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A photo of mb bischoff in a red lip and leather jacket.

mb bischoff (she/they) makes  apps,  posts, &  podcasts.  changes

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Tagged #me

 

Absolutely Crushed 

Absolutely Crushed album art

In more mb-media news: earlier this year I launched a new podcast with my friend Syd Andrerson, called Absolutely Crushed. It’s a bi-weekly comedy interview show in which we gossip with a guest about their biggest celebrity or character crush and hilarity ensues.

Imagine you’re at a sleepover with your closest friends talking about that hot person they have a crush on and lightly teasing them about it while figuring out what makes their crush so attractive. It’s like that, but with interesting guests and crushes you know. This week’s guest is Syd’s girlfriend Quinn Rose, and we cover her crush on Aaron Tveit. It’s a great episode to start with.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or wherever fine podcasts are downloaded, and let us know what you think on Twitter.

#crush #me #podcast
 

beestung Issue #12 

I’ve been a fan of beestung magazine, a quarterly publication publishing poetry by nonbinary writers since I discovered it a few years ago. This week, they published Issue 12 on the theme of trans futures, guest edited by Cavar.

I’m honored that two of my poems are included in the issue alongside fantastically inventive work by other nonbinary poets. It would a lot to me if you gave it a look as it’s the first time any of my poems have been published.

#me #poetry
 

31st Birthday Livestream

@mb's charity livestream poster

Well, I’m doing it again.

Last year for my 30th birthday, we raised over $7,000 for charity on a super fun livestream. This year, I’ll once again be gathering some pals online and streaming Jackbox Games to raise money for The Audre Lorde Project:

The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through mobilization, education and capacity-building, we work for community wellness and progressive social and economic justice. Committed to struggling across differences, we seek to responsibly reflect, represent and serve our various communities.

They do great work in my city, and I hope you consider donating.

Join us tonight 12/29 at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT over on Twitch and donate here.

#charity #lgbtq+ #me #transgender
 

Clockwise #430: Misinformation Tracing 

Clockwise #430: Misinformation Tracing

I was thrilled to guest on episode #430 the Clockwise podcast today where we talked about the last apps we purchased, how we’d handle third-party payment options on our Apple devices, our experience with Exposure Notifications, and how we track our resolutions, themes, and habits for the new year.

Give it a listen and let me know on Twitter what your answer would have been to my question: What apps or systems do you use to track your progress toward your resolutions/themes/habits you’re trying to work on in 2022?

#me #podcast #tech
 

Software Sommelier on Clubhouse 

A few years ago, I let folks on Twitter ask for software recommendations for any problem they need solved with an app. People loved it and I loved helping people find the perfect software solutions to their quandaries.

This Friday at 3 PM ET, I’m experimenting with a version of the same thing on Clubhouse co-hosted by my friend and colleague, Jillian Meehan. It’ll be be a fun, nerdy time and we’d love to see hear you there.

PS: If you need a Clubhouse invite, let me know and I’ll send you one.

#clubhouse #me
 

My 2021 yearly theme is Invest 📈.

  • Spend time, attention, & money on things with potential. 🕰
  • Build systems, relationships, & habits to last. 🏛
  • Evaluate bets consistently and adjust. ⚖️

Last year’s theme was about making commitments. Getting married was one of them, but so was writing more consistently on my site. This year builds on those commitments with a focus on things with longer timelines.

If you’re curious about the idea of yearly themes, here’s the latest Cortex episode on the topic.

#me #theme #yearly
 

30 Lessons from 30 Years

I turned 30 years old today so I spent some time this afternoon reflecting and collecting 30 lessons I’ve learned in my time on earth so far and (as best as I could remember) where I learned them from.

Merlin and Roderick sometimes call these types of lessons “thought technologies” and that certainly feels fitting considering how useful and applicable they’ve been for me. Each one of them has helped me during critical moments in my life so far. I hope you find even just one of them helpful in yours. See you tonight.

On Work

  1. First, care.
  2. If it takes less than two minutes, do it now.
  3. Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them so if you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen.
  4. Ideas are just a multiplier of execution.
  5. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
  6. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good.
  7. Say “yes, and…”
  8. Practice out loud.
  9. The best code is no code at all and the best interface is no interface.
  10. Make It work, make it right, make it fast.

On Relationships

  1. Do what you say you’re going to do. Conversely, don’t say things you have no intention of doing.
  2. Don’t compare someone else’s onstage to your backstage.
  3. The conversation is the relationship.
  4. Love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm.
  5. Love is not enough.
  6. Love is not a finite resource, but time and attention are.
  7. Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
  8. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
  9. I’d rather be 9 people’s favorite thing than a hundred people’s 9th favorite thing.
  10. The way to love someone is to lightly run your finger over that person’s soul until you find a crack, and then gently pour your love into that crack.

