Jeremy's World
Do what you like because you like it. Be who you are with no apologies.
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The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of North Carolina.
A big part of my job is managing projects. Big projects with complex dependencies, multiple milestones, stakeholders wanting date commitments, etc. The last one in particular is always a challenge, and if a Project Manager tells you otherwise they are lying. It’s never possible to say – with any reasonable certainty – that a given project can be done on a specific date or will take a specific number of hours. Disagree?
The usual game that’s played is to put in some CYA padding. The PM’s internal conversation goes something like,
“Ok, I don’t really know the specifics of the project yet, but we can usually do them in 3 weeks. I’ll commit to 4 weeks ‘just in case.’”
Back to the question in the title…How long is your commute? 10 minutes? What if there’s traffic? 20 minutes. What if it’s snowing? 40 minutes. What if, what if, what if. All of these “what if’s” reflect the obvious reality that there is always uncertainty with things like this. Sure, we can’t plan for every “what if,” but in the project world with padded estimates, we try to give ourselves wiggle room.
What inevitably happens is the client says, “Whoa, can’t we do that faster?” It turns into a negotiation on timelines that were ambiguous, padded swags in the first place! The padding goes away in the negotiation, something happens, and a date is missed. How has this worked out traditionally in the software world?
I use the Facebook app on my Blackberry as my primary interface for updating my status and keeping up with my friends. It’s great, and very much aids the crack addiction that is Facebook. However, it has some limitations. It doesn’t give you all those nice invitations and stuff that people post on your profile. Maybe that’s a good thing?
I logged into the regular web interface last night and found this. Holy crap, have I neglected so much of my Facebook experience. That said, am I really missing out? I mean, I like to think I’d fair well in a “Nicest Person Contest,” and I suppose I could use a “(lil) Green Patch” (though it sounds like there’s probably an ointment for that). I could probably join the “Save the Gay Baby Whales for Jesus” cause…But is all that stuff a good thing? I can’t seem to find the time for it.
So, I guess I am a Facebook loser. I should probably update my status accordingly.
Have you ever seen the CBS show "NUMB3RS?" It’s kind of fun – FBI agent solving murders who has a math-geek-university-professor brother. The math guy applies all of his seemingly superhuman understanding of math, patterns, statistics, algorithms, etc. to find things that otherwise would not have been seen using "pure" police science. Yeah, it’s often silly but can be entertaining.
I came across the reverse tonight. Netflix is hosting a contest for people to come up with a movie recommendation system that is 10% better than the one they currently use. I think it’s brilliant on their part to get ingenious output from people for a relatively low price ($1 million prize) in a method the article calls "crowdsourcing" (very clever). Anyway, if you can make it through the 4 pages, it’s an interesting read on how a psychologist is applying human psychology to the problem rather than "just" mathematics and computer science…with astonishing results. Read it from Wired Magazine.
So, I posted a few days back about how I don’t "get" Twitter. Let me clarify…I understand what it does and the technology behind it. What I don’t get is WHY? I’m a technology nut but man, who has time for this?
That said, I decided to dip my toe in the water and I signed up. My goal is to "meet" people who fall into the category of caring about kids from preschool age to 3rd grade. That’s the age group we’re focusing on at work for a new product we’re incubating, so I hope to see if I can build relationships and conversation with people close to those kids.
My predictions on the subject:
- Between email, IM, office phone, cell phone, MySpace for the band and well, "real" work, I’ll discover I don’t have time for this.
- I will jump too quickly into trying to spark professional conversations that people will be turned off thinking I’m doing it just to "get something" out of it.
- More conversation on my Twitter list will be social in nature and not really valuable from a purely professional perspective.
- I won’t get over the cheesy vernacular associated with it ("Tweets", "Twitterverse", "Tweople").
We’ll see how it turns out. If you’re interested in my progress, follow me on Twitter: @jeremymdavis.
A friend of mine recently posted on his blog that he and his wife just got a minivan. In writing about it, Fred points out how "conforming" (buying a minivan) actually is rebellion since today is the day of SUV’s for soccer mom’s. Minivans are so 1998 and therefore, cool again in a non-conforming, rage against the machine kind of way. Ok, Fred was kidding (sort of) with the post. But it got me thinking…
Is "conforming" really an uncool, bad thing?
I’m not convinced it is, ’cause, well, if it is, then I’m way not cool. I am proud to state the following about this average guy:
- I enjoy reality TV, particularly "American Idol."
