• The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done | The New Yorker

  (categories: productivity management gtd email )

• Strategy Means Saying No :: Adam Kalsey
  Yep.
  (categories: strategy decision-making leadership management )

• Bringing an AI Product to Market – O’Reilly
  Guardrail metrics were a new thing to read about, need to read more about the experimentation / AB testing parts.
  (categories: ml ai product-management machine-learning metrics )

• The (Not Failing) New York Times — Mine Safety Disclosures
  Strategy: diagnosis (advertising is dead), guiding principle (journalism matters), coherent actions (clean up balance sheet, invest in content & tech, launch new revenue streams).
  (categories: business strategy nytimes.com )

• Work on what matters | StaffEng
  Quote: "… the only viable long-term bet on your career is to do work that matters, work that develops you and to steer towards companies that value genuine expertise."
  (categories: career management productivity leadership )

• How to waste your career, one comfortable year at a time – Valley Girl Newsletter
  Quote: "1) Accomplishment: Have I done anything noteworthy these last three months? 2) Impact: Would I write a line in my resume about the work I have done over these three months? Would I value this specific work experience if I was hiring for my own company? 3) Growth/Future alignment: Have I acquired valuable insights or skills? Are these skills aligned with my future goals? 4)Challenge: Have there been days when I was thinking about a work problem in the shower so profoundly that I forgot if I used the soap or not? 5) Community: Am I excited and happy to go to work every morning and see my teammates. Do I believe in the mission, vision, and leadership of this team or company? "
  (categories: career )

• How Google Cloud’s Kelsey Hightower became one of the most respected people in cloud computing – Protocol
  Awesome.
  (categories: people kubernetes culture motivation learning )

• Why Some SaaS Companies Stall Out at $20m ARR | SaaStr
  Quote: "You have to be the one they love."
  (categories: nps metrics startups business saas csat )

• Oliver Burkeman’s last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian
  Quote: "When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness." Also, "… the capacity to tolerate minor discomfort is a superpower."
  (categories: life advice culture comfort )

• The Cadence: How to Operate a SaaS Startup | by David Sacks | Craft Ventures | Medium
  Lots to digest here… I like the product / marketing pairing… the focus on quarterly boundaries, and the event cadence.
  (categories: management operations saas startups business )

• Practice Analytically, Perform Intuitively — David Perell
  Quote: "Bryson showed that a determined contrarian, armed with the right data and a definitive plan, can upend conventional wisdom and prove that there’s a better way to do something. "
  (categories: analytics metrics measurement practice analysis )

• Jade Rubick – Engineering leaders should obsess over feedback loops
  My favorite people: John Boyd and Jade Rubick!
  (categories: agile speed softwareengineering )

• Ryan Holiday’s 33 Favorite Pieces of Advice for Life  | Forge
  Lots of great quotes on time, relationships, learning, and values.
  (categories: advice life )

• microCOVID Project
  Easy to use tool to estimate Covid risk levels for various situations… likely useful for the next 12 months plus.
  (categories: coronavirus covid risk statistics )

I’m not sure when it was over the last 14 years that I’ve lived in Oregon that I heard about the Timberline Trail that circumnavigates Mt. Hood, but I’m pretty sure that once I heard about it that I knew I had to do it.. but I had to find some folks to do it with me. My oldest turned 15 last December and at a campout over Memorial Day weekend with some friends, he mentioned that he’d be up for it, which immediately started my countdown timer and set plans in motion.

I planned and then hiked a couple of trails (7 miles for Lolo Pass to Bald Mountain and back, 10 miles on the Twin Lakes loop, and 15 miles for Horseshoe Ridge / Cast Lake) which doubled as Boy Scout Hiking Merit Badge activities for my son, and then pored over a bunch of blog posts (1, 2, 3) that described where to camp, how long to hike, what to watch out for, and what the experience was like. I put together a plan, which changed slightly as I read about campsites, and eventually ended up with this:

• Friday (afternoon / evening): Timberline Lodge to Paradise Park (~5 miles)
• Saturday: Paradise Park to Cairn Basin (~16 miles)
• Sunday: Cairn Basin to Tilly Jane Campground (~9 miles)
• Monday: Tilly Jane Campground to Timberline Lodge (~14 miles)

which enabled us to minimize vacation days and get the trail done with a couple of 15 year old boys who are go-getters but might not have bitten off on 3 consecutive 15 mile+ days on the trail.