On Life

  1. Life is not a zero-sum game.
  2. Two is one and one is none.
  3. Everyone is just making it up as they go along.
  4. Keep moving and get out of the way.
  5. It’s easy to be on time. You just have to be early.
  6. You don’t have to talk. Instead, ask Does this need to be said? / Does this need to be said by me? / Does this need to be said by me now?
  7. The natural world makes no promise to align itself with preconceptions that humans find parsimonious or convenient.
  8. If you want to be trans, you’re trans.
  9. Time is a precious thing, never waste it.
  10. Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.
#advice #lessons #life #me
 

How to Start a Real Relationship Online 

For Sloan and her partner, the answer became clear after the two spent a couple months together at the beginning of the pandemic because of COVID-related travel restrictions—and they decided to choose both. “I knew this was the person I wanted to marry, and I wanted that so strongly that the odd circumstances didn’t even bother me.” said Sloan. Though they’re still living in different countries now, the two were wed in a small ceremony in Madison Square Park this November.

In general, you don’t need a reason to want to start a relationship with someone far away. Regardless of your situation, sometimes you find a person, you both feel a genuine connection, and you can just tell their company would enrich your life. That can all happen online with someone who doesn’t live near you, with the same sort of chemistry as a more proximal partnership. When it works, it just works—and it’s more than worth it.

Some people have their weddings announced in The New York Times; Kate and I are clearly more of a VICE couple. But seriously, if you’re curious about how to date online or whether you should consider long-distance relationships, this piece by Chingy is a must-read.

#dating #kate #long-distance relationships #me
 

App Builders CH 2020 

I’m super excited that I’ll be speaking this May at the App Builders CH conference in Lugano, Switzerland. App Builders is one of the biggest European conferences about mobile technologies, and I’ll be presenting alongside a bunch of incredibly smart folks. It’s sure to be a great time, and I hope to see you there! 🇨🇭

#conferences #ios #me #talks #tech
 

Once More With Feeling

For years now this website has merely pointed people to my profiles on other websites and social media services. It wasn’t always that way. In the past, it housed my blog, a podcast I hosted, and even a photoblog at one point. Remember those?

It’s time to make this place my own again. A place to put the things I write and make. And more than that, a place to experiment.

Inspired by my heroes and my friends, I’ve decided to write under my name. And while I expect that what’s here will change a lot of over time, I’ll try not to break too many links along the way.

If you want to come along for the ride, subscribe in your feed reader, and if you want to know more about the person who’s writing this, there’s an about page.

#me #meta #website
 

The Best of Times

The New York Times Building

A month ago, on September 4th, I finished my last day as a senior iOS engineer at The New York Times. Two years there taught me a lot about building software that is used by millions of people and about myself.

Why did I work at The New York Times in the first place. Isn’t that just a newspaper company?

Those of you who’ve been paying attention know that the Times is one of the leading forces in online journalism. Respected designers, technologists, and digital journalists work together to produce one of the world’s best news reports and they do it every single day. It’s truly an amazing place to be. If you’re interested in that, I’m sure they have an opening for you.

I found out about the job while I was still studying Human-Computer Interaction at NJIT. I saw the posting on Twitter because I was following Ben Jackson, who worked on the team, and decided to apply even though I thought I’d never get the job.

In the interview, I remember two of the senior engineers on the team asking me why I wanted to work at The New York Times.

I told them that my eventual goal was to run my own software company full-time, but that I wanted to learn how large organizations like the Times produce software so that I wasn’t just guessing. They asked me if I’d leave, and I told the truth: “eventually”.

I got the job. I dropped out of school. I started working on NYTimes for iPhone.

3 min read

Being at The New York Times was one of the happiest periods in my life. I worked on tons of projects and features that millions of people use every day. I helped run an event, recruited interns, watched an election from the newsroom, won two innovation challenges, and helped make the apps something I’m proud of. Most importantly, I made so many incredible friends.

Here are some fun numbers from my time at the Times:

  • 56 two-week sprints
  • 227,202 Lines of Code Added
  • 163,119 Lines of Code Deleted
  • 2,414 Commits
  • 758 Days (Aug 8, 2011)
  • 554 Closed Issues

Finally, I sent out a farewell email on my last day to the company. One of the responses really got me:

Congratulations, Matthew. I never met you in person, but I remember when you started because I overheard someone in the elevator talking about you. It was something like: Wow. I just met this new hire, a whiz kid, who’s going to do incredible things here. And then some back and forth about who is it? What’s he working on, etc.

That’s been a while, but it’s not very often that you overhear something like that, and it stuck in my mind. Glad you were able to make your mark here at the Times. All the best in your new adventures!

I hope I made that mark after all.

Now it’s time to learn something new. It’s time to see how a smaller company makes great software. I couldn’t be more happy to be joining the 3 person iOS team at Tumblr. It’s going to be amazing.

#me #nytimes