R 'Nearest' Nabors @ Config + AI Eng World Fair
@nearestnabors
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Alter ego of @rachelnabors escaping bloated follower count and X's messed up algos. Come for the threads on leadership. Stay for the music videos!
London, UK
Joined January 2024
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
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Pinned Tweet
Back in June 2023, I saw my Twitter engagement sliced in half. Where previously I was getting 100+ likes on a tweet every week, suddenly I was lucky to get 10. Nothing had changed, but my friends said they were not seeing me in either timelines. So I'm trying this alt for a bit!
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Two years ago, I went back to Seattle, excited to build a team at AWS. One year and a hiring freeze later, I was "impacted by layoffs" while at a wedding. It sucked. I had changed my life and was all-in on the endeavor. Poof.
It's been a year. I'm back in London. I'm happy.
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@trashh_dev
Does anyone else realise how much "rawdogging" brings sex (and sometimes unwanted sexual practices like stealthing) into a professional conversation? Is anyone else grossed out every time?
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I've been a bit lost career-wise since the layoffs. I've tried a few things, but much as I love teaching the world at scale, I'm not sure it's what the world needs right now. Which begs the question, what does the world need from a Rachel?
Things to think about
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Hello, new old followers.
So the twitter algo basically started ignoring
@rachelnabors
in June 2023.
But I missed talking shit here, so I started this alt.
Turns out the algo still likes what I share, it just doesn't like
@rachelnabors
?
Anyway, good to see you again!
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I really enjoy engineering again 😁
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Hey hey,
@CascadiaJS
! Threaded below are the slides from Alice Returns to Web Animations Land, complete with handy links! Please enjoy, and GO MAKE SOMETHING AWESOME!!
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If you're stuck in "the tunnel," it does end. You do come to the other side, and you can look back and say, "gosh I'm glad I'm not in the tunnel anymore." But you'll also appreciate where it takes you.
The only way out is through.
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I lost my FOMO when I realized there's no cool kids club I can join to find belonging or happiness in life.
I had to find the cool kids club... In my heart 💜
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It's been a year. I have set up a new home base and reunited with some of my favorite human beings. I have spent most of my time helping great educators cut loose by layoffs connect with work. And by doing this, I've ended up building a small DevX agency.
I'm really happy
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For the first time in a long time, I have no sinking feeling.
There's nothing exciting about to happen or prise of greatness on the horizon. To be real, career mode feels stalled.
And yet, there's no pit in my stomach, no fear nor anxiety.
Just a feeling of ease and readiness
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I'm not dev rel.
Folks want me to speak at confs, but I don't have anything to sell, and I don't get paid for it.
So I only agree to speak at confs that pass a points system: chill vibes, cool location, ace people, topic I'm curious AF about (graphics, anarchy)
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First morning in Seattle like
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I go outside and can see birds tending their nests. I get on a train, and I can be in Paris. I share my life with someone who cares about me. I spend my working hours helping people teach the world.
It's a far cry from waking up at 7am and working till 1am in an empty city
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A critical component of all relationships—romantic, personal, and professional—is something called "rupture and repair." If you're a manager, you have to be GOOD at repair. Unfortunately, many people were not trained in this skill by their parents. Here's what you do...
On
@rachelnabors
I mentioned making a talk about "managing ourselves" covering regulating emotions, setting boundaries, reframing, and letting go. I like to start thinking about these things as threads, so here goes
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You can be an engineer who enjoys writing and teaching without choosing to take the technical writer career path.
It's not that I don't like writing. It's just that I like engineering and THEN writing about it, and technical writers are often paid less to do that or are editors
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I often sew during group meetings that I'm not leading or speaking in so I can focus on listening
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Was it worth it?
The influx of cash made it possible for me to get my own visa and probably buy a house. The experiences have made me wiser and a better leader and strategist. It was worth it, and I'd do it again.
But I am much happier now
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Epilogue
It's different working with people as a consultant. But I like it. I get to team up with some of my favorite advocates and founders without the anxiety of "what if there are MOAR layoffs/leadership needs something different/etc?"
I come, I make it happen <3
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I want to put up a one page bio site without thinking too hard. What do you use?
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TBH I was not surprised. I know how companies treat employees when push comes to shove. As I saw my friends getting hit by layoffs, I quietly began the paperwork to get a Global Talent Visa back to the UK with the help of friends. My visa was accepted the same day I was laid off
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Quarterly life dashboard checking shows my Play, Relationships and Health quads are doing superbly despite Work flagging. Yay
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Just arrived in Oakland/SF for
@figma
config and AI Eng World Fair!
Wanna hang out? I'll be here all week!
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6 months before the Pandemic. I was new to London. Arranged to meet a guy in OKCupid at my fave teahouse.
