Reddit Burning Man Meetup 2015. I’m at top right wearing horns. Photo by /u/umdmatto
After a wild and wonderful time at Reddit, I’ve decided to move on.
And when I say wild, I mean it. The past year has been the most tumultuous in Reddit’s history. I joined the week of the Celebrity Photo hacking scandal (aka The Fappening) and stayed through two CEO changes, user uprisings, a moderator-driven Reddit blackout, and enough drama to run the Eastern seaboard dry of popcorn.
That’s the bad.
The good was, simply, amazing. I worked with some of the most talented, kind, creative people I’ve ever met. People like Josh, who thought up and implemented The Button, the internet’s most devastatingly crafty April Fool’s day prank. And, people like Heath, who couldn’t imagine why shipping boxes couldn’t be colorful origami cat homes.
We also didn’t let the turmoil stop us from getting stuff done. I’m thrilled to have shipped features such as responsive mobile web, embedded comments, improved mod tools, and better mechanisms for combating online harassment and abuse. Most fun was designing Reddit’s first Android app, which is now in beta and launching to everyone soon!
What’s Next
Tomorrow, I start at Google as Lead UX designer on Project Fi, working out of the San Francisco office. Fi is a tremendously exciting initiative that offers an alternative to the traditional model of cell phone network plans. Right now, the average American is paying a single cell phone company over $100 a month for service limited to that company’s coverage. It sucks, but you have no other option, right? Fi’s another option. For a Fi plan starting at $20 a month, your phone will invisibly switch among Wi-Fi and cell carriers to whatever connection is fastest at your current location.
Project Fi is still fairly new. It’s only available on a few devices in an Early Access Program for now, but I’m excited to see how we can build and grow it. Newer projects carry more risk and more potential, which are characteristics of the challenges most fun to tackle. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
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