Some personal & true news: I will be leaving @Igalia at the end of September and taking several months off before spending any time with computers again. 1/
I will be excited to see all of the great things that @Igalia does in the coming years, and I expect to continue to collaborate with Igalians. 2/
It's wonderful that Igalia continues to thrive as a successful, growing business, as major driving force in JS and the open Web, and as an expression of our shared values of equality. 3/
.@Igalia's funding comes from many organizations. My work has been sponsored by a small fraction of that: @Salesforce (Realms), @eyeo (ad-blocker-friendly bundling), @Mozilla (some Wasm & Intl) and @Google (Intl) and @TechAtBloomberg (basically everything else). 4/
.@Igalia remains the consultancy to work with if you want to directly solve problems in JS, WebAssembly, CSS, ARIA, or any other part of the web platform, including embedding and the underlying windowing systems, graphics and multimedia stacks. 5/ https://igalia.com/contact
.@Igalia has given me a special chance to develop JavaScript in a collaborative environment with empathetic and highly skilled coworkers, working towards collective goals. I'm grateful for this opportunity, and I'd recommend it to others. 6/ https://www.igalia.com/jobs/
.@Igalia even sponsored my visa to come to work in Catalunya, enabling me to be with my partner and work remotely for Igalia. They have always supported my frequent trips to standards meetings, developer conferences, company meetups, client offices, etc. 7/
By 2019, I was starting to feel worn out and alienated from too much travel and responsibility, trying to find ways to simplify. My colleagues were supportive in taking on various tasks of mine. I was going to try harder in 2020 to reduce scope. 8/
Igalia has been very supportive of my efforts to de-stress. I previously took two months off in 2019, and they later paid for a coworking space for me. Igalians can work anywhere in the world, and can work together with colleagues in the headquarters in A Coruña. 9/
Nevertheless, with the pandemic's shutdown in travel, coinciding with the unexpected passing of an immediate family member, I didn't end up finding much relief working purely from home. 10/
I've realized that I'd like to make some further changes to help me recover: First, I'll take an 8-9 month break from work. Then, to have closer in-person contact with coworkers while being near my family and friends in the US, I'll start at a new job in New York. 11/
During my time between jobs, I hope to convince myself not to check Twitter, GitHub, email, or anything like that :) My last day will be September 23rd. Please DM me (before then) for my personal contact information. I'm happy to keep chatting about anything, if you reach out. /12
See this thread on my next steps after this break (Bloomberg thread)
For more information, see this FAQ thread (FAQ thread)
I'm excited to share that, in mid-2022, I'll be joining @TechAtBloomberg in New York! This comes after taking a long break from work which will be starting shortly. 1/ (Igalia thread)
At @TechAtBloomberg, I'm looking forward to continue pushing JavaScript, WebAssembly and the Web Platform forward through open standards and collaboration with the global developer community. 2/
Through decades of experience evolving application frameworks for the @TheTerminal, Bloomberg recognizes the importance of long-term investment in the Web Platform as a stable, powerful, underlying app platform. I hope to contribute to and grow that investment. 3/
Many companies have a hard time conceptualizing the value of multi-year investments in foundational web technologies. @TechAtBloomberg's forward-looking management has been sponsoring @Igalia's work in CSS, JavaScript & WebAssembly, even as some efforts take significant time. 4/
There's a lot more to be excited about in Bloomberg, from their collaborative, professional and psychologically safe culture, to lack of heavyweight perf/promo cycles, to the (internal) technical roadmap of the App Frameworks team where I'll work. I'll tell you more next year! 5/
For more information, see this FAQ thread (FAQ thread)
littledan's taking 8-9 months off between jobs: FAQ thread
Q: Hey, awesome that you're taking care of yourself! You'll still be going to TC39 meetings during this time, right? A: Actually, I'm going to try to stay away from computers as much as I can, so no, I won't be attending TC39, following it on GitHub, etc.
Q: What will happen with the proposals you're championing/advising? A: My amazing collaborators in @Igalia, @TechAtBloomberg and other organizations will continue pushing them forward; I'm extremely confident they'll do a good job.
Q: How can I contact you while you're away? A: I'd love to stay in touch. DM me for contact information before September 23rd. I'll be available on a few chat platforms, but not checking email, Twitter, GitHub, Matrix, etc.
Q: Will you help me with my project while you're between jobs? A: I'm not going to do any work (e.g., reviews, emails) except for chatting with you, and maybe having a call. This will only occur if you initiate the communication. DM me before September 23rd for contact information.
Q: Why are you taking this time off? A: It's just a personal decision around my experiences through the pandemic, see more in this thread. (Leaving Igalia thread)
Q: OK, so what do you really think of @Igalia? A: They're really awesome! I recommend that you either work for them or contract with them for services :) Seriously, I imagine that I'll continue to send a lot of people their way in the future. https://www.igalia.com/
Q: Did my interactions/disagreements with you cause you to feel like you needed time off? A: Almost certainly not. 99% chance, no, it wasn't you. Feel free to DM for explicit confirmation. (This is a surprisingly common actual FAQ; 99% chance that I'm happy to reassure you.)
Q: How will you be spending your time off? A: I dunno, I'll figure it out during that time. I've been too busy with work to really think it through. I hope to improve my physical and mental health.
Q: Wanna get together in person some time before you start work again? A: Sure, if the pandemic allows! I'm vaccinated FWIW. Get my contact information by DM'ing me before September 23rd, and we'll be in touch.
Q: What are you doing after your time off? A: I'll be joining @TechAtBloomberg in New York! (Bloomberg thread)
Q: Are you going to write a blog post explaining yourself? Twitter threads are annoying. A: No blog post, but you can see the related Twitter threads pasted together at https://gist.github.com/littledan/25efd0ccc00e77930c11f1e8512c8208