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At my company, the executive team is trying to boast that the company promotes “Open and timely communication”. However, their is a downfall in their support of this.

1. If you going to say “and”, do “and”.

The word “and” is a tricky one. Especially with value statements like this one. The word implies that both are present, and always present together. If you are timely with a piece of information but not very open, then you have failed in putting the statement into practice.

If you fail, then you loose the trust of those you’ve informed. And all of a sudden, there is miss-trust or the idea that you aren’t being honest. The value looses it’s meaning and simply become more clutter in corporate propaganda, then is rejected from the masses

2. Simple acts show your sincerity

Ah, there’s the rub! Really, this is the main reason I’m writing, and my big bug. Our office has just been renovated to follow the corporate scheme. And suddenly I noticed a inconspicuous door with a security swipe key. I looked through the small window and what do I see? It’s an almost secret executive only area.

Hmmm, “open and timely communication”. Open? How does a secret locked away executive only area say “Open” to the employees.

For offices that are multiple floors, I can understand that there might be a floor dedicated. But in out 2 floor small operation, the message this say’s speaks volumes!

You can say it, but your actions have just convinced me, you don’t believe it, you don’t want to believe it. And, sorry big wig exec, I don’t believe you.

No, this isn’t a post about wax voodoo dolls and needles.

With the Ying there must be Yang. Both must exist. It’s been a lesson that has existed for thousands of years. There must be dark and light in each of us; there must be good and bad. Nature is full of examples. Here are just a couple:

Owl, Scorpion, Snake, Vulture, Spider, Crow

Each of these animals in one religion or another have gotten a bad rap. They are “evil” or the bringers of death. Watch out! But in fact, each of them have lessons we can learn from. Lessons we need to succeed. Maybe even excel.

Take for example the act of “not caring”. The phrase in itself is difficult for some who have not embraced their dark. A simple act of not caring or even feeling indifferent to people can be a challenge. To people who want to be completely “good”, they might find themselves looking for a “win-win” outcome. They might go out of their way to accommodate others feelings, in turn, distorting the original vision. They could obsess over others feelings to the point where they take perfectly good energy away from the task at hand.

Trying to be “good” comes from years of childhood training.

“Treat others as you would be treated” - what about not treating them at all?
“Be courteous to your neighbour” - what about the asshole downstairs who likes to blare rock opera?
“Never speak before spoken to” - well how do I talk to someone who never talks to me?

I’m not a fan of “good” and “bad” ( hence all the quotes ). Reason is because there is so much more to it. In the classical sense of “good”, one must be a drone or sheep. They must follow the herd and never look back. And if anyone wants a little lime light, a little success - they must turn around and walk the other way. Be the black sheep ( some say purple cow ). Embrace your dark.

Late last night watching the Season 1 finale of Stargate: Atlantis ( I said Geekness ), One of the characters, Dr McKay, was frustrated by the bull headed leaders.

“They always say they don’t need the scientists until they need the scientists. By then it’s too late!” ( or something like that )

It’s not just on T.V. It’s not just “the scientists”. You can replace that with just about anything. Give it a try.

• They always say they don’t need food until they need food. By then it’s too late!
• They always say they don’t need IT until they need IT. By then it’s too late!

A concept raised for Renaissance Souls is that you don’t need to do everything. Don’t go for a massive ice cream cone with one flavour. Don’t even go for a massive double scoop with a combo. For us Renaissance Souls, the idea is to have a sampler. This allows us to taste a little bit of everything: a bit of Sewing, a bit of Writing, a bit of time on the Car, etc…. Part of this is to keep our always wandering attention. Instead of allotting time to just one activity, only to feel drained when we do it. We do “one of…” something. We don’t plan until we are in the moment.

Bring in a phrase “Energy Management“. I read this from Worthwhile. And while I don’t think we need to “ruthlessly manage” our energy like Anita believes. I do think more then the number of tasks on our plate needs to be in consideration for wether or not we are overwhelmed.

Example: I’ve been working on a project to combine and relaunch a couple of sites into one. The project had some pretty tight timelines. But do you know what I did for the first 3 months? Picture a lot of reading, and a lot of filler. It’s not that my time was poorly managed, it was that people didn’t feel the need to rush. But now the project is getting to the end, people are running around like their hands and hair were on fire. Some people are seriously snapping from the stress. The project could have gone more smoothly simply by taking the amount of panic energy they have, and divide that by the number of months this project has been going.

Solution: Work energy should be managed like diabetes. It’s not always the level of sugar, it’s the spikes that cause the damage. The same goes for energy. We should be able to have a reading maybe twice or 3 times a day that tells us how are energy is doing. And our job is to make sure it’s a steady as possible. Spikes in energy could cause psychological damage like diabetes causes to the body.

I’m in the process of transitioning over to Dreamhost. There are several reasons why

1. Damn! - They have a great deal for the bandwidth, space and scripting possibilities.
2. Rudy on Rails - I’ve been eyeing it for some time, but if I don’t have a host that allows it, what’s the point?
3. Attune to Customers Needs and Knowledge. - Now this is something unexpected. I originally signed up for the 1st 2 reasons. But as I was learning about how they do business I found they go to lengths to understand their customers expectations really well. Just look at these 2 options in their contact form they understand how to respond, when to respond, and maybe…just maybe they get the customer to chuckle:

Please select the type of this request:

• Just a casual question, comment, idea, suggestion.
• I need some help but it’s not super time-sensitive.
• I can’t get things done until I hear back from you, please reply asap.
• Things are broken and I’d like them not to be!
• OMG! EXTREME CRITICAL EMERGENCY!! EVERYTHING’S BROKEN! People are DYING!

