… but I woke up this morning thinking today really is the first day of the rest of my life!” After which point I went back to sleep, and didn’t get out of bed until close to noon — I mean, might as well get the rest of my life off to a nice relaxing start. When I got up my first reaction was “geez, how 70s”, and then I realized that wasn’t clear when to start the 24-hour “first day” clock from; and in any case, I’m reading Dzogchen Ponlop’s mind beyond death, and had just encountered the timely reminder that “the duration of any moment is not the actual experience itself. Our sense of time comes afterward, outside of it.” Indeed. Still …
Yesterday was my last day at Microsoft, after being there 8 1/3 years. It’s been an amazing time (as the last six weeks of summing up, appreciation, and compliments from friends and colleagues, old and new, has helped remind me). I learned a lot there, grew a lot, and am really proud of what I accomplished.
I’m really excited about what’s next — can’t wait, in fact! The first step is to take some time off, and work on some projects with Deborah and hopefully some other friends as well … after that, we shall see; I’ll also be blogging, here, and will keep everybody posted. And it kind of feels like stepping off of a cliff and leaping into the void: exhilarating and a sense of total freedom.
It may well take me a while to find my voice with this blog; in the short term, it’ll probably be a mix of personal stuff and talking about my writing, with some politics mixed in, and then more about some of the projects as we get going on them. I’m sure there will be a wiki involved as well at some point and a bunch of experimenting with different look-and-feels and perhaps writing style as well. It’s all pretty ad hoc and informal right now…. still not sure how often I’ll be posting, or the mix between long and short posts. Please stay tuned and bear with me as I work things out!
jon
Comments
12 responses to “Not to sound like a cliche or anything …”
Hey Jon!
Gratz on the new direction in life, and on having the chance to walk away from your time at Microsoft feeling gratified, and appreciated…!
~brandy
neat! you can find me at http://www.r4bid.net/eviesfieldtrip.
I’m just now getting around to adding RSS from my blog to Tribe, etc.
Jon,
Wow! 3,000 days…or 10% of your life! You’ve heard the 30,000 days is the average lifespan thing, right? Well, I’m proud of you. I’ve done it too – now at Expedia – and yes, life does get better. You miss the people, but you meet new ones – and stay in touch with the old ones. And I’m an optimist and a believer in the human spirit and capacity, and so I’m always amazed at the new folks I meet wherever I go. You will be too.
I’m so there at whatever goodbye bash/holiday party you want to hold. I still have the Dr. Suess hat. 🙂
Michael Foster
What did you contribute exactly? Good riddance!
Bob,
What are you contributing? Why don’t you go flame on Mini, and then take an exit yourself. We could use one less dweeb who thinks they understand the value of precision questioning.
Holy cats, Jon! Guess it’s time to catch up with you & Deborah again, huh? Meet you in the non-Microsoft world — you remember, that dingy little joint down the alley?
Thanks all! With the obvious exception … for those of you who didn’t have the pleasure of working at Microsoft, yes, there really *are* a lot of guys like BobT there.
> Meet you in the non-Microsoft world — you remember, that dingy little joint down the alley?
Sounds like a great idea. Not sure I remember it though — I had to archive those memories and put them in escrow as part of my new employee orientation. Has it changed much in the last eight years?
jon
PS to Not bob: not sure why the comment form requires an email address; I’ll try to make it optional. Good catch, and sorry ’bout that.
Hi, Jon,
Wow! So this will mean you’ll be back in the Bay Area? I really enjoyed working with you and the Intrinsa crowd, and I’m happy I might now have a chance to work with you again without going to Redmond. Assuming, of course, that the company doesn’t get sold within two weeks of me arriving. 🙂
And as for your impact, I spent an hour talking with a long-time MS employee last month who told me how the Intrinsa purchase (and the internal development and use of Prefix/Prefast) was a home run for Microsoft, and made a huge difference in quality just when Microsoft desperately needed the help. It was fun to hear how much impact you and the Intrinsa gang made.
And enjoy your time off — it’ll be great. I gave notice at my last employer four months ago for some well-deserved time off. One of my coworkers said “oh, you’ll be bored silly within weeks. When I was between jobs, I went stir crazy within a month.”
Nope. There just isn’t enough time for all the projects I want to do. I wouldn’t give up this time off for anything.
Robert
Hi Robert. Wow, long time no see — sounds like things are going really well for you! Agreed on how it won’t be a problem “filling the time” and I’m not at risk of boredom ….
Locationally, over the next year, we’re actually planning on spending more time in Seattle, and less in the Bay Area. We’ll probably keep the apartment here, but will move Godzilla up there (no need to panic for Seattle denizens: at 16 she’s mostly a monster emeritus). After that, we’ll see; we’re seriously thinking of living abroad again for a while. Still, I’ll be down in the Bay Area a lot, and now should have a lot more time and energy, so yeah, I’m really looking forward to the chance to sync up with old friends. If and when I do wind up starting another company, I’ll be thinking of it as multi-location from the very beginning, so perhaps we’ll have the chance to work together again … for a little longer 🙂
Yeah, Intrinsa’s impact at Microsoft was huge: PREfix/PREfast, and working with folks like Manuvir Das, Manuel Fahndreich, and others on Jim Larus’ team in Microsoft Research to take static analysis to the next level both in terms of capability and by actually getting people to annotate their code. I’m also really proud of the impact both on computer science research: there are now workshops in static analysis — and along with people like Dawson Engler, Andreas Zoeller, and the whole PPRC crowd at MSR we were part of a trend away from the unsuccessful “prove correctness” that has now gained the status of common wisdom and is now ironically enough influencing formal methods. And in terms of the industry impact, we basically legitimized the market segment; and we shared our insights broadly enough that the new batch of static analysis startups (Coverity, Fortify, etc.) have all been able to take advantage of them.
jon
Yes, indeed Prefix/Intrinsa made more impact on Windows quality than most people think. Personally I am happy to have been a small part of that and to have worked with the Intrinsa folks 🙂
I too just left a couple of months ago and now back in the bay area, so hopefully catch up with you again Jon, and best wishes and thanks for great times!
Vinod
Jon just catching up on events with all my friends and all I can say is Wow! Would hate to loose your company and Deborah’s up here is MS country but know of your ties to the Bay area. It is both an honor and pleasure to be working with you in some of the areas we are on some of your developing projects. Remember life is not a problem to solve it’s an adventure to live and I look forward to hearing of your new adventures!
Michael (DSB)
OK, I’ve been out of the loop this month. I finally saw this on Mini, so I’m sorry to say this so late. Another one of my favorite people at Microsoft is gone. We’re going to miss you Jon.
Best of luck in your future endeavors. Please keep in touch.
Brian