Don PottingerPersonal Website and Bloghttp://donpottinger.net/blog2020-05-08T01:00:00-04:00Don Pottinger#IRunWithAhmaudhttp://donpottinger.net/blog/2020/05/08/i-run-with-ahmaud.html2020-05-08T01:00:00-04:002020-05-09T19:36:30-04:00Don Pottinger<div class="video-container">
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<p>As I prepared to record my run, I thought to myself, “At least if they kill me, it will be on tape.” The sad part is that it’s not even a joke.</p>
<p>You have to give it to them. They unabashedly hunt us in broad daylight - unafraid of the consequences because the same system that vilifies us will protect them.</p>
<p>They’ve been doing it for hundreds of years, but they keep finding new ways to kill us.</p>
<p>When we…</p>
<ul>
<li>walk in our neighborhood.</li>
<li>sit in our car.</li>
<li>play in the park.</li>
<li>are in our own homes.</li>
<li>run in our neighborhood.</li>
</ul>
<p>Yet, it’s justified because…</p>
<ul>
<li>they were standing their ground.</li>
<li>we fit a description.</li>
<li>we fit a description.</li>
<li>we weren’t polite enough.</li>
<li>we had a weapon (licensed or not).</li>
<li>we committed a misdemeanor.</li>
</ul>
<p>Then in our deaths they destroy our character and our good name, call into question our motives, dehumanize us, and ultimately, reduce us to nothing more than a statistic.</p>
<p>I’m tired, but you know what, I’m going to run more.</p>
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A Case of Mistaken Identityhttp://donpottinger.net/blog/2019/07/05/a-case-of-mistaken-identity.html2019-07-05T01:00:00-04:002019-07-27T15:42:54-04:00Don Pottinger<p>We love taking the kids to our neighborhood pool. The kids take swim lessons there, so it’s a familiar and comfortable space for them to play. We parents get to stay cool while the kids expend all their energy. It’s a rare win-win for both parents and children.</p>
<p>Today, I noticed there was a little light-skinned boy about Damian’s age. The kid was enjoying himself - playing with various pool toys. I thought to myself, “It’s cool to see another biracial kid playing at this pool.”</p>
<p><img alt="Damian and Me" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/donpottinger.net/images/1F73401C-F664-4358-B6E1-5BE8EC0046F5.jpeg" /></p>
<p>A bit later, a white father and his son approached Damian and me in the pool. This man said that they were looking for his son’s water gun, and he saw Damian playing with it earlier.</p>
<p>Now, I had seen the other light-skinned boy playing with the water gun. That boy was not my son. I politely said, “That wasn’t my son.”</p>
<p>The man gently insisted that he was sure it was Damian.</p>
<p>I responded, “It wasn’t him.”</p>
<p>He paused and looked away briefly before insisting again, “I think it was him.”</p>
<p>I said, a bit perturbed, “It was the other light-skinned kid.”</p>
<p>The dad paused, realized his mistake, and sauntered off a few feet before turning his head slightly to offer what should have been a mea culpa. Instead he offered a “Thanks, man…”.</p>
<p>His son scolded him, “I told you that wasn’t him, Dad!”</p>
<p>In that moment I wanted to mount a strong and dramatic defense for my son, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my son has been with me this entire time, and he hasn’t been playing with a water gun.” But…</p>
<p>I didn’t. I’m glad I didn’t.</p>
<p>I could have pointed out all the differences between my son and the other boy. From the innocuous, like the other boy was wearing blue goggles while Damian wears green ones. To the things a black father to a biracial son notices, like the other boy is lighter skinned and has coarse, almost blond hair while Damian has wavy, dark hair. But…</p>
<p>Again, I didn’t. I’m glad I didn’t.</p>
<p>The burden of proof should not be on my son and me.</p>
<p>This interaction left me frustrated because the father was 100% certain and 100% wrong. While this case was harmless, it gave me pause.</p>
<p>What if I wasn’t there to advocate for my son? How would Damian react? Would that father, who seemed so certain, accuse my son of stealing their cheap water gun? What if this was a more serious accusation? Cases of mistaken identity for people of color can have life altering consequences.</p>
<p>That experience followed me for the rest of our pool time like a cloud threatening a summer storm. Sharing this has helped me process it and hopeful of the following lessons learned:</p>
