Launch Alert: NASA Roman Space Telescope (and Watch Party Tips)

We are living in a fascinating golden age of space exploration. Not too long ago, a rocket launch was a rare, stop-what-you’re-doing event that captivated the globe. Today, reusable rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 liftoff every few days—deploying internet satellites, resupplying space stations, and making trips to low-Earth orbit feel almost... routine. Spaceflight has effectively become an industrial logistics highway.

But every once in a while, a launch comes along that completely disrupts the routine.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is not just another payload riding to low-Earth orbit. It’s a flagship deep-space observatory destined for a gravitational haven 1.5 million kilometers away—and it requires the sheer power of a Falcon Heavy to get there. Throw in the spectacular, synchronized double-booster landing at the Cape, and you have a high-stakes, high-excitement event that demands to be watched live.

It’s the perfect reminder of why we fell in love with spaceflight in the first place—and the ultimate excuse to gather your crew for an early morning watch party! Here is a guide for some ways to wake up and smell the rocket fuel! 

Pre-Game: What to Watch Before Liftoff

Want to get your guests hyped up before the countdown starts? Queue up these two quick, fascinating videos during the pre-show to give everyone a crash course on why Roman is such a game-changer:

Why Roman Could Change Everything We Know About The Universe (NASA Goddard - 5 mins)

The Vibe: Official NASA overview highlighting how Roman’s panoramic vision can survey in one month what would take Hubble a century to map.

The new telescope 100x better than Hubble | Nancy Grace Roman Explained (Digital Astronaut - 12 mins)

The Vibe: A fun, deep-dive breakdown explaining how Roman’s 300-megapixel camera works, why it’s hunting dark energy/dark matter, and how it complements the James Webb Space Telescope like a wide-angle lens to a zoom lens.

Meteor-bites Menu: Cosmic Fuel for T-0

Waking up early for a morning launch will land better with a themed menu to power through to engine ignition.

Space Nostalgia & Grazing Snacks

• Astronaut Ice Cream: Classic, freeze-dried NASA nostalgia that brings out the kid in every space enthusiast. Get them online or at your nearest STEM museum gift shop.  

• Moon Pies: Find them in your grocery store for a throwback for which your guests will be over the moon!

Themed “Breakfasty” Bites

• “Meteor” Donut Holes: A crowd-pleasing bowl of powdered, glazed, and cinnamon-sugar donut holes. 

• “Solar Flare” Fruit Skewers: Fresh strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, and red grapes arranged in vibrant solar hues. 

• “Galactic” Parfaits: Layered Greek yogurt, blueberries, blackberries, and crunchy granola for an easy protein hit.

Early Morning Adult Bevvies

• The “Solar Eclipse” Mimosa: Prosecco and blood orange juice with a dark blackberry garnish for a moody, layered look. 

• The “Supernova” Sunrise: Tequila or vodka, orange juice, and a heavy drizzle of grenadine mimicking engine fire.

• The “Cosmic Dust” Espresso Martini: Cold brew or espresso, coffee liqueur, and vodka topped with a sprinkle of cocoa powder (or edible gold glitter). 

• The “Zero-Gravity” Cold Brew: Rich cold brew spiked with Irish cream and a dusting of cinnamon over ice.

Keep Guests Engaged: Friendly Bets & Games

Don’t just watch the stream silently—turn live telemetry and webcast commentary into a game!

Friendly Prediction Bets

Place your bets for predictions that resolve right during the broadcast:

The Max-Q Timestamp Challenge: Max-Q is the moment of maximum aerodynamic stress on the rocket as it punches through dense air. Have guests guess the exact T-plus timestamp SpaceX will announce Max-Q (closest without going over wins!).

If you want to give likely options, choose from these:

• T+1:11 or earlier (Under 71 seconds)
• T+1:12 to T+1:14 (72 to 74 seconds)
• T+1:15 to T+1:17 (75 to 77 seconds)
• T+1:18 or later (78+ seconds)

Dual Booster Synchronization: Predict whether both Falcon Heavy side boosters will land successfully back on land within 3 seconds of each other.

• Neither will land successfully
• Only one will land successfully
• Both land successfully, within 3 seconds of each other
• Both land successfully, outside of 3 seconds difference

Which science topic will the webcast hosts explain FIRST during the pre-launch show (T-30 to T-0)?

