About Beth & Systems of Wonder

Greetings! I'm a writer and wanderer with a 20+ year career in technology: first as an entrepreneurial web developer (back in the early days where one person could do it all) and then as a software engineer and product manager. Since I moved to Portland, Oregon about a decade ago, I've worked mainly for companies focused on developer tooling (New Relic, Jeli.io, and Gruntwork). These days I'm a Principal at Adaptive Capacity Labs, where we coach software teams in the art and science of incident analysis.

My writing includes fantastical fiction, travel writing, and academic and technical work. Writing has always supported my other endeavors, from making sense of life through journaling, to writing product briefs and detailed project plans, to publishing blog posts and articles.

And through it all, I've held a fascination with the mystical, despite a pretty rocky history with organized religion. Recently I've trained with a shamanic practitioner, delving into contemplative and mystical technologies. I also trained in transformative coaching with Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, who brings a powerful secular Buddhist approach to personal work.

About Systems of Wonder

I've always struggled to unite all my interests in a coherent way. How do you combine a passion for interpersonal neurobiology, Resilience Engineering, product management, Site Reliability Engineering, imagined worlds, and nondual tantric traditions under one heading?

"Systems of Wonder" is my best answer. All my fascinations share an aspect of systems thinking, approaching the world as a complex and interconnected whole, with a sense of wonder at the incomprehensible magic of it all. This blend of analysis and mystery powers all my work, from my Karmic Rehabilitation Unit fantasy series to my workshops and coaching for technologists.

Other Projects

BethAdele.io is my site geared specifically towards humans in tech.

Spiral Path Collective is a collaboration with other Portland-based creatives. We run events that skew more towards magic than technology. We've published a memoir and a devotional punk album.

KRUseries.com is still under construction. This is where I'll share news and updates about my fantasy series set in the world of the Karmic Rehabilitation Unit, or KRU.