from fellow aging developers that AI will replace us, but at least for now it seems more likely that AI will replace the need for junior developers. We need experienced developers to review AI generated code (again, at least for now). There have been numerous times I’ve had to correct AI code that contained serious flaws.
But increasingly these flaws aren’t directly found by me, but instead found by AI after I raise questions. I ask AI if its approach is valid, and it comes back and basically says, “Oh, good question, you’re right that there are unwanted side effects that need to be addressed.” And then it fixes them.
At some point I won’t need to raise these concerns – AI will do it by itself – but I’m crossing my fingers that my experience will be needed for several years before I retire.
Every five years at Automattic we get to take a three-month sabbatical. I think it’s one of the greatest perks of working here.
Unfortunately, my first sabbatical happened during the pandemic, so I didn’t get to travel. My second sabbatical, however, was a different story. My wife and I used all our frequent flier miles to take several trips.
Our first trip was going to be to Spain, but my wife said she’d like to see England, and my mum would be there visiting relatives so we could surprise her. I thought that was a great idea.
And surprise her we definitely did.
I need to backtrack for a minute here. Growing up my English father would greet people with “What ho!” instead of “Hello!” – and that became the way we all greeted each other.
So back to the surprise.
I reached out to my cousin and told her we’d like to surprise my mum while she was staying with her. We booked a wonderful hotel near my cousin, and plotted to show up when my mum was doing her morning walk in the British countryside.
My cousin texted me when the walk was underway, and my wife and I showed up at the end of the walk.
My mum saw us from a distance and thought we looked familiar, but never considered that it was actually us until she got close enough to recognize us.
She couldn’t believe her eyes – she stopped dead in her tracks with her mouth hanging open. And just to make sure she knew it was us, I said a very loud “What ho!”
She turned to my cousin and said a stunned, “It’s Nick and Melissa!” To which my cousin replied, “Yes, we know, everyone knows but you.”
My mum then looked at us and said, “You toads!”
After the shock wore off (which I’m not sure it ever did), we spent the rest of the day with them and had great food and conversation.
Rush stopped touring 13 years ago, but they surprised everyone by announcing a string of shows this year. My wife and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see them in Chicago recently, and once again they were incredible.
What was also incredible was the scene outside. Smoke from the Canadian wildfires had blanketed the city, making it dangerous to be outside unmasked. Once I understood the situation I immediately bought us N95 masks, and wearing them gave us unwanted flashbacks to the pandemic.
The local news caught this lovely photo of us.
Thankfully by the weekend the situation had improved and we were able to do the Architecture boat tour, which I highly recommend.
Previously a support rotation meant dealing directly with customers, which is incredibly important, but this year we also have the option of spending a week using our software as a customer, and I decided to choose that option.
So, every day this week I’ll post something here using only our mobile app. I’ve used our mobile app for blogging for as long as I’ve worked on it, but I haven’t used it for this blog, which has been quiet for several years.
My hope is to gain insights to issues customers are experiencing, and maybe it’ll convince me to blog here more often.
Back in 2005, I had surgery to remove a tumor that had wrapped itself around my left hearing and balance nerves. Removing the tumor required removing those nerves, so when I awoke from surgery I was (and still am) completely deaf in my left ear.
I was also extremely off kilter due to the missing balance nerve, but I was determined to regain my balance and enlisted the help of a private yoga instructor (I couldn’t return to a yoga studio because I would’ve been falling all over the place). These balance-oriented sessions helped immensely.
I’ve been practicing – and loving – yoga ever since.
For the longest time I focused on holding poses, but eventually it dawned on me that the poses themselves are less important than how you get there. This revelation turned yoga into a slow motion dance for me.
For several years I went to the studio by myself, but then I met Melissa and now we go together. Doing yoga side-by-side with your partner is a wonderful thing.
And then the pandemic hit and we could no longer enjoy being around a room full of yogis moving and flowing with us.
Thankfully, one of our favorite instructors set herself up on Vimeo and offered on-demand classes, which we do a couple times a week from our basement. We also do live-streaming classes via Zoom, which was a little strange at first but now we love it. We don’t have to drive anywhere, we still get to see people we know, and best of all we can play our own music. It’s quite a treat doing hot yoga to a Metallica playlist :)
We’ve also been doing virtual classes at studios around the country like this one, and it’s been oddly fun seeing a screen full of people we don’t know practicing with us. We’re being extremely cautious about venturing out right now so apart from grocery stores and occasional outdoor events, these virtual classes are practically the only time we feel like we’re around other people.
