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Brian Dunn shared thisNormalize constructing literal hills to die on. Everyone enjoys holding strong opinions. Whether you're a sociopath, an empath, or on a path in between, it's fun to show the world where you stand on issues ranging from the existential to the banal. And the best way to show you're serious about DEI, AI, ROI, REI, UI, APIs, KPIs--anything!--is to say you'll die on a hill defending your opinion. No one's impressed with figurative hills, though. Those are just made of your imagination. Anyone can make those. True commitment comes from the construction of actual, literal hills. You must make your hills from real stuff. Like dirt. Or stone. Or potato peelings. Then climb to the top (be careful), stand tall, and shout at the top of your lungs: I THINK THE FATE OF THE FREE WORLD DEPENDS ON OUR COLLECTIVE USE OF THE SERIAL COMMA, AND I WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH ANYONE WHO FEELS DIFFERENTLY. That's a hill worth dying on.
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Brian Dunn shared thisNormalize outlandish excuses for being late to meetings. Every spare moment of your calendar is stuffed with meetings both superfluous and aggravating, but that's no reason to skimp on "me" time. When you prioritize aligning your chakras over office decorum you'll be late sometimes. Make the interruption worth it. Offer up a wild excuse with utter conviction. These have worked for me: "Had to see my property manager about that gang of alley cats" "Overturned hotdog cart on the I-27 this morning" "Sometimes my bookie calls and just won't shut his yap" "That's the last time I help the Hells Angels change a flat" "Bad Bunny strolled right past my desk" Be bold. Have fun. And whip those chakras into shape.
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Brian Dunn shared thisLeanne knows her stuff so well it's a tad scary. She's a great leader, super collaborator, all the things.Brian Dunn shared thisHi everyone! I’m seeking a new role and would appreciate your support. If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please send me a message or comment below. I’d love to reconnect. #OpenToWork About me & what I’m looking for: 💼 I’m looking for Senior QA Manager, Software Quality Assurance Manager, Senior Software Quality Assurance Manager, QA Engineering Manager, and Quality Assurance Engineering Manager roles. 🌎 I’m open to roles in Greater Seattle Area, Redmond, and Bellevue.
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Brian Dunn shared thisI've unwittingly misled you about my new book Sleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny Troublemakers. This is not a children's book. It's a humor book masquerading as a children's book, a lampooning of the beloved bedtime story tradition. Let me be blunt. Do not buy my book for your children. Do not read my book to your children. THESE STORIES WILL HAUNT THEM TO THE END OF THEIR DAYS. Why would I do such thing, you ask? Is it because I’m a monster? Yes! Wait, no. It’s because what the world needs right now is a hilarious sendup of self-important children’s books. You’re welcome. So buy my book, read my book, laugh with my book. Just don't let it fall into impressionable kiddos' hands. https://a.co/d/dF2DlJ6Sleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny TroublemakersSleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny Troublemakers
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Brian Dunn shared thisIt’ll take more than a potted plant to hide your slavish devotion to our AI overlords, middle management co-worker.
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Brian Dunn shared thisMy new book, Sleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny Troublemakers, is all about changing your child's behavior in fun ways. Quick example: you and I know windows should remain rolled up in the car wash, but how does one impart this important message to kiddos? It's easy. Just read them the fantastical tale of hungry, giant krakens who live beneath car washes and stop at nothing to pull careless children through open windows, drag them to the sudsy depths, and feast on their tender flesh. I call it Keep the Car Wash Kraken at Bay. Buy Sleep, Little One on Amazon: https://a.co/d/duX7mWESleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny TroublemakersSleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny Troublemakers
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Brian Dunn shared thisI’ve always wanted to use my humor writing to gently terrorize children, and by purchasing my new book, Sleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny Troublemakers, you'll help me do just that: https://a.co/d/gVXUSNn Each story is a gentle life lesson wrapped in lively language and magical illustrations by Lucy Budd. (Added bonus: zero AI was used in the production.) Hilarious stories include: * Keep the Carwash Kraken at Bay * Thwart the Greedy Gut She-Devil * Embrace Daddy’s Fit, New Workout Pal * And eight (8) more! Sleep, Little One is perfect for parents. It’s perfect for people who want to read to children in their bedrooms. It’s perfect for you. Buy multiple copies today! You’re welcome!Sleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny TroublemakersSleep, Little One: Bedtime Tales for Tiny Troublemakers
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Brian Dunn shared thisNormalize calling out coworker celebrity doppelgangers. With in-office culture at an all-time low it's important to keep things light. I do this by casually mentioning to coworkers that they resemble Nick Offerman or Tina Fey or Michael B. Jordan. Everyone loves the idea they could be mistaken for a public figure. But beware! Telling the research analyst he could pass for Pedro Pascal will get you a big grin. Telling the product owner she's a dead ringer for Edie McClurg might get you a lead left hook (though I find McClurg endlessly alluring). Just wrap your observation in ambiguity, like so: "Has anyone ever said you look like Crispin Glover in his prime?" or "Hey, you remind me a bit of Tiffany Haddish in that movie where she was super cool." Vagueness is your ally. Now go tell Caleb in UX that when the fluorescent lights hit him just so, he resembles a young-ish Ned Beatty. He'll love you for it.
