Ed Cottrell

  • Public Comments on My School District’s Response to Rising Cases of COVID-19 in Our Schools

    I am the father of a child who attends a local, public school. Our school district recently dropped its mask mandates, opting for a masks-optional scheme. Masks would become mandatory again in a given school if cases reported or detected in that school over a five-day period exceeded 2% of that school’s population of students,…

  • Why You Need a Rubber Duck

    Why You Need a Rubber Duck

    You need a rubber duck. Allow me to explain. It turns out that identifying, describing, and solving problems is really difficult, possibly the most difficult type of thing we humans do. And it’s not only knowledge work, high-paying, or credential-required jobs that require this work. To get a feel for this, try explaining, step-by-step, without…

  • On Good Deeds and Deficient Character

    I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you can’t determine that someone has good character because they’ve done some good things, been kind to someone, prayed for someone, etc. Character is about patterns of doing the right thing over time with consistency and integrity. We’re all sinners. Even those with the best character…

  • On Being a Former Lawyer and Having the Right Coach

    It’s impossible to overstate how valuable it is to have someone in your corner who “gets it” when you’re in a role that doesn’t make you happy. I’ve been incredibly blessed to have my wife, Sarah Cottrell, in my corner throughout my career. As many of you know, we met in law school, and we…

  • Career Change

    I have major personal news: March 18 was my last day of practicing law! As of yesterday, I am now a Legal Engineer at Ironclad, the leading digital contracting and contract lifecycle management platform. I’m really excited about the platform, the people, the culture, and the wonderful opportunity to fully utilize my backgrounds in software…