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Your Office and Geek Pride

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I'm not one for decorating my cube at work – mostly as my ideal decoration is printouts.  But I want to take a moment to praise the decorating of cubes for progeeks and profans.

I could talk about motivation, reminders, etc.

But instead I'd like to praise the geek pride of it.

When you've got your baseball figures, your anime figures, your posters, your pictures, your  bust of Optimus Prime, you're saying "I am a geek and I am proud of it."  You're telling people about yourself – perhaps even exposing yourself to ridicule – as well as opening a dialogue about what you like.

This is a good thing (done with some forethought of course, depending on what your fandom is).

This is making a statement about who you are and what you like – proudly and openly – at a place that your livelihood likely depends on.  It takes courage, and it asserts who you are.

So I say go for it.  Let people know who you are – in fact, if you plan your "fan display" carefully you can generate dialogue and respect for you as well.

Even that bust of Optimus Prime can benefit your career if you know, for instance, the head of IT is a big Transformers fan . . .

– Steven Savage

Success is Applying Fandom

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I talk about applying our fannish and geeky interests to our careers.  This brings up a subject I haven't really discussed:

What is SUCCESSFULLY applying your fandom to your career?

It's one of those things that seems obvious – until you really think of it – so I wanted to classify and clarify what I mean.

What is successfully applying your fandom to your career?  I'd say it's the following:

  • When your fannish interests have a place in your life that you're aware of (it may be only to blow off STEAM due to your career).
  • When your fannish interests provide resources – from knowledge to contacts to more – that you effectively and consciously leverage in your career.
  • When your fannish interests and career are not in conflict but support each other (perhaps at some point they may border on the indistinguishable).

That's successful fan-to-pro to me.  The two support each other and you're aware of how your fandom can be used in the bigger picture (again, if only to relax you).

-Steven Savage

News of the Day 9/24/2009

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Career:
Not-to-do's in Social Media – A nice simple guide.

A nice guide on telling hobbies from passions – I approve.

A (sad) roundup of health insurance issues and freelance writers.

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics:
Decline in weekly unemployment rates – Doesn't mean we're out of the woods, but there's SOME good news. For now.

Media:
Judy Sims, formerly of the Toronto Star Media Group, takes a look at how newspapers can re-invent themselves – A nice read that's probably extensible to many businesses related to information.

Have we always been hung up on vampires? It seems they keep coming back and burning out.

Social Media:
Twitter's recent venture capital also comes from T. Row Price – I think this is the last round of funding – they now go public and profitable (or get sold). Seismic shift coming soon in social media – watch out.

An unofficial Twitter App store? Yes, apparently so. A central place for the huge amount of twitter-tools. I get the intuitive feel that we're seeing something big happening here, but I'm not sure what – the idea of a simple service people build onto, universal app availability, etc. Could Twitter become the foundation of entire services? Or tools? (a $99 Twitter-gizmo with wireless?).

Technology:
Nvidia will make Chrome OS devices – So we've already got people heavy into Chrome OS. That puts a bit of a bite on Windows and Microsoft (and continues the Everything Wars).

Video Games:
Console status report – Sony's PS 3 Slim has sold a million units worldwide, and Nintendo confirms the Wii price will drop to $199. I want to see the effect the Nintendo cuts have on prices – as one possibility I foresee is that there's nothing past this Nintendo can do to move systems.

– Steven Savage