The most popular conception of creativity is that it’s something to do with the arts.
Nonsense. - Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Wan’t To Be.
This year marks a new decade for me (I’m saying goodbye to the late 20’s). According to Arden’s Creative Circle this blog was written during my era of Maturity and for the next 10 years I’ll be Hell Bent On Success. Thanks for putting up with my growing pains and griping.
As a youngster I was encouraged to: “Find work that you love and do what makes you happy.” Ironically, this sage advice was usually delivered by the unhappy, unemployed, or paranoid (paranoid that the government was stealing their money, unhappy with the uncertainty of not working, or unemployed because keeping work in small remote economies is tough). It’s also fair to mention that this piece of advice was usually followed by: “Get a trade. You need a trade!” This was probably great advice a couple decades ago, or if you’re working in remote communities, but less relevant in today’s world. I loosely followed this advice through my younger years and I remember constantly being frustrated when work inevitably lost its fun. Thankfully, I eventually realized that work is work (if work was fun we’d just call it fun, then we’d be preoccupied with having work, not fun). Anyhow, I sympathize with today’s youngsters who are wrestling with this same conundrum - being told one thing, but experiencing a different reality in the real world. My words of advice today would be to: “get experience, work, do whatever you can, build a resume, go to school, and you’ll eventually find work that you love. Oh, and don’t look solely to work for happiness.”
Today I do find my work fun, but I couldn’t have got here without the experience I gained while plowing through boring jobs (like working the assembly line, tree planting, or digging outhouse pits). In order to find the job you love you need to start gaining experience now.
I found the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition neat. It’s a central theme throughout Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt.
Here’s how Wikipedia describes the Dreyfus Model:
The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition postulates that when individuals acquire a skill through external instruction, they normally pass through five stages. … the five stages of skill acquisition are: Novice, Advanced beginner, Competent, Proficient and Expert - Dreyfus model of skill acquisition
We have different skills and are at different stages simultaneously in each skill - for example, someone might be an Expert at underwater basket weaving and a Novice at cooking. As we cultivate our experience we progress through these stages.
The categories (again, from Wikipedia) are as follows:
- Novice
- Advanced beginner
- situational perception still limited
- all aspects of work are treated separately and given equal importance
- Competent
- coping with crowdedness (multiple activity, information)
- now partially sees action as part of longer term goals
- conscious , deliberate planning
- Proficient
- holistic view of situation, rather than in terms of aspects
- sees what is most important in a situation
- uses maxims for guidance, meaning of maxims may vary according to situation
- Expert
- no longer reliant on rules, guidelines, maxims
- intuitive grasp of situation, based on tacit knowledge
- vision of what is possible
Presented with these categories we can draw some parallels with the software realm. Like say, create a list of events that you’d most likely find these different categories of software developers hanging out.
Developer Event Attendance and Developer Skill Categories:
- Vendor or Technology Specific: User Groups / Code Camps / Corporate Training / Evangelistic Events
- Many Novices
- Many Advanced beginners
- A small number of Competents that are transitioning to Proficients
- Proficients and Experts might be leading the group or may have been mandated to go by their organization
- Open Book Clubs / Non Specific Technology Meetings / Non Specific Bar Camp Type Events
- Mostly Competents, Proficients, and Experts
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’ve noticed that my attendance to the events listed above continually shift. Initially I thought I was becoming a curmudgeon, but instead I shifted a couple Dreyfus categories.
I once had a strong aversion to Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, pick the site of the week, …) but today I embrace it. In the old days, I thought these sites were silly, a waste of time, and preferred to spend more of my time pursuing technical / academic activities. In retrospect, I think I was feeling insecure in my technical abilities (placing to much focus on technical pursuits), I probably thought I had a boring life (and thought everyone else was bragging about theirs), and I certainly misunderstood the fundamentals of Social Media (somehow I thought being part of the conversation meant I had to consume everything).
I eventually realized that Social Media is a lot like TV. TV is overwhelmed with commercials and mediocre shows, the content is hard to find. When I watch TV (if I watch TV) I mute the commercials, flip through the channels looking for something interesting, and multitask (magazine, laptop, …). In the end TV is a leisure activity, I don’t try watching every channel (I know I can’t) and don’t pay attention to the advertisements. I do the same thing on Social Media sites too. I don’t pay attention to every post (I can’t) and I don’t pay attention to self promotion, promotions, or advertisements.
Today I embrace Social Media because it lets me participate in the conversation, share my opinion, connect with friends and family, and be an active part of our world. Oh yeah, and it’s fun too!
“Don’t be shy … or nobody will know you’re there” - Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens
My idea of professionalism continually changes.
As an entry level developer I thought professional meant:
- talking incessantly about technology (hiding my personal life behind shop talk)
- dressing up for my cubical (wearing polyester dress pants, cotton dress shirts to work, and occasionally ties)
- focusing on things that can be proven (giving little concern to interpersonal relationships or the general untestable messiness surrounding softskills)
- writing the FASTEST CODE EVER (I was sidtracked with premature optimizations)
- I tried to be a programming machine (working 29 hours a day)
- becoming an Microsoft Most Valueable Professional (MVP)
Those ideas were skewed and I was probably running the risk of becoming a bit of a douche.
