2024 Weeknote 46 : 4 days is not enough

November 11 – 17

My “weeknotes” capture events, thoughts, and other items from the past week, mostly focused on work. Learn more about the weeknotes concept here.

One Thought

No “thought” this week. Too tired, and I don’t have any unique events or insights to share!

Five Notes

I joined Technologists for the Public Good (TPG) this week as a paid member. It has a growing social network and a broad mandate I find interesting (it’s not just limited to government). I already see some folks there I’ve met through the Beeck Center and USDR. If this goes well, I may advocate for more of my team to join next year. The social layer TPG is offering is different from anything offered by the other players in the space, and is far more focused than LinkedIn.
The management / leadership team of our broader organization gathered for a full day this week to cap off a year-long series of people management training and development sessions provided by consulting firm Business of People. It’s been a great experience, though I do wish I had more time (or made more time) to put what we’ve learned into more practice. I’ve definitely altered some management behaviors, but not as much as I’d like.
Is professionally-bottled water “healthier” than well-made tap water? Apparently not. Researchers have found bottled water is worse than tap in terms of contaminants, especially stuff like microplastics. This was a surprise.
I noticed Code for America Summit 2025 now has formal dates set for the conference in Washington, DC. It’ll be May 29-30, though I suspect they will have a 1-day pre-conference option as well. Consider my calendar marked.
Finally, this week was a 4-day week due to the Veterans Day holiday. And it was rough. I’m finding any holiday week where Monday is a day off is much more intense than 5-day weeks. Yet 3-day weeks don’t feel that way—they feel loose. Not sure what I’m saying here, other than lamenting how jam-packed a 4-day week feels.

One Video

As the Trump 2.0 administration looms on the horizon, the topic of illegal immigration—and especially mass deportation of undocumented residents—is being discussed openly. It’s both a scary and a complex topic, given the confused and conflicting history the U.S. has developed around immigration. Indeed, I learned this week my own wife was unaware of how many undocumented immigrants were deported during the two Obama administrations. In fact, Obama deported more undocumented immigrants than all prior presidents combined. Indeed, Obama deported more people in either of his 4-year terms than Trump did in his first administration.

This 3-year-old video covers a good chunk of our weird immigration history, focused on recent decades and notes the Obama numbers. But it was still too early in the Trump 1.0 administration to have solid numbers). Before we get into 2025, everyone really needs to get some facts under their belts.