For hours, I made him tiny cups of tea while he listened to me infodump, hyped on caffeine, about raising geese and teaching the world to code.
It takes a special person🤣
Please rt with the story of how you met your s/o. I want to know. Even if it’s “not interesting” 🫶🏼
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Honestly feel like I'm living my dream these days. My real dream. Thank you
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I am really enjoying working on web animations again. I was so eager to plug away, I pulled out my laptop on the subway 😆
Wouldn't it be nice if I could channel this energy into something everyone could use? 😉
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I get bragging rights to this forever, right?
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I took time to go to Long COVID rehab and organized the sale of most of my belongings. I left Seattle to travel the USA and reunite with all my favorite people at conferences. It was a slow goodbye, because I couldn't see any compelling reason to return in the near future
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I'm back home in London! I'm so happy to be home <3
I haven't felt "happy to be home" like this before. Previously, I was always meh on returning home. I liked to keep moving and meeting people and enjoying new places. But man, am I happy to be with my partner and friends again!
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I'm not opposed to ever working for a company again, nor to returning to Big Tech. But given the "current economic environment," this seems to be the most stable configuration, like taking your ship to sea during a hurricane
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@wollantine
@trashh_dev
My litmus test for professional conversation and content is "would I feel awkward/inappropriate explaining this to an 8 year old girl excited to get into my industry."
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So... I haven't even got 300 followers here and already I'm getting more daily engagements on my tweets than in my big 34k account. SMH
On the bright side, this feels way cozier and intimate, dontcha think?
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I don't know what this is but I want it
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I'd moved back to the USA for Career Opportunity. And then there were no more opportunities. Only dinners with colleagues speaking in hushed and frustrated tones. Friends shattered at the loss of a role they'd had for years. Back biting and desperate tactics. Grief.
No thanks.
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Still happy with the decisions I've made <3
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I'm 25% more fun to go to museums with now that I've learned how to spot healed injuries in fossilized bones 🥳
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Wow,
@TC39
representing at
@Future_Frontend
!
@robpalmer2
@ryzokuken
@littledan
@smooshMap
talking I18n, signals and more features for JavaScript!
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Moving in with someone is a lot like joining a new team. You have to learn how they want to do things and be treated while simultaneously sharing how you want to be treated. It's a delicate dance of goodwill and compromise/collaboration. Boundaries and sharing
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The verdict is we are honking adorable
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I'm looking for someone to edit some videos. Who do you <3 ?
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For my birthday, I was given a Kindle that can access Japan's Amazon library (my old one could not—too old!).
I'm now reading about wolves.
This makes me extremely happy
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One pandemic later I am finally going to see
@pitchfork_band
! Legendary
@RenderATL
fannypack: engage!
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Relationships are more about evolving together than toughing things out
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Upstairs at
@Future_Frontend
with
@mo__javad
upstairs watching
@Mappletons
talking LLMs and design 💜
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On
@rachelnabors
I mentioned making a talk about "managing ourselves" covering regulating emotions, setting boundaries, reframing, and letting go. I like to start thinking about these things as threads, so here goes
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Lately, I feel less like "I NEED someone to grow old with" and more "it would be COOL to grow old with someone I like" followed by questions of "are we 'better together'" instead of "will we be together forever?"
It's a different mindset that only set in recently
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Recently learned people don't like the way I ask so many questions. Like, really don't like it/read too much I to it. I'm usually either really curious or trying to build a working mental model of how things came to be so I can understand where they are going
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For the better part of the ~20 years I've been working, I used to feel the need to be seen, respected, adored. I didn't feel safe being unnoticed, in a meeting, at a party.
So I spoke at confs, ran communities, joined core teams, made popular comics. Attention was safety to me.
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Man, I love having clients. The best part is getting the right things done on time with the right people
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I used to think life was something I could workshop: if I read enough books, if I worked through enough worksheets, I'd find the path I was supposed to be on.
But you can't plan life, can't predict it to do so. The best way to navigate life is to live it
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I'm working on a lot of fun/foolhardy ideas lately. Would you like to watch
@pomber
and I hack on the new
@codehike_
v1 API on the docs and tuts your fave tech live??
(Please say yes)
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Woman says, "No, I think they were probably invented here. You can look it up."
I did.
Freaking Otis is an American company and bought the parents from American inventors.
I wish I were able to bullshit with pride half as well as this lady, though I do pity her ignorance
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So happy to be back in Amsterdam
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There's only one browser
There's only one company driving it
Its technology will always skew toward collecting user data and selling it to advertisers
But to criticise this is to cast shade on the friendly people who are deeply devoted to this "open web"
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Additionally, I've been considering moving to a gender-neutral username for a long time. If I'm successful as "nearestnabors," I'll slide over here. In 2022, I came out as non-binary to my coworkers at AWS. In 2023, I returned to London as "they/them" (a lot harder in the UK!)
