The local community college in my area has a program called second start. It is a program that allows for a later start date for courses for those who either missed, or made a late decision to sign up for the semester. But what’s great about this name, and the concept is that I believe that it applies to much more than community college.

In my life, this is how I have advanced forwards more times than not.

I don’t know about you, but it seems that I rarely get all that I need on the first go round, or even the 10th. It’s not that I am lazy or don’t take my work or life seriously. I just need longer for things to soak in. I am that friend that beats the dead horse (or however that saying goes). And so that means that I often find myself starting over, and over, and over. Way beyond a second try.

I used to be embarrassed by that fact. Why couldn’t I be like all the others who just...

I recently finished reading Napoleon Chagnon’s Memoir, Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes – The Yanomamo and The Anthropologists. And I have to say that it kinda blew my mind.

I was skeptical, because this is an anthropologist that comes with lots of controversy. I remember being introduced to him in graduate school in my ethnographic methods seminar, along with the disclaimer that maybe there were two sides to his story. In this memoir, you can tell that Chagnon is still angry, maybe even bitter, about what he sees as unfair treatment, and what some anthropologist see as shoddy science. Reading through the events from his perspective, I can’t blame him for how he feels.

But what blew my mind the most was some of his revelations about the schism within cultural anthropology. As a medical anthropologist myself, I have never been discouraged from using scientific...

These last few years have been a constant whirlwind. From leaving my job, to learning how to code, to becoming a freelancer, and moving beyond, I have been constantly learning. And while I have learned to sustain drinking from the fire hose, I realized that I needed to take a step back.

I had reached a point where I was so mired in the what and how I was doing things, that I no longer had a why. Learning how to code is a lot, and if you are like me, you are trying to make the most of each situation. That meant that over the course of the last 3 years, I have worked on existing Rails apps, new Rails apps, Drupal sites, WordPress sites. I have coded in HTML, CSS, Python, Ruby, Rails, SQL and more. I have learned about site infrastructure, unit testing, product management, project manager, user research, community management and straight up coaching.

Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed...

I have been on a journey that started a little over a year ago. On this journey, I kept saying things like I want to be good, I want to be really better at what it is that I do. What I learned was that I had a need for Mastery.

When I was young, and again as an adult, I trained in martial arts. The difference between martial arts and the other competitive endeavors that I have been involved in is the goal. In most competitions, the goal is to win. In martial arts the goal is to become a master. A master is great at what they do because they have taken their practice to a new level. They are always pushing themselves and refining their technique. It has nothing to do with winning. Winning is superficial. Mastery is fundamental.

It was a missing key. Mastery is this thing that I have always known about, but somehow had stopped pursuing.

And so I have been seeking it out. I read...

What a difference a year makes.

This time last year, I was just at the beginning of trying to find my way. After working for a job that I loved learning and growing at, the company had layoffs. I was one of many who had to pack my things and go. I didn’t think much of it all since I had experienced corporate decision making in the past.

I was doing fine until those last lonely minuets of powering down my system and turning around to say goodbye. My co-workers looked so sad, and it wasn’t until later that I realized that they brought tears to my eyes.

And then there was…Nurse Jackie. As in, I didn’t know what to do with myself so I watched all of the remaining episodes of Nurse Jackie for two weeks. It slowly dawned on me that I was a bit lost. I had never not worked before.

Not me. Not work and go to school and do internships at the same time, me. And for the first time ever, I...

Many moons ago when I was pursuing my anthropology graduate degree I also volunteered in an ER. I was focusing on medical anthropology and seriously considering medical school. Being the geek that I am this was a super exciting way for me to spend my Thursday nights, and a reason for my very British co-worker to make fun of me for bailing on our bi-weekly happy hours.

Although I choose technology instead of med school (for a whole host of reasons that could be its own blog post), I did learn this thing that I believe to be the best advice I have received so far.

See One, Do One, Teach One

The first time I heard this, I had no idea what it meant. I was on the floor at the ER, where most of the time I helped the patient advocates and restocked the trauma rooms (which was an excuse for me to watch real traumas in action cause I NEVER got told to leave). One of the patient advocates...

I am an anthropologist, which for those who don’t know, is a fancy title for a human scientist that studies all that humans have been, are, and will be. I am also a software engineer. For me, this means that I get to make things using code magic like Harry Potter. Until recently, these ends of my life didn’t get to meet that much. But that is all changing.

For some time I have been trying to figure out how I want these puzzle pieces of anthropology and software to fit together. I have documented the process of getting here and truly taken the time to figure out where I want to go next. When you are a person with so many interests, trying to narrow down and focus on one seems impossible. I started where I last left off, entrepreneurship.

Ever since my time at The Iron Yard, I have been inspired by startups and entrepreneurs. As a result, I started going to meetups and had a stint as...

For those who know me, you know that this year has been a journey. One that I didn’t exactly mean to embark on, but one that I seemed bound to take.

It all started last Christmas when I was off of work for the holiday. 2015 had been a progressive year for me. I was working as an software engineer, on a team, and learning all the time. I was also still freelancing, with some working being in rails, some being more tied to data analysis, and some straight up writing. It was also my first semester in graduate school (again) and let’s not forget that I had signed up to be the co-founder of a health related start up. Needless to say, I was happy for the break when it came.

Once I had finally been given the chance to stop and think a while I realized that with all that I was doing, I was sad about what I still wasn’t doing. I wasn’t actively doing the things that made me happy. What were...

This year I had the chance to go to the AAA conference. For those that are not anthropologists, this is the American Anthropological Association’s annual conference. Not the car club.

I never got to attend the meeting when I was a grad student. There was the money thing, and being able to afford the hotel stay and the plane ticket. But there was also a time thing, since I was working full time, doing fieldwork and volunteering at hospitals. I just didn’t see how I could squeeze it in with that kind of a schedule. I wouldn’t have gone this year if it wasn’t for the fact that I was on a panel. And that happened mostly because of my mentor. But nevertheless, it was a worthwhile experience.

For one, I got to meet a bunch of anthropologists that I had only spoken to online. That felt super cool and also a little weird. Everyone looks a little different in person than a skype call or a...