We have had success at my org by anchoring a lot of the mentor/mentee discussion around our documented career ladder. If there's not a pressing specific discussion topic for one of their meetings, they can always bring that out and go through the ladder items to brainstorm ideas on how to progress.
We also recommend mentors to sit in on some agile ceremonies with the mentee's team to get a feel for how the mentee's dynamic is with their team, which can spark some discussion as well.
Fundamental, long-term issues can include encouraging the mentee to be more assertive, how to help their team become more effective, and how to approach navigating the inevitable politics of the organization.
I've been kicking around an idea of creating a site dedicated to in-depth writeups of the workflows that professionals use these days to stay organized - I've always had the problem of having too big of a toolbox (note-taking app, todo app, documentation app) but no cohesive way to combine all of them into something resembling organization. Would love to hear the details of how others do it.
My wife and I have been slowly buying furniture for our house, and Etsy is our go-to. I don't know where else I can search for such a wide array of styles for things like desks and coffee tables, find exactly the style I want, and THEN get it custom-made to the dimensions I want. I really like the way it opens up smaller shops like that for higher-end purchases like furniture, and I've never had a bad experience despite buying items in the 4-digit range.
That being said, complete dumpster fire on the lower-priced items like this article is getting at. I really enjoy Etsy when it can deliver on its promise of opening up a marketplace of skilled artisans who otherwise would've have had a hard time getting started. Hope it can get back to that.
There used to be a site for exactly this called custommade.com. Aside from a list of items that others have already made for you to browse, you could also put up a description of the project and let craftsmen contact you with questions or bids for the project.
I'm not entirely sure what happened but they ended up refocusing on strictly custom jewelry instead of custom whatever you want that someone else can make. It's really unfortunate because it was an excellent service with very talented makers and I haven't been able to find anything similar to replace it.
That sounds (sounded) awesome! As I was typing up my previous comment I was wondering if there are any other services out there that does this same sort of thing. Fingers crossed.
Looks like a great service. Sadly none of your current markets are near me and the closest city I could vote for is an eight hour drive away. I'll check back periodically and see if you've expanded to anywhere within driving range. Thanks for letting me know about the service!
I thought I couldn't grow a beard for forever until I followed some advice to just give it three months to fill in natural bald spots. Looks great now that I gave it the chance to actually grow instead of just giving up after 3-4 weeks.
Will this have implications for the giant impact hypothesis, or not at all? Can't tell if shortening the time window in which that could've happened would change much. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis
For real though, as someone who's finally starting a full-time job tomorrow for the first time in four years, the NYT is one of a handful of papers that I'll be subscribing to even though I know all the tricks to getting past the paywalls. I don't believe that I'd benefit from the disappearance of professional journalism, and I'd rather support them directly than indirectly via advertising middlemen.
It was NYT's work on Ergodan's bodyguards beating up protestors outside of the White House (with Trump's blessing, it seems) that made me subscribe. That kind of reporting is what we need from journalism.