Day 1: The weather this past weekend worked out well.. except for Friday night which was cloudy and rainy and led to epic views of Mt. Hood on the trail like this:

We started out around 3pm on Friday afternoon from Timberline Lodge and hiked the approximately 5.5 miles with 1200 feet of elevation gain to Paradise Park in a little less than 3 hours… which was important because at about 2.5 hours it started to drizzle and rain. We found an cozy campsite that was slightly west of the main trail (Paradise Park is a popular / easy hike and there were at least 4 other obvious campsites already in use) and settled in for the night after dinner. It rained (not drizzled) until maybe 1am but the clouds cleared and the sun came out the next morning for an Day 2 that started with gorgeous views:

Day 2: We got up early, had coffee, packed up, and started the longest day of the trip, which ended up being more than 16 miles and 3k feet of elevation gain, with a backpack, at least according to my Suunto GPS watch. This was definitely the longest and hardest day on the trail. We stood on the top of beautiful ridges,

saw a bunch of campsites (for the next trip), and took selfies at Ramona Falls

before starting the long climb to Bald Mountain, McNeil Point, and eventually Cairn Basin. Water was scarce between Bald Mountain and McNeil Point and the 16 miles we did that day was draining… but refilling our water and getting snacks onboard late in the afternoon energized everyone and we eventually made it to Cairn Basin, with views like this:

Tons of campsites at Cairn Basin, relatively few hikers there, but lots of mosquitoes. Don’t forget your bug spray.

Day 3: a purposefully easy hike from Cairn Basin to Tilly Jane Campground, where our significant others were planning to meet us for a car camping extravaganza (steaks! potatoes! greens!) and to enable us to offload the big packs so that we could go light on Day 4. We passed a bunch of gorgeous campsites and larger campgrounds like Elk Cove, skipped over an amazing number of big and small rivers and creeks, and eventually arrived at Tilly Jane Campground literally within seconds of our SO’s arriving in a car. Oh wait, I skipped over the hardest part. At about mile 7 of the trek, we got a glimpse of Cloud Cap Inn and we all got that “we’re so close!” feeling… and then you hit the new Eliot trail (the old one was unusable after being washed out a couple years ago), where you lose 600 feet over a bunch of switchbacks, have to cross the Eliot Branch (I took a swim by accident, there is a big log to cross over but we didn’t see it), and then climb back up 600 of vertical wall, all in about 1 mile.

Day 4: pack up multiple tents, had an satisfying breakfast (sausage, egg, and cheese muffins), and hit the trail with a bang. 1k feet of elevation gain right off the bat to get back to Timberline trail from Tilly Jane in a moonscape:

A couple miles later we came around a bend and were all very impressed with Gnarl Ridge and Lamberson Spur:

which I’ve never been up close and personal with, and are breathtaking. After 14 miles, almost 4k feet of vertical gain, and more than 7 hours on the trail, we finally made it back to Timberline Lodge:

Things I’ll remember / change:

• Green Trails Maps are super informative (the horizontal mileage and elevation grid for the trail is a nice addition), compact, and waterproof (mine took a swim), buy one for your next trip.
• My son and I both sported Altra Trail Running shoes and Altra gaiters… and had no blisters, no foot pain, and never had to take our shoes off to shake out debris. Highly recommended in lieu of heavy hiking boots.
• Instead of buying backpacking food containers, I did a couple of DIY backpacking meals from Andrew Skurka, namely the Rice & Beans (on Saturday night), and the Quickstart Cereal (2 separate mornings), both of which entered the clean plate… err bag club.
• I bought a Jetboil FluxRing Cooking Pot before the trip, hoping to be able to use it to cook the rice and beans… and literally the first time I used it, I burned a hole in the bottom plastic cover because I forgot to remove it. Looking at the reviews on the replacement part, it looks like I’m not the first… and won’t be the last to make the same mistake. Hopefully there’s a product designer somewhere at JetBoil who’s thinking about UI hints that could be added that would dramatically reduce the # of people who burn holes in the protective cover.
• Having hiking sticks / poles to get across creeks was money.
• I used pine needles / grass to clean my pot (tip from REI) after making the rice / beans, which worked well.
• If you forget that your JetBoil lighter doesn’t work, make sure to bring matches or a friend who brings matches.
• Brought way too much food, need to dial the quantities back next time to save weight.
• Clockwise around the mountain seemed like the way to go… maybe it was just that we were all exhausted by the 4th day, but the trail through White River / Mt. Hood Meadows seemed boring / desolate compared to the other start through Paradise Park.
• The night before and the day of the trip was a little nerve wracking… I knew I could do it but I think my mind also knew that it would be hard. My son had a sunburn on his shoulders and pushed (not too hard) to back out at the last minute… but the last day and the day after were very satisfying. I’ve bookmarked a number of quotes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that talk about the act of pushing yourself into uncomfortable places being a source of growth and joy… or as Eric Larsen wrote in a blog post awhile back: “… One of my favorite authors, Sigurd Olsen, used the term ‘Lighting Out’ to describe the physical act of leaving the comfort and convenience of modern civilization and heading out into the wilderness. For some, purposefully putting yourself in uncomfortable situations seems ridiculous at best.”… and I really felt that after the trip. I slept horribly the last night, the last 5 miles was draining, and everything ached the day after… but unplugging and being with people and in nature, was something I desperately needed. Lighting out. Love that.

I’ll definitely do it again someday… maybe in 5 years when the next one turns 15.

• It’s Very Hard to Tear Down a Bridge Once It’s Up
  Quote: "Legislation can always be changed. It’s very hard to tear down a bridge once it’s up."
  (categories: politics strategy 2020 united-states )

• Certbot – Debianstretch Apache
  Just enabled Let’s Encrypt on my blog and project websites in less than a minute… what a great experience. Thanks EFF!
  (categories: ssl https )