Professional Development

Make Sure You Use The News

by

We post a lot of news here.  That's part of the service we provide to our fellow geeks, after all – calling out and analyzing news for people.

So I want to encourage you to do something WITH the news.  The news here.  The news elsewhere.  Whatever method you get news, you need to act on it and need to get in the habit of acting on it.

What do I mean?  Well it's easy to get news.  We geeks have news feeds, RSS, aggregators, social media, Twitter, and everything else.  We're constantly getting news – good news, relevant news, news that's important.

But getting news is one thing.  It's acting on it that makes a real difference.

So get into the habit of acting on news:

  • If you see a story you should read, don't just read it – ask what it means for you, and perhaps act on it.
  • If you hear about a company that sounds good then check their job listings, and send them a resume, or pass the lead onto friends and family.
  • For that matter if a story is relevant, just pass it on.
  • If the story links elsewhere, follow.  If you want to learn more go do a web search for a few minutes.
  • Does it mention a good book?  Download a sample or buy the thing.

Simple?  Sure. It's all stuff we think we should be doing – but we have to get into the habit of using that news.

So get active – news is only news you can use when you use it.

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea: The Hall Of Education

by

Behold, the Hall of Education!  Go forth and learn!

OK, that sounds corny.  No, I wouldn't use that introduction for . .  well anything . . . but that's what I've christened an professional-geek oriented Idea I want to suggest for your conventions.

The Hall of Education (come on work with me here).

Read more

Life Debt

by

In IT there's a concept of "technical debt" which is probably best defined as "all the things we did that were half-baked, dumb, rushed, short-sighted, or became out of date."  Technical Debt is what keeps a lot of companies and software from evolving very well because unless you address it, you keep adding to it.  If you've ever been frustrated by software (and wondered why no one rewrote it), or by an illogical computer system, you've experienced technical debt.

I love this term.  As a Project Manager is great to have two words to sum up the incredibly stupid things we do that seem like a good idea at the time.

I also like it because it extends to life – and it's a good example of extending geeky ideas to the big picture.

Read more