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Are you a web professional (or aspiring web professional) who is looking for career guidance and opportunities? Consider applying for my 2023 mentorship cohort.
","content_html":"Are you a web professional (or aspiring web professional) who is looking for career guidance and opportunities? Consider applying for my 2023 mentorship cohort.
\nBefore you apply, I highly recommend reading up on my mentorship program to see if it will be a good fit for you.
\nThe application will remain open through November 30th.
\n","social_text":"Are you a web professional (or aspiring web professional) who is looking for career guidance and opportunities? Consider applying for my 2023 mentorship cohort","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/apply-now-for-my-2023-mentorship-cohort/","tags":["career","mentoring","personal"],"image":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/i/posts/2022-10-03/hero.jpg","date_published":"2022-10-03T18:31:22Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/apply-for-a-spot-in-my-2020-2021-mentorship/","title":"✍🏻 Apply for a spot in my 2020–21 mentorship cohort","summary":"It’s hard to believe how quickly the last year has gone. It has been a tremendous honor to work with Ace, Dezzie, Marcy, Olu, and Sara for these past 12 months. And while we wrap up our mentorship calls this month, I thought it would be a good idea to open up the application for my 2020–21 cohort.
","content_html":"It’s hard to believe how quickly the last year has gone. It has been a tremendous honor to work with Ace, Dezzie, Marcy, Olu, and Sara for these past 12 months. And while we wrap up our mentorship calls this month, I thought it would be a good idea to open up the application for my 2020–21 cohort.
\nI was totally overwhelmed by the response when I opened up applications last year, so I’m going to try to be a bit more organized this year by having a more formal application process using a web form. This will help me reduce the amount of manual work I have to do to review all of the applications.
\nIf you’re interested, I encourage you to read the parameters of the mentorship below and then you can click over to the form and apply.
\nWhether you aspire to work on the web or you’re a veteran of the browser wars, if you think you could benefit from mentorship, I’d like to help. My ideal mentee is someone who’s passionate about the web and is—perhaps most of all—someone who I believe I can help.
\nTo that end, my skills and knowledge will probably be most helpful to people interested in any or all of the these:
\nI’m into a lot of things, but those are probably the ones I’m most confident I can help with.
\nYou don’t need to live near me or even in the same hemisphere. If you happen to be in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. or live somewhere that I’m traveling to over the next year, I’d love to meet you in person, but that’s by no means a requirement. I’m based in the Pacific time zone (Seattle, Washington), but I’ll do my best to coordinate a regular time for us to chat that won’t require you hopping on Skype at two in the morning (unless that’s your thing). Email… Skype… Hangouts… I’m happy to work however you’re comfortable.
\nI’m afraid I don’t speak any languages other than English, so that artificially restricts the pool of folks I can work with, but don’t worry if you don’t think your English is great. Honestly, it’s probably better than you give yourself credit for. It’s also 100% guaranteed to be better than my attempts at speaking pretty much any language other than English.
\nMuch of my work over the past twenty-plus years has been concentrated in the areas of accessibility and, more broadly, inclusive design. To create a web that can go anywhere and work for anyone, we need a diverse group of people making it happen. Sadly, our industry has a difficult time recruiting, developing, and (most importantly) retaining a diverse workforce. Given the egalitarian ideals that the web was founded on, that’s a travesty.
\nI want to see more diverse faces working on the web, speaking at conferences, writing articles, and getting promoted into leadership positions in design, UX, and development. I am only considering applications from folks who self-identify as part of an underrepresented group. Out of respect for your privacy, I’m not requiring that you label yourself in any particular way, but I do ask that you check your privilege and refrain from applying if you’re part of a group that is already heavily represented in our industry (such as white or asian cis het males).
\nThis mentorship will last for a full year. You’ll have the option of talking to me for an hour a month, either all at once or in two 30-minute blocks. You’ll also be invited into my mentorship Slack group, where you’ll be able to chat with me async or in real-time (depending on where you live), chat with other folks in your cohort (and my past mentees), and share your work.
\nIf you know someone who you think would be a good fit for this, please nominate them! All I ask is that you introduce us with some context. The easiest (but most public) way is to @-message us both on Twitter. If you’d rather keep it private, you can kick off a DM thread with us if your nominee is on Twitter too (my DMs are open). You could also start the conversation by dropping me a note through the contact form on this site or sending me a message on any of the various platforms I frequent (Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on).
