Writer, musician, technologist. Burlington, Vermont.https://rickcusick.com/https://rickcusick.com/blog/a-letter-from-1976/https://rickcusick.com/blog/a-letter-from-1976/A bicentennial time capsule note from my father, sealed in 1976 and opened this summer — his handwriting, his voice, and an economic warning that reads like it was written yesterday.Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTFamily & LifeWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/those-who-remember/https://rickcusick.com/blog/those-who-remember/A short story about Brother James, a devoted member of an organization dedicated to keeping the dead alive by speaking their names — and an unexpected visitor who wants them to stop.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/cruelty/https://rickcusick.com/blog/cruelty/On the seductive pull of 'you got what you deserved' — and why forgiveness, not cruelty, is the harder and more necessary path forward.Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTYoga & MindfulnessFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/five-subtle-dharma-dilemmas-mahabharata/https://rickcusick.com/blog/five-subtle-dharma-dilemmas-mahabharata/The famous moments get all the attention. But some of the most interesting dharma questions in the Mahabharata are the quiet ones.Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:08:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/writing-with-a-ghost/https://rickcusick.com/blog/writing-with-a-ghost/Reducing the friction around blogging means removing every excuse not to write. Meet Q-E, the AI agent that's making that happen — and yes, this post is the first real test.Thu, 26 Feb 2026 22:46:00 GMTAI & TechnologyWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/new-year-new-website/https://rickcusick.com/blog/new-year-new-website/I updated my website using AI Agents. Here are some learnings along the way.Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/i-wrote-a-novel/https://rickcusick.com/blog/i-wrote-a-novel/I've been quiet since October. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that's not unusual. I go through stretches where life gets loud and...Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTWriting & CreativityYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/dad/https://rickcusick.com/blog/dad/I haven't posted a lot in the past few weeks or months. It's been a difficult time, for both the country and I think for a lot of people, myself included.Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/tunes-from-the-pomegranate-25-years-on/https://rickcusick.com/blog/tunes-from-the-pomegranate-25-years-on/In the fall of 2000, I was living in San Francisco, and working on the Bay Area Rapid Transit's project to extend service to SFO, San Francisco's...Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/who-do-we-want-to-be/https://rickcusick.com/blog/who-do-we-want-to-be/Just this: Read this powerful essay. Then think about your principles. Then decide how to act.Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTWriting & CreativityFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-ai-powered-workplace/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-ai-powered-workplace/Issue 1 of "Adaptive Shifts" is up on Substack! The AI headlines are relentless. Tools are rolling out faster than most teams can evaluate. Job descriptions...Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 GMTAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/adaptive-shifts/https://rickcusick.com/blog/adaptive-shifts/I haven't been posting as frequently lately - I've been wrapped up in thinking about the future. Specifically the future of work: what does it look like for...Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTAI & TechnologyLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/lake-morey-on-thick-ice/https://rickcusick.com/blog/lake-morey-on-thick-ice/This past weekend we took a little road trip to central Vermont, to the little town of Fairlee. We have spent a lot of time in Fairlee the past few summers...Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/nepotism-its-not-what-you-think/https://rickcusick.com/blog/nepotism-its-not-what-you-think/Ambrose and I have been dropping into open mics recently. While in the past we busked on Church Street in Burlington, open mics are new for us. We have...Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTMusicFamily & LifeVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-notes-wrangler/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-notes-wrangler/I've been quiet for a while...busy digging deeper into the GenAI world and iterating on tools for schools.Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-ai-quiz/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-ai-quiz/I spent last night building a simple proof-of-concept of a technology topic quiz generator, backed by OpenAI's ChatGPT. Since I started working with...Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-pick-up-game/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-pick-up-game/There's a weekly pickup football (soccer) game in Charlotte, VT that has been played more or less continuously since 2007. If the weather is decent and the...Tue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTMusicFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/courage-and-hope/https://rickcusick.com/blog/courage-and-hope/This week has had its ups and downs, like all weeks. Some of the ups have been reconnecting with former colleagues over lunch and on hikes in the VT...Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/storymapping-a-wedding/https://rickcusick.com/blog/storymapping-a-wedding/Of all the tools I like to use when working with product development, storymapping is the most well-worn one in my kit. My first exposure to it was with...Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTFamily & LifeWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/fate-and-free-will/https://rickcusick.com/blog/fate-and-free-will/Momo and I have been chatting about free will, and whether there is any such thing. It's an interesting thing, arguing with someone you have seen grow since...Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTYoga & MindfulnessWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/leader-let-go/https://rickcusick.com/blog/leader-let-go/Is there any more difficult choice for a leader than the one to step aside and let others take over? It is the exceptional leader who makes this choice when...Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & WorkYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/reunions/https://rickcusick.com/blog/reunions/It's hard to believe that 30 years have passed since I walked through the Van Wickle Gates during Commencement at Brown University. This year, members of...Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-eclipse/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-eclipse/Confounding all expectations, the weather in Vermont cooperated to produce a stunning sunny day for the total solar eclipse of April 8th, 2024. This was...Tue, 09 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMTVermontFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/message-to-my-future-self/https://rickcusick.com/blog/message-to-my-future-self/A running bit that good friend and colleague Michael Lascelles and I have is the...Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMTYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/city-of-lights/https://rickcusick.com/blog/city-of-lights/Some trips take years to manifest. Early fantasies and visions slowly give ground to small steps, then bigger moves, and then finally committing time and...Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/this-generative-ai-journey/https://rickcusick.com/blog/this-generative-ai-journey/My AI journey continues. Spent the morning using a BuildSpace tutorial to train a StableDiffusion model with my face and generating pfps. (prompt: A...Tue, 20 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMTAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/camels-hump/https://rickcusick.com/blog/camels-hump/No matter how many times I climb the Hump, and it's getting close to double digits, I never get tired of the view at the end. It never disappoints. My...Sat, 07 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/what-the-future-holds/https://rickcusick.com/blog/what-the-future-holds/For only the third time in the past 20 years, I'm moving on from my current job to greener pastures. After 11 years supporting the silent reading...Tue, 18 May 2021 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & WorkAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington/https://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington/On some Saturdays in Spring and Summer, the cello teacher who lives across the street from my place hosts open studio for her students. They take turns...Sun, 25 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMTMusicVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-thing-about-parenting-constant-change/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-thing-about-parenting-constant-change/Therapy is great. Every human needs a therapist. Every human needs to go through the process of finding one, working through things with them according to...Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-suffering-of-others-and-other-planets/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-suffering-of-others-and-other-planets/(Cross-post from my Slack #mindfulwfh channel.) I hope this week you found some peace, space, and silence.Fri, 19 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/your-org-chart-is-a-map-but-to-what-terrain/https://rickcusick.com/blog/your-org-chart-is-a-map-but-to-what-terrain/I've been fascinated with maps since I was small. I credit my parents for giving me an atlas when I was 5, and for having a floor-to-ceiling map of the...Mon, 18 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/measure-the-relationships-between-individuals-even-over-measuring-the-individuals/https://rickcusick.com/blog/measure-the-relationships-between-individuals-even-over-measuring-the-individuals/That humans are social animals is well established; that this social aspect of our species is not reflected in the way we design the feedback mechanisms and...Thu, 14 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/organizational-culture-is-the-mycelium-in-your-garden/https://rickcusick.com/blog/organizational-culture-is-the-mycelium-in-your-garden/Something I'm grateful for and lately missing, is the opportunity to grow a garden. 12 years of country living in rural Vermont, living close to a number of...Tue, 20 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-20th-horse/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-20th-horse/This parable, one of my favorites, was told by my teacherManoj Chalam during a yoga retreat in 2018. I hope you enjoy it.Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMTYoga & MindfulnessLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/black-lives-matter/https://rickcusick.com/blog/black-lives-matter/Black Lives Matter Burlington — showing up, standing with the community.Fri, 05 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMTFamily & LifeVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/10-years/https://rickcusick.com/blog/10-years/April 12th, 2020 marked the 10 year anniversary of my joining Reading Plus. It's been an interesting ride, full of experiences both typical to a modern...Tue, 21 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMTFamily & LifeLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/crows/https://rickcusick.com/blog/crows/Working from home this afternoon, there was a murder of crows in the trees that border our neighborhood here in Burlington. They were cawing like crazy, and...Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMTVermontWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/rats/https://rickcusick.com/blog/rats/With the start of the Lunar New Year, I'd like to celebrate that part of my personality shaped by being a Gen-X Water Rat.Wed, 29 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/generalism/https://rickcusick.com/blog/generalism/The past few months at Reading Plus have been the typical 'high-growth-phase' variety, according to those who have seen these scenarios before. Lots of new...Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMTWriting & CreativityLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/wisdom-of-the-sages-podcast/https://rickcusick.com/blog/wisdom-of-the-sages-podcast/If you're a student or teacher of yoga, and you're serious about deepening your knowledge of the source texts behind the practice, you need to check this out.Fri, 10 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMTYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/confident-reading/https://rickcusick.com/blog/confident-reading/Our leadership team at Reading Plus has been engaged in deep work on our company over the past few months. Part of that work has been, for me, a rediscovery...Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/when-your-yoga-class-is-full/https://rickcusick.com/blog/when-your-yoga-class-is-full/Humbling way to start the year of teaching. Grateful for Hot Yoga Burlington and the chance to lead others in asana practice.Fri, 18 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMTYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/back-on-the-radio-live-on-104-7-pointfm/https://rickcusick.com/blog/back-on-the-radio-live-on-104-7-pointfm/I was lucky to have the opportunity to perform live on 104.7 PointFM here in Vermont over the weekend.Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/a-journey/https://rickcusick.com/blog/a-journey/In September of 2017, I began a journey of exploration and transformation. Ok so that's not entirely true. The journey begins in 2001, but the core of it...Fri, 20 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/my-fblive-tribute-to-george-michael/https://rickcusick.com/blog/my-fblive-tribute-to-george-michael/A Facebook Live tribute to George Michael, who passed away on Christmas Day 2016. He was one of the greats.Mon, 26 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/so-youve-been-paged/https://rickcusick.com/blog/so-youve-been-paged/(A guest-post I wrote for theScalyr blog) One of the inevitable joys of working in DevOps is “the page” — that dreaded notification from your alerting...Thu, 29 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & WorkAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/my-ux-burlington-talk/https://rickcusick.com/blog/my-ux-burlington-talk/Video of my talk at UX Burlington — on product, design, and the evolving nature of user experience.Fri, 01 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/ux-burlington/https://rickcusick.com/blog/ux-burlington/Edit: The full list of speakers is out! I'll be speaking at this year's UX Burlington Conference. It's humbling to present at this conference, and even more...Fri, 29 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-first-night-show/https://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-first-night-show/I'll be performing live at 4pm at the Congregational Church Chapel in Burlington, as part of the annual First Night Celebration. New Songs, old favorites,...Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusicVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/vermont-singer-songwriter-contest/https://rickcusick.com/blog/vermont-singer-songwriter-contest/Last night, I competed in the semi-final round of the Vermont Singer/Songwriter contest at Metronome, and I successfully advanced to the final round next...Thu, 29 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusicVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/podcast-redux/https://rickcusick.com/blog/podcast-redux/A few weeks ago, I revived my podcast from years ago. I'm still working on resurrecting the old files, but for now, you can track my latest noodlings over...Tue, 28 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/grand-rapids-art-museum/https://rickcusick.com/blog/grand-rapids-art-museum/I was in Chicago this past weekend for the Balanced Team Summit. It was another amazing instance of this community, as good and better than the Chicago...Thu, 18 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/pop-meets-the-void/https://rickcusick.com/blog/pop-meets-the-void/My brother William's film Pop Meets the Void premiered in New York City last night. I was proud to be there to attend the premiere and spend the night...Thu, 18 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-041515-radio-bean-live-at-radio-bean/https://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-041515-radio-bean-live-at-radio-bean/I'll be back at Radio Bean tonight!Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-032515-switchback-tap-room-songwriter-night/https://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-032515-switchback-tap-room-songwriter-night/Playing the Switchback Tap Room songwriter night in Burlington, VT.Thu, 26 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-031915-wruv-live-on-the-radio-mouthful-of-cavities/https://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-031915-wruv-live-on-the-radio-mouthful-of-cavities/Live on WRUV, Burlington's college radio station — a rare on-air performance.Fri, 20 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-031115-radio-bean-live-at-radio-bean/https://rickcusick.com/blog/burlington-vt-031115-radio-bean-live-at-radio-bean/I'll post a recording once I locate it...Wed, 11 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-ice/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-ice/The ice between the Burlington bay wall and the waterfront froze solid - apparently for the first time in years.Sun, 01 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/gigs/https://rickcusick.com/blog/gigs/Over the New Year holiday, I did my own personal plan for CY'15. Under the heading, "Playing Music" I listed two goals for this year.Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/a-word-about-cheating-please/https://rickcusick.com/blog/a-word-about-cheating-please/A word about "cheating", please. I joined the #EdTech world almost 5 years ago. Fresh from nearly a decade of digital advertising and marketing automation,...Mon, 26 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/radio-show/https://rickcusick.com/blog/radio-show/In October, I had the privilege of appearing on a WFUV Radio show in Burlington. DJ Lea Jae interviewed me over the course of Thursday morning drive time,...Tue, 16 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/mvp/https://rickcusick.com/blog/mvp/Three years ago our company, Reading Plus, had never used a "minimal viable product" approach to deliver software. We would release software at most twice...Fri, 24 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/disrupt-hiring/https://rickcusick.com/blog/disrupt-hiring/I have recently spent a lot of time thinking about how we find our teammates, how we find our own work, and what the effects of that process are in my work...Thu, 18 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/education-reform/https://rickcusick.com/blog/education-reform/I found a link to this picture / blurb on reddit today: [](/uploads/2013/04/pb-121108-freeschool-02.photoblog900.jpg) Altaf Qadri / APMon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/a-leader-is-best/https://rickcusick.com/blog/a-leader-is-best/When people barely know that he exists, Not so good when people obey and acclaim him, But of a good leader, who talks little,Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/are-you-listening/https://rickcusick.com/blog/are-you-listening/I have begun noticing an annoying tic in my own way of conversing with others. I hear myself say the words, "I hear that" a lot.Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/balanced-team-conference-2012-were-all-in-this-together/https://rickcusick.com/blog/balanced-team-conference-2012-were-all-in-this-together/Last weekend was the Balanced Team Conference - #balconf - in Chicago, running from Friday night through Sunday afternoon. This conference is where folks...Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/design-for-emotion-design-for-children/https://rickcusick.com/blog/design-for-emotion-design-for-children/Designing for Emotion = Designing for Children I've been reading Aarron Walter's Designing for Emotion in small bites for a couple of weeks now. I would...Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/pics-from-the-root-7-radio-bean-show-182012/https://rickcusick.com/blog/pics-from-the-root-7-radio-bean-show-182012/We had a blast playing the Radio Bean. It was my 3rd time on stage here, first time with Root 7, and a lot of fun. Lessons learned - always bring more mic...Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/reach-local-with-phone-before-global-with-interwebz/https://rickcusick.com/blog/reach-local-with-phone-before-global-with-interwebz/A few weeks ago our a cappella group, Root 7, performed our Winter Concert in Williston's Old Brick Church. The space, while not overly large (~200 seats),...Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMTAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/farewell-steve-and-thank-you/https://rickcusick.com/blog/farewell-steve-and-thank-you/There has been and will continue to be so much written about Steve Jobs. His impact on the world of design and technology is singular - his opinionated way...Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMTAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/diversity-of-types-for-a-high-performing-team/https://rickcusick.com/blog/diversity-of-types-for-a-high-performing-team/The second week of Management Excellence at Champlain College was last Friday, and it continued several of the themes from week 1 while moving from the...Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-job-posting-that-wasnt/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-job-posting-that-wasnt/Had a great side conversation today during our management seminar, about job postings. A colleague was looking for ideas on how to post a description of a...Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/management-excellence-seminar/https://rickcusick.com/blog/management-excellence-seminar/For the next few weeks on Fridays I'm attending a management seminar at Champlain College in Burlington. Today was the first session, wanted to post some...Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/shaken-not-stirred/https://rickcusick.com/blog/shaken-not-stirred/So you may notice a few things out of whack and missing images, etc. for a few days. For a while now I've wanted to move my blog to take over the site,...Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/things-to-do-everyday/https://rickcusick.com/blog/things-to-do-everyday/Ask a good question to which there is no easy answer.Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMTYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/shelburne-day-with-root7/https://rickcusick.com/blog/shelburne-day-with-root7/My a cappella group, Root 7, performed this past weekend at Shelburne Town Day. Here's a picture: That's me, 3rd from the right. With my mouth closed.Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMTMusicVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/cohousing-2-0/https://rickcusick.com/blog/cohousing-2-0/Today we moved house, for the 5th time in 2 years. It is 2 years to the day that I received the phone call that began a series of moves and changes, that...Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-meetings-1/https://rickcusick.com/blog/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-meetings-1/Meetings can be a blessing or a curse, loved and hated by folks according to their nature and/or current workload, but most of our feelings around meetings...Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/getting-mental/https://rickcusick.com/blog/getting-mental/So my Mental Notes deck has arrived, 50 cards of insights and brainstormy goodness to help make better products.Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMTYoga & Mindfulnesshttps://rickcusick.com/blog/sand-castles/https://rickcusick.com/blog/sand-castles/Took the boy to the beach on July 4th, and we built a sand castle. Current motif is very "King Kong" it seems. Overall this took a little more than an hour...Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/jeff-patton-visit/https://rickcusick.com/blog/jeff-patton-visit/Yesterday Jeff Patton came to visit us in the Reading Plus offices in Winooski, VT. It was a most illuminating day.Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/on-fights/https://rickcusick.com/blog/on-fights/What do you do when you see a fight start to break out? Do you step in, or wait? Or look away and pretend it's not happening?Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/bag-check-why-is-this-in-your-bag/https://rickcusick.com/blog/bag-check-why-is-this-in-your-bag/This is super awesomey goodness: The interface for this app is stunning, responsive, and it's growing on me the more I use it. Not a surprise when it's...Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/responsive-web-design-reading/https://rickcusick.com/blog/responsive-web-design-reading/Today Ethan Marcotte's awesome book Responsive Web Design was released. To say it was a big day for people who build websites would be an understatement....Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMTAI & Technologyhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/drive/https://rickcusick.com/blog/drive/Finished Daniel Pink's Drive in one sitting this evening. I love reading books that indicate a pattern that I've been circling without knowing I'm circling...Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-user-experience-holistic-product-development-tipping-point/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-user-experience-holistic-product-development-tipping-point/The past few months have been a crash course for me in completely new ways to approach product development strategy, and a good part of that has been the...Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/cooper-design-strategy/https://rickcusick.com/blog/cooper-design-strategy/Started reading Alan Cooper's book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum.Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/reading-plus/https://rickcusick.com/blog/reading-plus/So after almost 10 years in the Technology / Marketing space with LiveTechnology, I made a decision to move on to something new. The something new is a...Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/back-to-new-york/https://rickcusick.com/blog/back-to-new-york/I've been working remotely for the past few years, starting back when we first moved to Vermont in early 2007. In some ways being in a small office in the...Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/massimo-steven/https://rickcusick.com/blog/massimo-steven/We welcomed Massimo into the world on March 4th. He was born at our home in Charlotte. Nina got to hold her little brother soon after he came into the...Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-kid-and-i/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-kid-and-i/From the Cabaret recently. This is Nina and I taking in one of the many wonderful performances here at the 1st (hopefully annual!) CVC / Ten Stones cabaret.Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/bobcat-in-the-woods/https://rickcusick.com/blog/bobcat-in-the-woods/This was taken from the woods near our place, by a motion-detector camera as part of a wildlife study. Pretty intense.Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/pictures/https://rickcusick.com/blog/pictures/This is from the fall, will post more soon, but it's a nice shot of me and the buggy on an Autumn dayTue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMTVermontFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/alphabet/https://rickcusick.com/blog/alphabet/Our first attempt at performing the alphabet for the iSight. The things you do when you have a kid.Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/unforgetable-pictures/https://rickcusick.com/blog/unforgetable-pictures/Some of these I haven't, but either way they are a pretty interesting case study in humanity.Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/bonfire/https://rickcusick.com/blog/bonfire/This past weekend, we had a bonfire here at the community. There was a lot of scrap wood that was too small to do much with other than burn, so burn it we...Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/summer-vacation/https://rickcusick.com/blog/summer-vacation/So I'm spending the week on vacation in Vermont. I always figured living in Vermont would have some serious perks - and living somewhere like Charlotte is...Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMTFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/saturns-icy-cap/https://rickcusick.com/blog/saturns-icy-cap/This is pretty neat - Saturn's North Pole. In the middle of a long winter (like, uh years of it), we have no idea what this is. My completely uninformed...Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativityhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-great-melting/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-great-melting/So slowly our little town is emerging from the snow, and the water is running down into the streams, and the mud is beginning to flex its muscles.Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/walking-on/https://rickcusick.com/blog/walking-on/It amazes me to see how quickly the kid has learned to walk in winter boots. A few days back we walked around the ring road, and she kept up in her Kamik...Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/for-the-love-of-it/https://rickcusick.com/blog/for-the-love-of-it/Today I shoveled 3 feet of snow off of my roof. Bush Holstein, the foreman on our construction team, recommended it, as the porch could seriously have...Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMTVermontFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-town-where-i-live/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-town-where-i-live/On Sunday I was setting up a sign at the intersection of Route 7 and F-5 (Ferry Road) announcing the hours for our open house here at CVC, and I was hailed...Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/the-concept-of-team/https://rickcusick.com/blog/the-concept-of-team/I once heard Paul McCartney credited with saying, "there's nothing like being in a band". I don't know if he actually said it, but I know the feeling, and...Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMTMusicLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/stress/https://rickcusick.com/blog/stress/This week, and I'm sure next, promise to be some of the most stressful in at least a month. I thought getting a mortgage was stressful, and it was, but lots...Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMTLeadership & Workhttps://rickcusick.com/blog/andy-mckee-and-antoine-dufour/https://rickcusick.com/blog/andy-mckee-and-antoine-dufour/I'm currently deep into listening to two acoustic guitarists that i found via YouTube, when directed by my pal Tim Muzzin to check out Antoine's track,...Thu, 25 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/new-year-new-house/https://rickcusick.com/blog/new-year-new-house/So we did it, we're in our new home. The kid's turned one, and she's walking around the house! Reminder to buy some rugs, as she's about as good walking as...Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMTVermontFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/beaver-pond/https://rickcusick.com/blog/beaver-pond/So we're in Vermont. What a change from Brooklyn. I'm working on the change for the website and blog, if you've got any ideas for what I should change it...Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMTVermonthttps://rickcusick.com/blog/brother-william-and-the-magick-of-u-tube/https://rickcusick.com/blog/brother-william-and-the-magick-of-u-tube/This is my brother William's latest film, Gargoyles. Anyone who's ever raised dating to the level of sport that I know is possible will appreciate this.Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/vermont/https://rickcusick.com/blog/vermont/So we're taking the plunge, and moving to Vermont this fall. Why leave? Because Brooklyn, as much as i love it, is not good for Nina. And Nina is the most...Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMTVermontFamily & Lifehttps://rickcusick.com/blog/nice-chops/https://rickcusick.com/blog/nice-chops/A quick link worth reading — nice chops indeed.Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMTMusichttps://rickcusick.com/blog/write-a-blog-they-said/https://rickcusick.com/blog/write-a-blog-they-said/I'm sure it will be. Just getting started. Forgive me in advance for my shortcomings as a writer / blogger.Thu, 03 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMTWriting & Creativity