Starting Up

It’s been a time of great upheaval and change for me in the last few weeks. Without going into details, I’m moving on. I’ve had plenty of time to think about what I want to do with my time, and so now I’m going for it.

For those who know me, you know that I’m a Product person with a QA background and just enough programming knowledge to be dangerous. For those who don’t, I’m also a highly motivated individual who is tuned into the tech scene with a laser focus, so that’s where I plan to spend my time.

The most important fact I learned about myself is that I don’t want to take a job that I have to force myself to fit into. Like in a good relationship, there should be some give-and-take, but the job and I should be intrinsically interested in each other.

So, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Contract QA work for small startups: Most early-stage startups don’t have the resources to hire QA engineers full-time. That doesn’t exempt them from needing to release a product with a high level of quality, though, so I would love to help. I have experience with manual testing, UI automation, API automation, and building full regression test suites. I am also a usability/UI/UX guru, so you can expect quite a bit of extra peace of mind. You need to focus on coding, and I’d love to help. Email me at blog@samgimbel.com with inquiries.
• Product Management: This is second-nature to me. I’ve been a Product person at Hashable for over a year now, and I’ve released Hagar as a side-project. I know how to write a good user story and get the whole team on the same page. You can also expect me to say “no” to new features almost obsessively until the right feature comes along. Even then, expect iteration and refinement before implementing the darn thing. You have a product you care about, and I know how to maintain it and help it grow. Email me at blog@samgimbel.com with inquiries.
• QA-to-Live-Code: I’m a great QA Engineer. I’m also a budding programmer. I have experience writing Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and Objective C (iOS). I’d love to start by automating your QA process and diving into your codebase in the process. By the end of that cycle you can expect me to be able to write live code for your product, and I won’t let you down. You need QA people who can code, and I can be one of them. Email me at blog@samgimbel.com with inquiries.

It feels good to be making moves. Have a great idea you’d like to collaborate on? Definitely email me at blog@samgimbel.com. I’d love to help.

At its inception on the 17th of September, Occupy Wall Street was derided as just a bunch of college kids with nothing better to do (see here, here).  There was very little news coverage, and what little there was suggested that the movement was a flash in the pan.  NPR even went so far as to say that the protests weren’t newsworthy.  In general, there were a lot of accusations flying around regarding the lack of concrete demands given by the protesters (not true, not even in the early days. see here, here) and a sense that this was something that would be quickly forgotten.

Clearly, things have changed.  On the 5th of October, over 15,000 people marched from Foley Square down to Liberty Plaza in support of the protests.  Unions, trade organizations, and politicians have all announced their support of the movement–oh, right, and they have officially started using the word “movement.”  The cause has generated substantial momentum in a short amount of time, has spread to hundreds of other cities, and shows no signs of dying out (especially given the unseasonably warm October weather here in NYC).

As a supporter of the occupation, I am happy to see its popularity explode like this, but as a practical human (with a seriously passionate subversive side) I want to know what’s next and how this popularity will translate into real change.  It’s still too early to see the ways in which our quality of life will be affected, of course, but there has already been a profound impact on the national perspective.

Read the rest of this post »

This is the second edition of the Occupied Wall Street Journal for your reading pleasure

Friday night I participated in a Jewish tradition known as Kol Nidre, a prayer service that starts Yom Kippur, the most important holiday of the Jewish year.  It’s a time of personal reflection and, traditionally, atonement for the sins of the previous year.  At this moment you are supposed to have spent several days asking others for forgiveness for wrongs you have committed and forgiving others for the mistakes you have yet to let go of.  It’s a mournful yet beautiful tradition that I try to keep alive in my own life, despite my staunch atheism.  It’s comforting, really, to remind myself that people do make mistakes, and that wrongs can be forgiven and change can occur.

This was a very special Kol Nidre for me, as I experienced it at 140 Broadway in the Financial District, right across the street from the ongoing protests in Liberty Plaza, by the Occupy Wall Street movement, standing up against the financial greed and power politics that have pushed the majority of Americans into economic and social hardship.  And as we sat in silence, meditating on our own shortcomings, cheers rose from the Occupied camp in a parallel recognition of mistakes made.

It struck me that we were all sharing a profound moment.  That so many people (around 700) would gather in solidarity with a cause considered so abstract is still amazing to me.  That our stated goal–to reflect and to heal for the coming year–was so in tune with their (our) stated demand that the wrongs of our society be confronted and healed, blew me away.  Here we were, all facing east (it’s traditional to face Jerusalem while praying), all absorbed in individual moments of atonement, all feeling the same need for change.  The entire square was filled with a sense of rejuvenation, like people were finally starting to wake up and take notice of what’s been going on lately.

