So why restart the blog? I miss having a place to organize, document, and share ideas and projects I’ve worked through. I’ve always bought into the idea that clear writing leads to clear thinking, and I know I need help with the latter.

My last post to this site was almost five years ago. I’m not sure why I stopped writing; however, at the time, I found myself in a position where I wasn’t sure if I could openly write what I wanted to write. (I was a state employee where individual expression was not embraced by the legislature.) After leaving that position and moving back into the corporate world, the incentives were to promote the “company line,” where the marketing team would provide content for employees to post on various platforms. I’m not a fan of this practice and decided I didn’t want to participate. So for five years, I stepped away from any form of blogging.

So what am I working on?

The most ambitious project is an Excel Add-in designed to help Business Development and Product Marketing Professionals systematically create explanatory visualizations. It’s not a generic chart builder, but an opinionated approach to common business graphs and charts that will hopefully eliminate the adjustments that too many professionals have to do the night (or early morning) before a quarterly meeting. This is still a work in progress, but I’m happy with where it’s at and I’ll be sharing updates here.

For people who want or need more flexibility, I’m developing in-person training sessions that introduce the grammar of graphics philosophy to working professionals. The sessions use Python—specifically Plotnine for visualizations and Polars for data wrangling. Over the last decade, I’ve had the opportunity to teach a graduate level course focused on applied statistics and analytics—leading learners with little (or no) programming experience to develop data and visualization skills that can be used in their professional endeavors. I’ll be posting related videos to a new YouTube channel (@rayjameshoobler).

The first three months away from the corporate world also gave me the opportunity to write a beginner’s guide—Getting Started with Python on Windows 11, available as an e-book on Amazon. This intentionally focused on how individuals can get started with Python on a Windows computer, which (in my observation) is still the most common OS in corporate America. The book walks beginners through setting up a new Python programming environment, the basics of Pandas and Polars for data wrangling, and creating visualizations using Python’s version of ggplot, Plotnine.

After my last corporate position was eliminated, I made the decision to not seek another full-time corporate or academic job. I’m far enough along in my career to take a personal/professional detour without causing significant disruption to my future self, and Semoctuo LLC is the home I’m building for these projects (Semoctuo.com). I’m also enjoying the challenge of implementing all the corporate functions that, as a regular employee, I used to take for granted (e.g., a business email address). I’m not sure if any of this will have financial viability or how it will play out, but with some clear thinking (preceded by some clear writing), I’m looking forward to the experience.