• Dark Energy & Dark Matter
• Exoplanets / Looking for new worlds
• The “Mother of Hubble” history
• How the Coronagraph works

Webcast Jargon Bingo

Commentators have a distinct cadence during flagship missions. Create bingo cards (or a drinking game) featuring favorite launch-day buzzwords:

    Every time a controller says “Nominal” or “Telemetry looking good”

    When the hosts say “Mother of Hubble” or explain “Dark Energy”

    Milestone callouts like “Stage Separation,” “AOS” (Acquisition of Signal), or “Max-Q”

Word Search, Scramble and Crossword Puzzles, Oh My!

I’ve created a handful of puzzles you can do on your own, in a classroom, with your kids or team, or race your friends! These include a crossword puzzle with 48 terms, a word search with 50 different terms, a word scramble and 10 trivia questions with fun facts! (If you’re attending my watch party, we will do the word scramble and trivia, so no cheating! You are welcome to do the word search and crossword on your own!)

Thank you!

Your downloadable Activities are on their way! Happy launching!

Why Exploration Matters (And How You Can Help!)

Missions like Roman do more than generate cool photos—they inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists, drive technological breakthroughs, and answer big questions about our place in the universe.

Best of all, you don’t need a PhD to join in! Thanks to citizen science projects (on platforms like Zooniverse), anyone can help analyze public telescope data to spot exoplanets and classify distant galaxies right from home. Hosting a watch party isn’t just about watching history happen—it’s about sharing the joy of discovery and keeping curiosity alive.

T+45 Minutes and Beyond: The Journey to L2

While the initial liftoff and booster landings provide early fireworks, the true mission milestone happens higher up:

• Spacecraft Separation (~T+45 Minutes): The ultimate climax of the watch party! Watching the Roman Space Telescope separate from the Falcon Heavy upper stage into the darkness of space is the moment the mission officially begins.
• The Cruise to Sun-Earth L2: After separation, Roman begins its journey to Lagrange Point 2 (L2)—a gravitational balance point roughly 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth.
• Commissioning & First Light: Once parked at L2 alongside the James Webb Space Telescope, Roman will undergo about 90 days of commissioning before embarking on a 5-to-10-year mission to map the deep cosmos.

Get Your Free Watch Party Host Kit!

The countdown is on! If you want to host your own Roman launch event, or share activities with kids or in a class, subscribe with the link above and get your full printable activities kit! 

The World We Dream About: Hadestown Live Theater Performance Captured in Emotionally Wrecking Detail

(Spoiler Alert: Some of these details may give away parts of the story if you're not familiar with it.) 

We Choose to Sing

Hadestown is a musical that hits hard for me personally. I fell in the love with the music before I ever got to see the show, and have since seen it multiple times and listen to the two versions of the soundtracks regularly. It's one of those shows you can get something new from every re-watch, especially because different actors bring unique interpretations to their roles, like Levi Kreis as Hermes, who brought a very distinct, blues-meets-country-storyteller vibe to the touring production that carved out its own identity away from André De Shields' iconic Broadway blueprint. 

But the live capture, with its closeups of the performers' absolutely incredible expressions and sleight-of-hand illusions brought a rollercoaster of surprises and emotions I was not prepared for. Right from the opening toast, when Orpheus delivers that line—"To the world we dream about..."—and then pauses, breaking the fourth wall to hit us with a heavier, more heartbreaking silence before adding, "And the one we live in now"—I was gone. That moment alone completely undid me, and the waterworks didn't stop until the song after curtain call.

If you haven't caught it yet, you only have a couple of days left before it leaves theaters, and honestly, you need to run. Seeing the original Broadway cast back together on the big screen isn't just a recording; it’s pure magic. Close-ups catch the actors' actual tears, the twitch in Hades's eye when Orpheus starts winning over the workers with his song, and a level of raw, visceral emotion that a mezzanine seat can't always reach. It's that bittersweet, tragic-yet-optimistic plot I love so much in stories—the reminder that even when we logically know how it all ends, we choose to hope anyway.

Happy Accidents

Seeing the show for the first time on Broadway was practically a happy accident - I had flown out to NYC to see the fabulous J. London performing as Mary Sunshine in the show Chicago, and before my plane had even pulled into the gate, my outgoing flight had been cancelled due to the incoming winter storm, and so I immediately booked Hadestown for the extra day we'd be
"stuck" in NYC. Since then, I've had the opportunity to see it a couple times touring, including in Dallas when my Yellowstone trip got cancelled at the last minute. 