\nThe application for my 2020–21 mentorship cohort is open through the end of February in any timezone (I’m not a stickler, but the form will close automatically on March 1st). I met a ton of amazing folks last year through this process and got to work with two outstanding human beings. I look forward to getting to know you and taking a few of you under my wing.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/apply-for-a-spot-in-my-2020-2021-mentorship/","tags":["mentoring","career"],"date_published":"2020-01-16T23:14:07Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/introducing-my-2019-mentees/","title":"✍🏻 Introducing my 2019 mentees","summary":"Late last year, I opened applications for my 2019 mentorship cohort.. To say I was overwhelmed by the response is a drastic understatement. I got so many awesome applications, that I decided to increase the slots from two to five! In the end, I’m really excited about the folks I’ll be working with this year: Adewale Abati, Olu Niyi-Awosusi, Marcy Sutton, Sara Wegman, and Desirée Zamora García.
I’ve been working with all five of them for a few months now and wanted to highlight a bit about who they are and what we are working on.
","content_html":"Late last year, I opened applications for my 2019 mentorship cohort.. To say I was overwhelmed by the response is a drastic understatement. I got so many awesome applications, that I decided to increase the slots from two to five! In the end, I’m really excited about the folks I’ll be working with this year: Adewale Abati, Olu Niyi-Awosusi, Marcy Sutton, Sara Wegman, and Desirée Zamora García.
\nI’ve been working with all five of them for a few months now and wanted to highlight a bit about who they are and what we are working on.
\nAdewale “Ace” Abati hails from Lagos, Nigeria. He and I connected after I presented at Concatenate last year. He’s eager to write, speak, learn, and share, especially when it comes to accessibility. I love the passion and enthusiasm I’m seeing from the dev community in Nigeria right now and Ace is a pure distillation of that.
\nOver the course of the next year, we’ll be working on his technical skills (especially accessibility), his technical writing, and his speaking skills. Ace has a lot of energy and I’m excited to be along for the ride.
\nOlu is based in London, works for the BBC, and is a champion for accessibility. I love their passion for the web and that they share a ton of what they learn. So far, we’ve focused much of our time discussing diversity & inclusion and their importance in building the web we want. Olu is focused on improving their JavaScript and accessibility chops and is looking to become a better speaker (they are already a great writer). If you’re looking for a really awesome talk on the intersection of accessibility and social justice, hit them up!
\nI was so honored when Marcy Sutton reached out to me and asked me to mentor her. I have a ridiculous amount of respect for Marcy and have learned a ton from her over the years. How could I say no‽ Marcy and I will be spending the bulk of our time discussing work/life balance and career advancement. She’s actually based about an hour north of me too, which means we can get together in person every now & then. Bonus!
\nI have to admit I fell in love with Sara’s writing immediately. She’s got a way with words and a sincere kindness that just pours from every project she works on. I use her new tab page in Chrome to give me a little pick-me-up several times a day. Together, we’ll be working on career development, leveling up her dev skills, and looking for opportunities for her to share her knowledge. In the short time we’ve been working together, she’s demonstrated incredible commitment, tenacity, and talent. I even brought her onto the editorial team at A List Apart, where she’s already jumped in and proven herself a valuable contributor to that esteemed publication.
\nI’ve the great pleasure of working with Dezzie for a while now on A List Apart. She’s incredible—both as a writer and an editor. She’s got strong, well-grounded opinions and knows how to articulate them. She’s also supremely talented when it comes to UX and design, which is unsurprising given her career path thus far. We’re spending our time talking about her career (and our kids).
\nIf you follow my work, you may recall that I started a formal mentorship program last year. I had the great privilege of working with two incredibly talented people—Amberley Romo and Manuel Matuzović—for a little over a year and enjoyed the hell out of the experience.
I had hoped to kick off a new mentorship session in January, but (as often happens) life got in the way. Now that I’m settled into a new city and a new routine, I’m itching to get things going again. And so I ask: How can I help you develop or further your career on the web?
","content_html":"If you follow my work, you may recall that I started a formal mentorship program last year. I had the great privilege of working with two incredibly talented people—Amberley Romo and Manuel Matuzović—for a little over a year and enjoyed the hell out of the experience.
