Job Hacking

re: The biggest triumph is getting out of bed

Sometimes you are going about your daily path, and you bump into something that really resonates with you.

"Wow, that's a nice thing", you think.

For me, this post really resonated with me yesterday, The biggest triumph is getting out of bed. Because the best wins are the ones where you are scraping hard for yourself.

5 Reasons to do your own personal health care reform

One of the things I dislike about BIG CONVERSATION is that it's a lot of hot air and very little action. 

Take Health Care Reform.

We've been talking about this for the better part of my life, and what have we accomplished? This latest round has been going for more than a year, with a lot of words on paper, but no final result. The ironic bit is that mostly this has been about very out-of-shape people pontificating about how they have the answer to the health problems brought about by being out of shape, eating badly, and doing nothing about it.

The NY Times has a nice article from March 2nd by Jane E. Brody that talks about the benefits of exercising - at any age.

Based on these studies, and the results I see from my own efforts in this direction, I say that doing strenuous exercise at least three times a week is one of the best "health insurance policies" going. Plus, it works out all that stress one builds up by listening to the pontificators!

Get out there and move it!

Working with the flow

Over the last two or three days, there's a meme that's popped up that needs to be held up to the light to be pondered over.

It's the concept of working with flow.

Here's one post by Kris Dunn, Google: Now Passing On Great Talent to Help Al Gore Stop Global Warming... in which he points out that a Google Engineer made the statement that they should not go head-hunting several GREAT engineers because having them outside Google is better for Google than having them inside Google. He also gives props to Microsoft for being on the other side of such a statement, kind of a DNA thing.

And then, there's this post by Paul Krugman, Is China an Enron (part 2). In this article, he points out that there are two large economic forces in China, one of which is the Communist Party (think: Controlling Command Economics), and one of which is the collection of entrepreneurs, largely in Hong Kong and Shanghai who work on flows of business knowledge.

Then there's Scott Brown, who is the new junior Senator from Massachusetts, filling the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. 

In each of these cases we see examples of the status quo getting their clocked cleaned by those who are in the moment, watching the flow and exerting their energies to take advantage of their adversary's weaknesses. In the Microsoft case, going against their nature to control and capture everything and using everyone else against them (yeah, I disagree with Kris on this one). In the Chinese case, it will be the slow and steady business pressure that will win the day because good business makes everyone look good (and not lose face). And in the Massachusetts's election, we see how one candidate captured the themes of the moment and won against his opponent who decidedly stayed the course.

Welcome to the age of OODA loop. Step lively!

Why you need to stand firm on NO!

There are a few things in life that REALLY make my blood boil. 

#1 item: Tyranny

Latest, greatest example, China's Government. Read this next post by Mark Anderson about what happened after his What is China post.

And my prior two posts about the Google & China dust-up, and then on Mark's earlier post.

Knowing why to say NO!

After yesterday's post saluting Google's decision to call China on the cyber attack against them, some of you may have said, "Um, that might have been a bit harsh."

Um, no.

Here's the broader context, written by Mark Anderson of SNS, which should help you get a better grasp of the larger issue. 

If you work in any technology-related field, it's high time you started getting comfortable with the new world that is rapidly come our way.  

BTW, I'm a big fan of Mark's work at Strategic News Service, and you SHOULD subscribe to his newsletter if you care at all about the future.

Knowing when to say NO!

Let's see if I've got the Google China story straight:

•  Chinese government asks for and gets heavy censorship of Google's bread and butter product, search.
• On Tuesday, there is a MASSIVE cyber attack, which Google pinpoints as having come from China  (and I'll lay a bunch of money that says this was not the first, but maybe it was the biggest). The attack seemed to be focused on getting information on Chinese dissidents using Google products, primarily Gmail.
• Wednesday, Google says "Yeah, we're going to stop with the censoring of the stuff you find objectionable, and if you can't live with that, we're taking our ball and going home."

To this, I say "HUZZAH, HUZZAH, HUZZAH!" WAY TO GO GOOGLE!

Now, will other tech companies that are attempting to do business in China do the same, if faced with similar threats? I hope so!

