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Every single week at Code for Boston we do two things for the new people that show up. The first is we have an introductory slide show with project pitches so that the new members know what is going on. The second is we hold an orientation session to familiarize them with Code for America and Code for Boston. These two things work very well, but not for the latecomers.

One of the most annoying type of technology problems to battle are the ghosts. Ghosts are problems that appear, are easily fixed for a specific situation, and then later re-appear. Ghosts are persistent and they haunt you. It is incredibly challenging to debug ghosts because their trigger is usually unknown. My first step to handling ghosts is to list them.

I really enjoyed this interview with Casey Neistat by Nilay Patel. It is rare for an entrepreneur to be so open with sharing the challenges around something that did not work out. In Casey’s case he talks about how his former company, Beme, was acquired by CNN. After a while the organization was absorbed into CNN proper and Casey and his chief technology officer parted ways with CNN. While I enjoy Casey Neistat’s video blogs for their optimism, the realism of discussing failure makes him a more relatable person.

Yesterday I attended Art in the Age of the Internet at the ICA in Seaport. They held an event for the technology community in Boston and the fun part was that in addition to the regular exhibit they had some pop-up VR demos and offered talks to contextualize the work. Art has two components: the work itself and then the story behind it. Getting that story can help you understand and interpret the art itself.

I have spent a lot of my life building new organizations and teams. When I was in college I started WPI’s chapter of the College Democrats. I spent a summer going into my sophomore year helping build the canvass team for now Gov. Malloy’s primary campaign against John Destefano. After I graduated law school I was a campaign manager for a mayoral race in New Haven. All these roles involved helping organizations build muscle memory.