We all learn. We learned to walk, speak, and math. We learned how to do the tasks that we now do in our jobs, every day. And most of us, along the way, had the benefit of learning from someone more advanced than us. We were the Apprentice to their Master.
In my work, I get a lot of folks asking about US copyright law’s “Fair Use” doctrine. It’s massively misunderstood. Although I’m no lawyer, allow me to clear up a few misconceptions.
These are two pet peeves of mine.
First, affect is something you can do.
I seek to affect the way we vote.
The effect is what happens.
The effect of my activities has been negligible.
I’ve recently been doing some work with a financial planner, and it’s astonishing how that field – which you’d think would be very numbers-based – is instead driven by a great deal of fear. It occurred to me how playing off of your emotions is such a powerful way to influence someone, and how poorly prepared most of us are. Politicians, employers, and yes, financial planners, do this to us all the time. Facts are your best defense against this fear-based approach, but apparently very few of us are interested in acquiring facts on our own. We instead rely on the “facts” presented by someone with clear ulterior motives, and we never question those facts.
Thsoe who don’t know history, as the saying goes, are doomed to repeat it. That saying is just as applicable to tech as anything else, and so today we’re going to do a little tech primer on communication busses.
Like many of you, I’ve had some great bosses over the years, and I’ve learned a lot from them.
This past week’s headline was the US administration’s decisions to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but once again our news media has not done a terribly good job of covering what the heck the program is. While this is a topic that is understandably and justifiably under a great deal of debate and attention, I thought an unbiased look at what’s happening might be useful.
This one happens a lot in the tech world:
After declining for months, we tried a new tactic to increase ROI.
Ugh.
This is especially for Jason Helmick, who uses the word “power” incorrectly – a lot – with his new Dodge Challenger. You’ll need a piece of paper, and a pen or pencil, to follow along.
The United States is, at present, experiencing record or near-record (depending on whose numbers you believe) low unemployment, making it hard for employers to fill jobs. One of our country’s largest generations, the Baby Boomers, have already begun to retire and will continue to do so in droves over the next few years, further reducing the available workforce. While the Millenial generation is pretty sizable, few appear to be opting for careers in IT Operations compared to other fields. As a field, IT Ops is distinctly middle-aged, with an average age in the mid-40s in most countries. Employers find it difficult to fill positions, and I’d submit that it’s their own fault. And it’s fixable.