When we can eventually attend an in-person class, it’s going to pretty hard to adapt to it. Since we mute our audio, we’re constantly talking in these virtual classes, often trying to crack each other up during balance poses to see who falls over first. I’m pretty sure we couldn’t do that in an actual studio.
It’ll be quite a while before we’re comfortable going to a studio, so for now we’re extremely thankful we can still do yoga in other ways despite this raging pandemic. Having a regular practice has really helped us stay somewhat sane during these insane times.
I was born in England but moved to the US when I was very young. My parents held onto their British culture in many ways, one of which was continuing to watch British comedy.
When I was in elementary school, I remember walking in on my dad watching “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” I watched it with him and thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen.
The sketch I walked in on was the Upper Class Twit of the Year, which I found even funnier because one of the “twits” had the same name as one of my brothers.
My brothers and I continued to enjoy Python for decades and followed the cast’s post-Python work as well, especially John Cleese’s (in fact, my wife and I re-watched “A Fish Called Wanda” just last night).
So I was thrilled to discover John Cleese on Cameo, offering to create personalized videos for a fee. My oldest brother had a birthday coming up, so I couldn’t resist paying John Cleese to insult him as a birthday gift.
In my early twenties I met a wonderful girl named Melissa. In previous relationships I felt like an outsider, but with her I was so at ease. We were young & stupid and let it slip away, but I always looked back on her as the one that got away.
Thirty-ish years later I was walking my dogs in a nearby park and I ran into Melissa. I couldn’t believe it was her, and I couldn’t believe she lived just a few miles away.
We walked and talked for a while that morning, and continued to walk and talk for weeks after. We pretended to be platonic, but I knew I loved her. One day I held her hand and it was the most connected I ever felt with someone.
We went through a lot to get to this point, but on January 1, 2019, we married. “Here Comes the Sun” played as she walked down the aisle, because that’s what she is to me. Our wedding dance was to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” which was when my friends and family learned I really can’t dance.
We love doing so many things together – hot yoga, running, hiking, martinis, and so much more – but our favorite thing is live music. In the past few years I’ve seen more concerts than I’ve seen in my entire life.
Roger Waters, Metallica, Buddy Guy, Beck, Primus, Rolling Stones, Trombone Shorty, Hamilton, Tool, Dweezil Zappa, Wilco, Aerosmith, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr, Anthrax, George Clinton, Jonny Lang, Foo Fighters, the list goes on.
These days, of course, our concert-going has been put on pause. But we’re still having fun.
To keep us sane in lockdown, my wonderful wife filled the yard with toys. We have a badminton net, bean bag toss, croquet, hoppity hops, and a tiny kiddie pool to cool off in. We also bought inflatable paddle boards and kayaks so we can enjoy a nearby lake.
We don’t know where things are headed in this country, but we do know that we’ll continue to live a life of love, laughter, and music. I’m so glad for that morning in the park, and so glad I’m finally sharing this story with you.
They treat their employees the same way I try to treat the end users of my software. As a developer, I’ve tried to provide a great experience to those who use my software. As a company, Automattic tries to provide a great experience to those who work there. People stick with you when you provide a great experience.
Seven years later, I still feel this way. Among the benefits they provide is a three-month paid sabbatical after being with them for five years, and today is my first day of sabbatical (I delayed mine a couple years for personal reasons).
Of course, when I planned my sabbatical I had no idea it would be during a pandemic. My incredible wife and I had big plans to travel during my time off, but we have vulnerable parents so we’re not taking any chances and are staying put.
I really have no idea what I’ll do, but one thing I want to do is blog more often. It’s been almost three years since my last post, which is pretty ridiculous for someone working with the company running WordPress.com!
Over the years I’ve shared my life with seven dogs and I’ve loved them all, but none has meant more to me than Bella. Today I had to let her go, and I’m remembering what an impact she has had on me.
She possessed a fiercely independent spirit that I connected with in a way I never have with any other creature, and that connection was so deep that it forced me to confront how we treat animals as mere product. I gave up eating meat in part because of the bond we have shared.
She was unique, she was beautiful, and she was loved. It hurts so much to let her go, but I’m so glad we shared each other’s lives. I like to think we were both better off for it.