\nI had hoped to kick off a new mentorship session in January, but (as often happens) life got in the way. Now that I’m settled into a new city and a new routine, I’m itching to get things going again. And so I ask: How can I help you develop or further your career on the web?
\nWhether you aspire to work on the web or you’re a veteran of the browser wars, if you think you could benefit from mentorship, I’d like to help. My ideal mentee is someone who’s passionate about the web and is—perhaps most of all—someone who I believe I can help.
\nTo that end, my skills and knowledge will probably be most helpful to people interested in any or all of the these:
\nI’ve got scads of other interests and skills too, but those are probably the ones I’m most confident I can help with.
\nYou don’t need to live near me or even in the same hemisphere. If you happen to be local to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. or live somewhere that I’m traveling to over the next year, we’ll definitely meet in person, but that’s by no means a requirement. I’m based in the Pacific time zone (Seattle, Washington), but I’ll do my best to coordinate a regular time for us to chat that won’t require you hopping on Skype at two in the morning (unless that’s your thing). Email… Skype… Hangouts… I’m happy to work however you’re comfortable.
\nI’m afraid I don’t speak any languages other than English,1 so that artificially restricts the pool of folks I can work with, but don’t worry if you don’t think your English is great. Honestly, it’s probably better than you give yourself credit for. It’s also 100% guaranteed to be better than my attempts at speaking pretty much any language other than English.
\nMuch of my work over the past twenty-plus years has been concentrated in the areas of accessibility and, more broadly, inclusive design. To create a web that can go anywhere and work for anyone, we need a diverse group of people making it happen. Sadly, our industry has a difficult time recruiting, developing, and, most importantly, retaining a diverse workforce. Given the egalitarian ideals that the web was founded on, that’s a travesty.
\nI want to see more diverse faces working on the web, speaking at conferences, writing articles, and getting promoted into leadership positions in design, UX, and development. And so this year I’m doing things a little differently: I will only be taking applications from folks who self-identify as part of an underrepresented group. Out of respect for your privacy, I’m not requiring that you label yourself in any particular way, but I do ask that you check your privilege and refrain from applying if you’re part of a group that is already heavily represented in our industry (such as white cis males).
\nLike last year, the application process is not meant to be challenging or time-consuming. I’d like you to write a public post somewhere on the web—such as on your blog, Medium, Twitter, or Mastodon—that discusses why you love the Web, what you love about working on it (or aspire to work on), and what your goals are for the coming year of your career. I’m not looking for any particular length; I’m trying to get a sense of you, your passion, and where your interests lie. I love seeing people publicly gush about why they love the web, but, if you’re more of a private person, you can write it in a non-public document stored somewhere on the web that you can share with me (such as on DraftIn, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox).
\nOnce you’ve done that, use this site’s contact form to send me the link, along with a brief note about why you’d like me as a mentor. Again, I’m not looking for any particular length, but I would appreciate it if you you could touch on where our passions overlap and how you think I can help. I want to make sure we’re a good fit. And please be honest… if you want me as a mentor because of the connections I have, say that—I appreciate honesty.
\nAnyway, that’s it. No big hoops to jump through. If that feels like too much writing and you’d rather speak to me in real-time, please drop me a line and say as much. I’d be happy to set up a time to chat.
\nIf you know someone who you think would be a good fit for this, please nominate them! All I ask is that you introduce us with some context. The easiest (but most public) way is to @-message us both on Twitter. If you’d rather keep it private, you can kick off a DM thread with us if your nominee is on Twitter too (my DMs are open) or start the conversation by dropping me a note through the contact form on this site or sending me a message on any of the various platforms I frequent (Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on).
\nI’ll keep the lines open through Tuesday, in whatever your local timezone is. I met a ton of amazing folks last year through this process and got to work with two outstanding human beings. I truly look forward to getting to know you and taking one or two of you under my wing.
\nIn hindsight, studying Latin in high school wasn’t the best choice. Oh well. ↩︎
\nYour knowledge and experience is valuable, no matter where you are in your career; you should share that knowledge with others. The web is what it is today because we shared our code and learned from each other. Be a part of that legacy. Brandon Gregory will show you the way.