<p><strong>Other father</strong> - I hope you learned to check your assumptions before jumping to conclusions. Gaps in your knowledge are not an excuse. Even your son could tell the difference between the two light-skinned boys. Do better.</p>
<p><strong>Damian</strong> - Just because you have less melanin in your skin doesn’t prevent you from being a victim of stereotypes or mistaken identity. Don’t be a victim. Be aware.</p>
<p><strong>Me</strong> - The burden of proof is not on me. Don’t feel the need to explain or defend yourself when you’ve done nothing wrong. You have every right to be in these spaces.</p>
Between Damian and Me: A Letter to My Sonhttp://donpottinger.net/blog/2016/07/12/between-damian-and-me.html2016-07-12T01:00:00-04:002016-07-12T16:24:48-04:00Don Pottinger<blockquote>
<p><br>
Damian: What color is Mommy?
<br>
Me: Umm…(how old are you again?)
<br>
Damian: Is she light brown?
<br>
Me: Uh, yes, sort of. (You are only 2 years old)
<br>
Damian: What color am I? Am I light brown too?
<br>
Me: Yes, you are light brown.
<br>
Damian: Are you dark brown, Daddy?
<br>
Me: Yes, I am dark brown.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Your large brown eyes linger. You are studying my body language. It’s as if you know there is more that I’m not telling you. How are you are already noticing the differences in color between your mother, your father and yourself? You are not even 3 years old. How did we get here so soon?</p>
<p><img alt="Damian and Me" src="http://www.evernote.com/l/AQf1NF8WTFJOEYiSLihP_3I3ySvaoYwozp4B/image.png" /></p>
<p>Damian, your questions make me uncomfortable. In fact, the entire question of color in America has always been an uncomfortable one. Where do I even start? Being Black in America is…complicated. Things will be even more complicated for you. You are biracial. It’s a beautiful thing. You will have the power to navigate between both worlds like some sort of racial superhero. At times, this will be an advantage, and other times it won’t.</p>
<p>Realistically, most people will take one look at your light brown skin and African features and quickly classify you as a Black man. That means that you will feel their eyes following you as you shop in a store. You will sense their discomfort in tight spaces. You will smell their suspicion as you approach them on the street. You will learn what it means to be Black and assumed dangerous.</p>
<p>When you are older, I will tell you about the time that your uncle, grandmother, her elderly friend and I were stopped by the police. It was close to midnight in the middle of nowhere Alabama. When I saw the police cruiser pull up behind me with their lights blazing, I made sure to pull into a well-lit gas station. I didn’t want the officer to feel threatened, and I wanted to make sure there would be witnesses if anything went down.</p>
<p>They still blocked our silver Honda Accord in with multiple units as if we had any intention of making a getaway. Two officers approached on both sides of our car. Although they blinded us with their flashlights, I could see their hands on their weapons. Primed and ready. Throughout the encounter, the officer addressed me with a hostile tone. He was obviously perturbed to be in our presence. I responded with an air of compliance and diffusion. He treated my family as if we were perpetrating a serious crime. All this because I forgot to turn off my high beams.</p>
<p>As we drove away, we were rattled. We felt lucky to escape with just a $129 ticket even though we weren’t criminals. But that’s the reality of police encounters for Black people. I will tell you how angry I was for weeks after that encounter and how I imagined ways to make that officer feel that same helplessness and fear. Unfortunately, this emasculation is something that Black men have been experiencing for centuries in America. You will learn that these fear tactics were born in slavery, transformed into overt policies like Jim Crow and still deeply engrained in our societal institutions.</p>
<p>I will teach you how to assuage their fear of you as best as I can. In light of recent events, this will be crucial to increasing your chances of survival during encounters with the police. I will teach you how to momentarily silence your inquisitiveness and desire to question authority. I will teach you how to be as unthreatening as possible to avoid triggering the flight or fight responses of the police.</p>
