OK, I've been doing the fat software geek thing for too long. Ever since a broken ankle back in 2000, I haven't seen the inside of a gym, and have grown less and less active. I'm completely out of shape, and weigh far more than is healthy, by any measure.
I don't care if the Web 2.0 bubble has burst, I'm going to leverage Web 2.0 apps to the hilt. You'll notice the new, ill-fitting skinnyr graph tracking my weight in the sidebar. I'm hunting around for a nutrition planning/tracking app, preferably something with a Windows Mobile or mobile web component, or something with an open API for which I can write my own WinMo app.
I'm setting my first goal today: lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks. I'll be weighing in tomorrow, October 14th, wrapping up a week or two before Thanksgiving -- great timing, I know! I plan to make a few simple changes:
add a few minutes to 3x daily dog walks - always at least 15 per walk, instead of 5-10. try and get 4 walks in when possible. (buy new timberlands!)
get more sleep; don't half-sleep with the TV on.
drink more water.
stretch every day.
no alcohol, no chicken wings; generally better eating: leaner meats instead of my ribeyes, for instance. no more weekend home fries. no more fast food at lunch.
On other notes, I'm working on a blog redesign, one that will fit widgets and content better, and one I'll be putting together entirely in ASP.NET. I want infinite flexibility and customizability, I want to pull in and manipulate all kinds of outside content. I think the only way to do that is to build a new site around my blog. A new URL will follow.
I love how they all have overlap and integration points, and yet SOA/cloud stuff is really on the opposite end of the spectrum from a lot of concurrency technologies and practices:
Mobile devices RIAs (Rich Internet Applications - Smart Clients) Clouds/Grids SOAs (Service-Oriented Architectures) SOGs (Service-Oriented Grids) Concurrency Functional Programming
Mark my words, the next decade in the industry will be dominated be these concepts. They will certainly be playing a role in upcoming posts and presentations.
I believe what I said on-list was that success is "1% idea 90% team/connections 9% luck", and that 9% luck figure is important in putting context around my perspective.
A crappy CEO can take a crappy idea, and with a lot of luck hits 10%. 10% gets you prototyped, gets you seed funding, maybe gets you a Series A. It gets you users, it gets you news coverage, it gets you hype and buzz, but none of that constitutes success -- not in real world business terms.
Success is sustainable profitability. Success is a high-value exit. A brilliant CEO can take a crappy idea, mature it, and turn it into a hundreds of millions of dollars acquisition in under five years.
A crappy CEO can take a brilliant idea and get further than 10%, but a crappy CEO is going to result in a low-value exit, or is going to end up replaced, probably after a lot of pain and wasted investment.
The strongest indicator of success is the team, not the idea. Obviously, however, the right idea, a matured idea, a well thought through idea, carries more weight, vastly improves chances of success.
I think we're saying a lot of the same thing here, but I will insist that a subpar CEO can easily ruin the most brilliant, bound-for-success idea, whereas it's much more likely that a killer CEO can make a success out of a subpar idea, or one that needs massaging, maturation, etc. And yes, a slick CEO can BS their way to a limited degree of success -- but not sustainable success, which I think we're in agreement on. My definition of a killer CEO isn't the sales guy with the biggest shovel, but the one with the greatest ability to do the most with the least, make the right moves, and please stakeholders along the way.
"idea = 1%" isn't an exact figure, but it's highly demonstrative of proportionate value.
And yes, the market the past few years has made for some fat and lazy management teams and backers with a plethora of redundancy getting funded. That's inevitable, it happens with every peak. It's those who can stay lean and agile even in fat and happy times that will of course have the greatest chance of sustainable success over the long term.
--Andy Badera
Note: you can, and perhaps should, substitute "management team" or "founders" for "CEO" throughout this piece.
When using the ScribeFire add-on for Firefox to post to a Blogger blog, Disqus commenting gets disabled, and Blogger commenting gets re-enabled. After using ScribeFire, I find it is necessary to then edit the post, show post options in the lower left and disable commenting, with the hide existing option. This then re-enabled Disuqs commenting. Note, disallowing comments but showing previous does NOT re-enable Disqus.
"An award winning web design and development firm in Albany is looking for a motivated Web Developer with a proven track record in developing high end websites and the portfolio to prove it."
...
"Required Experience and Skills:
> Solid Knowledge of Object-Oriented concepts. > At least 2 years experience in a development/programming position, and 1 year experience with ASP / ASP.NET (C#). > Must be able to take layered Photoshop designs and transform them into web sites > Experience in .Net 2.0 development in compiled and non-compiled .Net applications > HTML/CSS hand coding required > Degrees and certifications are a plus but not a necessity > Degrees and certifications are a plus but not a necessity > This is a salaried position for a developer in the Albany area"
...
"Compensation: $30,000 to $35,000 plus benefits"
This is the kind of vulturous crap you saw for a year after 9/11. And this is in ALBANY -- we're not talking up in the mountains of the North Country, on the edge of the Adirondack Park, where I grew up, where I recognize there is a serious technology deficit in play. This is the capital of New York State for gosh sakes.
Two years experience OO, and 1 year ASP.NET/C#. Experience in .NET 2.0 (wait, what's a "non-compiled" .NET application? FAIL! Benefit of the doubt: maybe they mean static and dynamic .NET languages?) applications. Degrees and certifications are nice, but not a necessity. By the way, degrees and certifications are nice, but not a necessity. All that translates into AT LEAST $45,000USD + benefits -- BARE MINIMUM. Someone with these skills, and a college degree, should be in the $50s or $60s.
I know economies are cyclic ... and I know we're in a serious downturn. But when will these smalltime, smallminded employers finally realize, you get what you pay for? That offering this sort of spurious sum only leaves you with a dissatisfied, probably indebted, employee who is a) not going to work to their full potential and b) will be constantly seeking more gainful employment. And worse, c) possibly eventually looking to engage in theft against their employer, or employer's clients, in order to make ends meet?
What does it cost to find, vet, hire, train and do paperwork on an employee these days? Are you telling me that an extra $10k salary won't make up for itself quite quickly? If you've got annual turnover and even a $35k employee, $10k makes up for itself in a single year. (Assuming typical total turnover cost of 50% of employee salary.)
Also, it might help this particular employer to know: the Albany market for .NET people is HOT and TIGHT. Worst case, an economic slowdown is simply going to mean that several of the larger, established local .NET teams are finally going to be filling their open seats that we've been gapping on for two+ years now. You're not going to find bargain basement .NET people in Albany right now, period, at least not one who knows how to use a keyboard, or how to spell .NET.
UPDATE: 2007 national, state, Albany and NYC wage data for software roles:
