Older posts
Older posts
I was Born to Rock and Roll
June 10, 2008
Tony's pictures from RockCamp sent me down a peculiar line of thought.
My generation, Gen-X is the first generation to grow up on rock 'n roll. We are also the first generation to maintain our attachment to rock music well into adult life. To this day, my heroes are musicians.
I may be an extreme [...]
Big Empty Glass Buildings
May 4, 2008
Commercial real estate owners, pay attention to this telecommuting/coworking trend.
A building is not a very liquid asset. There it is; it isn't going anywhere. It's only valuable if someone wants it.
Right now, most Americans have two spaces to spend their time in: their home and their office. When they're in one place, the other place [...]
Blind Sided by Your Values
May 3, 2008
As I write, bits and pieces come together in interesting ways...
There's a group of people in business who live to tell others what to do. They rose to power when humans settled down because they were the essential catalyst needed to turn a group of seat-of-their-pants hunter/gathers into an agricultural workforce.
Today we call them [...]
Talent Is
April 15, 2008
What is talent? A simple question to be sure, but answers to this question vary widely.
For many (old school) managers, talent still refers to fresh crops of MBAs graduating from top B-schools, you know, the same schools that make Business Week's annual list every year. But what, exactly, is it that makes these graduates talented?
They are very [...]
Port 8888 Blocked! Ah, the Joys of Repression
April 5, 2008
Port 8888 is blocked!
(Technically speaking, every port except 80, 443 and maybe 25 is blocked.)
Meaning, from inside their network, I can't connect to a server of mine outside their network running a service on port 8888.
In any case, this is unfortunate, because I'm trying to demo my software.
The IT guy tells me that it's necessary [...]
You’re Too Stupid to Manage Yourself
April 3, 2008
Guess what? If you're an engineer, programmer, illustrator, writer, designer, you're too stupid to manage yourself. Yes, it's true. And you know it.
I'm sure you felt subtle tugs of inadequacy as you tried to move up the corporate ladder, as you were passed over for promotions and opportunities to play a larger, more expansive [...]
Work/Life Balance Poll
April 2, 2008
BigCo extolls the value of work/life balance, but most of the time companies simply drain people one-way until their retirement. More recently, Tim Ferriss has proposed his own version of balance in his awesome book, The 4-Hour Work Week.
We Want to Know What You Think About Balance.
1. Which of the two- work or home [...]
Employer-Centered Community
March 28, 2008
Is there a place for lifetime relationships between employers and employees?
I found a recent post by Steve Prokesch, senior editor at Harvard Business Review, suggesting some employers may be rediscovering the advantages of longer relationships with their employees.
There are benefits for the company: there is value in people's experience and expertise; there is value in [...]
Outsource Yourself
March 19, 2008
When business took to outsourcing I realized there was an opportunity to improve my take.
Outsourcing deals work best when both sides focus on the value improvement (rather than the supplier's cost) during negotiation. This is, in fact, Rule #1 of negotiation because it forces both parties to think hard about operational issues like service [...]
Job Interview 2.0: “Tell me about your network.”
March 11, 2008
I'm thinking about the hiring process again...
I don't care what you say you can do. Lying is a least common denominator skill (anyone can do it).
I'm kind of interested in what you demonstrate you can do. But not really. I've worked with too many Great XYZs (engineers, programmers, designers, project managers, etc.) [...]