The Writer's Blockparty

For as long as I could, I've always wanted to keep on writing. In my mid-late teens, it became an ambition - I enrolled in a feature-writing journalism course through the London School of Journalism. I wrote book reviews for a comparatively large regional newspaper. I volunteered my skills at a small, community newspaper. I critiqued amateur poets' work. I even got positive feedback based on my samples from large, national magazines when pitching myself as a potential, student freelancer. Needless to say I read fervently - important news, classical literature, vintage and modern beat-poet tomes like Cuckoo's Nest and The Beach, and some classics like Shakespeare and Nietzsche.

• It was fun - I received free books to review, and on-sold them or donated them to the local library. 
• It was important - for the first time in my life, I believed I had some real talent in something other than sports, or "being the nice, quiet guy"
• It was naive, but innocent nonetheless

Breaking into print is really not that hard; anyone with a half-decent vocabulary, who can string comprehensible sentences together to form a cohesive story together, can do it. After all, "creative writing" and "journalism" are offered as school-level courses. This isn't astrophysics. 

Finding a voice is pretty easy too, once you understand your market, and your audience. It's easy to whore yourself out to anyone who would be willing to pay you bottom-dollar rates in an intensely competitive industry, with a byline for your efforts. You write. They pay. You get the credit. For some writers this is like free crack on christmas day; they buy into it, and give it their all. Some become alcoholic, egotistical, print journalists. And don't we love them for it. 

Developing and honing a unique voice within a distinct market is an altogether different story. In fiction or non-fiction. It's not easy. I think people forget that, just like any other career, professional writing has its substantial fair share of dropouts - people very capable on paper, but not the paper that mattered - their "customers" (readers), in other words. It takes practice - years of practice - which most never master. 

In 2013, I'm going to try and write a novel. I don't care if it doesn't get published. I won't blame myself. I won't blame my friends or family who will support me through this arduous, lengthy process. No. If nothing comes of it, I'll blame you. Wish me luck. Now leave. 

Adaptation

The other day I read an article which explained that children who lie, deceive, manipulate, are more intelligent than their peers, and are more likely to succeed in later life. They do this not because they have inherited a dishonest or corrupt set of genes, but because they realize that by doing so, they are more able to influence the outcome of their individual situations. In other words, a tool used to personally benefit from a circumstantial situation.

Many long years back, I read a quote by someone (I think it was Einstein), which said that a true mark of intelligence is the ability to adapt to any given situation. The ability to be cast into unfamiliar surrounds, mould your behavior and attitude to its demands, its challenges, and emerge with newfound wisdom which you can take with you.

In light of the recent shootings in Newtown, CT, I think it's equally important to recognize that these poor, encumbered, mass-murdering individuals are, most likely, not intelligent (in the crucial essence of the definition). They could not:

• Adapt: to changing circumstances around them - many were simply angry at what the world had "given" them
• Adjust: their behaviors - they had no faculty to, no support; they most likely always felt like outsiders
• Accept: their own misgivings, and find alternative outlets to express their "creativity"

Contrast these attributes against those of highly successful psychopathic murderers - the Chikatilo's, the Bundy's, the Dahmer's - who of course are, by nature, highly manipulative, more calculated, well-adjusted and undoubtedly more intelligent, and you come to a chilling conclusion: 

1. There's been a veritable drought of evasive psychopathic murderers over the last 15-20 years
2. Despite all the surveillance around us, we wouldn't recognize them in the adjacent cubicle

We Do It For the Love Of It

When did Information Technology (IT) become such a laden word? Laden with conceptions of monolithic manned helpdesks, its operators serving every whim of every hopeless end user. Fraught with nightmares of oversized, overworked and underpaid corporate departments who have absolutely no idea what "business requirements" they are supposedly solving. Poisoned with executive types who try to sell multi-million dollar software products, but wouldn't know whether those products run on 32-bit or 64-bit OS's. Littered with sincere, hard-working yet unmotivated people, in every "specialist" area, who have absolutely no interest or desire to learn the basics of a different operating system, for example, or to understand the basic underlying fundamentals of internet architecture.

I "got into computers" (note the terminology change) because I've always liked them. Because I like playing with them. Because I like learning from them. Because I like seeing them doing things for me. And, some day, I will be fascinated by them learning things from me. Because, to me, it was always stimulating and exciting, a bicycle for the mind. And, finally, because there is still so much work to do to progress our conventional and scientific understanding of the physical, metaphysical and natural worlds.

Why Do We Do This?

Today I had an interesting discussion with two old colleagues, both testers, over lunch. The first, in his early to mid-30s is a part-time property investor in India, a man with larger ambitions than "just test automation". The other, an exceptionally talented exploratory tester, wants to head back into finance or become a partner in a large-scale production fish farm in Asia. Both could happily remain at my client for decades to come - they're perceived to be that good. Testing for a highly successful IT department for the last six years was, apparently, simply a stop-gap measure, another rung on the ladder to climb before they could move on.