\n","social_text":"Your knowledge and experience is valuable, no matter where you are in your career; you should share that knowledge with others.","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/links/be-a-mentor/","external_url":"https://alistapart.com/article/be-a-mentor","tags":["mentoring"],"image":"https://i0.wp.com/alistapart.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-icon_navigation-laurel-512.jpg?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","date_published":"2017-10-05T15:36:55Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/my-2017-mentees/","title":"✍🏻 My 2017 Mentees","summary":"Early this year, I put out the call to anyone who might be interested in a mentorship with me. The response was overwhelming and the decision of who to work with this year was really tough. After a great deal of consideration, however, I chose not one, but two folks I really wanted to work with this year: Amberley Romo and Manuel Matuzović.
I’ve been working with the two of them for a few months now and wanted to highlight a bit about who they are and what we are working on.
","content_html":"Early this year, I put out the call to anyone who might be interested in a mentorship with me. The response was overwhelming and the decision of who to work with this year was really tough. After a great deal of consideration, however, I chose not one, but two folks I really wanted to work with this year: Amberley Romo and Manuel Matuzović.
\nI’ve been working with the two of them for a few months now and wanted to highlight a bit about who they are and what we are working on.
\nAmberley’s story really resonated with me. She is heavily invested in the Web as a tool for good. A force capable of bringing more equity to this world.
\n\n\nGrowing up with a nonverbal sibling with intellectual and developmental disabilities was one of the single most formative experiences of my life. I find myself very lucky to have been born when I was, to enjoy growing up without being oversaturated with technology, but witnessing and participating in the periods of growth that I have. One of the ways I personally benchmark that progress is in the evolution of the technology my sister used to communicate.
\n
Over the last few years, Amberley has performed in a number of different roles in and around the Web, but in the last year she’s been getting more serious about her career as a web developer. She is incredibly motivated and enrolled herself in a 3-month, full-time development accelerator to deepen her understanding of software development. And in my discussion with her, it’s clear the force is strong with this one.
\nMuch of my work with Amberley has, thus far, been centered around career development. We’ve spent a lot of time discussing what it’s like to work for smaller companies and large corporations and the benefits and frustrations inherent in each.
\nOutside of her day job, we’ve discussed opportunities for her to channel her talent into worthwhile open source projects. It was kismet that just as we started discussing this, I received an email from Shay Cojocaru, a front-end dev at The Center for Educational Technology (CET) in Israel. He introduced me to a project he was working on: CBoard. CBoard is an open source tool aimed at making communication easier for non-verbal people… like Amberley’s sister, who she had mentioned in her application. The stars had aligned. After all, Amberley has had a lot of experience with these tools, both in analog and digital form.
\nIt’s an understatement to say I’m very excited to see where this partnership goes. I’m also keen to discover new opportunities and learn more about Amberley in the months ahead. She’s an amazing lady.
\nTo be honest, Manuel was on my radar well before he applied for my mentorship. I was already following and sharing his writings on Medium and was impressed with his interest in generating practical introductions to accessibility for front-end developers. He has a knack for turning something that seems huge and daunting into something that is manageable and—dare I say—easy to understand and implement.
\nIn his application, Manuel talked about his interest in continuing to grow as a developer, but also to do more to share what he knows, both in prose and at conferences. Seeing how much he has to offer, I leapt at the chance to help him do that. I want his work to get more exposure. I can easily see him contributing to Smashing Magazine and A List Apart and advocating for a more equitable Web on stage at Beyond Tellerrand and Generate.
\nIn our work together over the past few months, we’ve worked on
\nI know for a fact that Manuel would find success in his endeavors without me; he has the talent and he has the drive—no question. I’m just thankful I get to play a small part in his journey.
\nA few weeks back, I put out the call for a mentee for 2017. As part of the application process, I asked folks to publicly discuss why they love the Web. The applicants shared some amazing stories, anecdotes, and experiences in those posts and I wanted to take a moment to share them with you.[^1]
","content_html":"A few weeks back, I put out the call for a mentee for 2017. As part of the application process, I asked folks to publicly discuss why they love the Web. The applicants shared some amazing stories, anecdotes, and experiences in those posts and I wanted to take a moment to share them with you.1 I present them here, in order of submission.
