There is Lazy and there is LinkedIn Lazy
LinkedIn is a great tool, but it has also facilitated a new era of laziness in terms of meeting people and making connections.
My favourite email that I receive from LinkedIn is the following;
"So and so has listed you as a colleague and wants to connect with you". No, I'm pretty sure you don't work here (doing a quick look around the office I don't see your face anywhere) and I'm doing a quick run through in my head... and yeah I've never met you either.
Being a colleague is the first option in the "How do you know this person?" options list. So everyone picks it AND they all leave the default message in there without giving any context as to why this person might be contacting you. Think about it, if I met you at a party, we both had a beer in hand and I went up to you and said - "Hey, Jeff, we've worked together, let's connect." - Jeff's first response would probably be - "WTF? And no". And it should be, because you wouldn't do that in person, it would be more like - "Hey Jeff, oh you work at Intertrode Inc and you do C#. Are you happy there because I have some blah, blah, blah" - you get the idea. And remember this is a limit on how much you can write so its not like you're going to write a novel, all you need is a sentence of two.
Sorry recruiters but you guys are the worst for this, not all, but unfortunately a significant majority. By far the worst invite I have received is one addressed to someone else, when I responding saying I'm not that person the response back was - "No, that was meant for you", not even a sorry or oops for the mistake... why yes... I would love to work with someone who can't even write down my name.
The sad thing is that there are so many other options below this this option which would provide so much more value to their cause - we share the same groups (I use this one a lot when introducing myself to people to give some context to the request - i.e., this is how I found you, I'm not some crazy stalker), classmate (never used it), done business together, friend or just plain old I don't know you, but I have your email address. Its really not that hard to do.
If we break this out with some simple Math;
The Lazy Way
Estimated Time to change a drop-down menu 5s
Estimated Time to write a custom message 0s
Total 5s
The New Way
Estimated Time to change a drop-down menu 5s
Estimated Time to write a custom message 60s
Total 65s
So using my keen skills in mathematics, it looks like writing a custom message would take approximately 60s more than not writing one. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa - yes I know you might be sending out a hundred of these types of invites on a daily basis and that could equate to an additional 1 hour and 40 minutes of extra work you'd have to do? Well put it this way, when I receive an invite (or an InMail) from someone wanting to connect and giving me some additional context to why they want to connect, this piques my interest greatly, they go to the top of the list and I'm more likely to respond immediately to their request.
So really, the question becomes - are you willing to invest an extra 20s - 60s to really meet someone and get put to the top of their list? Or are you happy with rolling the dice?
The Patents Cometh
I have an idea for a structured, dense-like object, solid in form, that has extensions coming from it. These extensions will be in random formation and will sprout their own extensions depending upon the execution of the algorithm. From those extensions fauna shall grow on a pre-determined cycle that interfaces with the weather patterns of the region where said structure is installed. Each structure shall be unique in nature, no two being the same. It will be glorious... I will call it a trei.
Now let's patent that badboy and go sue some forests for these knock-offs they are calling "trees".
There is an explosion taking place in the software industry (and/or implosion depending on how you want to look at it), where companies are bought solely for the stock in their patent portfolio (not for actually what the company can do) and seamingly disconnected companies are suing one another for infringements on patents.
I was doing my regular blog roll this yesterday morning and came across this article. I was stuck on this line for about 20 minutes - "Patents are the defense mechanism for capitalism.". Really? In a world where we are trying to marshal the growth of openness and networking through social media and other avenues we still keep a desk drawer full of papers to go - "aaah aah aaaaah, you can't do that". I thought the idea behind all innovation was to leap frog people's ideas and continually improve decrepid systems making them more functional and useable then they previously were? How do you do this? You build a better mouse trap. You are still going to have tenets of the original design - i.e., its goal is to catch a mouse and there might be some spring-like action to it, but apart from that they would differ. And then shouldn't the original company be all like - "Well we built the first mouse trap, so let's go build a better mouse trap then so and so?" Isn't this where innovation begins - find a problem, fix it, release it, keep making it better.