And honestly, we all desire to change internally–to be better people, to succeed on our own terms, to have better interactions with people we care about, to feel better about ourselves–but this moment was just as much about changing externally, about the changes that we as a society need to make in order to be healthy. And Kol Nidre, the very ancient ritual of asking for the strength to make these changes, was the perfect embodiment of this desire, set against the backdrop of a movement that is quickly growing traction.  It was hopeful, and it was truly subversive, and it was one of many such moments that will occur at Zuccotti Park over the next few months.

As is becoming my habit, I’ll end with a quote, cribbed from the supplement handed out before the service:

“Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to
overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred,
opportunism, falsehoods. The liturgical movement must become
a revolutionary movement, seeking to overthrow the forces that
continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision.”

-Rabbi Abraham Heschel

I’ve been looking for a copy of this to post. It’s a good resource for anyone hoping to find out more about the Occupy Wall Street movement:

Two things happened on Wednesday night, and they both caught me off guard.  First was a brief notice on my Facebook feed saying Steve Jobs had passed.  The second was a video (second one here) of the Wall Street protests, which I had just left, where police were using their nightsticks and pepper spray on peaceful protesters.

These two events struck me for very different reasons.  I’ve declared my full support for the #OccupyWallStreet movement, and watching it surge while I was present was uplifting in these difficult times.  Seeing the violence erupt right afterwards was shocking and infuriating.  I wanted to return and assist those who had been wronged.  On the other hand, I’ve always been critical of Apple, and by association Mr. Jobs.  There was something about their strategy and vision that felt insidious to me, and sometimes even evil.  Granted, as the most wealthy company in the country right now, that opinion is perhaps warranted.  In the wake of Steve’s death, however, I felt despair and remorse at having taken such a narrow view.  He was a man with many sides, many of them contradictory.

I can’t help but connect the two events in my head, either.  The Apple that Steve built was a world-changer, a vision of the future brought to the people.  But it has always been a future inaccessible to most, and initiation into the cult of Apple marks the beginning of a long road of expensive lifestyle choices.  For me, it’s unconscionable to build an empire on a new paradigm that leaves out those who need change most.

Lately, change has been needed more than ever.  Many voices have noted that the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, but does technology split on those lines?  A majority of the protesters at Wall Street are young 20-somethings who own Apple products.  They are aware of the revolutionary power of technology, and they are bringing that power to the masses via Steve Jobs’ designs.  You only have to watch the live feed, read the twitter stream (search for #occupywallstreet), or notice the headless organization of the movement itself.

I think that’s why I felt so overcome with optimism at that moment.  It’s the intertwining of seeing a live stream of police brutality sent via iPhone and hearing of Steve Jobs’ death on Twitter that let me put the two together:  even in death, Steve Jobs has fueled a revolution.  The kids who grew up using an Apple IIe are adults now, and they want to see Apple’s vision in the real world:  good design, simplicity, ease of use, and an emphasis on user experience are all demands being made by the occupiers at Wall Street.

Dave, a co-worker, wrote that he hopes Steve’s legacy of unlocking creativity for good does not die with him.  I believe that it lives on in those whose lives he touched.  I’ll leave you with this quote, which pertains just as much to the Occupy Wall Street group as it does to the techies mourning Mr. Jobs:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

The petition can be found here.

So, things have been bad down in Park Slope lately, with six sexual assaults reported in the last few months, all attributable to the same individual.  It’s a horrible thing to have to feel unsafe in your own neighborhood, so please sign this petition to raise a little awareness in the city council.

Photo of the guy:

From the petition letter:

There have been six sexual assault crimes reported over the last few months within Park Slope, Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. We need increased police presence and monitoring until this criminal is apprehended and South Brooklyn women are able to safely access their homes and neighborhoods.

Thanks for signing!

Too Long/Didn’t Read: The blog has been renamed “The Brooklyn Amplifier.”  Details below.

When it comes to writing a blog, you can’t escape the need for a focus.  Honestly, all the best curated websites have a razor-sharp definition of what they will and won’t post.  I’ve been having a really hard time finding a focus, or at the very least communicating that focus to my readers (if there are any of you…).

A blog cannot be a catch-all for its author’s thoughts and expect to be successful.  It’s just too much to expect readers to tune in to your brain in all its moods and states.  And so, with that in mind, I have embarked on a journey to focus this space, starting with a name change.

From hereon out, this blog will be known as The Brooklyn Amplifier (thanks Taylor for the suggestion!).  See, it’s cute, because I once started a business called Brooklyn Amplifiers that never really took off, and also I like to play guitar really loudly.

You can expect the new blog to function the same way a good amplifier does:  by making the good stuff louder (and enriching its tone) and letting the noise fade into the background.  Discussions here will never be tangential to current affairs, but rather will expand upon them to give us all a better understanding.  And since I live in Brooklyn, enjoy biking, and work in tech, you can expect these to be the subjects from which I draw.

