Acknowledgments 2020

Authors get to put a page in their book thanking people who have quietly and persistently and generously helped.

But the page is rarely read, and it comes out infrequently and it’s not so timely.

It’s worth taking a second to think about people who are doing more than expected, more than they have to do, more than we can imagine.

I’m filled with gratitude for the healthcare workers who have shown up to do the jobs that they never hoped to have to do, risking so much to help people. From docs like Jodi who are beginning their career in the middle of this, to retired nurses who are putting on their scrubs to help out again.

And thank you to the frontline workers and volunteers in my town and yours, from the food market to the fire department, from the gas station to the police. They’re showing up and doing it with grace.

Thanks to Zoom for dealing with a 20x increase in traffic and not missing a beat. Just like so many other tech companies that are quietly doing what they said they would do.

Thank you to the non-profit leaders, entrepreneurs and project managers who have figured out how to pivot on a dime, protecting the jobs of their teams and serving their customers in new and powerful ways.

Thanks to every parent who is at home with kids, balancing competing priorities and still being there for the ones who need them. And thanks to resilient and patient therapists, teachers and spiritual leaders who are figuring out how to be there, fully present, even if it’s on a video screen.

I’m grateful for the unseen but not anonymous people who are delivering packages, maintaining webservers, fixing the things that break and showing up every single day.

And I’m glad that so many people are ignoring the charlatans who are trying to profit from panic and untested remedies, preying on the fear that comes with a pandemic. And proud of anyone who stops clicking on a media channel that’s in the business of profiting from the attention that comes with amplifying that same fear.

I’m inspired by the team at Akimbo, working remotely from dozens of locations, shipping important work and connecting our extraordinary community of tens of thousands of people.

Thanks to my colleagues at Random Penguin and the rest of the book industry, for focusing on sharing insight and wisdom, simply because they know it’s important, not because it’s lucrative. And to my friends from all over, who are sheltering in place but sharing good vibes in so many ways.

And I’m grateful to you, loyal reader, for taking the long view, for leading, for spreading ideas that matter and showing up and doing work that you’re proud of. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you’re leading despite/because of what’s going on around us, thank you.

[This is such a tiny fraction of the people I was hoping to be able to acknowledge. If you’ve got a list to share, I hope you’ll post it somewhere.]

(and here’s a list from three years ago)