An Asheville resident on life after HelenePublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter2 min readJust now-- Weve returned with the Medium NewsletterIssue #187: analyzing tech layoffs and observing without absorbingBy Harris SockelI awoke about 2 a.m. the night of the storm to the sound of small explosions in the street, writes Asheville resident Doug Brown in a story about life after Hurricane Helene. My room kept lighting up in odd colors. I looked out the window and saw sparks flying in all directions in iridescent blues and greens. It would have been beautiful if it were not terrifying.Almost 100 people are missing in North Carolina. Entire towns, like Marshall, were underwater. Brown and his neighbors still dont have running water, and when the water does come back theyll need to boil it. For now, theyre lining up with buckets every few days:I wash myself with a washcloth and splash rubbing alcohol in my armpits, and dream of the day when I can take a shower again. Asheville is kind of a hippie town, but as my friend Molly puts it, Were all hippies now.Browns story is more human than anything Ive read about this disaster so far. It makes me feel like Im there. Its also an inspiring tribute to humans ability to simply keep going when faced with ambiguity, change, and hardship. Our grief is real, Brown writes. But so is our strength.One more story: analyzing tech layoffsTechs been in the midst of a recession since the pandemic: According to layoffs.fyi, 470 tech companies laid off 141,000 employees in 2024. Those numbers are a bit better than what we saw in 2023 (264K layoffs total), so maybe were heading toward brighter days but its unclear.Analytics and experimentation director Bhavik Patel analyzed a dataset of 2,800 layoffs and tried to as objectively as possible figure out which roles have been impacted most. He found that product and design roles are more likely to be impacted than roles in engineering or data analytics:Your daily dose of practical wisdomObserve but dont absorb.