<p>As your father, I want to protect you from anyone and anything that can harm you. The reality is that I can’t. I can’t protect you from the systemic racism that plagues our country. All I can do is instill a healthy fear in you about what it means to be Black in America. Just like my parents did before me. Why? Because to be Black means, first and foremost, to survive. You will survive. At least I hope so.</p>
The Genesis of Body Bosshttp://donpottinger.net/blog/2016/01/11/the-genesis-of-body-boss.html2016-01-11T00:00:00-05:002016-07-11T07:43:00-04:00Don Pottinger<p>Body Boss failed. This is the first time that I’ve typed those words. My co-founder, Daryl Lu’s newly released book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A2NGDZ0"><strong><em>Postmortem of a Failed Startup: Lessons for Success</em></strong></a>, goes many steps further. He exposes the intimate details of Body Boss from “cradle to grave”. The book is overflowing with actionable lessons for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs alike, all while revealing the human side of co-founding a business.</p>
<p>You can download the book from Amazon <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A2NGDZ0">here</a>.</p>
<p>I had the distinct honor of authoring the foreword in Daryl’s book. The foreword (excerpted below) details the genesis of Body Boss from the inception of the idea to the growth of the team, member by member. Enjoy.</p>
<h2>Foreword</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
<br>
<br>
– Thomas A. Edison, Inventor</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By Don Pottinger</p>
<p>A dream team must be 10x greater as a whole than the sum of its parts. 20 years after THE Dream Team dominated the Olympic Games, a different sort of dream team would be formed – the Body Boss team. Unlike The Dream Team, there were no superstars like Michael Jordan. None of them were household names with a long résumé of success like Magic Johnson or Larry Bird. In fact, the team was made up of 4 young and unknown entrepreneurs named Darren, Don, Andrew, and Daryl. They came together with a singular purpose: to disrupt the fitness industry with a revolutionary product called Body Boss. In pursuing this goal, the team members transformed from upstarts with raw skills into startup superstars. This dream team wasn’t born but made through their pursuit of greatness, and it all began with Darren, the brainchild behind Body Boss.</p>
<h3>Darren</h3>
<p>Body Boss began with Darren. He was an industrial and systems engineering (ISyE) student at Georgia Tech learning how to improve complex systems by formulating and analyzing abstract models. In essence, Darren was learning how to make systems more efficient. Darren also followed his high school passion by wrestling at Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>When he wasn’t training, he spent hours thinking about wrestling – ways to improve himself, ways to gain an advantage on his competition. One day it hit him: why not apply ISyE concepts to a system he was very familiar with – his own body? He could build models instructing him what to do to maximize his strength and conditioning. This was the beginning of the idea that would eventually morph into Body Boss.</p>
<p>He formulated models using an elaborate spreadsheet. Like a mad scientist, he began testing the model on first himself and then his closest friends. They would meet in the gym, perform the prescribed workout, and record their performance. Darren’s spreadsheet would instantly tell them how much weight they should be using against target reps to maximize gains for each exercise. The idea behind Body Boss was conceived in Darren’s dorm room, transcribed into a spreadsheet, and tested in the Campus Recreation Center at Georgia Tech. That is where it would have died if it wasn’t for the next person – Darren’s brother, Don.</p>
<h3>Don</h3>
<p>Like his brother, Don is a Georgia Tech alum. He graduated 3 years prior to Darren with a degree in Computer Engineering. In contrast to Darren, Don had no interest in his major post-graduation, so he decided to dive into a career as a management and IT consultant at a Big 4 consulting firm. Don quickly realized that big corporate consulting work was neither challenging nor rewarding.</p>
<p>Don took note as his brother began hacking on a program that would take the confusion out of working out. Really, Don had no choice – whenever he and his brother hung out, Darren would talk of little else.</p>