\n\n\nI still remember the first time a friend with a different provider gave me their email address. I was used to the cozy confines of AOL, where emailing another user required only their “screen name”–what we think of today as the part that goes before the @ sign. (Mine was Maxinator1.)
\n
\n\n“What’s this funny stuff at the end, after your screen name?” I asked.
\n
\n\n“That’s the domain. Mine’s compuserve dot com. Yours must be AOL dot com.”
\n
\n\n“What? You can’t not be on AOL.”
\n
\n\n“Why not?”
\n
\n\n“How do you look at keywords?”
\n
\n\n“I don’t!”
\n
\n\nBelieve it or not, the invention of the web was not to give me something to do when I grew up.
\n
\n\nI see power in the web for the very real capacity it has for good — communication and connection, access to communication, and on and on. And just like magic, it can be wielded in the interest of the light or the darkness (and those lines aren’t always the clearest). I want to do what I can to use it for good.
\n
\n\nI will never stop learning, and I will never stop putting myself out of my financial and intellectual comfort zone. I think that, ultimately, this attitude will lead me to be very successful, even if it means being dirt poor for the next few years :}
\n
\n\nWeb design and web development are not (just) about writing the most flexible, reactive and dynamic app, impressing colleagues and clients, and earning awards. First and foremost it’s about people using our products. I believe that from time to time we all need to be reminded of that fact.
\n
\n\nI can still remember what it was like to build my first website. I had absolutely no clue how to do stuff, it was all trial and error. But going back and forth between blogs, tutorials and stack overflow, watching other people work, shamelessly copying bits and pieces—I improved.
\n
\n\nThe fact that I can just hit
\nview sourceon any website and see how it’s made still amazes me.
\n\nAltough I have a degree in web development now, I can honestly say that I learnt most of what I do by soaking up information available on the open web.
\n
\n\nThis is only made possible by lots of talented people who not only produce great work, but dedicate their time and energy to show others how to do it, too. I don’t know any other profession with such an open exchange of knowledge.
\n
\n\nPeople from around the world actually work together on open-source projects, just to build something that others can use. Top developers in the field will share their latest findings publicly in carefully crafted tutorials and code examples on Github.
\n
\n\nThink about how amazing that is—an entire industry where you can learn every last secret of the trade for free—all you need is dedication and an internet connection.
\n
\n\n“Inter-Connectivity.” It’s a word I learned from an administrator at work. He challenged his team to reach out and reach through to other organizations. Organizations that are probably striving for the same goal that we are, but are too focused to look left or right to see others that are trying to do the same thing.
\n
\n\n…
\n
\n\nIt’s why I love the web. The Internet seems to have a knack for inter-connectivity (hyperlinking, search results, purchase recommendations, @mentions, etc). It doesn’t come as naturally for humans at times. It takes risking assumptions and being intentional. Sometimes we need more of that spiderweb mentality and reach out, not just up or down. My administrator was telling us that, yes, we do a great work, but don’t be blinded to think we’re the only ones. Just imagine what good we could do together with more partners that don’t exactly look or function just like us.
\n
\n\nI started making websites in the mid-90s when I was still in high school. I was fascinated that I could put something up on the web and people anywhere in the world could see it if they knew where to look. That feeling still inspires me, even after 20 years.
\n
\n\nEvery time you are revising your knowledge and things you used to accept as ‘it is so simply because it is so’. And very often can happen that during a process of your professional evolution (in fact does not matter what kind of profession you belong to), you were missing some obvious details which could make your present life as the established professional much easier. The most trivial question can open your eyes on some hidden secrets which were escaping from your attention just because there were dozens and dozens of the different and the more interesting things that seemed more important at that time.
\n
\n\nWhat I love about being a developer is that I’m always learning something new and meeting other more senior devs that are so willing to lend a helping hand to newbies.
\n
\n\nI love what I do now because my experience in development has been diametrically opposed to that previous job. Solutions to problems are almost never a 1:1 ratio, collaboration is embraced, the pursuit of continual learning is highly encouraged, and the communities I’ve been a part of have been thoroughly supportive.