It turns out Hadestown has a way of anchoring itself to life's little disruptions. It isn't just a clever retelling of an old myth; it was speaking directly to the exact tensions I wrestle with every day. It's one of those shows and soundtracks you can see and watch multiple times and get something new out of it, speaking to you in the context of your life in that moment, differently, every time.

At its core, Hadestown captures that exhausting, universal modern dilemma: choosing between toiling away in some sterile corporate machine for perceived security and comfort versus embracing the messy, unpredictable reality of being poor in pocket but rich in actual joy and contentedness. We’re constantly fed lines by the powers that be—told what we have to sacrifice, how we have to bow to the system, and what our limits are. But the show reminds us that compliance is a choice. We can choose not to believe their lies. We can plant our feet, stand our ground, and choose our own fates, even when the odds are stacked impossibly high.

One set of lyrics I absolutely love which probably gets lost on first-time listeners is this: 

"What's the purpose of a man? / … / What's the use of his backbone? / If he never stands upright? / If he turns his back on everyone?"

And goodness knows I relate to the sheer weight of self-doubt when you don't have the reassurance of someone else telling you you're on the right path. It’s that terrifying feeling of pouring everything you have into something—doing the work, sweating over the details, feeling like you’ve finally done enough—only to look up and realize the prize is just out of reach.

That’s why the characters hit so close to home. They are relentlessly optimistic, even when they logically and intuitively know how the story has to end. It's very similar to what draws me to my other favorites, like The Great Gatsby, Rent, and Waitress. We know winter is coming. We know the green light fades, some people will lose their battle with disease and leave us prematurely, and the relationships sometimes must end. But we choose to sing anyway.

The Human Element

If you've only ever experienced Hadestown in the theater, seeing the new live theater capture on the big screen brings a far deeper experience. The intimacy of the close-ups and surprising angles a theater audience wouldn't have access to changes everything, especially when you're watching performers operate at this level of sheer physical and emotional vulnerability.

Take Amber Gray as Persephone, for instance. From a distance, her energy is electric, but up close, it’s downright staggering. Juggling that kind of high-energy, demanding choreography while maintaining flawless vocal control and breath stability is nothing short of Olympic-level stamina. And she doesn't just sing it; she feels every single second of it. Her face contorts to exaggerate her drunken stupor, her disappointment and heartbreak, and her joy and hopefulness at variance stages of the show. 

That’s where the pro-shot truly earns its keep. In a live theater, you miss the micro-expressions—the way Persephone’s eyes well up with real tears during the heaviest emotional beats and right through the final curtain call. Bringing back the original Broadway cast wasn't just a nostalgic stunt; it unlocked a rare, unmatched level of collective vulnerability because these actors have lived inside these skins for years.

You can see that dedication written all over the stage, quite literally, in the case of Patrick Page. Knowing that he was performing through a severe, full rupture of his Achilles tendon during the filming adds this heavy, poetic meta-layer to the whole experience (nevermind the fun little irony of a show built on Greek mythology featuring an injured body part also named for Greek mythology). Live theater doesn't wait for us, and bodies break, but Page pushed through the pain to stay put and immortalize his Hades alongside his original castmates before heading off to surgery. When art imitates life's endurance like that—when you see the actual sweat, the physical toll, and the real tears captured in crisp focus—it reminds you why we keep showing up for stories that ask us to feel everything all at once.

Details I Loved 

The magical close-up of the rose appearing out of nowhere provided clarity where I feel like I didn't quite see this moment sitting in theater seats. The close-ups also afford  appreciation of details like Hades’s snakeskin straps and brick wall tattoo sleeve that points a point on him being a man literally armored in his own hardened, oppressive kingdom.

Eurydice's heart melting as she falls in love with Orpheus becomes drastically more apparent and visceral simply through the micro-expressions on her face, where I felt like it was odd that she fell for him so quickly and abruptly after being skeptical and wary of his approach. 

In the Under World, as Orpheus sings his presumably final song, catching Hades’s eye twitch as he realizes he's losing control is so genuine I'm not actually sure if its terrific acting or another happy accident (can one act an eye twitch?). Across from him, Orpheus looks genuinely battered, wiping blood from his face and showing a bruising and ripped shirt that made me wonder when they managed to apply those effects during the very physical enactment of an absolute beating. 

The technical illusions get a massive upgrade through the lens, too. The clever visual illusion of the wall cracking open feels seamless and cinematic, drawing you straight into the crumbling geometry of the underworld. 

Orpheus uses his stomping as raw percussion—pounding out that driving rhythm on two different occasions— and the camera captures the sweat and the sheer physical impact of it, grounding the music in heavy, real-world effort.

