Performance Zen

Author: spierzchala

  • Bill Gates demands more heterosexual foreign engineers

    David Weinberger does a mashup on the two big stories out of Redmond this week.
    I laughed out loud when I read the title…

  • Trendmapper Results for ME!

    Trendmap for Stephen Pierzchala

    I am so boring….

  • Siebel: Water pouring along Mariner’s Island Boulevard…and it’s still wet!

    Hmmm…looks like Siebel may be in even more trouble! Wow! Shock and amazement! [here]
    Stockholders want to drive the value of this turkey up through buybacks, and a group of large shareholders has posted FOR SALE signs in front of the headquarters.
    Psssst! Hey buddy! Want to buy a bloated, arrogant and poorly managed company in an industry noted for not providing business value?
    More on how I feel here and here and here and here.

  • Craig’s List: Killing Classified One Click At A Time, Part 2

    Ok, now BusinessWeek has found this story…a week later.
    Eventually, MSM will be near-time, not historical.

  • Bill Gates: Bill, the RED pill, not the blue one (H1-B Visas)

    Bill:
    Now Bill, I almost sent you to go join Steve in the Bad Boy Billionaire Box (B3 Box) because I thought you wanted to cut back on H1-B visas. [here]
    Then I re-read the article, and realized that C|Net was making it seem like you wanted to bar smart folks like me from coming to the US to help you become rich enough to buy Argentina.
    You actually want more of us temporary workers here to help you get rich enough to buy all of South America. Sarcasm. Wow, the US doesn’t get it.
    You’re still in the B3 Box, but you might get out in time to watch Desperate Housewives.

  • Dear Steve Jobs: Please go to your room…

    Steve:
    Grow up.
    Thanks.

    Via David and Johnnie and Geek News Central and Kevin and Dan and Stephen and here…
    But Apple could care less about blogs, because they tell us what we want…right?
    Think I will be buying the Archos Gmini 200 now.
    And I will be gunning for cars without plates in the handicapped spots in the Apple parking lot. [here]
    Jobs == King Lear. I like it!

  • PowerPoint: I will never recover

    I just attended an online presentation given by a large software firm outlining the details of their next release.
    48 slides. 1 hour.
    My brain walked away after slide 2. Most of the room was laughing and telling jokes by slide 5.
    Was it effective? Did it communicate the message? Did it make me more confused about their offerings? Was I motivated to buy?
    They need Cliff and the BullFighters. On retainer. Full-time.

  • Industry Analysts: The Beasts Within The Necessary Evil

    This post has been slanted by an article I read today about Yankee Group 451 Research analyst Laura Didio (hmmm…no bio on the site), and an encounter I had today with a real industry analyst. [James Governor points to this article as well.]

    Ms. Didio has been accused of placing a very hard slant towards Microsoft in most of her Operating System analyses, to the point of being almost completely invalid and useless. If Microsoft pays the bill, I don’t have a problem with her coming out and indicating where Microsoft server OSes are strong compared to Linux. But to take facts which are inconclusive and then skewing them to favour the client…well, please get out of my office.

    Then I was a passive participant in a call with a well-known analyst (no name or firm here). My takeaway from the call was: I want his job. Not because he had brilliant things to say, or incredible insights to offer, but because he was being paid repulsive sums of money to state the obvious.

    I spent most of the meeting shaking my head and wondering how he did it. It was like delivering a monlogue in an echo chamber: he had one thing to say, and anything that our team brought up was routed back to his topic, in a cursory way.
    It was clear he had no idea what our company does, what our positioning and strategy are, and how our services could help our customers.
    And we paid for this.

    The analyst industry is so corrupt and meaningless. I am glad that there are folks like ARmageddon, GartnerWatch, and Analyst Insight out there to expose the industry.

    I hate blogging about blogging, but the whole area of analyst research is being eroded and corroded by blogs. Companies are doing their own research using Technorati and Feedster and making their own judgements.

    The best way to make analysts extinct is for companies to tell their own story, in their own words, within their own context, and give it meaning.

    Analysts have stolen our the ability to find and tell our own stories.

  • Wiley, if you are sending them out…

    …I join Dave Winer in putting my hand up for a review copy of iCon. [here]

  • Off to buy Bullshit…

    The book On Bullshit that is. Solid recommendation here.
    Maybe I will sit down and read some books soon!