Infinite Venn Blog
Thoughts on engineering, education, and creativity
Life is an intersection, like an infinite Venn Diagram. My writing explores the intersection of technology and humanity through stories, insights, and lessons learned from leading teams, teaching students, and performing and studying music, engineering, and philosophy.
Know Your Standards – Building the Foundation for Engineering Excellence
The second article in the Jazz Leadership series Frameworks and Standards in Engineering When I think about the most effective teams I’ve worked with, there…
read post →Jazz Leadership: A Flexible Framework for Engineering Leadership
June 9, 2025 engineering, management by 54752785 When I nearly walked off stage in the Spring 2007 Spirit Ensemble Jazz show, it wasn’t because I didn’t know my music.…
read post →From Coding to Coaching: The Shift that Powers Engineering Growth
The Untaught Transition When I became an engineering manager, I expected the hardest part would be learning to coach adults who were experienced engineers. I…
read post →Great Engineers Aren’t Always Great Managers – Here’s How We Can Change That
Most engineering managers were never trained to lead people, only to ship code. And often, it shows. In tech, management roles are frequently given to…
read post →Generations
2019 Look at me, lying on my bed, without words. My mother is standing above me, and I’m staring at her, through her. I’m outside…
read post →In Sweden
Chilling out in Sweden with my (almost-formally) step-kids, watching them each play video games – a roblox sandbox game, and Genshin Impact. A. and I…
read post →Ms. Jessica
jess ingrassellino, October 2020 I was the headmaster at my school for orphans. “No, no, NO! You have to stand right here. Princess wouldn’t go…
read post →Lingering
jess ingrassellino, September 2020 I don’t think of you, even when I smell coffee brewing before I’m awake, or when I see the chiffon red…
read post →Father
jess ingrassellino, fall 2019 My father isn’t religious but his parents are catholic, so he and my mother married before she graduated high school. My…
read post →Stories We Tell Ourselves
jess ingrassellino, October 2020 content warning: attempted suicide, depression, inpatient hospitalization … and there’s this idea that the stories we tell ourselves are the stories…
read post →The Aisle
jess ingrassellino, summer 2019 (for my mother) Tomorrow, she will graduate from high school. But today, she’ll walk down the aisle, her white lace wedding…
read post →Night at Beachy Head
jess ingrassellino, summer 2019 They hadn’t asked to be there, those sharp stones at the bottom of Beachy Head. But the stones knew some things…
read post →The Call
jess ingrassellino, july 2019 Brushed off again. She’ll always be his second best, silver medal. First loser. “First loser” she chuckles out loud, in spite…
read post →Two Poems: Sketches of St. Petersburg
jess ingrassellino, june 2019 I read Spouts (1921), an earlier poem by William Carlos Williams. I enjoy his first person, direct, and conversational writing style.…
read post →The 2 Octave Schradieck Project
Starting in January, I was accepted to participate in Nathan Cole’s Virtuoso Master Course (VMC). To say it’s a major commitment to, and investment in,…
read post →The Past Comes Back
Well. Through a series of unexpected events, a whole chunk of my past came back and hit like a brick today. A piece that I’ve…
read post →Ableist Against Myself
I have been chronically ill for 12 years. Even though I’ve cohabitated with my body in varying stages of “physically broken” during this time, I…
read post →Reading the world, slowly
Back in 2015, I had my final inpatient mental hospitalization. That May, I’d experienced the first break-up of my second marriage. I was hurt beyond…
read post →The Gate (Nooner)
This poem is after a close reading of the poem The Storm (Bear), by Mary Oliver. I focused intentionally on attempting to replicate the rhythm…
read post →Coping Ahead: What to do when you feel like you can’t do anything
This post is about my personal experience with physical health problems, and does not necessarily reflect the unique needs of other individuals with similar issues.…
read post →Beauty in the Process
This week, I experienced starting a lot of different types of learning. I am working on obtaining my AWS certification, so studying for that; I…
read post →How To Leave Home
I have chosen to model this poem after the poem Facts by Philip Levine (in What Work Is). The poem attempts to employ a casual,…
read post →On Solitude
I have chosen to model this essay after ‘On Noise’ by Seneca. The essay attempts to employ a casual tone, with plain language, in the…
read post →Communities of Practice
Anyone who really knows me knows that I am wary of communities of practice. My wariness has little to do with the people themselves. In…
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