Week Notes 008

The Week

The saga continues with this spike we had open, and took a turn for the worse. Not learning my lesson from last week, I asked about this one again. In the course of the ensuing conversation, I let my frustrations - mostly with something outside of work, actually - get in the way. Just a really off day where I would have been better off keeping my mouth shut, but I seem not to be built that way. I was trying to help, and completely unconcerned with the people aspect of what was happening because I wasn't talking about the people part, just the "getting this work done" part. But, as a lead, I should have been considering that people part. I got some feedback about it, and apologized to the people involved. They were very understanding after I explained and assured me everything was fine. Luckily, there are quite a few people on my team willing to both come to me with feedback or provide when I asked them. Good learning moment for me, I think.

There were some other problems this week though, around topics that are a lot to get into here. The short version is I got some negative feedback from someone about my lack of enthusiasm for the work of a different person on the team. There's a good reason, in this case - and generally, I've tried to be as liberal with my praise as I can be without sounding sycophantic - but I could not convince the person providing this negative feedback of that fact. And a difference in opinion about something like this is inevitable, and not exactly the problem. The problem is I can't seem to let go of those negative words. Most other people are telling me what a good job I'm doing as tech lead. People I've talked to about this situation today were quick to reiterate that. And I even think I'm right, and that none of my behavior was in any way unprofessional. But those negative words are sticking with me, anyway. Letting go these things is really hard.

Definitely feeling like this tech lead role isn't for me. I knew some of the negatives and pitfalls that were part and parcel of the role going into it. I'm lucky to have great working and personal relationships with some smart, experienced devs who have done the tech lead thing a bunch. So, after talking with them about wanting to try out being a tech lead, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. But those things - like attending all the meetings, not getting to actually build stuff as much, etc. - were really just a lot tougher to deal with than I expected. And the pressures and unique composition of the current team make this worse, but I think I'd be feeling this way even without those challenges.

Not sure how to end it this time. My lead on this team pushed me pretty hard to take some time off, so maybe that's the best thing to do.

The Links

• Understanding Layout Algorithms

  Josh Comeau sharing his experience with finally seeing the whole forest for CSS. Still digesting this one.

• CSS-Only Wizard Loader

  I'm really into these loaders lately, I guess.

• Swipe Gallery Demo

  Cassie Evans, who is an absolute delight, created this amazing demo using GSAP.

• Twitter Tip for Number Inputs

  Quick tip on converting an input's value to a number. Very handy.

• Animation Dev Tools

  In case it isn't obvious by now, I think animation is just the coolest, most fun thing to do on the web. I'm not great at it, but it's fun. These dev tools look pretty helpful and easy to use.

• Cut Corners Using CSS Mask and Clip-path Properties

  Masks and clip-path still feel like rather opaque concepts to me. They're just difficult for me to wrap my head around. This is the latest article I've read trying to finally understand them.

Send-off

And that's it, folks. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back next week. Have a great weekend!