The Pattern of Hopeful Tragedy

My Dad once joked that there was no point in watching the movie, "Titanic," because we know how it ends: the ship sinks. Sitting there watching the resolution as the cast portends to start the retelling, it hit me why Hadestown slots so neatly into my heart right alongside The Great Gatsby. There is a very specific, deeply human pattern to my absolute favorite stories. They refuse to hand you a cheap, tied-in-a-bow, fairy-tale ending.

Instead, they look reality dead in the eye. They remind us that life is going to hand us tragedies, and "none of us make it out alive." We know the outcome and yet, we stay. We watch them try anyway, and we celebrate the optimism. I've spent a lot of time reading Holocaust stories for a similar reason - in literally the worst conditions any human has gone through, let alone millions of humans, these amazing people held to their hope, found love, and found ways to resist. 

That is the beauty of it. These stories don't offer false comfort; they offer honest, hard-earned hope. They validate the exhaustion of toiling away, the fear of failing after you've given everything, and the heavy weight of self-doubt. But they also remind us that the value is in the choosing. We can look at the system, recognize the odds, and choose to sing the song anyway. That's what makes the tragedy feel so worth it every single time.

There's No Turning Back: Catch It Before It Goes Away!

If you’ve been on the fence about seeing this  live capture screening, consider this your official sign to drop everything and go. It’s only in theaters for a couple more days, and trust me, experiencing this level of raw emotion, the stunning close-ups, and the sheer power of the original cast back together on the big screen is an entirely different beast than streaming it later or remembering it from the nosebleeds.

Run—don't walk—to your nearest theater. Go see the tears, feel the sweat, and let yourself get completely wrecked by the magic of it all before the curtain falls for good. We already know the winter is coming, but while the lights are still up, we might as well go sing the song.

About the Show

The Production & Filming: This special release is a live theater capture filmed on stage at the West End's Lyric Theatre in London, directed by Brett Sullivan across live performances on February 28 and March 1, 2025.

The Theatrical Run: It is a limited-engagement cinematic event playing in movie theaters for just a couple of days, giving audiences a rare chance to experience it on the big screen before it leaves theaters.

The Principal Cast (The Original Broadway Reunion):

• Reeve Carney as Orpheus
• Eva Noblezada as Eurydice
• André De Shields as Hermes
• Amber Gray as Persephone 
• Patrick Page as Hades
• The Fates: The trio of Fates—who act as the internal chorus, conscience, and cold reality of the show—are brilliantly brought to life by Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, and Kay Trinidad (reprising their original Broadway roles). A special shoutout is entirely deserved for the Jewelle Blackman, whose side-eye, reactions, and hilarious, biting facial expressions add an incredible layer of sass and menace to every scene she's in.

Niche Problems, Smart Solutions: AI for Health

Disclaimer: The content in this article reflects my personal experiences and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a medical professional. The AI tools discussed are used for general wellness, lifestyle optimization, and non-emergency comfort measures—not for diagnosing, treating, or preventing medical conditions. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical advice, diagnoses, or before making changes to your health regimen.

Fuck! Ow! Fuck! Fuck! Ow! Fucking ow! Fuck! 

There I was in the economy window seat on a short flight to Greenville, South Carolina for a week of work there, and I was in excruciating pain. 

I wasn't sick. It wasn't my ears. I was having a Charley horse for the record books. My hamstring was contracting, and with minimal space to stretch my leg out, I could not find a position to ease the pain. I tried pushing it into the small space below the seat in front of me. I tried pulling it back. Fuck! That was worse. I flexed my foot, I pointed my toes, no relief. I tried massage it with my hands. I wriggled in my seat in such discomfort I'm surprised I didn't jab the person next to me with my elbow. 

This went on for what felt like an hour, but was probably a total of 20 minutes, which is still quite a long time. It wasn't just one of my legs either. As soon as one stopped, the other started, and I'd go through the same fruitless efforts of trying to straighten, trying to pull it back, trying to stretch my foot out, trying to massage. 

It was my own doing, I realized. I had planned this flight as late in the day as I could while still getting in before a decent bedtime in order to allow as much time as I could for dance classes in the morning. The weekend had been full of social dances at night with a greater attendance than normal as out-of-towners traveled for the event, and hard-hitting dance classes during the day. 

That morning I had started off with a solo Charleston class which both challenged my muscle memory and blew my mind, as well as worked up a sweat. I had brought a change of shirt to prepare for the next class, which was a partner Charleston class, as a courtesy to my rotating partners. I had brought a full change of clothes to the airport, along with wipes and antiperspirant to freshen up after the classes. 