<p>Darren submitted the idea of Body Boss to the InVenture Prize competition at Georgia Tech that showcased ideas of current and recently graduated Tech students in an innovation competition. Darren’s pitch was ambitious – Body Boss will tell users what exercise to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Even though Body Boss was nothing more than a glorified spreadsheet, he made it to the semifinals of the competition. However, the judges wanted more.</p>
<p>Darren recruited a developer to build a prototype iPhone app. On the day of the final presentation, Darren and Don arrived 30 minutes early waiting to see the prototype app for the first time. They waited impatiently for the developer, but the developer would be a no-show. Time was up, so Darren stepped onto the stage and delivered his pitch – most of the judges loved the presentation. However, one judge was unconvinced. The judge looked at Darren and asked incredulously, “But can you build it?” The lack of an app prototype was Darren’s undoing – Body Boss didn’t make it to the finals of the competition.</p>
<p>Don was sitting in the audience and watched Darren exude confidence throughout the entire presentation until that very moment. It was excruciating to watch his brother stumble. “But can you build it?” reverberated in Don’s mind. It was less of a question and more of a challenge. That challenge would serve as a rallying cry for Darren and Don. They promised never to rely on a third-party to determine their fate.</p>
<p>Don and Darren dedicated themselves to learning how to build web and mobile apps. Don dove headfirst into web application development with Ruby on Rails. Darren, not to be one-upped by his brother, began learning mobile development with Android. They spent countless hours together learning and building. Body Boss became a family affair.</p>
<p>While Darren is a brilliant and mercurial thinker, Don is more even-keeled, methodical and consistent. His natural charisma endears him to everyone, and this characteristic would be important as the Body Boss team took shape. The next team member to join, Andrew, would make Body Boss look and feel beautiful.</p>
<h3>Andrew</h3>
<p>Andrew has a background in graphic design with a focus in web and app design, frontend development, user experience, and branding. Prior to Body Boss, Andrew plied his trade at a digital agency in Washington D.C. He gained valuable experience in his role there, but the rigidness of the company had begun to stymie his creativity.</p>
<p>Andrew and Don had known each other since middle school, but they hadn’t spoken since high school. Don had stumbled across Andrew’s personal website and was incredibly impressed by his portfolio. He reached out to Andrew in the hopes that Andrew would be interested in doing work for Body Boss. Although it had been almost most 8 years, they caught up like it was yesterday.</p>
<p>Don demoed an early alpha version of Body Boss to Andrew. The backend was impressive, but the user interface looked rough. Neither of the brothers were designers, so they relied on a pre-built theme that just didn’t fit. Andrew recognized the brothers’ intelligence, passion, and vision for Body Boss. In addition, Andrew saw Body Boss as the creative outlet that would finally push him to full-time freelancing.</p>
<p>Andrew joined the team as the Creative Director. He created all the visuals and designs that would transform Body Boss from a hobbyist project held together by duct tape into a visually stunning and impressive product. Now, the product team was complete with coverage across backend, mobile, and frontend development. There was just one piece missing for the Body Boss team. The one piece that would make them complete would be Daryl.</p>
<h3>Daryl</h3>
<p>Daryl and Don had been best friends since college. Their bond was formed on the soccer field playing collegiate soccer together and being roommates throughout Georgia Tech. Upon graduating, Daryl began a career in consulting and quickly became a highly skilled and sought after consultant. His first taste of startups came when he joined a small boutique consulting firm. It was there where Daryl learned what it took to build a business from the company’s founder. After the company was acquired, Daryl decided to pursue an MBA. He wanted to add business skills like marketing and finance to his consulting experience while adding structure to his freestyling work style.</p>
