Author: spierzchala

After pounding through a number of incredibly clearly written books in the last week, and being completely absorbed in brilliantly written blog posts, I have decided that it is time to start translating the jargon at my company.
From today on, I refuse to speak the buzzwords. I want to have genuine conversations with our customers. I will tolerate their need for buzzwords, but I will translate them into a real conversation, not into a lingusitic power game.
I will challenge my company to dissect its Web site, white papers, and other press material to see if they are spouting empty and meaningless words. I will ask how they would explain the importance of the idea to their grandmother.
I want to take everything and throw it in the trash. I want to start again.
I am starting again.

Guerilla Marketing for Consultants links to their latest newsletter where they tee up the myth of Best Practices and drive that meat-flavoured golf ball right into the crocodile water trap.
I hear this from companies and from peers and I want to slam both groups when I hear it. It is an empty, meaningless term. In my business (in most businesses), every consulting engagement is unique. There are certain core concepts that everyone should adhere to, but the solution for each company is unique.
Throw Best Practices out of your vocabulary. Now.

Groovy! An entire blog dedicated to the effects of my favourite addictive SSRI! [here]
Go team!

I finally powered off my old (Red Hat 9) Web server after nearly 2.5 years of continuous operation. The Web server databases have been moved over to the other old and clunky machine, which happens to have a bigger drive and more RAM.

I will miss the bizarre quirks of that old clunker, but I will re-build her with a massive new hard drive so that she can become my repository of media files.

Eventually. When I get some money.

By then, it should be 4 generations behind the most modern machines.

Sigh…

I migrated the database for the blog to a new machine. Took all of about 15 seconds to complete the transfer.
Let me know if you see any weirdness.

Wondered why I couldn’t get my GMail for a while…
Om Malik reports on the Google Domain Hijacking.

Om has heard from Google and it looks like they were doing some DNS work. This is one the oldest parts of the working Internet, and it is the most complex and devious thing to get right. Entire companies have been built around managing DNS.
It is almost as though the people who designed DNS made it obtuse and difficult to manage so they could sell their consulting services to the rest of us.

Decided to add something to my resume today.

Is your company remarkable?
Are your employees amazing?
Does your company thrive on employees who think differently?
What was the last book your CEO read? What was the last book your VP of Marketing read?
Tell me about you and your company. Or if you are a recruiter, tell me why you like finding employees for this company (beyond the fact that you get paid for it).
I am looking for companies that are challenging their employees daily. Tell me your stories of success, how you lead your industry, and how you constantly look for new challenges, not simply coast along on the glory of the past.
If it looks like turning the interview process on its head, you’re right. I want to know why I should come work for you.
My blah, blah, blah is below. But you are the kind of company who hires based on what’s in a resume, I don’t want to work for you.
Why? Because I am a square peg, and most companies who hire by resume only are looking to fill triangular holes. I am different, and that cannot be seen in a resume.
Does your company need someone who thinks differently? Does your company need someone who refuses to fit into a job title?
Come on over and talk. Tell me what you are looking for; and I will tell you what my ideas are.
smp
May 7, 2005

Why did I do this? Cause I want to separate the wheat from the chaff. I will not settle for a job. I want to go to work and have a vision. I want to be enthralled, motivated, and driven to go to work every day.
Does your company have what it takes?

UPS devices covered my butt, but I still had to shut down the servers for 10 minutes until the mains came back.
First power outage in this house…

Hey PR and News Media Folks: What’s your opinion on Ballmer releasing this letter on a Friday?
Isn’t that the day when old, MSM PR firms tell you to release unfavourable news so it gets lost over the weekend?
Guess they haven’t heard about the 24/7/365 media…