Brain Scat

I won’t go in to detail here because of the public nature of the Internet, but after two and a half months of employment, I find myself in search of a new job.
I learned first hand many things that contribute to a successful organization and what doesn’t, so it’s not a total loss.
Best of luck [...]

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It’s good to learn new things.  It keeps us fresh, keeps us from getting complacent.
One thing that is true of moving not only to a new job, but a new job in an entirely new domain, is that there will be plenty of new things to learn.
Today’s observation relates to vocabulary.
It’s probably true that every [...]

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Well, as much fun as it has been to be part of this growing new movement we call rampant unemployment during the largest economic recession/depression since the early 20th century, it’s time to do something else.
I’ll be starting work as a Senior Project Manager at an information management company here in the Portland area.
It will [...]

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Whether “Apocalypse” is the right word or not is certainly up for discussion.  Certainly David Sirota at Salon thinks so in his article here.
What I can say is that Oregon is sliding in to whatever this is (recession, depression, economic event, End Times) at a rate in excess of the nation as a whole.  Oregon [...]

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A nice article on how to work better.  I like that it focuses on simple ideas that can have profound impact on how we work and how we think about working.
The list appears simple on it’s face, but is worth thinking about as we do our day-to-day task, but especially, I think, as we try [...]

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Merlin Mann at 43Folders did a great presentation on presentations that is worth a read.  This was from 2007, but is still a good way to shake up your presentations.
I admit I struggle with how best to apply some of the ideas since most of my presentations tend to be pretty technical and filled with [...]

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Lifehacker has a nice article on improving your public speaking.
Years ago I took a week long class in public speaking at the company where I worked.
It started out with video taping a short impromptu speech.  We didn’t get to see the results of the tape at that time.  Later, we talked about many of the [...]

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Get Rich Slowly enumerates the most recession-proof jobs in the current market, as chosen by some experts.
Let’s see how I’m doing.
Per Expert #1:
1) “Engineering, because the abandoned U.S. industrial base will need to be re-tooled.”
7) “Computers and high technology, one field in which the U.S. continues to lead.”
Per Expert #2:  Well, I’m pretty hosed there, [...]

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Mike Elgan over at InternetNews wrote an interesting article about what he calls Work Ethic 2.0.  In it he argues that hard work is dead, replaced by the ability to function in an environment actively working to rob us of the ability to focus our attention.
This resonates with me as it seems the Internet breeds [...]

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David Seah over at http://davidseah.com has published a great compact printable calendar for the last few years.  They are great for project planning, especially when it comes time to figure out Releases or to help figure out that a deliverable 8 weeks from now lands on a critical resources vacation time.
I usually carry one around [...]

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