<p>Daryl had been keenly watching Darren and Don hurtle themselves into web and mobile development. Body Boss intrigued Daryl enough to help out from time to time. His consulting background proved to be a strength, but his heavy travel schedule prevented him from fully committing.</p>
<p>Everything changed after the Body Boss team competed in a pitch competition called Startup Riot in early 2012. Daryl pitched Body Boss to investors, entrepreneurs, and anyone who showed interest. When Body Boss finished in the top 4 of the competition, Daryl was hooked. Now in business school, Daryl wasn’t traveling anymore. When he wasn’t in class or studying, he was working on Body Boss. He even used Body Boss as the subject of several group projects.</p>
<p>After graduating from business school, Daryl dedicated himself full-time to Body Boss. He became the driving force behind Body Boss because he could do everything. He easily maneuvered between managing sales, marketing, customer support, finance, and product. He created a sales playbook, handled all legal and accounting matters, and created and maintained strategic partnerships. In fact, Body Boss’ first customer was Daryl’s high school.</p>
<p>Daryl provided much needed structure and balance to the team. Through his Body Boss experience, Daryl became the all-purpose executive.</p>
<p>The roles within the team solidified organically – Darren led mobile development and built the workout engine Don led all other technical development. Andrew led creative efforts. Daryl led everything else. The Body Boss team was ready and equipped to disrupt the health and fitness industry.</p>
Our Closet Door and the Compounding Effect of Procrastinationhttp://donpottinger.net/blog/2015/08/12/our-closet-door-and-the-compounding-effect-of-procrastination.html2015-08-12T01:00:00-04:002016-07-11T07:43:00-04:00Don Pottinger<p>For the past few months, Kat and I have been diligently prepping our home to be put up for sale. We’ve been hard at work inside painting walls, touching up trim, and outside ripping out ivy, laying down mulch, planting flowers, and power washing the driveway, sidewalk and the house. Improving our house has taken years, but we’ve made a ton of progress in just this summer alone.</p>
<p>One of the items on our long laundry list was to fix the closet door. This is not just any closet door. It’s the main closet door that everyone sees as they come into our comfy (read: small) home. This closet door has a history. 3 years ago, when we had unlimited time (calculated in comparison to the free time we have now), we took on a project to replace the original door. It had somehow acquired a doggie-door-sized hole. I won’t say if it was caused from playing soccer in the house.</p>
<p>We bought a standard white door from Home Depot. It came with a single hole for the door knob. We thought that it would be an easy project to install the standard door. Wrong. Our standard door did not fit a standard door frame for a house built in 1956. Oh well, we adapted it. We rented an electric wood planer, carried the door outside to the patio and shaved it down a little. Then we carried it back in, and tested if it fit. It took about 20 back and forth trips before it fit snugly in the frame. Sure the door was unevenly shaved thanks to yours truly, but I convinced myself that no one would notice. Then we installed the hinges and the door knob, and voila, we had a brand new closet door.</p>
<p>Looking back, it was one of those DIY projects that proved to be a rollercoaster ride of emotions. It began with the right mix of optimism and naivety, “We can do this. All we need are a door and some tools.” This optimism eventually morphed into immense frustration and impatience, “What did we get ourselves into? Why is this taking so long?” The rollercoaster ride culminated with a sense of accomplishment and relief, “The blood, sweat and wood shavings were all worth it. I’m so happy this is over.”</p>
<p>However, it wasn’t long before our (read: my) shoddy craftsmanship reared its ugly head. Eventually, the screws in the bottom hinge loosened to the point where the door was hanging willy nilly. I promised myself (read: Kat) that I would fix it <strong>post haste</strong>. Fast forward 3 years, and we had grown to accept the broken door as part of our house much like the creaky hardwood floorboards. We had even worked out an effective workaround to close the door. Lift the door from the doorknob at angle of 45 degrees counter-clockwise while closing to perfectly align the hinge with the hinge mortise.</p>
