This week marks the 13th year of Canine CellMates/Beyond the Bars, an Atlanta-based nonprofit and program focused on rehabilitating felony offenders using shelter dogs. Our goal is to raise $13,000 this week and we have a donor willing to match each dollar. If you can, please donate! mtyc.co/jclptf

I wrote about the Forward Deployed Engineer role and how it's becoming more popular, but it's not quite clear that companies agree on what this role really is www.modernleader.is/p/the-rise-o...

Work update: I’m stepping in as Engineering Zone Lead over the Workflow Zone at Zapier! In a little over a year, I’ve come to learn just how much this team cares about what they build and how they build it, and I’m excited to build upon the strong foundation set in the zone 🧡

4 months and 30 phone calls later, I finally got Aetna to overturn their decision on insurance coverage for my lipedema surgeries and all 3 surgeries are now covered 100% in network 🎉

I could send newsletters at a normal time, but sometimes I write something at 9pm on a Thursday and just decide to send it out. New on After Burnout: afterburnout.co/p/your-smart...

After somewhere around 6 years, @emmabostian.bsky.social and I are finally back together and vacationing in Italy! 🇮🇹

Let the friend honeymoon commence

Here's my latest article for @zeroheight.com, inspired by @kvlly.com, diving deep into the hidden costs of a design system team saying "yes".

Life update: I made it back to Pilates after 4 months off for 3 surgeries 🥹

Exciting news: I'm back on Maven with a 1-day workshop! It's time to stop putting off that tough conversation you need to have. This is a hands-on workshop where you'll come with a tough situation and leave with the tools you need to have any difficult conversation. maven.com/kellyvaughn/...

I’m leaving for a proper vacation on Friday. After nearly 4 months spent recovering from 3 surgeries, this time off is so needed. Still can’t fully straighten my arms, but that’s fine.

This was such a good read today, and exactly the space I've been in too. Love everything about how Kelly worded this.

Exciting news: I'm back on Maven with a 1-day workshop! It's time to stop putting off that tough conversation you need to have. This is a hands-on workshop where you'll come with a tough situation and leave with the tools you need to have any difficult conversation. maven.com/kellyvaughn/...

Been a while since I wrote for After Burnout, but I'm back with a good one: afterburnout.co/p/breaking-o...

Please enjoy this relic of Past Kelly I forgot I was using as my bookmark

In other important news, my Neopets account turned 25 today

Update: 30ish hours post op and made it to a coffee shop. Grateful for an easier recovery this time 💙

24 hrs before and after surgery 😂😭

Proof of life - lipedema surgery number 3 done. Another 3.8 liters of diseased tissue removed from my arms. That brings my total to a little over 17L, or ~35lb of tissue I couldn’t burn through diet and exercise. Now we begin the healing phase of this journey.

Third surgery is on Wednesday. I ran out of Doordash gift card $$ that I used during my second surgery so I'm going to be meal prepping this time. This next surgery is on my arms, so I'll be limited to eating food that doesn't require chopping/using a knife. One-handed meals only. Wish me luck 🙏

With two surgeries behind me and one more to go, this entire year has been focused on my health. It’s really put into perspective how much I’ve been pushing to do “more“ - public speaking, writing two newsletters, teaching a course, podcasting… I’m tired, and I think I’m closing this chapter.

My therapist said today that if she could never touch her laptop again she’d be thrilled and honestly same

The most fascinating thing recovering from surgery has done to (for?) me is reroute every part of my brain that says “we should do something productive!” towards physically healing my body. I am equally bored and unmotivated. My therapist is going to have a great day on Thursday.

This stage of recovering from surgery is so hard. I can’t last longer than 10-15 minutes on my feet, I can’t stand up straight so my lower back ends up hurting, and I can’t sit up because of the surgery. So I’m just stuck, dependent on others, without enough energy to do anything interesting.

3 days post op today. Moving around a little better and didn’t need to take a painkiller in the middle of the night so that’s a win! The weather’s been great so I’ve been taking advantage of short outdoor walks. I’m off work for another week which I’m grateful for because sitting is a pain.

Hello from the other side of surgery. 8.7L of diseased tissue removed from my upper legs. Pain is present but I’m dealing with it. Mostly just living on this air mattress until I feel comfortable enough getting in and out of bed.

Surgery #2 tomorrow! Wish me luck and send me Uber Eats/Doordash gift cards 💅

I wrote about the time spent spiraling over small mistakes (and how it relates to burnout) afterburnout.co/p/shortening...

Conducting 12 performance reviews in 3 days this week. Wish me luck 🙏

10 days until lipedema surgery #2 of 3. Back at it again. Not excited for the recovery process, but I am excited to feel less top-heavy. Now that the swelling has gone down more in my lower legs and knees, my thighs feel out of alignment. Photo from last week really shows (to me) the unevenness.

"We were choosing between fast yeses that scale your pain and a slower yes that scales your impact. Saying no to good ideas was how we chose the system over the request." An excellent read from @kvlly.com. I'm already exploring ideas for an article that builds on some of the opportunities here...

Saying no to a bad idea isn't the hard part. Saying no to a good idea is, especially when you don't want to kill someone's motivation. I wrote about this for The Modern Leader today: www.modernleader.is/p/saying-no-...

Flying from ATL (near record cold) to LAX (near-record high) tomorrow and packing for this trip is very confusing

Anyway, I have unfortunately found another thing to monetize

Just wrapped up my final cohort of Engineering Leadership in the AI Era yesterday. Grateful to have taught this course 10 times (7 times through Maven). But I have new course ideas that demand my attention now! You can still take the self-paced course here: course.modernleader.is/courses/mana...

(spends hours working on a blog post and shares on linkedin) linkedin: you get 912 views. don't ask for more.

3 weeks post-op tomorrow 4 weeks until the next surgery 10 weeks until I can stop washing my compression leggings every single day

We’re still figuring out how to incorporate AI into our day-to-day. The risk with “AI-ifying everything” is that we strip away the parts of work people actually enjoy. The good news: this is solvable. Here’s my take on where we are in the AI adoption journey: www.modernleader.is/p/what-happe...

Tomorrow's newsletter is a good one 👀 Sign up to receive it tomorrow morning: modernleader.is

Today: mourn yet another preventable execution Tomorrow: increase shareholder value

New on After Burnout: The mental math of taking time off afterburnout.co/p/medical-le...

I think I’ll be a mummy for Halloween this year. By the time I’m done with all 3 surgeries, I’ll certainly have enough ACE wraps to cover my whole body

Well that was a heartbreaking end

If you’re wondering what I’ve been doing while on medical leave…

I’ve talked a bit about having lipedema on here (a connective tissue disorder that causes a buildup of fat that can’t be burned by diet and exercise and has to be surgically removed). I’m 7 days post-op #1 of 3 surgeries - nearly 5L removed. I’m still very swollen but I have actual calf definition!

Post op day 7 Good news: I can now walk up stairs Bad news: I cannot walk down stairs

Post op day 3: swollen legs make for a great table

72 hours post-op and I’m trying really hard to not be productive. I’ve read 2 books, watched all of Heated Rivalry, and I’m almost caught up on The Traitors. I still have 10 more days of intentional do-nothingness. Who knew recovering from surgery would be a mental game too?

48 hours post op. Swelling is really starting to kick in and it doesn’t feel super great but I knew it was coming. Still walking around every 2-3 hours and drinking a ton of water.