\n
\n\nI thought this was going to be difficult to answer, but it’s actually quite simple - albeit long-winded. I love the immense potential it represents; allowing people to help themselves, allowing people to help others directly, fostering connections in lieu of constant personal contact, delivering new experiences, helping people do good things for free - I could go on. There are just so, so, so many reasons why the web is important. The web extends beyond just websites for me: I used it as a crutch to overcome social anxieties and excessive shyness. I taught myself how to code using resources my parents would not afford on paper. I expressed myself. I entertained myself. I made friends when it was difficult for me to maintain friendships at school - and some of these individuals are close friends of mine seven years later. Heck, the web even introduced to me to my soulmate who is with me in Australia. I loved being on the web and I always wanted to be a creator on it.
\n
\n\nThere are so many lines being crossed for the sake of monetisation, for the sake of control, and I want this to change. Ultimately, I really want to give back in honour of the faceless strangers that made a lot of my life happen the way it did. The web should be better for everyone.
\n
\n\nAs a kid, I rarely played with a toy the same way twice. When I got older I spent my waking hours flipping, spinning, and grinding at the skatepark. In school, I pursued graphic design. A few months into my first nine-to-five, I discovered the web.
\n
\n\nEvery decision along the way was made with that question top-of-mind, “What else can I do with this?”
\n
\n\nI want to keep learning until my children send me into a home, or even when I finally take that dirt nap I hear about.
\n
I truly wish I could mentor all of these folks this year, but I’m only one guy with a day job and a family I’d like to see on occasion. This is going to be one heck of a tough choice. I’d like to take a moment to thank each and every one of these folks (and all of the other applicants) for sharing their stories and their goals with me, with us.
\nI urge you to read their posts and maybe write one of your own.
\nIn other words, there were so many great applications that this will buy me some more time to make my decision :-) ↩︎
\nI didn’t get to where I am in my life and career on my own.
","content_html":"I didn’t get to where I am in my life and career on my own. I have a ton of respect and admiration for the folks who’ve helped and mentored me along the way. Molly Holzschlag took me under her wing and taught me so much about public speaking and selflessly working for a better Web. Jeffrey Zeldman made a place for me at A List Apart, heavily influenced my writing, invited me onto his team at Happy Cog, and has both supported and promoted my work for well over a decade now. Jeremy Keith collaborated with me early on and has provided invaluable guidance to me over the years. And these are but a few of the dozens upon dozens of folks I owe my career to and, if I’m being honest, helped me discover my passion.
\nRecognizing all of this, I’ve made a concerted effort to “pay it forward” by finding opportunities for others to hone their craft and improve as professionals. In some cases it’s been recommending them as conference speakers, introducing them to publishers, recommending them for jobs, asking them to collaborate on projects, or simply providing advice and guidance for their careers or their companies. To date, most of these efforts have been one-offs. For a while now I’ve been wanting to work more intensely with one person, but I needed to get settled into my relatively new role at Microsoft (as well as my new role as a father) first.
\nI’m ready now.
\nI am looking for someone to mentor in 2017. If you’re interested in working with me throughout the year, I’m accepting “applications” for the slot through the end of January. As of right now, I’m only comfortable committing to one mentee for 2017, but once I see how it’s going, I may opt to take on additional mentees in the future.
\nTo me, it doesn’t matter to me where you are in your career… no matter how long we’ve been doing something, there’s always room for improvement. When I think about my ideal mentee, I’m looking for someone who’s passionate about the Web and who I think I can do some good for. I don’t care how young or old you are or how long you’ve worked on the Web. I firmly believe we can always benefit from a mentorship.
\nSimilarly, it doesn’t matter to me where you live nor does it matter to me how good your English is (though it’s probably better than you give yourself credit for). If you happen to be local to the Southeastern U.S. or somewhere I’m traveling over the next year, we’ll definitely spend some time getting together in person, but that is by no means a requirement. Email… Skype… Hangouts… I’m happy to work with you no matter where you are.
\nIn order to apply, all I ask is that you write a public post somewhere on the Web that discusses why you love the Web, where you’re at in your career, and what your goals are for the coming year. I’m not looking for a particular length or anything, just trying to get a sense of you, your passions, and your interests.
\nOnce you’ve done that, use this site’s contact form to send me the link, along with a brief write-up as to why you’d like me to mentor you. In particular I’m interested to hear where our passions overlap and how you think I can help you. I want to make sure we are a good fit. And be honest… if you want me as a mentor because of the connections I have, say that; I appreciate honesty.
