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Recently-ish

5 min read

Planted: 17 months ago

Last tended to: 10 months ago

a sunny seascape in Berlin

Work

A long-running gag among Product Managers is that when most people hear what we do, they repeat back Project Manager. There is a little bit of overlap, but these roles are accomplishing very different things. My parents can’t quite wrap their heads around the uniqueness of my role in Mozambique’s job landscape, persistently nudging me towards more “secure” careers.

Curious about what it’s like being a PM? This Medium post is a pretty thorough rundown of what it is like being one. Read it when you have some time to spare. If you want a laugh, check out this more humorous take. Also, hats off to fellow PMs navigating the turbulent seas of restructuring and layoffs since last year.

I also attended a big tech event (Google Cloud’s Berlin Launch) for the first time. It was wonderfully organised with some fascinating talks. I wished for more networking opportunities, but it didn’t happen. And a shoutout to the DJ – she spun magic, but sadly, the dance floor was a ghost town.

Reading

Books? What books? 😔 My reading these days is all about long-form articles and forum threads. But I’m planning a literary comeback, I promise.

Listening

  • Travis Scott’s new album is a luxurious and lush soundscape that is mostly devoid of any deeper meaning.

  • ANOHNI’s new release is growing on me.

  • Kode9 & Burial had a quiet release that I greatly enjoyed.

Playing

I traded my PlayStation for a friend’s Xbox a few weeks ago, primarily to play Pentiment – a murder mystery unfolding in 16th-century Germany. I was hankering to get going immediately, but summer had other plans ☀️

I’m already through the first two acts of the game (three total?), and I must say, I’m having a good time! The controls aren’t quite to my taste, and sometimes Andreas, the main character, moves at a snail’s pace when I just want him to run. The writing is a mixed bag – sometimes it’s brilliant, particularly when delving into themes of time, regret, and life’s cyclical nature. At other times, it can feel a bit dry and like the worst academic exercise.

Nevertheless, I’m curious to see how the story ends. If you’ve played it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watching

  • Barbie is a terrific movie, but Margot Robbie’s performance didn’t quite hit the mark with me. There’s a visible gender divide in its critique, with men bemoaning its overt messages. Here’s a nice quote from Trevor Noah’s biography that is relevant: “The way my mother always explained it, the traditional man wants a woman to be subservient, but he never falls in love with subservient women. He’s attracted to independent women. “He’s like an exotic bird collector,” she said. “He only wants a woman who is free because his dream is to put her in a cage.”

  • The newest Mission Impossible was good, but quite up to par with the previous three. I watched it at IMAX and it looked like the image was just stretched out to fill the entire screen - never had that problem before. However, Pom and Hayley are stellar additions to the franchise!

  • They Cloned Tyrone. Now, that’s a drive-in movie! Great acting all around, and Jamie Foxx’s ad-libbing was a treat (almost every line sounds like he’s doing it too). Plus, that film grain 😍

Spoiler: More thoughts on Tyrone I was watching it with a friend who commented about the lax security in the labs, and the TLDR version I gave her was that the White people never thought someone would make it inside. The longer version is that it illustrates a system rooted in White supremacy (and patriarchy), one that has confidently erected barriers to marginalize, subjugate, and constrain Black individuals. presuming they could never surmount these challenges. They assumed collaboration was impossible or underestimated their ability to resist this oppressive system. Kiefer Sutherland’s character’s laid-back demeanor encapsulates the self-assuredness of White privilege. It’s an aspect of the film that profoundly resonated with me.

  • Dungeons & Dragons is a fun, relaxing watch.

  • Platonic: Season 1 crept up on me. I thought the show would run out of steam, but it did not.

Elsewhere

  • CSD: Berlin’s Pride event fell flat for me. The uninspired remixes (of often Black dance music) and a dull crowd felt out of sync with my experiences of such events elsewhere. Some people told me that the after-parties are where it’s at – but should one need an after-party to salvage the day? It’s goddamn Pride!

  • This long tweet (X?) by Esther Crawford, an ex-Product director at Twitter is worth reading. Surprising that Elon hasn’t made it disappear yet 🤔

  • The internet is abuzz with the rumored Lizzo news. It’s a sobering reminder of the pitfalls of placing idols on pedestals and forming one-sided parasocial relationships. It’s a lesson many of us are keen on not learning and it can sometimes lead to toxic fandom.

  • I am considering using a CDN such as Cloudinary or BunnyCDN. Not needed at this very moment, but I do plan on having photo galleries at some point. If you have any recommendations, please reach out!

  • Something is up with bullet points and them disappearing when I put a space between listed items. I’ll sort it out at some point.