<p>It only took the self-imposed deadline of putting our house up for sale to motivate me to fix the door. A problem that had existed for years, took a couple plastic anchors, a screw driver and 5 minutes to solve.</p>
<p>Our ordeal with the closet door is a clear example of how procrastination has a compounding effect. That is, a problem will exist orders of magnitude longer than it takes to fix. If we use our adventure with the closet door as an example, the problem festered for 3 years or 1,577,847 minutes. That is 31,5569 times longer than it took me to fix.</p>
<p>Don’t let your problems get to the point of festering. Create a sense of urgency to solve them by setting a deadline. It’s amazing what you can accomplish once you do so.</p>
How Kevy uses Elasticsearch to Build Real-time Reportinghttp://donpottinger.net/blog/2015/08/03/how-kevy-uses-elasticsearch-to-build-real-time-reporting.html2015-08-03T01:00:00-04:002016-07-11T07:43:00-04:00Don Pottinger<p>In a previous post, <a href="/blog/2015/07/08/today-was-a-good-day.html">Today Was a Good Day</a>, I mentioned that I gave a talk entitled, <strong><em>“How Kevy Uses Elasticsearch to Build Real-time Reporting”</em></strong> at the July meeting of the Atlanta Ruby Users Group (ATLRUG). It was my first technical talk in front of an audience of other software engineers. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the faces in the crowd during my time at <a href="http://bignerdranch.com">Big Nerd Ranch</a>. Faces that I’ve looked up to in my never-ending journey as a software engineer. I look forward to giving more talks about how <a href="http://kevy.com">Kevy</a> is revolutionizing eCommerce marketing with tools like Elasticsearch. </p>
<p>I shared the slides (with speaker notes) from the talk below. If you have any questions about how Kevy uses Elasticsearch, reach out to <a href="http://twitter.com/donpottinger">me</a>.</p>
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/embed?id=105dACwZIM_uHq93rj6efWlutCurkJceyXBqXQDIHQzo&start=false&loop=false& frameborder="0" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>
<p>Documenting the Twitter reaction reminds me of how amazingly supportive everyone was:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">⚡️ talk by <a href="https://twitter.com/donpottinger">@donpottinger</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/atlrug">@atlrug</a> tonight was 🔥🔥🔥</p>— kylie (@KyFaSt) <a href="https://twitter.com/KyFaSt/status/618930721760112640">July 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/donpottinger">@donpottinger</a> 👍 first lightning talk was really good :)</p>— Andy Lindeman (@alindeman) <a href="https://twitter.com/alindeman/status/618930238886645760">July 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bet the <a href="https://twitter.com/elastic">@elastic</a> team would’ve enjoyed hearing your <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RubyMeetup?src=hash">#RubyMeetup</a> presentation <a href="https://twitter.com/donpottinger">@donpottinger</a>… using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/elasticsearch?src=hash">#elasticsearch</a> for real-time reporting</p>— Daryl Lu (@TheDLu) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheDLu/status/619091325351104512">July 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Great talk by <a href="https://twitter.com/donpottinger">@donpottinger</a> at Atlanta Ruby Meetup tonight</p>— R. Hunter Harris (@rhunterharris) <a href="https://twitter.com/rhunterharris/status/618930779167563780">July 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cool primer on elasticsearch for more than just search from <a href="https://twitter.com/donpottinger">@donpottinger</a> at the Atlanta Ruby Meetup. Thanks Don!</p>— Mike Skott (@maskott) <a href="https://twitter.com/maskott/status/618930603635965952">July 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/donpottinger">@donpottinger</a> killing it at ATLRUG meetup. Talking about how <a href="https://twitter.com/teamkevy">@teamkevy</a> uses Elasticsearch for real-time reporting <a href="http://t.co/yVFiGJskB8">pic.twitter.com/yVFiGJskB8</a></p>— Brooke Beach (@BrookeBeach_) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrookeBeach_/status/618928675640078337">July 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
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