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Brian Dunn reposted thisBrian Dunn reposted thisNaomi Sylvian shares why kindness and active listening matter on this Motivation Monday. #motivationmonday
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Brian Dunn liked thisBrian Dunn liked thisAvoiding catastrophe (mostly) on an interview day. 🚗 I look at a day with an interview in the same way as I do a day with a scheduled flight. There’s something on the schedule that is immovable and un-missable, and you must make it, come hell or high water. This is why I generally plot these days a little differently. The more distance and variables between me and the thing, the more likely that something is going to invite chaos and catastrophe into my world. Life motors along, and I’m not about to totally dispense with the entire day. But I’m also not driving all of the way across town to visit a bookstore three hours ahead of an interview. That’s madness. Instead of sitting quietly on the couch wrapped in bubble wrap, I set about running some errands. Generally bland stuff: pick up some dry cleaning, drop off a box of bubble-wrapped CDs bound for Canada at the post office, and pick up a new release at the tiny local record shop. These places practically share a parking lot and are about 8 minutes away, so low-risk. As I drive, I start envisioning everything that could strand me. Road construction between here and there makes for an obstacle course — uneven pavement, random tire-puncturing debris, heavy equipment. Any one of them could leave me by the roadside (or at least delay me.) What should I have for lunch? Nothing too wild, because I don’t want indigestion to distract my mind. So I pass by the taco place, even though it is 11am and totally within my own lunch-hour bounds.. What if I get trapped under a pile of Priority Mail boxes at the post office? Or worse yet, what if I get stuck in the line there? I spot the car wash and think, “I have enough time, and the car is filthy with bugs. I’m going to get a wash.” But what if I get trapped in the car wash, or that tire-guiding thing derails me? I got in line and noticed a skid-loader thing doing some landscaping about twelve feet away, set to back up at any moment as I sat in his blind spot. He'll render the Subaru un-drivable in an instant. None of these things happened. The car wash place did crack my windshield, but I filled out a form and talked with the manager, adding about 10 minutes to the errand run. It’s gonna make my life complicated next week, but today? I can manage. (And yes, you can see the crack in the photo, here.) When the interview time arrived, I was ready. No strandings or living my life out to old age under a heap of boxes at the post office. But you never know… ❦ You’ve been reading Life After the Layoff, Part III, Day 57. Thanks! ❦
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Brian Dunn liked thisBrian Dunn liked thisIt’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since our team traveled across offices in Arizona and India to capture employee stories for GoDaddy’s “I Belong Here / You Belong Here” campaign. Partnering closely with GoDaddy’s Employer Brand team, we set out to build a global library of photography and video assets focused on the people and stories that shape GoDaddy day to day. What I still love about this project is how many colleagues came together to make it happen. Teams across offices, time zones, and disciplines collaborated to create something that feels thoughtful, human, and rooted in real stories. This was also one of my first large-scale projects utilizing AI tools during the storyboarding phase. At the time, it felt incredibly new. Now it’s become part of the creative process, helping our team explore and iterate more quickly while creative direction and storytelling continue to lead the work. I had the opportunity to art direct the project alongside an incredibly talented team. Huge shoutout to Alex Her and Katelyn Armas for their partnership and expertise throughout the project, along with the amazing Brand team: Catharina Lewin, Megan McMullen, Gabe Scalise, Benjamin Meader, Johnnie Kelley, Brian Frost, Matt Krivanek, Frank Traynor, Adam Nowak, and many others who helped bring it to life. A special shoutout to Mark Wickens for his incredible photographic eye and creative partnership. So proud of what the team created together and grateful for the opportunity to help tell stories that make GoDaddy such a unique place to work. Full campaign video here: http://y2u.be/tTyi8LvA4oc
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Brian Dunn liked thisBrian Dunn liked thisToday in The Era of Abundant Intelligence™: Some of you are willing to destroy everything we’ve built, including your own careers and those of your workers, not to mention the fragile ecosystem we all need to live, and to sweep some teen suicides under the rug, all for THIS world-changing tech: https://lnkd.in/ghV9wWqJ
Experience & Education
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Choice Hotels International
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Volunteer Experience
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Reader
Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale
- 1 month
Children
Read "The Berenstain Bears' Computer Trouble" to 1st-3rd graders and discussed the importance of Internet safety, including a rousing Q&A session.
Publications
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Connor Rickett Dishes on the Freelance Life
GoDaddy Garage
See publicationI put my award-winning podcasting skills to work and interviewed my friend Connor Rickett about the freelance writing life--its ups, downs, and unique rewards.