I'm not a Patent Lawyer, I don't know all the ins and outs of the system (and I have no desire to be). I recently had the opportunity to speak with a trademark/patent lawyer this past week who basically said - "I hate filing patents". He made a real interesting comment that the work involved in procuring a patent is not in the process itself, but in the marketing of the patent and the enforcement. Where companies originally started as doing this to defend themselves, they are now using them as revenue generating models to account for a growing percentage of their income. Translation - some companies survival is becoming based upon the execution by of your idea by someone else. This isn't a defense against capitalism, this is laziness in its simplest form. And if you are spending millions to enforce patents, what else could you have done with that money? Build a better product, streamline a new process, throw a party for your company?
I've been involved in a few internal mail threads related to patents, I immediately deleted them because the proposed content was so generic that if ever enforced would limit developers in doing their actual job. Can you imagine as a Developer, having an idea, you think its great, you want to run with it, but before you drop a lick of code your manager asks you to go check the patent database to see if one already exists. If it does, sorry not going to do it, if it doesn't, patent it and sit back and wait for the trolling to begin... en masse. You might think its at the far right at the spectrum, but this is where we are headed.
I really hope this trend ends at some point, but I don't see it happening soon. My favourite part of coding has always been sitting in a room with a few people, thinking up ideas, trying them out all while working toward a goal to release a great product. If that mindset is changing to coming up with an idea, filing a patent, waiting for the patent, trying out the idea, giving up (because we invested more in the patent process then the actual job and now need to drop people) and then waiting for someone else to do it to collect revenue... that just seems wrong, you don't deserve it, you didn't earn it.
Oddly enough after writing this yesterday I cam across this article on CNET, timing is everything.
Life according to SQL
Sleep is not coming tonight, so I give you this little ditty...
Sometimes you think you can solve everything in one fell swoop.
SELECT * FROM Accounts
But then you realize you need to focus on what you really need.
SELECT Name, EmailAddress FROM Accounts
WHERE Id = 650743
Most of the time you are going to need help from others.
SELECT * FROM Accounts A
INNER JOIN Contacts B on A.ContactId = B.ContactId
INNER JOIN Activities C on A.AccountId = C.AccountId
WHERE Id = 65743
But try to include too many people and you'll get nowhere.
SELECT * FROM Accounts A
INNER JOIN Contacts B on A.ContactId = B.ContactId
INNER JOIN Activities C on A.AccountId = C.AccountId
INNER JOIN Cases S on A.AccountId = S.AccountId
INNER JOIN Purchases P on A.AccountId = P.AccountId
INNER JOIN Orders O on A.AccountId = O.AccountId
WHERE Id = 65743
In the end, if you over complicate things you'll end up worst then you started.
DECLARE @sql nvarchar(2000)
SELECT @sql = 'SELECT O.OrderID, SUM(OD.UnitPrice * OD.Quantity)
FROM Orders O
JOIN OrderInformation OI ON O.OrderID = OI.OrderID
WHERE O.OrderDate BETWEEN @Start AND @End
AND EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM OrderDetails OII
WHERE O.OrderID = OII.OrderID
AND OII.ProductID = @ProductId)
GROUP BY O.OrderID'
EXEC sp_executesql @sql, N'@Start datetime, @End datetime, @ ProductId int',
'19980201', '19980228', 76
When a simple solution could have been right in front of you all along.
SELECT OrderId, SUM(UnitPrice * UnitQuantity) AS TOTAL
FROM OrderInformation
WHERE OrderDate BETWEEN @Start AND @END and ProductId = @ProductId
Steve Jobs: The Ultimate Influencer
There are people in your walk of life that have the capacity to make you stop what you are doing and think about you are not doing. You might not know it at the time, it might be a subtle tweet, a youtube video, maybe a conversation you had or a blog you read. Whatever it was, you keyed in immediately to the message, you stopped what you were doing and looked around the room because it felt like they were talking directly to you and no one else.
Twitter, Facebook and Klout ampliphy the reach of these potential Influences (Klout has its own section called - "Topics you Influence") but they will never tap into that message that hits you to the core. Take a moment and count the people that influence you, I mean really influence and make you want to disrupt your life and change your way of thinking and doing. Is it because of Twitter? Facebook? Doubtful.