Please select your general expertise in the area of this request:

• Please explain everything to me very carefully.
• I do know some stuff, but please don’t assume too much.
• Overall I know my stuff, but I’m a little shaky in this area.
• I have a good understanding of this stuff.
• Not to be rude, but I probably know more about this than you!

Nice!

If you stand in the middle of the IT department, lick you finger and point it up to the sky to try to find the wind, you’ll notice something’s happening. The winds are changing. IT over the next 6 years is going to have a new face. Some might say pretty, and some might say maimed. Who knows.

Taken from a Thread on TechRepublic

This is the only field where 20 years of experienced is used AGAINST you. It seems to have a good career in IT, you have to kill yourself with IT 24/7…and you’re still booted out when you’re 35 or 40. I know I’m not the only who feels this and I’ve decided to plan an exit strategy to leave the field because I’ve had enough.

Just one of the responses

I call them the “NOW” generation. They have been working with computers since they where 5 years old and know some things like the back of their hands, but they want everything NOW when it comes to IT jobs and things. They want the BIG salary that you and I took 10-20 years to get, NOW. They want their parent’s $250-500,000 fully furnished Home with all the latest and greatest high-tech toys, NOW. They want the coolest Car with the latest and greatest High-tech, DVD, CD, Play Station 2 Sound system, NOW.

I recently watch Grizzly Man with my Brother and Vanessa, I find myself in slight awe of Timothy Treadwells story. I believe what some see as one mans struggle to be a Bear, is everyones struggle with life. The only difference between Timothy and Us, is he was willing to say it out loud and on film. “I will die…”

Society around us, gives us the ability to cloud the truth. We have savings accounts and stocks, credit cards and mortgages, multi vitamins and fad diets: All saying, live for tomorrow. And in doing so they take away our power which is seeing the truth and the beauty of life which exists in each moment.

For Timothy he was willing to die for the animals, for which he ultimately did. But imagine what could be accomplished if everyone found what they would die for.
Now imagine what could be accomplished if we found what we would get fired for; loose our lover for; our trucks; our houses; our blood for. That is a passion that everyone should have.

What would you get fired for?

In my own search for coming to understand what a generalist is, I came across yet another definition for a versatilists. The idea coined from Gartner is that this “new” breed has the ability to bridge the gap between thinking and doing. “Versatilists, in contrast, apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships, and assuming new roles.”

At first thought I seemed intrigued by this word. However, the more I thought, the more I concluded all in all I think it’s a bad title for something that’s been around forever. What I realized is that a versatilists, or at least my understanding of it, is another fancy term for teacher. Ever day teachers go into a classroom and no matter who the audience is, whether 5 or 65, they have the constant battle and challenge to put things in context that can be understood. They have a talent for putting things into a perspective or light that wasn’t seen before. Teachers are found in more places then just the classroom. Teachers do not always stick to curriculum and tests. Teachers often know a lot more then they let on. Teachers know a lot more than just one topic. Teachers bridge the gap between concept and application. Teachers can do a lot more then just “teach”.

This new term so far is focused primarily on the IT industry, and if you look at it in terms of a teacher, it makes sense. The gap in knowledge and culture between the doers and thinkers is so vast it makes the grand canyon look small. Programmers don’t understand marketing, and visa versa. The company I work for tries to use the all powerful Business Analyst, but these people just end up being isolated by both. So no wonder it would take a teacher who understands in depth the world of programming, to effectively “teach” and advise those who don’t know. This person can subtly educate the Board of Directors so they can truly understand the extent of a technology based proposal.

With today’s abuse and lack of acknowledgement of the educational profession in the western world, these people with this talent need to survive. They sure as hell aren’t going to go into the classroom, so why not the boardroom. I say call these people who they really are and by a name that they should be proud of - call them Teachers.

You know when you wake up and your eyes just don’t want to open? Not for sake of muscle power, but because of the crusties? Well that was this morning. The best solution was to go back to bed.

Regardless of state of mind I decided to drudge through and work anyway. Now to the point….I love ant. We are using it at work for building and I’m getting the swing and liking it. The best is it’s xml/xslt parsing. I’m working on a clients site with numerous pictures. Now, sure you still need the time to chug through and resize and name them. But once you’re all complete you can hook up a few little xml config files and parse them through an xslt and voiala, pages a plenty!

<target name="xml" description="xml compiler">
    <xslt basedir="${basedir}/etc" destdir="${basedir}/web"
      style="${basedir}/etc/page.xsl">
      <mapper type="glob" from="*.xml" to="*.html"/>
      <outputproperty name="method" value="xml"/>
      <outputproperty name="standalone" value="yes"/>
      <outputproperty name="encoding" value="iso8859_1"/>
      <outputproperty name="indent" value="no"/>
    </xslt>
</target>

So I’m drinking my starbucks and I read on the back of their cup

Chances are you are scared of fictions. Chances are you are only fleetingly happy. Chances are you know much less than you think you do. Chances are you feel a little guilty. Chances are you want people to lie to you. Perhaps the answer lies on the side of a coffee cup. You are lost. - David Cross, Comedian

This is from a comedian…so….is this supposed to be funny?