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Me: "Ugh, why does Twitter suck and I'm being aged out?"
*proceeds to set up base of operations on TikTok and begins cracking their algo*
I posted a video of my visit to the Nvidia campus and when the plane landed it had almost 100 faves. The dopamine is BACK, baby!
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No more swag. Please stop. My closet cannot take anymore!!
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What is the programming equivalent of "grinding"? I'm reading a book about twitch streamers, and it swears that grinding is the best time to engage with people in chat, and I'm thinking aside from performing locational refactoring, I can't think of a time...
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Helsinki in endless summer
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@rachelnabors
Sometimes I wonder... how much of dev rel has been neurotypical people needing interpreters for neurodivergent communities/markets?
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Later career behaviours that have given me energy:
1) not needing to be in the spotlight/external validation
2) forgetting the story you tell yourself about former employers/exes/etc (you get that RAM back!)
3) not internalizing rejection—it is often not about you so let it go
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My short bet/hot take is that The Browser is dead.
It died a while back.
Chrome won. And the last time a browser won, its parent company stopped innovating and the Web stalled. Browsers stalled. The Dot-com bubble was a bust and everyone had to find jobs.
Feel familiar?
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In 1 hour at
@Future_Frontend
(and in one week at
@CascadiaJS
), we're going DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE of CSS5, JavaScript, and the Web Animations API to develop an interactive storybook from the Flash era!
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Yesterday visited the inspiration for Belle's hometown, Obernai
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I have done so much glue work. There's not much engineer left.
I am not alone in this fate.
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I might try building something to help me make interactive stories with DOM Elements.
Inventory management, NPCs, dialog, scene and event management, individual and global state management
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Leadership interviews always ask the hard questions like, what was the last time you had to do something you felt strongly against? Why DID you leave XYZ? WHO STOOD YOU UP FOR PROM??
I'm exhausted, y'all😮💨
Tomorrow I'll make something nice💖
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Something I've learned over 5 years of divorce, pandemic, international moves, layoffs, ad infinitum...
I don't belong. Not here. Not there. Not to anyone or any institution.
At first this sounds sad. But if you think about it long enough, it's freeing to not belong to anyone
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Things that only happen in the UK.
I was on the escalator with my bf explaining that in every other country I've been to, people don't walk up the escalator. Just in the UK. We were conjecturing why this might be when the older English woman in front of us turns around and..
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Beautiful to see you again, Seattle fam💜 I wish I could stay longer and get up to even greater shenanigans with you all! Thank you for your encouragement, your support, and your PICKLEBALL!💪
Next stop: Oakland!!
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I imagine it starts with "I BEG YOUR PARDON" and involves a very affronted "I'll have you KNOW."
But I was not sure how to do it, so I just bit my lip and narrowed my eyes because I have had these head butts in the past and the other person never corrects their mental model
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My
#cascadiajs
Alice in Web Animations Land slides:
Come follow me on other socials/get my newsletter on surviving your tech career at !
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When I was dating, it was not often I found partners who wanted to listen or take my advice seriously.
Turns out, picking up what I lay down is a green flag and a filter. In a long-term relationship, you need your partner to take your ideas, concerns, and advice to heart
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I feel like all the best women in React now work at Netflix...
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I like the idea of a "lifestyle job"—a job that's not about getting paid a lot but about having the life you want: company off sites, holiday parties, office or lack thereof, clock out at 5, and pays enough you are living a good enough life. Not a rich life, just a good one
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Fuck I ate too much lobster
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I really like being able to take life at my own pace. Last week, in Paris, I felt excited to be at a conf again (merci beaucoup
@reactconn
). I was able to rest from my cold (which I spent reading comp sci textbooks). Next week, I'm excited to get back into it with my client
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The goose is loose💖💪🪿
🙌 Always an awesome time at
@RNLmeetup
this past Wednesday! Many thanks to
@getsentry
for making it happen, and providing the awesome freshly-made falafel pitas for everyone 🧆
Here are a few photos I took 😉 I don't have everyone's Twitters so please tag them!
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Largely I am where I am because despite pain and failure, I get up and go again. And again. And again. Every time. Where others might take a break, I go again.
Tweak my approach. Go again. Never retreating. Never ceding territory if I can help it.
It is very tiring...
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I have a guide I had people when I start working with their teams. Recently updated with a warning that I ask A LOT of questions!
Do you have one of these? (Link below!)
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consolation prize for more tooth surgery
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10 hours in this chair. Last time I do "delight" class -.-
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