Steve Jobs had this power, he connected with many, many people on an incredibly and personal deep level. My first programming job was in a design studio, surrounded by Macs (even the servers were running Webstar) and there I was with the only PC cranking on Javascript and HTML voodoo (this is back in 1998). I learned so much about user interface design and experience that summer I still think about it. Near the end of my employment, the iMac was released. I didn't know what to make of it, but everyone around me was salivating and clearly saw something I didn't - it was as if a prayer had been answered and they saw where Apple was headed. Years later by brother would begin his self-professed love of all things Apple and eventually do the impossible - convince both my parents to switch from PCs to MacAir Books.
As a Software Developer, you cannot deny the impact of Apple, Pixar and NeXT. Ask yourself how many times you have been in a design meeting and said - "We should do it like the IPhone". The last product I worked on was a WPF application that the developer (@SimonGUI) took so much thought and design from the IPhone product that it looked spectacular and was one of the easiest, most well-received UI Design reviews I had ever been involved in, in my life.
If you only looked at the last 5 years, you might think it was an easy ride. But I remember being in that Design Studio 13 years ago, reading how Microsoft had taken a huge stake in Apple to keep it afloat and the pessimism that surrounded this floundering software AND hardware company that many wrote off for dead.
I don't have any stories of random bump-ins or photobombs with Steve Jobs. If he had a blog I never read it, I never followed him on Twitter and I really only use Apple.com for Movie Trailers, I have an Ipad but that's about it. I only know what I saw of him from a few keynote presentations, in speeches and in using his products.
How cool is it, that from so far way he was able to influence so many without having ever having met them face to face? That's Influence, not measured in Tweets, Likes or Klout.
How Social Media has changed the Interview Process
I'm not big on interviewing people, this isn't a secret, and its quite common for me to hire someone, spend a few weeks getting to know them and then have them come up to me and say - "Wow, working with you is totally not what I thought it would be when we first interviewed". This is true, I can count the number of really great, knock my socks off interviews that I have been a part of where I have left the room saying - "Need to get them".
By far and large my biggest complaint is the answer to the first question I always ask;
"Do you know what we do?"
The correct answer to this question is "Yes, this is what I think you are doing...", even if they are wrong or make a misstep along the way, their stock has just gone up because they came prepared. They took the time to research the company, our products and our culture before they got to the interview. That says they care about being in front of me trying to get a job. Now we can move onto the more important part of the interview (which is where I really want to spend my time).
I'd say easily 85% of the time, people answer no to this question while some fall into the elusive 5% category - "I can BS my way through this" category where they always fail... horribly and miserably but in some cases admirably and oddly entertaining. Since I graduated from University, I've had the benefit of the Internet (going back to 2000) as a research tool, but in the past 11 years the amount of information available as a prospective job candidate has grown by leaps and bounds.
Take my own experience (as of a few months ago);
First Job
- Company website (brochureware)
Current Job
With all this information to you (at your fingertips) there is no excuse for someone to come into an interview without knowing anything about your company. Look at that list again, I only listed the heavy hitters but I can simply search for a company and I might find postings on customer forum sites and newsgroups (how do they interact with their customers?). Before you even have the interview you can be following their tweets (to see if they have a strategy and/or to garner information on them). And maybe they will start following you?
By far and large, LinkedIn is the big winner here and why not, it offers company profiles, feeds on what its doing and it lists all associated people to this company on their profile page. Never have I been able to do a profile lookup on the guy that was interviewing me and had the opportunity to know their professional background before I entered the room. And if they've posted their photo to their profile you can put the name to the face when you enter the building. How amazing is that? And how relaxing is it to know what you're going into before you even get there. Isn't that where all the stress in an interview comes from?
As an Interviewee you have no excuse to not be armed with the most current information on what company and position you are interviewing for. As the Interviewer do you really want to settle for someone who spent ZERO effort getting up to speed on your organization? What does that say to them as a candidate? Is this how they'll operate when you throw a new task at them?
The only excuse I would accept to someone not being able to tell me what my company is about is if their dog ate their computer AND only if they had pictures.
In case you are curious, the following account is by and large the best interview I have ever had. The candidate sitting across from me knew our business inside and out, came armed with some great ideas for our product line and had taken each required technology that we listed on our application (that he did not have) and put together some small a demo showing what he did with it before the interview. He had about a week to prepare give or take a day. I was sold in 5 minutes, everything else was gravy - I left the room needing to get him... that's how each and every interview should go.