I had not stretched or put my feet up sufficiently. After a weekend of moving and straining my muscles, culminating in those Charleston classes which involve some of the most leg movements, I had boarded a plane and attempted to sit still while I rehydrated and ate protein-packed snacks. I had thought of everything, or so I thought. 

And then my glutes started cramping. Mother fucker! Ow! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Ow! 

AI to the Rescue

With nowhere really to go and not knowing what I would do even if I did get up, I grabbed my phone and opened it to my AI chatbot of choice - Gemini. I switched it into my ongoing conversation generically called, "Health" and explained the situation, asking it what I could do while sitting here on the plane. It commended my choice of snacks and gave me specific instructions for stretching and relieving the immediate pain. I then inquired what I should plan to eat and what I could do at the hotel.

This is one of a few ways I used AI chatbots for my health: for innocuous, non-emergency conditions like soreness. While general remedies for soreness can simply be googled, I prefer to use the chatbot because it (usually) remembers my likes, and more importantly, dislikes, of certain foods, and can tailor its recommendations based on my history of general ailments and my lifestyle. I am trying to incorporate occasional tea into my life, and so I've used Gemini to explore the various benefits of different tea varieties to figure out which ones I want to drink. I'll also sometimes take a snapshot of a menu at a restaurant when I'm traveling for work to get recommendations for the best options based on my health-related concerns at the time (e.g. muscle recovery versus watching inflammation). 

Fix Your Face

A similar example was when I was getting frustrated with dark circles and bags under my eyes. I snapped well-lit selfies with multiple views - smiling, not smiling, looking in different directions - and shared that with Gemini and consulted it for recommendations. It wasn't just sleep that was an issue, it was inflammation from sodium, according to the chatbot. We reviewed my general diet and it gave me low-sodium recommendations to reduce to inflammation, as well as methods to help drain the fluids over time. I also used it to investigate potential skincare creams I could use, given my skin sensitivity and desire to keep my routine very easy and minimal. 

Again, innocuous, non-emergency type things that googling would only give generic advice while AI can pull in context of the selfies and provide reassurance and helpful tips that also pass the human litmus test of being healthy recommendations. Once we had a solid plan in place, it suggested I check back in after a week with updated selfies, but since the chatbot doesn't have a reminder mechanism, I had to set a reminder in my to do app, Tick-Tick. When I uploaded new selfies, Gemini confirmed the great progress I already had started to notice, but it actually provided deeper insights and specifics that I hadn't really clocked. Now, I regularly check in with selfies and context of recent travel, dancing, hydration diligence, etc., and it continues to provide recommendations that seem to help. 

Not only have my selfies improved. I have made a habit of noting my blood pressure readings whenever I visit various doctor's offices for regular appointments, and I've tracked a dramatic decrease in my readings into much healthier ranges. Whenever I get a new reading, I share this with Gemini and it puts into context for me the success based on what it knows I've been doing to improve my healthy lifestyle. This data-driven result, combined with contextual feedback from AI, creates a tangible intrinsic reward that builds momentum and motivation in my busy life.

The Urge to Find a Solution

A couple years ago, a weird phenomenon started happening. I don't drink alcohol every day or anywhere close to that, but occasionally I enjoy tasting local craft beer from wherever I happened to have traveled, or having a glass of wine or a cocktail with friends. 

Within seconds, and I mean truly, seconds - no more than half a minute - of the alcohol of choice hitting my lips, I'd have a sudden, intense urge to urinate. It was so strong it would be a little painful, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. This wasn't a breaking-the-seal feeling resulting from having many drinks without going to the bathroom. This was an immediate, inexplicable feeling like I was about to pee my pants if I didn't get to a toilet now. 

The first several times it happened to me, I'd bolt for the bathroom, only to find no relief. Nothing would come up, and the urge persisted. If you've ever had a UTI, it was a lot like this. I'd go to the bathroom two or three times in ten minutes without producing anything, feeling no relief from the urge to pee whatsoever. 

It was awful. But I found, after ten or fifteen minutes, the urge would pass. After learning this, the next few times it happened, I'd try to just sit still and wait it out. It was awful, but it would pass. 

While I don't live a perfectly healthy lifestyle by any means, and I have a lot of diagnosed conditions that make life a little harder in their own ways, I generally consider myself at least a bit health conscious. I try to drink water a lot, I don't drink a lot of soda or alcohol, and I dance and do other forms of physical activity pretty regularly. 

