Quick Logistical Note

I’ve decided to occasionally write on topics with a less clear professional focus. I’m going to label such issues as “Unprofessional” to make it clear that I’m just babbling about a topic that might veer well outside of work.

Tech has always been a weird place to be, but 2026 really seems to be dialing it up a notch. We have CEO’s talking about the possibility of an AI “jobs apocalypse”, thousands of people are being laid off to be replaced with AI functionality that doesn’t exist yet, global supply chains are in disarray, prices are ever shifting, and even the Pope is weighing in on the seriousness of LLMs. It feels like every news topic is an emergency, requiring our thought, attention, and action. It feels like we all needed to start panicking yesterday.

In moments like these, I think back to advice that my dad gave me: panicking is dangerous. No matter how much urgency you feel, panicking will almost certainly make any situation worse. Even in moments where a quick reaction is necessary, it is almost always better to pause, breathe, and think even just for a second before reacting.

For context, my dad was a doctor, and he learned this lesson from an older surgeon who trained him. Even in that (sometimes dire) context, urgently trying to just “do something” was likely to do something “bad”. 

To be sure, I absolutely suck at taking this advice. I am a pro at panicking (thanks, anxiety disorder!), and it drove my dad up the wall. But! I’ve gotten a bit better at pausing over the years.

In this issue, I’m just going to talk about a few of the things I’m doing to pause and reset my brain. I would love to hear how you’re pausing if you feel like sharing!

Writing This Newsletter!

One of my goals with starting this newsletter was to pull me away from LLMs and to force myself to get my thoughts into coherent order. And it has been great! For me, writing is a lovely, problem-solving puzzle where you have to figure out how to knit your thoughts together in a way that your reader will a) understand and b) care about. That’s a hard task! And getting my brain to zero-in on that task for a couple of hours feels great.

Reading!

Reading also helps me get myself out of my own head. No matter the subject, focusing on someone else’s words and building a picture of what they are trying to share with me disrupts the anxious patterns in my brain. I’ve gotten in the habit of reading two books at the same time: usually one fiction and one nonfiction. That way, if I get bored of one, I can switch to the other without getting my books mixed up (that badly).

Right now, I’m working through How Not to Know by Simone Stolzoff (which has been thought-provoking), and I just finished Platform Decay, the latest in Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series (which was delightful, as always). For my next fiction title, I’m either going to read Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree of Legends & Lattes fame OR Seasons of Glass & Iron a collection of short stories by Amal El-Mohtar.

By the way, I don’t make money on any of those links. This isn’t an ad.

Photography!

You might have noticed that each of my newsletters opens with a random picture – usually of our dog Marsha or a pretty flower. I’ve taken all of those! I have an old, Nikon D3300 that I pulled out of the closet this year, and it has been so lovely to get back into taking photos. Manual photography is a truly excellent lunch break activity. Adjusting the settings takes just enough of my attention to get my brain to disengage and, for most of my photo subjects, literally requires that I touch grass.

Here are a few photos from the past few weeks that I’m happy with.

Friends!

Perhaps the most important part of keeping myself sane is making time for friends — whether that be in-person, in my online communities, or just sending quick texts to check in with folks (or send silly memes). For me, talking with other humans is the best way to re-ground myself, and I’m so thankful for the folks I have in my life. It’s amazing how much even brief moments with others can radically shift my brain chemistry. 

My goal is writing all of the above was to help remind myself of some of the ways I’m resting and finding joy right now. My hope is that by thinking out loud, others may benefit as well. I don’t have any pithy ways of ending this issue, but I hope you take time to pause today, in whatever way feels right to you.