Hopefully, there are a lot more people out there who are simply extremely grateful to be working in an industry where they get to do what they love. Hopefully. I have my doubts though. The perception of IT as a great career direction will muddy the waters even more.

Seeing the Bits for the Bytes

I'm not a tech purist by any account. If things turn sour, if my few and unremarkable skills are perceived as extraneous to employment opportunities at hand, if I see no other opportunities at sustaining a business for myself in computerland, I will have no reservations whatsoever to chart a course in a different industry. 

It will take some convincing though. As I said, there's still a lot of work to do. Oh, and of course, we do it for the love it. 

This Just Isn't Working Out

I know nothing about running a business. Really, I don't. I have aspirations to one day, though, and I fervently read articles and blogs posted on the subject. Like any startup, you have to start small and work very hard at securing contracts, building a reputation, building a decent cashflow and, eventually, hiring staff.

Knowing Who (Not, or How, or When) to Hire

One of the consistent themes I've come across is: "how to hire the right people" (or, "how not to hire the wrong people", depending on which side of the current business optimism scale you're on). It's always been difficult, and always will be. Finding the perfect candidate is a near-impossibility. So how do you manage that? Well, according to the common-knowledge HR mantra, I guess you:

• Attract (advertise; get great candidates)
• Retain (incentivize; and)
• Develop (grow them)

If you're in the right line-of-sight business, development and/or incentivized opportunities for employed staff are real, and they should be consistently aware of that. If they're not, you should be worried, because perhaps they're not committed to what you're trying to achieve. If they are, another challenge lies ahead: how to challenge, develop and grow them. Some grow naturally - they get older, wiser, are more consistent, settle into the role. They're good at what they do. You appreciate, and reward them for it. Everyone wins. 

So, what happens if you hire the wrong person? 

If it was me, I would critically examine every step in my recruitment process:

1. Why did I hire an additional staff member? Was it absolutely necessary?
2. How effectively did I attract? What did I miss during interviews?
3. Why can I not retain and develop that person, instead of firing them?

As a startup/small company, to me, it really boils down to Q#1: why did I hire? And then, stemming from that I, of course, I would extrapolate further on rambling things like sustainability, market opportunity and awareness, and effective resource allocation. But that's just me. As I said, I know nothing about running a business.

If it Must

Ok, so you're stuck with a dud employee. Now what.

It's taken me a while, but I'm a strong believer that there's a place for everyone to develop their potential. Personally I would like to think that I can still offer the worst employee in my company a job. Doesn't matter what - making coffee, filing paper, downloading torrents for me, whatever. Hopefully I diversify enough that none of those would be necessary, but I digress. 

If I, as an employer, can't make a pre-considered, conscious provision for that possibility, then I'm not really qualified to take on any staff in the first place. 

But let's assume you're in this situation, and you simply can't afford to keep them on anymore. You issue a redundancy notice, maybe with a decent paycheck. Nothing wrong with that. Except that, as a startup, you should know that:

• They will never recommend any of their friends come and work for you
• People, including your clients or customers, will hear about it, and your reputation will suffer
• Other staff will become jittery

Which brings me to back to, well...you get the idea (see numbered list above)

Can We Move On to the Point, Please?

• Don't just interview. Engage. If you're simply looking for "resources", you're in the wrong business
• Extend - you're either looking in the wrong places, or you're not looking in the right places
• Back to Basics - re-evaluate what you're about, and communicate it clearly; consistent, constant feedback
• Everyone Has Potential - don't let it go to waste. Attraction vs Retention costs were 3:1 last I checked
• If you build a trend of firing staff, you're fucked. Re-evaluate, and go it alone

Hiring staff is hard work, but firing is a much worse consequence, as an employer. In all ways. Make it the absolute last option if possible - the "quick fix" you desire is really pointing to much more deep-seated, underlying problems in your own entrepreneurial abilities. 

The Blog Lives

For better or worse. I must be honest - since discontinuing this blog in late 2010, I don't consistently follow any blogs. I now rely on Twitter for that. I follow other people who blog. They might follow other blogs. And eventually tweet interesting articles to their followers. I like that. Why? Well, firstly, most people have an instinctual reaction to share something that's interesting and relevant to them. Everyone wants to read (or, nowadays, more like scan) a good article or post, rather than continuously watch what the author is going to say next. Seriously, if you follow celebrity bloggers or even serious newspaper columnists, you have a reality check overdue at your local GP.

Twenty minutes ago, I tried to reimport/restore my original blog posts. Unfortunately, two years ago, I didn't have the foresight to not export my entire blog to my now-fried ex-lease, cheap-as-hell, second-hand HP notebook's shitty hard drive. As an XML file, of course. Which, probably, didn't conform to any W3C standards, let alone NATO protocols for common decency and humanity. That the ignition of the circuitboard nearly singed my eyeballs, and that my 20-odd blog posts went up in pretty blue flames along with the sanctity and sincerity of the words expressed therein, is history.

I will probably be less committed to posting regular entries to this blog than the last. But from that painful truth, that self-admonishment that accompanies it, one thing remains true: dude, nobody gives a fuck.