A few months ago I set out to find the best handful of books around community building. I wasn’t able to find any reliable resources or lists around the topic, so I wanted to share what I have found to be especially helpful so far as I put together my notes on Crafting.Community.

I came across a thread on Reddit recently about small talk that had a fair share of potentially bad advice without essential additional clarity and insight. The word “small” here is definitely not in reference to its significance—it’s an incredibly powerful first and necessary step to establishing deeper, more impactful relationships. Honestly, though, I think there is a place for small talk that stays small, too. These interactions can bring so much joy to each day depending on your ultimate goals.

Recently, I realized that I have been doing some of my favorite and most important work in founding, designing, running, and growing communities, but I did not properly capture this in my portfolio. I set aside a couple hours today to correct this, even though they are projects that feel impossible to summarize within a single page each.

DjangoCon US 2024 has officially kicked off again in Durham, NC. This is one of the best, most welcoming communities out there and I’ve been lucky enough to work with the organizing team since 2018—that’s a lot of cartoon crabs. The only exception was, of course, the initial COVID years.

This past summer was my first time raising black swallowtail butterflies, from eggs to the final release. Having only raised monarchs until this point, I was feeling a little out of my element and didn’t have high hopes. I started by planting parsley, one of several host plants adult butterflies will lay their eggs on, and waiting patiently.

Part of me wanted to entitle this post “Branding is Ugly”, but research and data can be quite beautiful. Also, the collaboration and breakthrough moments involved are quite beautiful as well, so I decided against it for these nerdy reasons. Essentially, though, I’ve realized that the perception of branding is that it encompasses logos, colors, swag, and websites—lots of pretty things. I think this has to do with how we talk about it and what we show as proof of work completed—the tangible, tip of the iceberg deliverables.