2024 reinvention and transition

Here we go!

As some of you may know, starting in January 2024 I began a personal transition to independent work and growing beyond the series of non-stop corporate roles I’ve held since graduating from college decades ago.

My post-corporate plan for this next chapter of life includes 3 iterative, concurrent elements:

1. Mentoring and coaching - providing free guidance to people I know who have been impacted by the rampant tech layoffs and disruptions we’ve all been witnessing. (If we’ve worked together in the past, please don’t hesitate to reach out if I might be of help.)

2. Collaborating and communicating - identifying new forums and ways for exploring ideas and connecting with people worldwide on topics I care about. (This Substack presence is one of my newly added fora; I’ll write about my evaluation process in future posts. Posts will include and extend beyond AI & technology topics like information management and overload, data visualization. If you know me at all, you already know to expect equity & inclusion and ethics discussions here too.)

3. Publishing - together with some selected co-authors, I’m developing a set of guidebooks on practical AI and applying it in software development practices, in intelligent products, and considering its day to day impact on humans. (DM me if you’d like to know more about these ideas, or just subscribe; I’m thinking of piloting guidebook chapters in articles here on Substack, so you’ll see early sneak previews along the way. I’m looking forward to discussions and advice from you all!)

These 3 elements are inspired by a long personal backlog of goals I’ve been wanting to tackle for a long time, but didn’t have the time to do while working in demanding full-time corporate positions.

This plan has been shaped and supported by friends and family, and guided in part during January and February by three outstanding resources:

1. a timely workshop on Reinvention led by Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva (thanks to

   Catherine Louis
   for connecting me to that community - check it out!)

2. excellent advice from a friend’s “sensei” about book publishing options and alternatives

3. valuable insights on running a tech-based business via

   Kate Strachnyi
   ‘s excellent “Running DATAcated” community here on Substack (thank you again to Kate for gifting me a free 1-year premium subscription):

Going on record so you all can hold me accountable: my goal is to post *something* at least 3-5 times per week, or 12-20 times in March. This post will count as #1. I expect to “inspect and adapt” regularly on my execution of this plan, and will strive to post about that here as well, starting at the end of March.

Wish me luck and please do let me know what you think! And please share your recommendations for interesting people and publications I should consider subscribing to here :)