Kayla McArthur
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kayla.is
Kayla McArthur
@kayla.is
Sr. Eng Manager for Mobile Release Infra @ Google
Ex-Kindle for iOS TL
Based in 🇮🇪
Engineering, hiking, writing, digital art, and #iosdev hot takes

Opinions my own
kayla.is
100% this.

I’m a fan of plan timelord if for no other reason than it establishes a Who-Bond Cinematic Universe, but also it isn’t like they haven’t rebooted the franchise before…
November 11, 2025 at 2:10 PM
“Hey it’s me ur ai company can u guarantee my house loan?”
November 6, 2025 at 9:05 AM
That makes sense. For me it's felt like most tooling that's available is too heavy or too focused on 'habits' which isn't exactly what I want. I want something where I can have my daily checklists and also my "I'm about to go camping, what do I need to do?" checklist.
October 29, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I feel this in my soul lol
October 9, 2025 at 6:40 AM
The wind farms out west are also multi-use with lovely hiking trails all through them.
October 8, 2025 at 9:43 AM
The My Neighbor Totoro thanksgiving episode is a yearly rewatch for me.
October 4, 2025 at 4:09 PM
(And obviously, this doesn't apply to every situation - sometimes you _need_ help digging in from leads, are being stonewalled, or are facing issues you absolutely need urgent support. Knowing when it's going to be more effective to escalate now vs spend time boiling it down is a critical skill tho)
October 2, 2025 at 9:58 AM
The transition to being someone others escalate to is also weird, because you suddenly find yourself on the other side of this and giving 8 answers to 3 questions over a period of a few weeks as you get up to speed, and suddenly wish they'd given you a summary and set of options instead.
October 2, 2025 at 9:55 AM
You work with people at your level, figure out details, boil it down, then present a short decision paper that succinctly lays out situation and a few choices with your suggestion. Escalating at this point means just getting a clear decision made, without randomizing you or your leads.
October 2, 2025 at 9:55 AM
It's not always a clear cut answer either. Sometimes, escalating means you get more definitive guidance, but it could cause confusion in the interim period as you get mixed or multiple answers as people gain enough context on problem. There's a middle ground though: dig in first then escalate.
October 2, 2025 at 9:55 AM