It’s 6:00 in the PM and Dawn and I are chilling out at Hastings killing some time while the little one is at a birthday party next door. I thought I would take this time to do some random ramblings about thoughts and stuff, filling my commitment to blog every day and never cease to exercise any chance to bore my loyal readers.
The loads of search engine traffic I get is fun, but it’s those of you that keep coming back that make this site so much fun to operate. So after a long relaxing (5 day) weekend with family, I am recharged and hit work with gusto this morning. I was not daunted by the loads of email, impending doom of the voicemail light, nor the constant change that is one of my latest projects at work. My job at work is that of a lead. That is a blessing and a curse, the fun part is that I get to figure out all the cool technical mojo that makes our stuff work, the bad part is that sometimes you can be handed a project to wrangle that’s just not realistically well formed enough to make something out of. My latest project is the latter but I am glad to say that after a few tough conversations today I think we have a workable project we can build something out of.
That leads me to a few questions I thought I would pose, and answer myself. I want your feedback to these so get creative with your answers, the fate of the universe may just depend on it.
My first question has nothing to do with technology, but it formed itself quite spontaneously while I was walking to the car to leave the office. When you compare yourself with the others that you work with, and I mean truly compare your attributes and qualities, what makes you different?
I think that the title of this site, which is truly a philosophy of mine, is what makes me different. The fact that I am blogging to you on a Mac today only emphasizes the point that I am not married to any technology. I could probably come up with a dozen points to add value to that argument, but this is my site, so I don’t have to. The point is that at no time in my work or personal life do I go into the decision making process with a pre-determined choice in mind. The point of being OS agnostic, and in this case technology agnostic in general is that you choose the correct tool for the given task, given all variables. This may not always be the best tool, but the best solution. If I have a tool that’s workable, and buying the correct tool is expensive for a task I will only perform once, then circumstances determine the choice, but all things being equal, I will walk into the decision process with an open mind and choose the tool that best fits the needs.
The next question I pose to my valued readers is, when you interact with others in disagreement, what is your priority?
There are several schools of thought here, and I am sure I could pontificate on the psychological meanings and ramifications of each, but my opinion is that with at least a little consideration of feelings (I have never been accused of being the most diplomatic when it comes to feelings) my goal is to get to the basics of the issue. In a work scenario, that may mean to dissect the issue at hand, and come to an amicable agreement to how to maintain continuity with yourself while not invalidating the points and issues of your counterpart. That being said, I will probably never shut up and allow someone to walk into a bad situation when I know better and can clarify that by having information and knowledge to back up why I am taking the particular stance I am in.
Now, what is the point to all of these questions you are probably wondering. The point is that in your chosen profession, relationship, friendship, etc…How do you make decisions and bring about resolution? One of the reasons I didn’t stay in the Army is that I don’t take anything at face value, and I always ask why. If I am going to do something, I going to do it because I think it’s the right thing to do. I don’t mind asking someone, no matter their position above or below me to explain why, and I don’t mind telling someone in a higher position than me that they are wrong. I would just never do so without having a strong case for why, and a strong case that I have already researched and can back up.
I think that makes me valuable. I think that if you apply your knowledge, training and experience in a forthright yet respectable way, you will find yourself not only equally valuable, but more often than not in the mix of the really fun stuff. It’s the people that stand up and ask to play that get picked for the team.
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However, always asking and not always listening sometimes precludes the questioner from actually learning the lesson. I’m a questioner too, but sometimes you must quietly observe a process to fully understand it.