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Eel Sauce Blues
Spillers No. 6 (print)
My short story about what happens when revenge is served with a side of Chinese food.
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Surviving Nine-to-Fiving
GoDaddy Garage
Sure I do the 9-to-5 thing, but I still accomplish a ton of outside writing. Here's five rules I follow to make it happen.
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Marriage Material
Shotgun Honey
My take on the crime of infidelity for the Web's best crime flash fiction site—Shotgun Honey.
(Note: mature themes.) -
I Portray Middle-Aged Men Living Life to the Fullest in Prescription Drug Commercials
McSweeney's Internet Tendency
See publicationMy latest McSweeney's humor piece--a peek into the psyche of those master thespians hawking cures for everything from shingles to irritable bowel syndrome.
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Don't Take That Tone with Me
UX Magazine
See publicationMy article in UX Magazine about how anticipating user emotion helps UX writers create empathetic content.
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I’m Changing This Bar’s Jazz Jam Session Rules
Splitsider
My humorous meditation on the fragile state of a hallowed musical institution.
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Match Wits with Your Online Nemeses
GoDaddy Garage
The good people at GoDaddy Garage asked for my best tips on creating and managing online passwords.
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Lucky Wishbone
Heater Magazine
My short story "Lucky Wishbone" appears in the thriller magazine Heater (volume 3, number 8). It's a fictional tale about human trafficking, fatherly influence, and pie.
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How to Make Writing SEO-Friendly Copy Almost Kind of Tolerable
GoDaddy Garage
If you bristle at the prospect of having to write for machines, I have an approach that helps you make peace with our content overlords.
Patents
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Search Result Precision Tool
Issued US20160042066A1 14/454,613
See patentExample methods are disclosed for a search engine to produce a list of links to websites and for a domain name registrar to produce a plurality of domain names for a user. The list of links to websites and the plurality of domain names are preferably based on a search string and a desired relevance. A high desired relevance leads to exact or very close matches while a low desired relevance leads to indirect or exploratory matches when comparing the search string with the list of links to…
Example methods are disclosed for a search engine to produce a list of links to websites and for a domain name registrar to produce a plurality of domain names for a user. The list of links to websites and the plurality of domain names are preferably based on a search string and a desired relevance. A high desired relevance leads to exact or very close matches while a low desired relevance leads to indirect or exploratory matches when comparing the search string with the list of links to websites or the plurality of domain names. A webpage having a search string entry field and a relevance slider interface may be displayed to the user permitting the search engine or the domain name registrar to receive the search string and the desired relevance from the user. The search engine or domain name registrar may then determine and display to the user the list of links to the websites or the plurality of available domain names based on the search string and the desired relevance.
Honors & Awards
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Gold in Branding 2020
Indigo Design Awards
The GoDaddy re-brand work the team and I did to help empower entrepreneurs everywhere was recognized by the good folks at Indigo this year with a Gold in Branding Award. I'm super proud to have led the writing efforts and enjoyed collaborating across the entire brand team and beyond.
https://www.indigoawards.com/winners/2584
From Indigo:
Working diligently and with precise effort to represent the contenders from over 50 countries, Indigo Design Award has uncovered the pioneers,…The GoDaddy re-brand work the team and I did to help empower entrepreneurs everywhere was recognized by the good folks at Indigo this year with a Gold in Branding Award. I'm super proud to have led the writing efforts and enjoyed collaborating across the entire brand team and beyond.
https://www.indigoawards.com/winners/2584
From Indigo:
Working diligently and with precise effort to represent the contenders from over 50 countries, Indigo Design Award has uncovered the pioneers, the trailblazers, the inventors, and the leaders in 2020's digital design.
Submissions were evaluated by the panel of 48 design professionals by way of quality, originality, function, and relevance to each topic. -
2016 Phoenix New Times Best Podcast
Phoenix New Times
In their 2016 Best of Phoenix issue, Phoenix New Times named my podcast the best one in this entire valley of ours, while also saying super nice things about it. I'm not about to argue with them. Thanks, Phoenix New Times!
Full story here: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/best-of/2016/megalopolitan-life/best-podcast-8688569 -
10 Metro Phoenix Podcasts You Have to Hear
Phoenix New Times
My podcast was named to Phoenix New Times' 10 Metro Phoenix Podcasts You Have to Hear list.
Full story here: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/10-metro-phoenix-podcasts-you-have-to-hear-8360694 -
GoDaddy Innovation Award 2015
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Domain Activator/Domain Connect
Domain Activator uses DNS data to give customers a clear picture of how they’re using their domains. When a domain isn’t in use, one click sends the customer down a pathway for them to purchase GoDaddy products for their domain or to connect to an external website.
Domain Connect lets customers who have a website with third-party vendors easily connect their domain to their website.
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