September 9, 2013

State of the Nation

I've managed to go from a peak of almost 350 posts in a year to barely over a dozen in a year.  I think some explanation is in order.

I've been working on several secret projects since joining Amazon in January 2012.  One of the side effects of working on secret projects is that you aren't supposed to post about things that could potentially hint at what you are working on.

My hope was that I'd still be able to make lots of blog posts about games and other non-work-related items, but my available time each week for gaming has been minimal, and most of the really interesting stuff I've come across could, at least tangentially, be cross-referenced with enough other data points to reveal my project.  The latter part really sucks because I've been discovering some amazing things and I have to wait until after my project is announced to share any of it.

Fortunately, my involvement with secret projects is starting to come to a conclusion, and I'm trying to figure what my options are.

Option one: Stay working on this secret project when it is no longer secret.  Pros: I know this domain astoundingly well, and I'm on track to become a principal at Amazon within the next 12 months.  Cons: As we get closer to release, the pressure is on to relax my quality bar, and I hate feeling pressured to enable what amounts to "intellectual masturbation" by allowing people to claim a milestone they didn't hit.

Option two: Stay at Amazon, but transition to another group.  Pros: Amazon has internal game studios, and I could transition back into games and keep the Amazon-level salary.  Cons: My participation in gaming outside of Amazon would be reduced significantly per the non-compete.

Option three: Leave Amazon.  To be honest, I'm not even considering this option.

What will come of all this?  I have no idea.  My goal is to know for certain by my two-year Amazon anniversary.

Profile Updated

Got an email this morning asking about a post from 2007, and realized that my profile had been out of date for almost two years.

Oops.