Today I think professionalism means:
- being comfortable in your own skin
- being able to delegate tasks within a team
- being an effective member of a team (not participating in gossip, back talk, or other activities that erode a team)
- being transparent
- maintaining a work / life balance
- choosing the best tool for the task
It’s funny how experience can change perspectives. I wonder what my definition of professionalism will be in five years?
I ran my first half marathon this past weekend. Finding training resources online was difficult so I’m passing on the advice that I found useful.
How to train for a half marathon:
- Ensure you can maintain 30 minutes of moderate running at least a month before your running date (this is the most important step)
- One month before your race, run 18 kms (6 easy, 6 moderate, 6 hard, don’t worry about how long it takes)
- 7 days later run 20 kms
- 7 days later run for 90 minutes hard
- 7 days later run for 60 minutes at a moderate pace
- 1 day before the race run for 20 minutes at an easy pace
The week before the race you should be feeling lazy, lethargic and ready for the race - you’ve tapered correctly. Tapering leads to improvements in running economy and muscle strength. Learn more here Tapering For a Marathon.
Other tips I picked up:
- If you’re planing on taking gels or sports drinks during the race then make sure to take them while training
- Don’t mix sports drinks and gels - take one or the other or you’ll get end up getting sick (like me)
- Bring Advil or Tylenol with you
- Avoid fiber foods 2 days before the race (you don’t want to visit the portables)
- Add more carbs and salt to your meals the week of the race
- Have your last big meal 10 hours before the race
- Have your breakfast 2-3 hours before the race
Running with 3000+ people for the first 16 kms was an amazing experience, after the 18 km mark I was questioning my sanity, and when it was over all the race participants were on top of the world. I highly recommend doing a half or full marathon. I raised some money for Team Diabetes and managed to finished under 2 hours. Next year I’m doing the full. Look me up in the 2009 HSBC Calgary Half Marathon Results.
Steph and I lived in Japan for a year. Our apartment had a single breaker rated at 1500 watts - use any more and you’d lose all power. Our apartment came with an air conditioner to tackle the oppressive summer heat, a dehumidifier, and kerosene heater for the humid winter months. Japan is humid! Now, the A/C took 1740 watts, our dehumidifier 800 watts, coffee maker 800 watts, and kerosene heater 500 watts. Keeping the power on for a given day was a feat - the A/C used more power than we were allotted! Japan was full of ironies.
Some of our pictures from Japan.
A video of our messy apartment:
I’m running the half marathon for diabetes in Calgary on May 31st . One of my younger brothers has diabetes, so the run has personal significance.
My training up to this point has been terribly lax, I’ve been running 7km in about an hour. At this pace it’ll take at least 3 hours to break 20kms - Ouch!
If you're interested in donating (or better yet, joining the run too), then follow these steps:
- Visit The Canadian Diabetes Association
- Search for Adam Kahtava
- Donate
Anyhow; life isn't just about geeking out. I've got to run. :)
A couple more factors that have shaped my blog subscriptions.
Content matters, design doesn’t: Subscribers read your blog through RSS readers. Content is key, twitter widgets, plug-ins, and badges are self serving - they matter more to the blogger than their audience. If readers desire a more granular need-to-know-you level of information, then chances are that they already stalking you. If you’re a graphic designer then aesthetics do matter.
Debriefings on local events without a unique personal voice are lame (actually, anything without a personal voice is lame): Most subscribers skim, they seek out information and move on. Well written articles with a unique personal voice continue to draw me in. Information about the number of people who showed up, what you ate, or the decor of the venue are minor details. Seriously, I’ll email you if I’m interested.
Subjectivity is interesting: Reading / writing / learning is about considering alternative views and new opinions, there’s always a degree of subjectivity - nothing is absolute.
Some authors are always right, which is always wrong: A blogger’s blog is their domain, but it’s distasteful when an author defends their posts in an attempt to save face (to appear right all the time). Sharing opinions publicly is about collaboration, and validation, not being right or wrong.
Gary Vaynerchuk offers this piece of advice:
The only way to succeed now is to be completely transparent, everything is exposed, everything you do - Gary Vaynerchuk
For most web / knowledge workers, transparency is key to cultivating an online presence - today, your online presence (your Google search results) is your resume, everything you do online is fair game - your search results (or lack of results) generally reflect whether you're an overall good-person, experienced, or a bit outdated.
A reassessment: last month the faltering economy finally hit home - I was out of work. While search for a new job, I was surprised that most potential employers (nearly all) were looking me up on Google. From Google they'd land on my blog, my Twitter account, flickr, and so on. In one of my interviews I was told of an unfortunate candidate that had questionable content and photos online - this was a deciding factor in his no-hire decision. This had me feeling a little uncomfortable and begged for a reassessment of my level of transparency.
Randy Pausch once said:
I'll [hire] an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long term - Randy Pausch
I echo Randy's sentiments. If you're an earnest, authentic, and good natured person, then transparency can be a huge asset. You should be exposing everything you do! Well… maybe not everything, there's little value in knowing what you ate for lunch, or when you're sleeping / awake - practicing some self moderation and making use of your inner monologue is recommended, because excessive transparency can bleed into white noise.
no matter what remember the web is NOT Las Vegas. What happens on the web does NOT stay on the web. I'll bet this guy wishes he'd have remembered that. - Arcanecode, Guard your credibility
With applications like Twitter and Facebook it's easier than ever to be transparent, but do we run the risk of being too transparent? How much is too much?