\nAnyway, that’s it. No big hoops to jump through. I’ll keep the lines open through Tuesday, January 31st in whatever your local timezone is. I look forward to getting to know you and taking one of you under my wing this year.
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/looking-for-a-mentor/","tags":["career","mentoring"],"date_published":"2017-01-09T17:00:51Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/speaking-engagements/finding-empathy-and-the-golden-rule/","title":"📢 Finding Empathy and the Golden Rule","summary":"I gave this PechaKucha talk on how empathy came to be a central part of my work and life.
","content_html":"I gave this PechaKucha talk on how empathy came to be a central part of my work and life.
\n","social_text":"I gave this PechaKucha talk on how empathy came to be a central part of my work and life.","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/speaking-engagements/finding-empathy-and-the-golden-rule/","tags":["accessibility","career","empathy","equality","inclusion","inclusive design","mentoring","personal","philosophy"],"image":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/undefined","date_published":"2013-12-13T23:00:00Z"},{"id":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/retreat-remembered/","title":"✍🏻 Retreat, remembered","summary":"\tFirst off, this post has been way too long in the making. I should have written it a couple months ago, but that’s the thing about running things, you don’t always have time to come up for air. Anyway, without further ado…
","content_html":"\n\tFirst off, this post has been way too long in the making. I should have written it a couple months ago, but that’s the thing about running things, you don’t always have time to come up for air. Anyway, without further ado…
\n\n\tAs many of you know, we officially launched our new training series, Retreats 4 Geeks, with a HTML5 & CSS3 retreat co-led by Eric Meyer and yours truly. The event was held in an amazing cabin on the side of a mountain in Gatlinburg, TN and, as you can probably guess, it was downright magical.
\n\n\tI know, it’s my event series, so of course I’m gonna gush, but it really was so much better than even I could have imagined, and here’s why:
\n\n\tYeah, some people laughed when they heard we were going to run a tech event in Gatlinburg, but it really was a fantastic location. Sure, it’s a tiny little town tucked in the middle of the mountains, but that “isolation” (though we had crystal clear cell reception and wifi with decent bandwidth) really helped us get the daily stress out of our heads so we could focus on learning and collaborating. Plus, where else can you go for a tasting of moonshine, try a deep-fried Oreo and then walk down the road for a game of “Hillbilly Golf”?
\n\n\tKelly outdid herself when she found our lodge. It was just the right size, offered gorgeous views, and had plenty of amenities to keep us all relaxed and happy for the duration of the retreat. As an added bonus, there was even a family of bears in the neighborhood that paid us a visit to everyone’s disbelief and delight! (Yes, the bears are now on Flickr.)
\n\n\tEric Meyer is an amazing guy. Not only is he one of the smartest people working on the web today, but he’s also an incredibly nice fellow and a helluvalot of fun to hang out with. His sessions were awesome, often mind-blowing (for me too), and very practical. He was also an excellent mentor (as though I expected any less of him) and was really the perfect co-lead for our inaugural retreat. Plus I had a great time working on our silly little CSS transforms tool.
\n\n\tI am by no means blowing smoke when I say that we had an incredible group of attendees. Everyone got along really well and they were just damn fun to be around, whether we were in the classroom, sitting around the dinner table, or trying to guide our very tall van through the gauntlet of a low-roofed parking garage. I was so sad to bid them farewell on the final day (and I know they were too). If it’s any testament as to how awesome they are, I’m actually getting misty thinking about them.
\n\n\tAll told, we felt the retreat was a huge success and are looking forward to organizing next year’s events (to be announced soon!). I’d like to personally extend a huge thank you to Kelly and Jessica for organizing the whole thing and keeping everything running smoothly, to Eric for being an incredible co-trainer, and to all of the attendees for taking a chance on a new idea and making it an incredible experience for all involved.
\n\n\tOh, and one last thing, for the hands-on project on the third day of the event, our attendees built a pretty stellar tribute to Johnny Cash using all of the HTML5 & CSS3 knowledge they gained over the previous two days. I was really happy with the fruits of their labor, especially considering they organized themselves and managed to build it all in less than a day. Great job yet again guys!
\n","url":"https://www.aaron-gustafson.com/notebook/retreat-remembered/","tags":["conferences","mentoring","HTML","CSS"],"date_published":"2011-07-14T10:51:00Z"}]}