BTW, for those of you who read my posts and are not super-tech savvy, this should serve as your wake-up call to a new area of warfare - cyber war. You'll hear more about this in the future as governments get more savvy about these activities (though I tend to think that it will likely be behind commercially focused work because commerce will pay better. Unless the government in question is up for activities like killing off the worker's family, etc.).

Do you contribute to the betterment of all?

I've been working at startups and on products that are new and which hopefully (finger's crossed!) help people for the better part of my working adult life. It's not always easy, and I'd say the lows are as low as the highs are high. But when you are part of something that others use and are passionate about - well, it doesn't get much better than that in the workaday world.

So, this line came as something of a shock to me, "...there is not “one shred of neutral evidence” that any financial innovation of the past 20 years has led to economic growth." Who said that? Paul Volker, former Chariman of the Fed, and Chair of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Well, I guess that explains why I did not go into banking...

But seriously, the article this came from is The Other Plot to Wreck America, by Frank Rich, and it's worth a read for three reasons. First, it helps set the stage for the story of how the major financial institutions wrecked our economy, which we will undoubtedly be hearing more about in the 1H of this year. Second, this type of thing has happened before. Third, he seems to be saying that Congress should save us. In short, there is plenty here to get you riled up to go do something.

But what?

Hmm, how about something different:

• Grameen Bank is a financial institution that has definitely made a difference.
• Clarian Technolgies Jellyfish Wind Appliance
• Zendesk
• Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist
• Crossfit

Each of these ventures are significantly different, and help people in remarkable ways. I'm going to take it as a given that you will start thinking hard about how to introduce banking reform into your own life.

Pondering other things that might work

I admit it, I'm a sucker for alternative ideas to solve problems. My family has a long history of this and I'm about convinced it's a genetic trait. I bet if I traced it back far enough, I'd end up with a young lad figuring out how fast he'd have to twirl a sling above his head to slay a Philistine.

Which brings us to this article by one of my favorite writers about all things technologic, Robert X. Cringely, in which he tells us that perhaps we should engage credit agencies to help out in doing rapid checks on folks entering our country for security purposes. Yeah, I know, not a solution one would immediately reach for, so go read it already.

While this article is a great one for all those who think government should be reduced and privatized, it made me think about the start.

You know, the start: What is the problem to be solved?

A lot of the time, we start at a completely different place, or maybe add a level of complexity one or two steps down the road, which is, "...and what resources do I have to solve this problem?"

Maybe you need to broaden the scope a bit on that. What resources does the world have that you can apply to this problem?

A story about finding a new job

A buddy of mine just accepted a new job. 

Hurray for him!

He's a Dev Manager, and has been through this before, so he told his Supervisor that he had an offer on the table. His Supervisor had also been through similar before, and said, "So, are you done here, or can we do something to keep you?" My buddy said that he was not done, and laid out conditions that would make it worth his while to stay.

His Supervisor then said, "O.K., let me see what I can put together for you, and I need to check in with HR." So, my buddy put on his waiting hat and returned to his work.

A couple days later, the Supervisor came back with an answer. Yeah, the counter had arrived!

This was at least 24 hours too late. This small process had reminded my buddy more and more of all the things that he disliked about the place. The bureaucracy, the red tape, HR making a mess of things, the inability to just get stuff done. 

Could be almost any company, except it's not. It was Microsoft.

People matter. When business process gets in the way of people's lives, and their ability to make informed decisions that improve their lot in life, then that business is probably getting less nimble, less innovative and more likely to fail in the future.

Why couldn't the Supervisor in question just have done the right thing in a timely manner? 

Taking a grain of salt with layoff news

Techcrunch has an thought-provoking post about three firms which have just recently gone through lay-offs. They are:

• Microsoft
• RealNetworks
• Classmates

More doom and gloom regarding the economy? Nah. Just companies which have internal problems or challenges with their current products (or both).

Historically, job growth during an economic turn-around comes from new or small companies which are highly innovative and bringing new products to a market that may not yet exist. 

If you want good economic news about how our economy is rebuilding, look for newish companies bringing products to market which make you go 'hmm, that's something new', and avoid the news about older companies - unless it's about a new product for a new market by a team which is running unfettered.