It didn't happen all the time, either. It seemed random, but happened with enough frequency that it started to weigh heavily on my mind. This 10 or 15 minute discomfort that was clearly tied to all forms of alcohol, at least as far as I could tell, created a pretty massive disinterest in drinking. Not the end of the world, to be fair. But it was frustrating because I did want to drink socially with friends and colleagues every so often. So I would have to weigh my willingness to risk putting myself through it or not. 

I googled it many times, and all I could find were results about alcohol being a diuretic and causing this after many drinks. None of the results mentioned anything related to the immediacy of the feeling for me. When I tried changing up my google search, it led to UTIs and other conditions that were more persistent, but I knew this was a very short-term symptom that passed much faster than UTIs from my (thankfully) limited experience. None of the results made sense or seemed to even get close to what I was experiencing. 

I thought about talking to my doctor the next time I went in. But it wasn't an emergency, and the obvious solution was just to not drink, so it didn't seem like an issue I needed to rush into the doctor to manage. I didn't drink for a long time, and people gave me looks but thankfully none of my social groups would apply pressure or judgment in that regard. So it wasn't a big deal, except to me. The times I wanted to drink but didn't want to deal with the consequences were irritating and puzzling. 

I shifted my google searching to talking about it with my chatbot. I explained the circumstances and the weirdness, and confirmed it wasn’t the obvious suspects - a ton of consumption or a UTI. I emphasized the immediacy of it, the fact that nothing happened if I went to the bathroom, and how it would pass and not reoccur again until literally days or weeks later when I drank again. It suggested it was a sort of bladder irritation that would occur when I was dehydrated. That explained why it didn't always happen - if I had properly hydrated during the day before drinking, it wouldn't hit the same way. 

Since ensuring proper hydration is never a bad recommendation for a reasonably healthy, able-bodied person, it was definitely worth testing the theory. So on days when I felt confident I had drunk enough water and then wanted to drink alcohol, I would allow myself to do. And if I didn't think I'd had enough water that day, I'd pass on the alcohol usually, although from time to time I went for the drink anyways. 

The results were crystal clear. When I felt properly hydrated and had alcohol, no issue at all, ever. When I risked the alcoholic drink despite knowing I probably hadn't had enough water that day, I felt the urge, and it would pass after 10 minutes. So I still opted out of alcohol pretty regularly when I traveled, with the knowledge that my poor hydration that day would likely lead to the annoying discomfort. I literally haven't had this issue that couldn't be explained by obvious lack of hydration discipline since then. 

This example, while a little embarrassing, is the perfect example for what AI is capable of. Instead of doing a keyword search, like google, the chatbots can apply context and perform deeper critical "thinking." And honestly, I am not sure if a doctor would have been able to help here. Since this is a passing feeling, not a disease, and it's not an emergency situation, doctors may have zero exposure and experience with treating this concern. It's such a niche issue, and probably doesn't have a test that could be run. Sure, we could rule out things like UTIs and maybe other diseases like liver disease or whatever, but could the doctor actually tell me the solution? Would they have prescribed something for incontinence or medication that provides a numbing quality to mute the feeling? If you know or have heard of anything like this, please put in the comments - I'm genuinely curious. 

Custom Workout Plans and Realistic Expectations

Since I have a varied personal schedule and hate routines, efforts towards losing weight and focusing on my health have to integrate easily into my life or they won't work. While I won't pretend I have it all figured out, I do regularly use my chatbot to give me short-term routines and suggestions that are palatable to me. I also lay out longer-term expectations using my real history data which can be uploaded to the chatbot. When evaluating a new product, I can throw screenshots in of the product claims and have it assess the validity of it, narrowing down my search to features and results that are most important to me. With the ongoing dialog being stored in its memory, it easily pulls in contextual information and proactively provides insights that are helpful and I might not have thought of. 

When I was working on my inflammation, I decided to spend an evening at World Springs, and was able to ask Gemini for a custom plan for which baths to soak in. It even encouraged me to try the cold plunge, despite my protests. I had heard about the benefits of cold plunging before and had made the excuse that it wasn't "for me." But after investigating the specific benefits it could potentially bring to me with Gemini, I relented. I initially went into a very painful shock state, but a random stranger coached me to keep breathing and to get all the way in the water, and tracked my time for me while I mentally could not function. Rushing to the hot tub afterward, I felt the reassuring pinpricks of sensation returning to my body. After about 15 minutes, I felt so rejuvenated—and I'm not sure how else to describe it—just so wholesomely healthier and more alive, I actually wanted to do it again. I couldn't have been more surprised by the results, and it finally made sense why people promote it. And I wouldn't have discovered it without the clear, personalized recommendations from Gemini urging me to consider it despite my heavy resistance. 