- I don’t get the infatuation with bands like the Mildewed Oranges (or whatever they are called). It’s acoustic guitar with a melody that is hardly impressive. What’s the appeal?
- I love NFL football. Not college, not European Football (soccer), not rugby…the regular old NFL.
- I watch and enjoy mainstream television. "24" is pretty cool and "King of Queens" reruns can keep me entertained for hours.
- I watch and laugh my ass off at comedians like Larry the Cable Guy.
- I don’t like wine. I guess I’m unsophisticated.
- I can spend the better part of the day watching VH-1 "Behind the Music" marathons on TV and not feel badly about it.
- Movies like "Vantage Point" (which my wife and I recently saw) entertain me. Movies don’t have to be all deep and moving to be good. See most any Sandra Bullock movie, which I usually also find entertaining.
- I like some contemporary country/rock music. I’m a rocker, but I like me some non-twangy country (I’m looking at you Keith Urban and Little Big Town).
- I don’t get Twitter. (Note: It’s the rage right now at work…maybe I’ll understand why someday). Same goes for Second Life.
- I’ll read David Baldacci before poetry of any kind.
- Microsoft is not evil.
- I’m going to see Bon Jovi next month (that’s 2008, not 1988) and I can’t freakin’ wait.
- I prefer pleats in the front of my pants.
- King of the Hill > Family Guy.
- I prefer Leno to Letterman.
I’m sure there are a thousand more examples. I guess what I’m saying is, I can like the same mainstream things that the majority of people like and not be a dork. "Conforming" does not mean uncool. If it does then, well, I’m proudly uncool.
As part of my work at Calvert - and with our push in the social media arena – I have launched a new online community! It’s called ChimeInOnline.com and the purpose is to attract people interested in early childhood education, particularly pre-school through about 3rd grade. Why are we doing this? There are two major reasons:
1. We have a theory on a particular product & service that I am researching. I want to spur conversation in the topic are and see if any nuggets come out of that may validate, modify or junk our theory *before* spending the time and money to build it.
2. Emily is 5. I have a personal vested interest in the subject matter! As I mention on the site, even if a "business" doesn’t come out of this, I don’t think this is wasted effort. In fact, it may be *more* valuable as a resource for parent, teachers, grandparents, etc. for helping instigate change and improvement in early childhood education. How cool would that be?
Check it out if you’re interested: www.ChimeInOnline.com
//End Shameless Plug
I have to do this in order to have my blog listed on Technorati. We’ll see what it does.
Some of us here at work have been charged with delving into the world of social media and how it relates and can be used in a business setting. I don’t know what the impact of this is, but we gotta start somewhere. I’m now "Linked In" here. The case is being made that this is the future of marketing and PR and that more intimate relationship building is the key to business more so than traditional marketing & PR avenues. I guess I’m still a skeptic…I fail to see how writing on my blog or re-connecting with a former co-worker to say, "hey" can be considered "work." I’m not producing anything, I’m not selling anything, I’m not providing any services to generate revenue. Obviously networking is a key business skill. But where does it fit in the grand scheme of doing business?
I guess we’ll see where this leads!
For the most part, our cable-based Internet access has been pretty darn good for a few years. Yeah, we had some outages when we had ice storms a couple years back. But overall, it’s been good…until yesterday. It is SLOOOOOW IF we can get a connection at all. And to top it off, we use Vonage, so our home phone service is basically out of commission as well. Neat. Here’s the speed test showing or BLAZING speed. And this was one of the better ones!
I have officially gotten the eBay bug. I’m not sure how as a Computer Science graduate who is about a 10 year IT veteran took so long to jump in. Maybe it was a subliminal revolt against the "fad" that, well, isn’t really a fad now is it?
As of about 3 weeks ago I had made 1 eBay purchase. One. Ever. And I didn’t even bid instead using the "Buy it Now" feature to obtain a much needed clubhead cover for my Titleist 5-wood to protect it from the dust settling on my clubs in the garage. I hadn’t sold anything. Nothing.
Enter Aftershock, my 80′s rock cover band, for which I have turned into a complete gear head. It’s an illness. Ask my wife. Up until now I’ve pretty much been buying gear retail. But over the past couple weeks I have jumped in and bought some equipment like amps, a mixer, and a few guitars off eBay. Guitars? For a drummer? Yeah well…I’m feeding Rob’s guitar whore addiction to guitars so technically he is buying them with my account. 
I’ve also been buying hard-to-find software for work. As much as I had resisted, this eBay thing really is pretty cool after all.
Shop Victoriously.
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