A good convo on a tricky subject with the Design Better crew. A bit more here on career, workflows, and the value of writing and critique as skills in a design career. Thanks to Aarron Walter & Eli Woolery for inviting me. open.substack.com/pub/thecurio...

Current status

This is officially happening now. I'm gonna publish at least one draft today 💪 #MediumDraftDay "it's such an important time to tell human stories"

I’m looking for a senior/staff level content designer to do some contract work at Medium. Lmk if you have a referral, send me links! Part time to start, but worth building on—great place on the internet to write for product. ✍️ #hiring #contract #contentdesign #writing

I have a zillion drafts on Medium and I am excited to use Draft Day this Friday to finish at least ONE of them. Join me, let's hang out and write! blog.medium.com/your-story-m...

It’s very nice to make something by hand every now and again, and I am proud of this cushion I made. She’s simple, but sturdy.

I'm very proud to work at a company where people live by their values and are willing to state them clearly, even when (and especially when) it isn't expedient to do so. 👏👏👏

Not the world I want to live in

Our team is listening to a Medium user, Isaac Harvey, a writer and disability advocate, an inspiring human being who is trying to build his Medium following. Give him a follow here: medium.com/@iamisaachar...

Found this behind mom’s dresser while moving her in this week. Throwback to anyone who was in Ohio 13 years ago

Today is my third 6mo follow up for glaucoma testing. There’s never any issue, I simply seem to have large optic nerve sockets, so I can’t figure out if this is my eye drs money making scheme or maybe just what good preventative care feels like. Fine line?

There’s nothing I like more on social these days than a highlight notification. ✔️Someone read a thing I wrote ✔️ It meant something to them ✔️ They wanted to share back with me, the writer No ego or manipulation. In its simplest form it’s connective & interrogative. We need more spaces like these.

Final inspection tomorrow for the accessible addition we built for my mom. Permits were approved Mar 1, 2024 after a long battle with the city. A million tiny decisions & sacrifices since. In some ways the journey is just beginning. Still some bits to finish. But I’m proud of this. Lifetime proud.

Doing this tonight. Reliving high school

Something people won’t know about Medium is that we have absolutely world class offsites. I’ve never seen or been a part of better ones, and this last in Newport was the best. This is almost entirely courtesy of @brikolson.bsky.social But don’t steal him, he is very beloved here. Thank you Brik.

Hello Newport

I love interviewing. And I hate it. It‘s amazing to meet so many inspiring people, & terrible that I don’t have options for everyone. Medium attracts people w/ heart & this process is so gruelling for them, I know. Keep writing & sharing. The heart is infectious and always worth something.

Washed my partner’s iPods in the laundry. He says they came out sounding better 😂

My best advice right now is ask questions before you waste energy getting mad. If you have all the info and are still mad, more power to you—what will you do about it?

We're hiring a Principal Product Designer @medium.com & I wrote a little bit about what the job looks like, what kinds of things you'd work on, what to expect from me as a manager, etc. Have a look! #hiring #design medium.design/opening-a-ne...

Nothing quite prepared me for life at a startup like having two kids. Change is the only constant.

Visited The Lynx bookstore this weekend with Mom and it was every bit as wonderful as I imagined, what a Florida haven. Spotted @kristenarnett.bsky.social on the staff picks 💅

Enjoying being back at my alum’s annual design show at UF, c/o 2006 I can hardly believe it’s been this long

Pay what you can font to benefit Palestinian Children's Relief Fund dczglyph.gumroad.com/l/dczglyph (including lucky and unlucky 7s by @fartdirector.bsky.social). Through Feb 17

this tariff thing is a classic systems design error. pulling in one area thinking it won't effect the others. it's disappointing and hurts a lot of people, but i'm trying not to let basic errors infuriate me b/c they are surely a tactic and distraction from something even more insidious.

Today’s project. 50 baseboards, ten doors (two sides, two coats each)

Sayonara January

I sang my brother happy birthday on a voicemail and he says he’s posted the audio file and tagged me on linkedin. Once a brother always a brother 😂 *nervously goes to check LinkedIn*

Hi new friends. 👋 What starter pack are you finding me from today? 👀

My day in reverse

I still think there’s a way to do social media that is in alignment with your values and fully living your life. Like contacts. Subtly there. Enhancing.

this is such an american poem. it isn't indifference. it's horror, weariness, paradox, an incongruous sublimity. recognition it could happen to any of us + we're doing it to ourselves. a scale of suffering that links everyone/thing. this captures all of that. www.rattle.com/la-is-burnin...

Finally published my first piece of the year on Medium – my "2025 Disclosures", a breezy confessional type thing. It's still hard to press publish no matter how much I've done it in the past. cassiebegins.medium.com/2025-disclos...

Marie Kondo is wrong about socks.

"You've been nominated as a Top Woman Leader, please register for $495 to be listed as such"

Back to work today! I'm all about photos & vacation stories. We're reading The Culture Map for book club at work & it showed me, having worked in UK & Canada, I need to know my colleagues &—if at all possible—be friends! Caring about lives outside work is a big part of my building trust AT work.

nerding out & getting organized for back to work tomorrow. 🤓 there's a lot to do for Medium but am also prioritizing: ✔️school pickups & outschool lessons for kids ✔️meal plan & cooking w/ kids (less eating out) ✔️long weekend PTO in Feb, post-work travel ✔️turning my hot compost daily (6wk experiment)

Scheming

Zen and the art of scraping ice off your windshield

Not sure where the sudden influx of followers has come from, but hi, I love bonafide community! 👋 Here’s a scarf I just finished, life has been at knitting pace the past two weeks which has been quite nice

A friend of mine is trying to buy nothing next year (other than groceries). Maybe I’ll try that? I haven’t thought it completely through, what could go wrong

I’m a beginner knitter, but it seemed sweet to knit a bookmark together with my girls for my grandma’s birthday (she taught all three of us to knit). She is 99 today, born Dec 21, 1925.

i think i just presented to 80% of the company with marmite on my chin 😂

you know how if you need a new dishwasher or washer/dryer/fridge, or you want a new light fixture or to paint a wall or two, maybe build a patio... you might spend a week on any one of those decisions, each a big project in their own right. we are doing ALL that for my mom's this week, it's insane

Today I REALLY needed solitude. I found it (it was given) and I feel 1000x better.

Just finished a config talk submission, and man am I excited to tell this story one way or another.

We posted a new role last night for @medium.com. Hands on, super senior product role w/ a huge amount of influence, working with really wonderful people on a mission unlike anything else that exists in our industry today (& in a profitable biz!) #hiring #product medium.pinpointhq.com/en/postings/...

Lead = present tense. "I will lead," or "I am leading." Led = past tense. "I led that project last August." Mistaking these words for each other is egregious b/c we generally expect leaders to be able to communicate well (and to, well, spell well). xo, your Tuesday morning spelling police.

Have had a couple people reach out to me for help recently and I don't think they realize what a gift it is to ME to be able to help them.

Ran six miles this morning. It’s getting easier and for the first time in my running career (which is very stop start and amateur) I am getting that tingly feeling toward the end of my runs, legitimate runners high. I’d always thought runners were being a bit metaphorical