Had a chance to digest some of the weeks items and two very distinct and interesting items of note came to pass this week and they are worth writing about. The first is about knowledge and or perceived knowledge. Say your put in a position within your job function that forces you to make decisions and or give substantial input about a particular project or a purchase or just anything. You have the job right, so you must have the necessary knowledge to go along with that job, right? What if you don't or you find yourself have been on the coat-tails of some folks who did know and now maybe you might have to fend for yourself in a very dangerous pool of possible choices. What to do? If you have put yourself in the latter position than the more anxiety the better, your getting what you deserve. If perhaps you have gotten either acolades or press of some kind that you really did not deserve or someone else has actually done the work and while you may have not taken direct credit for the work you didn't let anyone know you really didn't do it either. Once again, the more pain you get from this situation, the better. Your a fraud and a leech of the worst kind. In the past twenty-five years of work I have known more of these leeches and less of the stalwart or stand-up individual that can give credit where it is due. I will tell you that I have found far less in the work environment I am presently in than at any other time in my work history. I think it has something to do with accolades coinciding with money instead of just praise for praise sake.
If, however, you have been thrust into a situation that now requires you to "work outside of your paradigm" well here's some words of advice. Solicit opinions from people that have done it or have enabled it to be done. Whatever the task is, this doesn't just lend itself to technology projects. Even if you don't like an individual for whatever reason, if they are good at what they do, talk to them. If you do know something pretend to know nothing. Be willing to spend countless hours at least learning the language of the trade you are now trying to ply. Don't play stupid, just listen and you will learn. I have spent time in work functions as a procedures analyst and I will tell you that practically anything is "learnable". I sure that heart surgury is in a book somewhere and while after I have brushed up on it a bit you may not want me to operate on you, I could at least learn the vocabulary and be able to discuss it with the person that is going to operate. ( I would like to operate on something someday but that's another story). My point being that if the people you are asking for help notice that you are trying to learn they will be more ready to help you than if they think you are not putting in your share of the labor. I have never refused anyone help that I thought was genuinely seeking legitimate help and not at either my expense or my organization's expense. I learned from someone more than a few but none of them could ever say that I wasn't willing to sweat the small stuff when it came to putting in time on a project.
Back to my original vein, you can't fault someone who has been put in a situation that they may have no control over but if they managed to put themselves there by deceit or slight of hand and now don't know what to do shame on them.
The other point of interest is a bit harder to explain. I am and always will be an infrastructure guy. I have, when given the chance, overbuilt every infrastructure project I have ever been associated with. If you don't put a solid chasis under the car it won't matter what size tires or how big the engine is, sometime its going to give and you'll be spending quite a bit putting it back together. I also have this bent due to the fact that this is what I learned from the beginning. Early on in my work life I was involved in more of these type of projects than either software of operating systems or whatever. I liked the infrastructure work and it showed. I still can spend hours on a simple network design and drawing and just rush around an operating system project or software work in general. The point I'm making with this is that while my skills were honed with wire and layouts other guys have been more exposed to either software systems or basic levels of equipment of sorts. What is interesting is when you do get together with a group that has diverse backgrounds and you can take a step back and watch the interaction as the baton is handed from one to another with regard to the "floor". I had the chance to witness this a few times this week and it is truly amazing to see how each individual can move the direction of the conversation to encompass their skill sets. What was more interesting is to watch those individuals described in my first thoughts (the leeches) try to steer clear of any real sort of discussions regarding anything that may require them to comment on. Talk about squirming. Talk to you later.
8:23:55 PM 
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