But wait!  That’s not all!  My future plans include:

• A total site redesign (mostly because the title is super long now).  Probably with really cute drawings of guitar amplifiers.
• Really good categorizing of content.  So that you don’t have to read shit you’re not interested in.
• More pictures and rich content.  I know you guys like that.

Cheers!

If you’re here for hipster bashing, hipster praising, pictures of girls in cigarette jeans smoking cigarettes wearing shirts with cigarette burns, pictures of boys in jorts, or megalolz at the stupid things hipsters do, you’re out of luck.  This is an esoteric piece on the ways in which Hipsters fit into our culture.  Or I might just write about television and bikes.  I haven’t decided.

Origins

The year is like, 1940 or something.  I don’t know, I was studying something way too obscure in college to have paid attention to the mainstream discipline of “history.”  Anyway, the year was sometime in the past, and the boring adults of the time realized their kids were wearing all sorts of weird clothes and writing all sorts of weird, unstructured poetry, and talking about toilets being art.  Frankly, this behavior was unacceptable, and it was clearly necessary to create distance between this newly forming subculture and the dominant culture of suburbs, classical literature, and crappy music.  And thus, by the power vested in them by His Holy Uptightedness, the word Hipster was coined.

Damn It Feels Good To Be A [Hipster]

Immediately following the phrase’s entry into the English language was a prolonged and beautiful Golden Age of sorts, in which the term was elevated to pertain to any youngster whose artistic ability and creative motivation clearly outstripped his ability to shave his facial hair.  Beautiful poetry, songs, and art came from this deliberate divorce from mainstream life, and It Was Good.  There was a sensation in those days (I’m told) that life was only as meaningful as what you put into it, and life and the pursuits therein had no intrinsic importance.  Oh, the [morally relativistic] humanity!  Parents everywhere remembered that sense of outrage they felt when their children disavowed religion, law school, and laundry detergent, codifying it and filing it for future use. Read the rest of this post »

I work at Hashable (click on the logo to check it out).  My official title is “QA Engineer,” which, like most titles, is pretty silly because it only makes enough sense to inflate my ego and prove to outsiders that what I do is not world-shatteringly amazing enough to be given a common-sense name.  What I actually do with most of my time is find and replicate misbehaving elements of the Hashable product (the QA stands for Quality Assurance).  A lot of the time, that means late nights and forcing myself to be very paranoid about specific things that COULD go wrong, although the actual probability of something actually occurring is usually minuscule.  It’s all about attention to detail while keeping the bigger picture in mind (see: Megascope).

I should clarify something:  I love my job.  It’s a non-stop adventure and has taught me as much about myself as it has about the burgeoning startup tech scene in New York City.  The problem is, most people outside of tech cannot even grasp why QA exists, let alone why I’d enjoy it so much.  I assume this is because it’s difficult to visualize the process of building software, similar to how it’s difficult for non-musicians to understand the process of creating a piece of music.

It’s actually not that hard to explain:

1. Someone pitches an idea (either a developer or a product person)
2. Developers build the idea and test that it works to their specifications
3. QA tests the product to make sure it works to the standards of a user and to the product team
4. Developers debug based on QA’s report and Product’s tweaks.
5. QA and development repeat this process until all the bugs are ironed out, or a deadline is reached (and the product is acceptable.  it’s stupid to release things on a deadline if there are a lot of bugs or missing features.)

Like anything else, the end product is only as good as the initial idea, but with each iteration of development and testing, the product inevitably improves in quality.  A QA person’s job is to “own” this quality and provide assurance to the rest of the team that each version is better than the last.

At its core, the role is about understanding how each individual piece of the puzzle fits together to make a single working service.  It’s not always necessary to understand the nitty gritty details (although it doesn’t hurt), and it’s not always necessary to be entirely looped in to the higher level product decisions, but it’s absolutely essential to have a good sense of what a product “is” and where it is headed.  In short, it’s a Zen approach to building things.

I’ve found that the instinct I have always had for taking things apart (and, later, building them) is really the same instinct inherent in getting to know a product.  There is an obsession with functional beauty that resides at the heart of both processes and guides the mind from one piece to another, fitting them together until a grander, emergent system comes into focus.  This obsession is equaled by the childish delight I experience every time something begins to take on a life of its own, to work as an entity and display attributes I never explicitly assigned to it.

The first guitar amplifier I ever built, minutes after completion

In that way, QA is a direct extension of my DIY instincts.  It’s a chance to exercise the part of my brain that delights in seeing a feature completed without having to first put my own sweat and blood into its creation.  It’s a role perfectly wedged between two ongoing thought processes which play off each others’ strengths while attempting to boost their inherent weaknesses.  And, above all, it’s a role which requires a huge amount of learning, discovery, and experimentation.  I’m always in the midst of several projects, all requiring different sets of skills.

QA is my sandbox, my playground, and a gateway drug to the addictive world of Making Things.