What Are We Losing

I want to talk a little bit about a few concerns, real and unwarranted, here. I believe it is always healthy to evaluate what it is we're losing that goes hand-in-hand with what we're gaining with new technologies. When cell phones first came out, we were worried about radio waves frying our brains with the close proximity to our heads. Now, despite many studies that suggest having a phone in close proximity to our beds disturbs our sleep, I'm willing to bet most of you still sleep with the phone next to your bed. I do too, so no judgement. I've considered trying a different alarm method so I can leave my phone in another room, but I haven't done it yet. It's a choice that we should actively test and be open to new data in either direction. 

Personal Data Security

First, you might be reading this and noting the things I've shared with my AI chatbot - my health history and statistics, real-time selfies, travel plans, my diet choices, and niche concerns - and thinking that this is a threat to the security of my personal data. What I'll say to this is, yeah, but "they" already have that. I'm giving my chatbot the data from my FitBit, which recently was acquired by Google anyways. I'm uploading selfies that are maybe more detailed, but not too different than pictures I post on facebook, or people post of me. My travel plans already exist in TripIt because that's my favorite app of choice for building my itineraries. Amazon knows what food I order. These may be somewhat disconnected data streams, but the data is out there. To me, the idea of protecting your personal data while engaging with these products and technologies is an illusion. The only way to truly protect your personal data is to disconnect from all devices and from the world. That is an option, and I won't shame that as a personal choice for people. But I would acknowledge that those people are missing out on the benefits of these technologies, and that's the tradeoff they pay for feeling secure. No judgment. For me, the "price" of readily sharing my data that already exists, to get the benefits of these custom recommendations easily, tips that actually help improve my life, is worth it. That's my choice. But pretending that you can live and operate in this world and reap all the benefits of these technologies without exposing your personal data to the companies and systems that could find it anyways is just kidding yourself. So while I won't judge anyone on their decision to share the information or not, I do assert that it is a conscious choice one way or the other. 

Critical Thinking Ability

Another example from the early cell phone days is that we all realized we no longer could remember the phone numbers of the people we called the most. While most of us remember our own phone number still, I literally couldn't recite more than the area code for a single person I contact regularly. Part of this might be that we now have to use 10 digits (in the US), whereas before cell phones, we primarily made local calls with 7 digits (in the US). I've had the same personal phone number since I went to college in Arizona, so naturally, my area code is one of Arizona, despite the fact that I haven't lived in Arizona since 2017. 

So what are we losing with AI chatbots in terms of our brain power? I'm sure time will tell and there will be many studies done, but even without data, I can definitely feel my willingness to create things manually waning. Looking up individual things through google search and go to the source website for a specific topic already feels too tedious and taxing when I have a quick solution. There is a newly created conflict I now have to weigh in my head, between the risk of AI hallucination and the benefits of validated, contextual insights. 

How do we combat this? I think it starts with acknowledging the real trade-off, and making choices. If I just want to explore ideas and am open to novel suggestions, like when I'm planning a personal vacation, I love treating AI as a partner in mapping out itineraries. To validate claims of products, I definitely like querying AI and sharing my specific concerns. But when tempted to create, I think we need to make choices about whether its important we create it ourselves, or if the end product is not significant enough to require the human touch. For example, I use AI to generate a lot of graphics to accommodate my blog posts. Since the writing is usually the important element, I'm okay with graphics that are imperfect - in fact, I really enjoy the imperfections to demonstrate the quirkiness of AI, and I will often use graphics unedited. Sometimes I use them to give me a framework of the graphic, and I edit them with my amateurish skills. 

But the blog is the important element, and I write those. Sometimes, when I'm having a hard time structing my thoughts, I'll use AI to generate an outline. I'll also use AI to check my work for clarity, to workshop specific sentences that could be phrased better, or to ensure I haven't left anything out when I have a lot of topics I want to make sure I cover. I'll use AI to generate professional disclaimers (like the one at the top of this post), and to ideate snazzy or punny headlines, although I often end up using a combination of its suggestions because AI struggles with human comedy still. Nevertheless, the work is mine. It's more than human-in-the-loop, it's further on the spectrum towards using AI as a collaborator, amending my human abilities rather than replacing them. 

