Ignoring the fact that sometimes founders feel the need to put their stamp on everything, for startups and scaleups that haven't progressed to corporate slog, I think it's near impossible for even the best staff designer in the world to arrive at the optimum website/deck/infographic/widget without founder or leader feedback.

The key ingredient is their insight. That's what sets any startup apart. Otherwise the designer would be the founder.

IMO, fears of companies leaving are unfounded. We’re still the only native English speaking country in the EU and from a business sense, our culture most closely matches that of the US. The Irish government knows where the bread is buttered. There will always be attractive incentives for multinationals to be HQd here.

1- My desk was always covered in paper and I hated the mess. On this point, I am 110% satisfied. My desk is super clean.

2- I found it very hard to keep track of multiple projects, or discussions across notebooks, or pages in a notebook. On this I am still not quite there. It's better for sure but I really want to search for people, dates, or keywords, rather than being super careful and organised with folders and notebooks for every conversation, which then gets too messy.

The benefit of root access to the device be default is that I can build what I need. In the two weeks I've had the device, I've been able to automate finding my device on the network, syncing my notes, converting them to non-proprietary files and OCRing them. The next step is to implement nicer search and discovery UI which admittedly is a bigger challenge.

Rig (noun): The mast and supporting stays on a boat. (oil rigs, "big rig" come from this I think).

Rig (verb): To put the sails up and tie on the sheets and other lines that control sails. ("Let's rig this up." == "Let's set this up.")

Posh (my favourite, though I doubt it's actually true): Port Out Starboard Home. When travelling from England to India around the tip of Africa, it was favourable to have a cabin on the port side on the way to India and starboard on the way back as it would be in the shade most of the time and a little cooler in the sun, with a view of the land.

See also: Change tack / try a different tack, right the ship, stay the course, (to be) swamped, "At a rate of knots" (very fast), keep an even keel, keel over.

But this is a cool concept.

It's a wonderful hobby that takes very little effort and becomes it's own reward.

Never shared anything though.

During the early days of the covid lockdowns, before nursing home staff or residents were vaccinated, many staff quit en masse to work as covid test center staff. The hours were better. The job was less complex and less demanding. The pay was comparable.

Then when the remaining staff began to contract covid, they were down to a few core people working continuously to provide care. Many recently (and not so recently) retired nurses returned to work until they could figure things out.

There isn't much to learn about enterprise staffing here except that when the chips are down, people who are truly devoted to their jobs will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure it gets done.

I feel it's a pity these people are often (in my country) poorly compensated for the incredible effort they make.

How are you side stepping an NP-hard issue like the halting problem?

My experience was very similar. Tried to make a gradual wind-down, spent more time documenting and planning while stepping away from core functions.

I will say that while “work” continued, “progress” slowed. People stepped up to manage, but nobody had the vision or the same passion for our product or future. I don’t blame them. It’s not their job.

I reluctantly moved on to a larger project where Meteor just didn't make sense and it just seemed to fall apart in the rear-view mirror.

I have such fond memories of using the CLI to scaffold a new project that came with built in auth, UI components, and a simple, sane project structure, then deploy it with a single command...bliss.