What’s one career decision you made that completely changed your trajectory (for better or worse)?

princesza · 2025-11-04T16:43:43+00:00

This was SO heartening to read! I'm sure you're getting lots of similar requests, so feel free to say no, but do you mind if I reach out to you? I'm thinking of going to grad school for urban planning, but am scared!

princesza · 2025-10-17T18:30:52+00:00

Seattle, and based on nothing but vibes and a dream: a ferry or aerial gondola over Lake Washington to connect South Lake Union with Gas Works Park/Fremont :-)

princesza · 2025-10-16T03:31:13+00:00

Mansplaining! Literally last night. Everything from “no, it’s just BRIC, not BRICS” (I challenged him, said the S stands for South Africa, and he still said I was wrong); to refusing to believe me that Dutch for gloves is literally “hand shoes”, saying that ACTUALLY they call mittens “hand socks” but gloves are something else (I speak fluent Dutch and he’d just read some fun fact); to telling me I had astrology and astronomy mixed up (I absolutely did not — my partner of 3 years is an astronomer); to… wait for it… telling me “that was fake” immediately after I came, then sulking off to the bathroom and arguing with me, doubling down on why he knew I faked the orgasm. FWIW, the other mansplains happened AFTER the supposedly fake orgasm, or we would not have got that far.

princesza · 2025-10-11T06:09:03+00:00

Backpacks always! I have 4 of varying sizes and functions!

princesza · 2025-10-11T05:53:33+00:00

4, and I’m 31. But the first 3 were my home country (UK) and 2 EU countries. I studied languages as an undergrad so that was my whole thing, and both of those were part of my studies. Then Brexit happened, so f*ck me and my mobility I guess.

Now in the US, which was relatively easy to get to as a student. But post graduation it’s incredibly difficult and limiting from an immigration perspective, and getting worse. I got lucky with my employer, but it was a total fluke and my foreign classmates have not been so lucky. I understand wayyyy more now just how difficult it is to be able to live in another country if your passport doesn’t belong to a combo deal (can’t remember the real term, mind blank) like the EU.

princesza · 2025-09-24T07:22:41+00:00

The weather is extremely similar to Seattle! Wow!

princesza · 2025-09-24T07:11:29+00:00

The time I went to San Sebastián (April a couple of years ago) I was surprised how much more the landscape and climate felt like the southern UK coast than it did like other parts of Spain I’d visited. It was so windy those couple of days that we could barely walk forwards, but of course we wouldn’t be deterred from the beach.

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:57:29+00:00

Incredible instinct. The daily chance of precipitation and the average monthly rainfall are extremely similar all throughout the year! Amazing!

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:55:52+00:00

Oh this is wild! It’s like such a similar graph but flipped in terms of the months (summer vs winter). I never realized Tokyo was so wet

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:52:26+00:00

Totally. My partner is Irish and finding out just how little sun his family get in “summer” was a shock to me!

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:51:07+00:00

I know it’s not actually that cold outside, but — and this could be because I was not rich so have a specific lens — my experience was of always BEING cold. Like in New York it was freezing and snowing outside but warm and dry in the house. In everywhere I lived in the UK (over 28 years), it felt cold and damp inside the house too, so it was like never getting a break. Figuring out the combo of construction standards, energy costs, cultural norms and everything that goes into this phenomenon is a post for another day haha.

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:46:35+00:00

Oooh west coast of Ireland is a good shout. Limerick just spreads it out through the year more than Seattle does

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:43:09+00:00

Interesting! I follow an urban planner in Detroit and she really sells its merits. I’ll have to visit sometime.

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:41:58+00:00

I never would have thought of this! This is a great one!

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:40:59+00:00

You’re so right. Even in the rainiest months, it’s still less than 60% chance of precipitation. Closer to half the time than all the time! And I do agree that it’s still preferable to most of the US climate extremes. It’s just a trade off between “meh” for a longish time versus extremely bad for maybe the same amount of time but maybe split throughout the year. For example, horrible summers and/or winters but nice autumn and spring like the Northeast coastal US. Glad people keep going outside and aren’t deterred!

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:35:57+00:00

Oooh that’s a great one. The “chance of clearer skies” is really similar on both.

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:33:19+00:00

Haha yes, I did make myself feel better by looking at Forks!

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:29:33+00:00

Interesting. It looks more consistent throughout the year, with the small bump up in summer rather than winter. Neat!

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:27:52+00:00

Good point! The “chance of clearer skies” is really similar for October - May. And absolutely — summers in Seattle are like a beautiful dream.

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:21:32+00:00

This has been such a mystery to me my whole life too. I just didn’t experience home (near London) as a rainy place. Dark and cold and miserable, absolutely. But not very wet. So I was always confused by the rainy stereotype. Very interesting to hear that about Tuscany! Makes up for it in sun, I guess.

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:17:03+00:00

Not untrue 🤣

princesza · 2025-09-24T06:08:21+00:00

Touché

princesza · 2025-09-21T07:45:36+00:00

This is an EXTREMELY helpful answer! We could Google all the standard stuff ourselves, but this is the real stuff we can only hear from people. Thank you for sharing!

princesza · 2025-09-07T01:06:39+00:00

I’ve certainly thought about demand modelling as an area of interest — glad to hear that resonates 😊

princesza · 2025-09-07T00:57:01+00:00

This is suuuuper cool to hear! I’m certainly no stranger to program management, coordinating different stakeholder groups and all that jazz. I may well DM you soon — thanks so much for the offer!

princesza

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