Adventures in Content Strategy
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin
Travel, reading, knitting, and writing outside of Mad*Pow and the UX and content strategy community. What Amanda does in her spare time.
On Saturday I marched at the Women’s March in downtown Boston. Several people have asked me what the point of it was, so I want to share. This is why I marched. I didn’t march to protest the inauguration, or the US Constitution, or democracy. I didn’t march to try to pass specific legislation or…
I did a lot of thinking this weekend about the countries I’ve lived in, and the countries I’ve visited. How do they compare to life in the United States? Particularly, how do they live in the America under Trump? It’s given me some perspective around the election and upcoming inauguration. Particularly, some perspective around the issues…
Every year I track the books I read. This year, the best books I read were Contagious, by Jonah Berger, A Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, and Travels with Charlie, by John Steinbeck. My favorite by far was A Handmaid’s Tale. I’ve read Atwood’s The Blind Assassin (twice) and couldn’t stand it, but now I can’t wait to…
I’m not sure when I realized I wasn’t going to live past 21. I say “realized” because, at the time, it didn’t feel like a decision. I saw suicide as a possible solution, but I didn’t consider it something I was capable of. I had no suicidal plans; instead I dreamed of accidents. I figured…
There’s been a lot in the news lately around women in the workforce. Specifically, can women “have it all.” When it comes to workforce equality, I think we’re at a plateau. “Having It All” is becoming a buzz word (buzz phrase?). Yet the solutions don’t exist – we still need to find or create them….
Once again, I’m sharing a list of everything I read this year. Books are rated on a totally subjective scale of 1-5 stars. In short, here’s what each rating means: * I couldn’t finish reading it, I hated it so much ** I finished the book, but I wish I had the hours back I…
Three days ago, roughly 128 people were killed in mass shootings across Paris. Four days ago, roughly 40 people were killed in a double suicide bombing in Beirut. One month ago, roughly 95 people were killed in a bombing in Ankara. Today, my Facebook feed is divided. Many people have changed their profile pictures to…
I read a total of 55 books this year, beginning with a take on Pride and Prejudice (though I’ve never gotten into Jane Austen, I very much enjoyed Longbourne), and ending with rereading my all time favorite fantasy book, Words of Radiance. Once again, the majority of these were recommendations from my book club, Time’s all-time 100…
Geneva: “You’re racially biased.” Peter: “I am? What do you mean by that?” Geneva: “You have fired 5 African Americans, and promoted 2 Caucasians. That’s racial bias.” Peter: “Well, that was purely coincidence.” Geneva: “…Cary Agos was not ready to be promoted to Deputy. Matan Brody was. I was. Together we had 2 decades more experience, but you…
I read 44 books in 2013, between my book club, library recommendations, Time’s all-time 100 novels, and TED speaker recommendations. My rating system is based mostly on how much I enjoyed the plot, and how well written the book was. Happily, most everything I read is a 3 or above – this year there was…
