Author: tomhenrich

Death and Your Digital Posterity

You are going to die. It happens to the best of us. But what happens to your digital self once your physical self is gone?

Two simple rules for managing my work life

I have two simple rules for managing my work life:

  • Don’t think about work after office hours
  • Ask why, and don’t be afraid to say no

As simple as these two rules are, they’re invaluable for maintaining some semblance of sanity and a reasonable work-life balance. These were my only two pieces of advice to a new employee, and I wish someone had told them to me.

Document the Why, not just the How

Documentation is important. Everyone knows this. Unfortunately, documentation is too often confined to the how of the work, and leaves out the why.

It’s not easy to “check out” but you should do it anyway

My rule is very simple: if I’m not in the office, I’m not working. If you need something, let me know, but I’m not seeking out stuff to work on during “me time”.

Round-up: Accessibility References for Non-Tech People

Just because someone has a disability of some kind doesn’t mean they aren’t using the web, and just because someone’s using the web doesn’t mean they don’t have some kind of need that would benefit from even basic accessibility practices. The following is a short list of references collected via Twitter in response to @drinkerthinker’s request for non-tech-savvy resources.

Your House is Burning – What Do You Grab?

A thought experiment, if you would. Your house is burning. What do you take with you? What are your priorities when faced with losing everything? It’s good to take a step back sometimes and evaluate your life, what you’ve surrounded yourself with, and what you could (or couldn’t) bear to lose if it came down to it.

Five Things I Wish People Knew About Me

We live with a stream of constant tweets, check-ins and status updates, and yet how much about these social media “friends” do we really truly know? And how much about ourselves do they know? My guess? Not much.

#nerdhumor

A tweet of mine got some serious attention yesterday. It was posted totally on a whim; I expected maybe a handful of people to star or retweet it. Instead it took off and got massive visibility. As of the time of this writing it had been retweeted 1231 times using Twitter’s native retweet function and – according to a quick search via the Twitter API – over 600 times by people copying and pasting it, retweeting others who had commented, etc.

Up and Gone; Or, The Ease of Relocating in the Digital Age

I recently had the pleasure of dogsitting for my parents while they were out of town, and in the process of temporarily relocating myself to their house, I realized something. It’s extremely easy to pick up and relocate ourselves in an age where everything has gone digital. This isn’t really a surprise. There are lots […]

Learn When to Say No.

The one skill that’s been most helpful to me professionally, more than any tech knowledge, is knowing when and how to say “No.”
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