The Long View

Why do I blog?

A friend of mine (one of the dads in my son's scout troop) followed a link in an email to my blog, and asked if I got paid somehow to write this. I had to laugh at that, and explained that it actually costs me money for my TypePad account.

But I also realized that some people might legitimately wonder why I take the time to do these posts.

The first reason is (and I know there are many other bloggers out there with the same affliction) is that when I get a thought I think is worth sharing, my wife, my kid and my dog couldn't care less. (Actually, my dog will sit and listen to me while I explain some new revelation or insight, but I'm not sure she "gets it"). A blog is a "captive audience". This is the same thing that motivated me to write articles for programming journals years ago, and say "yes" twice when a publisher asked me to work on a book. Ditto speaking at conferences - captive audience.

Well, to be honest, at conferences you'll spot folks sneaking out to go to some other session, so they're not actually "captive", but enough will sit politely through whatever topic you are jazzed about at the moment to make it worthwhile.

Writing these entries also improves my own thinking on a particular topic. It's one thing to have an understanding of something, and another thing entirely to articulate it. You gain another level of understanding when you have to put your ideas into words, and to do so clearly and effectively. I won't tell you how many blog posts are sitting in the "drafts" folder, simply because I can't find a way to get across what I was thinking; usually a good indication that the whole idea is a little half-baked. Sometimes I need to read something or hear a speaker say something that relates to a potential topic before it crystalizes for me. Sometimes it never happens.

Then there is the "give back" factor. So many people have helped me in so many ways in my professional life, that I feel obligated to pass along anything that I think might help someone else. It's still going on, too. Now that so many smart people are sharing their thoughts, I frequently will pass along their observations, or encourage folks to check out their blogs directly.

Finally, there is always the hope that someone will read my blog and decide that I'm just the guy to hire or engage in some kind of project.

Hasn't happened yet, but we live in hope...

Yer on yer own, pal!

I was once the president of a technical user group. After making some kind of presentation, I was talking to one of our members, and referred him to one of the programming journals. His response was "I don't subscribe to that...my employer won't pay for it". I was dumbfounded by his attitude. I wanted to scream at him "BUT IT'S YOUR SKILL SET!!".

More than ten years later the situation doesn't seem to have changed much. Technical people are still the primary people responsible for their training and education. A recent survey by CompTIA shows that IT staff get little or no guidance or support from their employers to keep their skills up-to-date. The study shows that the respondents invest an average of 11 hours per week and over $2000 per year in their ongoing education.

There are two lessons here. If you're a technical worker, you take your skills with you when you change jobs, so it is worthwhile to make the investment in your skill set. The article that I link to above descibes the lesson for employers.

Thomas Friedman writes in "The World is Flat" that there are four ways secure your job from being outsourced to a lower-cost labor market. Be special, specialized, anchored or adaptable. For most technology professionals, becoming specialized, and being adaptable are the only options open to them, and continuing technical education is a significant component to achieving both of these states.

Friedman also writes of the significant decline in the availability of science and engineering talent in the U.S. I wonder if employers who leave the education of their workforce in the hands of their employees understand what the long-term implications are for not just their own company, but for the U.S. economy.

I'd love to see CompTIA conduct their survey amongst IT workers in India!

Reading in context

Back in the early 90's, when I had ambitions of getting involved in high-tech marketing, I read Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm. At the time, I was actively involved in custom software development, so I was able to relate directly to many of his examples, but did so as an "outsider", as a consumer of software products rather than as a producer.

After about a dozen years, I decided to re-read the current edition of Mr. Moore's landmark work.

Seen through the lens of many more years of experience, including having owned my own software development company, and now working with technology start-ups, Moore's analysis of the markets for technology-based products assumes an entirely new meaning! I recall finding this book an excellent read the first time around, and am regretting not having picked it up and re-read it every couple of years. I wonder what mistakes I might have avoided, or what opportunities I might have seen had I done so.

I think that many good business books are like that. You need to revisit them occasionally to refresh yourself on the ideas, certainly; but more importantly, you need to re-interpret the ideas in light of your own experiences. I'm thinking maybe it's time to go back and re-read some other gems - like Tom Peters' Thriving on Chaos, Mark McCormack's What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, or Ted Levitt's The Marketing Imagination (which is out in a new edition).