So we need to be conscious of the choices of when to use AI and when to use our brains, to keep ourselves sharp. And ultimately, we need to use AI for what AI is good at - deep, contextual, niche searches and personalized recommendations, rather than trying to replace our humanity. And in terms of health, we aren't in a world (yet?) in which AI chatbots can diagnose real medical conditions. While they could provide a notional assessment of symptoms and things to talk to your doctor about, the risk of hallucination for something more medically serious is too great to not consult a doctor. 


And on that note, I need to get more water and stretch my still-tight muscles, because of course I went dancing again the last two nights. Cheers! 

Interview Advice: Pet Peeves to Avoid

As a hiring manager of newly formed and rapidly growing teams over the last decade, I’ve had an abundance of experience interviewing all levels of candidates from high schoolers seeking part-time internships and college students, through very experienced professionals and candidates for management. 

One principle I hold is that I am as transparent with candidates as I can be, and I offer support including interview advice, salary negotiation strategies and am always available to share honest perspectives on a candidate’s career aspirations and interview performance. 

When current colleagues recommend a candidate, I almost always give them an interview, even if its just a professional courtesy. I know some people get really nervous for interviews, and I think it’s good for everyone to gain experience. 

Having just recently taken over another team with gaps, I am in the process of hiring for four positions, so my schedule is heavy with interviews and recruiting efforts. 

One candidate for my newest and most senior open position reached out with a couple great questions, and I enjoyed thinking about my answers and responding so much, I thought I’d share the information more broadly. 

So with minimal edits, here is part of the exchange with this candidate:

Q: Good afternoon Laura! For my interview, do you have any pet peeves/ don’ts for interviews? Do you mind if I have notes?

A: hey [name redacted]! Notes are totally fine - shows you are prepared - I don’t mind that at all! You can also write down the question asked or jot down quick notes to organize your thoughts, if that helps you stay focused as you talk. 

Good question on pet peeves / don’ts... making me think!! 

I’ve had some bizarre interviews in the past, but I feel like the lessons from those should generally be obvious or common knowledge... For example, don’t decline to answer a question, and don’t criticize the interviewer for asking too many questions. Or, don’t use an example in which you broken the law or tell me that all managers are idiots. (LOL! I have some hilarious stories I can tell ya at Happy Hour some time!) 

Maybe a better one is, I prefer for candidates not to repeat an example they’ve already used, so you want to have a bank of examples to pull from. I know it can be tricky because you don’t know the questions coming at you ahead of time, so its always good to have multiple examples to pull from, and then craft your response to fit the specific question. If an example that’s already been used is REALLY the best one, then instead of repeating it or referencing the earlier answer, highlight different parts of that project to answer the specific question.

Talking about projects that have no results or isn’t completed is usually a miss for me. Make sure you are using examples of things you fully completed, and you got results from them.

As IEs, my interview panel and I often talk about how we want to be efficient but with quality in our own work, and that can be demonstrated in the interview: say enough to get us excited about what you did and understand the amazing accomplishment, but don’t overexplain or ramble on once you’ve said what you want us to know. 

I also think sometimes candidates don’t quite give me what I’m looking for in the answer, so listen carefully to the competency we’re looking for, and try to craft your answer to really demonstrate that competency. If we’re asking how you communicate, for example, then use your story telling to show how you crafted and rehearsed the message carefully, and/or used multiple modes of communication and/or checked for understanding. And then the result should be something more than just basic understanding, it should be a savings or hours reduction or 20% improvement in compliance, etc. 

One last funny one, and I know you won’t do this, is “word vomit.” The interview panel is made up of three really smart people, so you can’t sneak a fast one by us. Candidates who string together buzz words that amount to nonsense are easily screened out. Something like, “We were having quality defects so I did a time study, and that showed the Kanban size was miscalculated, so I fixed it by adding a SCRUM meeting to the business rhythm.” It is a real exercise for me to even come up with the kind of nonsense I’ve heard, but I have 100% heard things like that. So, maybe the lesson there is just know that you’re talking to smart people who will understand what you’re doing, so tell us that you know what you’re doing. 

Hope that helps!

While some of the specifics are related to my field, Industrial Engineering, I think this advice, stemming from my experience with hundreds of interviews, some stunningly awful, and others who have wowed me (and got the offer), is great for all job applicants to consider when interviewing for any job. 

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And as a bonus, enjoy this mostly-right AI-generated infographic summarizing my advice.