The Right Side of History
When I was younger, I was obsessed with the American Revolution. What a time to be alive, I’d fantasize, to be a part of history as it was being written, to feel like every action taken somehow contributed to our [...] Read more
7 Ways to Manage Quarantine Life with a Newborn
It’s been an interesting two months of living the isolationist lifestyle at home with my husband. The month was my ninth month of pregnancy. The second was our first month of life with a newborn. To top it off, my [...] Read more
Introducing Everyday Experts: A New Podcast
For the past six months, I’ve been working on a new podcast called Everyday Experts , where I profile people from a variety of jobs and industries about the people and systems behind the work they do. I know a [...] Read more
Keep Calm and Stay Human
Every morning I wake up and the headlines look a little bit more like a post-apocalyptic novel. Today’s included: Trump suspends most travel from Europe to try to limit virus Tom Hanks and his wife both have Coronavirus NBA suspends [...] Read more
What We Can Learn from Works in Progress
A glimpse at the lower level of the Guggenheim Museum during an exhibit changeover this spring. This Exhibit Under Construction A couple of months ago, I went to see a show at the Guggenheim Museum while their main veranda was [...] Read more
How to Interview an Executive Coach (or a Doula)
I hired an executive coach the same month that I hired a doula. As it turned out, these were pretty similar tasks. So, I thought it might be helpful to share some reflections about how I approached this process and [...] Read more
Explaining the rules of a game? Start with the goals
Learning the rules of a game If you’ve ever been introduced to a new game, it’s important to start with the rules. In all likelihood, if you’re playing a game as a group, someone else around the table — maybe, [...] Read more
My 2020 Mantra: Lead with Compassion
Setting annual mantras Every year around this time, I think it’s important to take a beat and reflect back on all of the areas of my life. At work, we have “offsites,” rife with annual planning and progress checks on our [...] Read more
How Duolingo achieved a 50:50 gender ratio for new software engineer hires
Recently, Duolingo hit a milestone that we are very proud of: our incoming software engineer hires from universities have reached a 50:50 gender ratio.1 This is a significant achievement in light of the historical gender imbalance in the tech industry. However, [...] Read more