The IT Industry Needs A Slap
October 12 2005 05:45:51 PM
Add/Read Comments [14]
Today and tomorrow are two of the most
important days in the Jewish calendar. Without diving into religion
or my specific beliefs, I'll just say that they cause me to spend a lot
of time "reflecting". Those of you that know me understand
that I am a very optimistic, good natured soul. I've noticed that
lately I've been having conversations with many of my friends, family,
and coworkers about how our industry is really starting to "wear on
me". There are so many battles going on: IBM vs. Microsoft,
Domino vs. Exchange, .Net vs J2EE, Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux, Google this,
Sun that, employees "defecting", companies trying to steal each
other partners, companies suing each other, executives bad mouthing the
competition and spreading FUD instead of facts. There is too much
"bickering" going on!
With all the things that have happened around the world in the last few years, either via act of man or nature, I can't help but think our focus is off. We're too much of a "National Inquirer" or "Slashdot" society. We allow bad news to generate all the attention. We like to tell anyone with a different opinion how wrong they are. Guess what, in the grand scheme of things it does not matter what type of laptop you have, what OS you use, what client you read your email with, or what development platform and language you choose (but yes Notes/Domino rocks!). What matters is the type of person you are.
Next time you start to get road rage, or want to flame someone in email or on a forum, stop and take three deep breaths, and just let it go. Hold a door open for someone. Say hello to strangers. Learn the names of your office or apartment's cleaning staff. Be nice to your waiters and taxi drivers. Call an old friend.
I guess I should try and bring this back around to something vaguely "IT related"... I hope that in the coming years, our industry learns to play better together. I hope the big players can gauge success more on customer satisfaction than on quarterly revenue. I know that sounds crazy and perhaps naive, but I can hope. As individuals, we can also help improve the "IT atmosphere" by each taking small positive actions. Next time you start to get angry about something "IT related" react by doing something like answering a few questions in a technical forum, teach a coworker a new trick about Notes, or just send your mom an email. Trust me, it will make you feel better than the flame you were about to send.
Thanks for listening... Alan
With all the things that have happened around the world in the last few years, either via act of man or nature, I can't help but think our focus is off. We're too much of a "National Inquirer" or "Slashdot" society. We allow bad news to generate all the attention. We like to tell anyone with a different opinion how wrong they are. Guess what, in the grand scheme of things it does not matter what type of laptop you have, what OS you use, what client you read your email with, or what development platform and language you choose (but yes Notes/Domino rocks!). What matters is the type of person you are.
Next time you start to get road rage, or want to flame someone in email or on a forum, stop and take three deep breaths, and just let it go. Hold a door open for someone. Say hello to strangers. Learn the names of your office or apartment's cleaning staff. Be nice to your waiters and taxi drivers. Call an old friend.
I guess I should try and bring this back around to something vaguely "IT related"... I hope that in the coming years, our industry learns to play better together. I hope the big players can gauge success more on customer satisfaction than on quarterly revenue. I know that sounds crazy and perhaps naive, but I can hope. As individuals, we can also help improve the "IT atmosphere" by each taking small positive actions. Next time you start to get angry about something "IT related" react by doing something like answering a few questions in a technical forum, teach a coworker a new trick about Notes, or just send your mom an email. Trust me, it will make you feel better than the flame you were about to send.
Thanks for listening... Alan
I think you are right in many ways. I used to be a teacher for younger kids before I entered the IT-industry 7 years ago. People in our line of work tend to think that what they do is really importent (perhaps because it generates a lot of money) but I must say, although I love my work now, I don't feel that what I do is more importent now than when I was a teacher. It is the other way around. It makes me sad sometimes.
Alan, I couldn't agree more with you. I often think of the futility of the ongoing wars within our industry too. If the construction industry acted the same way, we'd never be able to replace broken pipes (lack of standards), we'd get 5 different ways to install a faucet (IBM vs MS vs Oracle vs ...) and Home Depot and other home hardware stores would badmouth each others nuts and bolts selections, as if there were nothing more important in the world.
Yeah. IT needs to wake up and play along with the rest of humanity.
I'm with you Alan. I love my job, I enjoy the people I meet and work with, and if the job ended tomorrow, its the people I'd keep. We do need to focus on what's important.
Relating this to people, how come my 80 year old Dad can go to Home Depot and buy almost anything and use it immediately, but when imagining him buying a computer or software.... well, I imagine him using his chainsaw on the computer long before its up and running and connected and emailing - we as an industry have a LONG way to go yet.
Oh - and Dad's not a slacker, he's a retired engineer - he just demands a little more simplicity out of 'tools'.
I'm with you on this!! I enjoy my job, but it's what I do, not who I am.
I think the IT industry will change eventually. Maybe not as much as we would like, but there is a point where you and I and everyone else will just turn off all the BS.
My family and friends could care less what I do, it's the time you spend with them that is important, even if it's just phone call saying "I LOVE YOU".
Hard lessons to learn for sure, but worth every step..
AMEN! :) I couldn't agree more. That's been one of my areas of focus this past year trying to be there for the rest of my team and help them keep perspective.
I was pondering the bigger picture today and I found this post inspirational. Posted my thoughts here:
{ Link }
Alan,
I agree with you and see where you are coming from with this. I think one onf the things about blogging is the speed of which news travels and the ease of which you can contribute to it. Ofcourse the bloggers own finger is always at the trigger and personally I do try to stick to the think twice before your blog rule and you see what (still) happens sometimes.
Anyway I do understand your comment to my recent post much better and want to thank you for being mild ;-)
Hi, Alan ... I was chatting last night with our mutual friend, Gary Devendorf. We both agreed these are great sentiments ... and overdue.
My comments are here: { Link }
Alan, we can save your readers a few clicks by pointing out that Cliff's "comments" say nothing about your thoughts, and instead use your blog entry to attack me and mine. What Gary has to do with that, I'm not sure.
Frankly, sounds like Alan's post is aimed right at you!
Dear Casual #10 from Amsterdam. I'm going to allow the anonymous comment this one time, as I want to make sure people see my response to you. I can assure you my post was not aimed at anyone in particular. If you wanted you could point at people from almost any company, and on any topic. To defend Ed a bit, personally I relate more to his style of sharing the facts, even with an IBM spin to them, than I do to the FUD approach often taken by some of IBM's competitors. How often have we heard stories of MS sales teams telling IBM customers that "IBM is discontinuing Notes" when nothing could be further from the truth. While the typical IBM sales teams uses facts like "Domino has more robust clustering than Exchange, allowing you to connect servers running different Domino versions and different operating systems, even in different cities." Anyway, let's get back to my main thought... let's stop bickering and make good products that make customers happy.
I've heard it said that the purpose of life is to increase happiness. I agree. Not one's personal happiness/quantity of stuff/status in industry or society/etc at the price of others' happiness. But rather Happiness. On a more global scale. I lose sight of this too often and it helps to read little reminders like this post to help me keep a little closer to on track, remembering what's REALLY important.
Thanks Alan :)
@13, You're welcome Joe, I'm glad to help spread a little happiness whenever I can.
That was a good post. Working in a city like Bangalore where IT is the happening thing, I often feel one more division of society coming up - the IT people and the others. You almost invariably make friends or run into so many people from the IT community that it is easy to live in the IT cocoon and not step outside. Such reminders are welcome.