When I first started working as a technologist some 17 years ago, I was doing fairly low-level stuff: moving and reimaging computers, network cabling, and basic desktop support were the extent of my responsibilities. I decided early on that I wanted to move into a more advanced role, but faced a common quandary: I couldn’t get the job I wanted…
For a little pre-holiday fun, I’ve got a simple scenario to present to you, and I am interested in your response. Your holiday plans are made. All of your family and friends expect to see you at the annual holiday gathering. Your kids are expecting you there on Christmas morning as they open presents. You unexpectedly get a call from…
Being disruptive is a powerful way to conduct business. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates insisted that computers belonged not just in business offices but in the homes of regular joes, and built businesses around a need that had not fully manifested itself. Twitter disrupted the social media space by bringing to market a medium for short, frequent, and publicly visible…
Over the weekend, I went to the local theater to watch Sully, the movie about the US Airways pilot who successfully landed his A320 jet on an icy river after losing both engines shortly after takeoff. I enjoyed the movie for its main story line but also for some of the back story elements that were included that were scarcely…
I’ve had a lot of luck in my career, especially as it pertains to my work environment. Although I can’t say every technical job I’ve had was all unicorns and bacon, I’ve been very fortunate to have been treated fairly and professionally through most of my employment history. Not only was I treated respectfully, but the last three employers I…
A few weeks ago I met a couple of my business partners in a moderately upscale restaurant in the Washington, DC area. It was not my typical kind of place – I’m more of a casual dining guy – but I did enjoy the experience and the atmosphere. There wasn’t any one particular thing that made the experience a positive…
Humans are creatures of habit, and I suspect that engineering/technical types are even more so. We find something that works and tend to stick with it, sometimes neglecting to occasionally experiment with new tools or methods. The mantra of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” becomes the defense for standing by what we know works just fine. There is…
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I read a book entitled The Phoenix Project. This book has been in my Kindle library for some time, but only this weekend did I make time to read it – and I’m glad I did. The story centers around a guy who is more or less forced out of his comfort zone and into a…
I’m a fixer. A tinkerer. As a kid, I would take my toys apart just to see how they worked, and to prove that I could put them back together again (and these experiments often had mixed results). Even today, I’m still kind of a shade tree handyman. In fact, earlier this week I had to fix a broken safety…
“He’s a screw-up. Always trying things that don’t work.” I’ll be honest: I used to be afraid of being the person described above. I didn’t want to be known as someone whose ideas didn’t work. And to that end, I was successful: most of what I tried was successful. The bad news was that I wasn’t doing much. I was…