Room for Philippe and Mithical

Philippe

7:11 PM

Hey, I saw an email from you this week that said kind things about me.

I wanted to say thank you

Mithical

:)

You won me over, what can I say? :P

Philippe

Don't worry, it'll pass. Once you sleep, likely....

But in the meantime, I want to assure you that the reinstatement process is proceeding (i have no role in it, but my team takes it seriously), and you should hear soon if you haven't alraady

Mithical

@Philippe Hopefully not... I could appreciate the optimism staying.

Philippe

I like that there's still optimism

It means there's potential to turn things around.

Mithical

@Philippe Yep, Cat reached out to me, both via official channels and less so ones (see also the Tavern RO room). I trust it'll go smoothly.

Philippe

7:14 PM

I've got a ton more people to win over, but one at a time......

Good. Cat is notoriously efficient at that sort of thing

I rely on her heavily.

Mithical

Cat's awesome. I consider her a friend, not just a CM.

Philippe

Honestly, I try to stay out of that sort of process. (Not that there are but....) if there are things that come up that are less than positive, I prefer not to know about them. It colors my opinion of people. I'm not suggesting that's the case here, it's a very general rule.

i trust that people like Cat will let me know what I need to know, and the rest is just gonna take up grey matter that i can use for things like "West Wing" trivia

Mithical

*googles "West Wing" quickly*

Philippe

Sorry, Television show. Aaron Sorkin

Amazing.

Mithical

Predates me by a few years, so I'm not familiar with it ;)

Philippe

7:16 PM

The West Wing

The West Wing is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 1999 to May 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where the Oval Office and offices of presidential senior staff are located, during the fictitious Democratic administration of Josiah Bartlet. The West Wing was produced by Warner Bros. Television and featured an ensemble cast, including Martin Sheen, John Spencer, Allison Janney, Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Janel Moloney, Dulé Hill, and Stockard Channing...

It introduced the "walk and talk" camera shot to television... or popularized it, anyway.

If you get the chacne, check it out. Great cast, and some of the best writing for tv ever done, im(never)ho

Mithical

@Philippe *nods as if I understood what that means* (I'm not a huge visual media person... I prefer words in general.)

Philippe

Oh, you mention A51.... that's on the list for this quarter

JNat (i think) is doing some evaluation of site lifecycles.

Basically, A51 is one big walking pile of technical debt, so we have to do SOMETHING, it's just a matter of figuring out what.

We can't keep writing exceptions into the codebase, so we have to standardize it, or refactor, or something

Mithical

Glad to hear it. I also heard some rumors from Yaakov about ideas that I'm excited to see if they go anywhere...

Philippe

Well, depending on which rumors you mean.... :)

Some of them will. The one about me and the donkey? That's a damned lie. But the donkey was fine.

Mithical

He asked me not to say publicly, so I'll just have to remain vague for now :P

(This was when we met up at a cafe recently.)

Philippe

7:20 PM

Totally fine. :). I understand discretion. I worked in Trust and Safety for most of my career. I got very comfortable with "when I need to know, I'll know.)

Oh yes, he told me that story

Mithical

(:

Philippe

He even sent me that same pic

Actually that reminds me.... I think I meet with him again tomorrow. And I owe him soemthing.

Mithical

Well, you can't escape the pixels.

Philippe

oh wait, no, i meet with him on Tuesday.

Mithical

Monday, Tuesday... they all blend together.

Philippe

7:22 PM

I'm telling you, that's the part i hate. The meeting schedule. I no longer get to do work, I just get to talk about the work that orhter people are getting to do

Mithical

:(

Is that going to be a permanent thing or going to get better as time goes by?

Philippe

Well, my expeirence is that there's a burst at first, then it settles back a little, and then it starts to linearly accelerate back up.

Mithical

*makes a mental note of that*

Philippe

Certain meetings are perpetual... one on ones with my direct reports, quarterly ones with their direct reports, meetings with Teresa, etc.... aand others are project based, and as I get acclimated, I take on more projects.

Mithical

Any engagement that you can manage is a step in the right direction, though.

Philippe

7:24 PM

However, I also aggressively delegate, so that helps some. But at first, until my team trusts me, I have to have extra meetings so that Rosie and Juan know what I'm tasking their folks to, etc.

Well, that's why engagement usually happens at (my)nighttime and on weekends. otherwise, it gets crammed in around meetings

And tomorrow, between 8 and 6:30, i have..... 15 minutes free.

Mithical

All the best CM work gets done Friday evenings, from a phone, in a bar...

Philippe

I long for the days when we could meet in bars and brainstorm.

I can't wait to get my team together in person. Next year, I hope.

First priority, though, is to rebuild it.

I started two people this week though, and I made two offers on Friday, and I have two more jobs currently posted, so.... we're getting there.

Mithical

That's certainly good news.

Philippe

It is. It basically doubles the current team size. And so far, fully half of them are from the community.

Mithical

I'd love to see new CMs from the community (a la Cat / JNat), but all in time.

Philippe

7:27 PM

I got ya covered. :D. One of the ones i offered to Friday is a mod.

Mithical

Oooh.

Philippe

And one of the ones that we started this week is as well. I'm not sure how publicly we're discussing which community, so i'm deferring to the side of caution, but she's def got mod background

But the fun thing is, neither of the two mods came from SO. They're both network.

Mithical

Well... hopefully I'll recognize them ;) I've got a fairly good memory for names, so we'll see.

That's definitely encouraging. Sounds like slowly, most of my major concerns are being addressed, which is awesome.

Philippe

At least one of them, I'm fairly confident you will.

I'm going into week three on the job, and it's gonna be a year before we get everything on my "must do NOW" list handled, but it's getting there.

and that's not even getting to the "would be nice if...." list.

Anyway, I'll let you alone, and I'm gonna go continue to tour chat rooms. But i wanted to say thanks again for the kind words.

Mithical

*nods* You're working off several years' debt. But you're actually working on it, which is the important bit.

*waves* Enjoy your safari!

Philippe

7:32 PM

I was handed a great team, and a great set of sites, and a great mission. It makes it easier.

Transcript for

Room for Philippe and Mithical