Reticulating splines…
Tags: serverlessdays, contabs, management
Published: 2019-05-01 10:01:28

---
title: Reticulating splines…
published: true
tags: ServerlessDays, ConTabs, management
canonical_url: http://blog.tdwright.co.uk/2019/04/28/reticulating-splines/
---

It’s been a little while since my last post, so I thought I’d better do a quick status check. What have I been up to recently? What on earth could possibly keep me so busy that I’ve been unable to blog? It’s mainly a mix of work-stuff and a big project. Read on to find out more about both, as well as a few other bits and pieces, and also maybe some teasers about future posts.

### Changes at work

In March I was asked to step up and start managing the development team at the startup where I work.

One of the big things that’s kept me from writing more blog posts is that I’ve been spending a lot of time doing managery things: hiring, onboarding, planning, forming processes… You get the idea. It’s also meant that I’ve backed off from the interesting tech stuff a little bit. So I’ve had less to write about and less time to do my writing in.

“But Tom,” I hear you say, “when you left your last job (and the one before that) you said you were sick of being a manager and that you just wanted to write code.” Yep. That was me. And my own words rang in my ears when I was talking to my boss about the changes. So why am I doing it all again?

Well, for a start, I’m finally at an organisation where I feel I can develop my own management style. I can take what I’ve learnt from being a manager in two companies previously and apply it to the fertile soil of a startup packed with talented people.

The other factor is more inward-looking. I’m at peace now with the “manager” part of my identity. I guess I’ve mature enough to feel comfortable acknowledging that I’m pretty good with people. Plus, I’m OK with the process side of things.

Anyway, I’m still more software engineer than manager, as I hope the rest of this post will prove.

### ServerlessDays Melbourne

This is a big bit of news. I’m organising a “ServerlessDays” conference here in Melbourne in August.

[![](https://i1.wp.com/blog.tdwright.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/image.png?fit=620%2C300)](https://www.serverlessdays.me/)

ServerlessDays Melbourne 2019 is taking place at the Melbourne Museum on the 29th of August. The [CFP is open](https://www.papercall.io/serverlessdays-melbourne) and we’ve had some cracking submissions already. We have secured some great sponsors, but still have some slots left (download [our prospectus](https://www.serverlessdays.me/Prospectus-v3.pdf)). Tickets will go on sale any day now, so keep an eye on [our Twitter feed](https://twitter.com/ServerlessMEL).

### ConTabs and dotnet whois

[ConTabs](https://github.com/tdwright/contabs) has been a victim of my busy schedule recently. We’re pretty close to being ready for the v2 release, but just have one [big feature left](https://github.com/tdwright/contabs/issues/54) to tackle.

As well as v2, I have a post brewing about moving to .Net Standard 2.0. The short version is that this makes the dependency stuff (that caused me [so much pain](http://blog.tdwright.co.uk/2017/11/21/update-getting-net-standard-apps-playing-nicely-on-nuget/) before) loads easier.

I’ve also started a project I’m calling `dotnet whois`. It’s sorta like business cards for the dotnet CLI. It’s pretty early days, but take a look at [the Github repo](https://github.com/tdwright/dotnetwhois) and dive in if you’re interested.

### Future posts

I’m going to make a concerted effort to blog more. In the not-too-distant future, I hope to publish posts about…

- My interview process
- How I can’t get any women to apply for my jobs
- All the stuff involved in organising a conference
- ConTabs v2 (when I finally finish it)
- Moving ConTabs to .net standard 2.0
- Dotnet whois and why y’all should fork it

Anyway, that’s the plan. Stay tuned kiddos.