PicoBlog

We all want results, but too many people want it the way they want it and not the way it has to be. We’re suckers for a good story. We want to believe and feel the hope. To protect yourself against enticing stories and sales pitches, one question I recommend asking is “how do you know what you know?” You then listen for cliche responses with no supporting evidence, just more talk.

Hello and welcome! If you’re getting this email you’ve likely subscribed to Builders, a “semi-regular” newsletter on building products by moi, Nickey Skarstad. In each drop I’ll dig into interesting themes and share anecdotes to help you build better products, teams, and companies! Drop me an email to share what you’d like to read next and subscribe if you enjoyed what you read today: I spent eight months this year as a platform product manager.

There are three things we know for sure following the unveiling of the Spring collections: The shorts are going to be very short next season (they’re basically underwear). Sheer mania is just getting started, And the color red will continue on with its campaign to hold the position of Best Color Choice to make right now. That red has become such a hot ticket in fashion represents to me the onset of the slow death of minimalism in fashion.

The Pittsburgh Pirates made their first offseason splash, signing outfielder Gilberto Celestino to a minor-league contract. Initially signed by the Houston Astros, he was part of the package sent to the Minnesota Twins in the Ryan Pressley trade in 2018. Celestino made his major league debut in 2021 before playing 122 games the following season. Celestino, 24, has never been a big-time hitter, with a .755 OPS in the minors. A few parts of his game did stand out, which the Pirates could take advantage of next year.

"Trust the process." You must have heard this phrase a million times. I know I did. But I never understood what it really means. Until now. Trusting the process means that you believe in yourself, have hope, take action while you love it all. Let's break down the formula to understand it better. Self-Belief simply means that you believe in yourself in every aspect of your life. You believe that you have what it takes.

“What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence.” -Audre Lorde The words Black people use to make tangible and share in awe at, our collective experience, struggle, and resilience, are not often afforded the time needed to truly process their significance.

I’ve been thinking about belonging for my entire life… and writing and researching and building a community around belonging intentionally now for over five years. I am fortunate to be in dialogue and shared inquiry with some of the world’s foremost practitioners. And yet: I still can’t really define it. Today I want to try. As is often true when I start a post, as I start this writing I don’t yet know what I want to say: I’ll come back here when I’m done to share my conclusions (writing as thinking: a process of trying to understand my own thoughts).

In a recent post I explored whether Agile is muddying the waters, confusing organizations and making it more difficult to pursue smarter ways of working. It was a rant, of course, but was one that really seemed to resonate with people. One of the things called out is that no one can even seem to agree on what “Agile” means anyway. Beyond citing the manifesto, one of the most frequent definitions is that Agile is an “iterative” approach to work.

I eagerly anticipate the domestic disaster of a new Love Is Blind season. I need to see the way you can tell from a reveal that someone is totally not into the person they got engaged to sight-unseen. I need to watch the way someone’s bubbly sister or stern dad promises to not support a reality TV marriage. I need Love Is Blind the way a Hollywood man in his 40s (or 50s!