I just realized that I was ordained as a Dudeist priest 10 years ago, in July 2016. I guess missing such a milestone is appropriate for it.

Current status:

“Hi $vendor, I confess that I’ve never seen a vendor explicitly state that their encryption-at-rest policy doesn’t cover servers. That’s a new one.”

For reasons, we use a sales tool called Apollo at work. To use it, your employees have to sign into a few of the scammiest websites anywhere, with fake privacy policies and Google App configs that scream “send my email to North Korea”.

That’s gross incompetence and I’m doing what I can to push us to find a better vendor.

Screenshot of a blatantly scammy website: "New way to analyze your emails Forget about bunch of tools to anaylize your emails. Harness all power of AI to reach best deliverability. Test Your Inbox" Screenshot of a Google App info panel for "email-deliverability-checker.com", owned by one "ndayecheikh98@gmail.com".

Packing, step 1: remove all the TSA-unsafe stuff from my backpack while still at home.

I’ve never seen a vendor brave enough to make this claim.

Screenshot of a company's security FAQ page: "ZoomInfo ensures that its database and portfolio of products is 100% safe to use. As a security-first organization, ZoomInfo is committed to developing secure and compliant go-to-market solutions for our customers."

I’ve been thinking about my mom lately, for no real reason except that the happiness of her memories is now greater than the sadness of not having new ones. One of my favorite things I’ve done was to sit down with her and write down every bit of family lore she wanted to talk about: child memories, funny family nicknames, how she and my dad moved around when they were first married, war stories her uncles had shared, how her mom ran a diner and was known for her baking, everything. We had grand and wide-ranging conversations with laughter, a little melancholy sometimes, and a deep dive into a rich history that once gone would be gone forever. Now I have that and can share it with my own family. It was one of our last special times together and I cherish it.

I get invited to the most unexpected events. The more astonished I am that someone would want me at a thing, the more likely I am to accept. That’s how you open the tap to being invited to even more things later. Practice saying yes when you can.

Screenshot of an “AI Cybersecurity Buyer Pitch” online event where I’m one of the “buyers” providing feedback to seed startup founders.

I logged into one of our vendors for the first time to make some urgent changes. Every third time I tried to click on something, instead of going to that thing, I got an obnoxious full-screen onboarding screen with no way to close it:

Screenshot of a banner: "Thank you for being a valued customer,
Help us make sure you get the most out of your account by answering a few questions."

If I hit my browser’s back button, half the time I got a “submit this form again?” popup.

If you really want to thank me because you really value me as a customer, please stop asking me stupid questions and let me use the site I logged into.