Comments on: only talented people

By: Tools of the Trade | Ukulele Hunt

Tools of the Trade | Ukulele Hunt — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:23:02 +0000

[…] TED Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 3 is essential for anyone who makes anything they care about (and dovetails with The Dip […]

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Sun, 20 May 2007 23:15:05 +0000

@ Mike,
The trouble with non-fiction, sadly, is that it doesn’t exist.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 20 May 2007 22:24:16 +0000

“we have thousands of years of mythology– everything from Homer, to Jesus, to King Arthur, to Star Wars– telling us the exact same thing“
…and the trouble is that they’re all FICTION! Try and find some examples from the real world.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Fri, 18 May 2007 23:40:56 +0000

@ Maggie:
“What I like about the Blue Monster [and what I’ve liked from the very beginning] is that nobody owns it…“
A very good point you brought up re. ownership. So I replaced the “it” with “the conversation”, just to be clearer. Thanks for the tip-off
PS. Though I don’t agree with everything you say, I appreciate your obvious passion, lucidity and forthrightness. Thanks Again

By: steve clayton

steve clayton — Fri, 18 May 2007 19:34:12 +0000

Maggie — nice response. I didn’t get this bitthough — “The nice thing about Java tech is that we don’t have to buy all our tools from the Company Store”. Perhaps haven’t had enough coffee yet this morning so if you could explain I’d really appreciate it.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:04:11 +0000

Thank you, Maggie. That was indeed less glib. And quite helpful, to boot

By: Maggie Leber

Maggie Leber — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:59:46 +0000

Maggie, I find that remark narrow-minded and glib. Especially coming from a Sun-Certified pro like yourself.
Well, if it isn’t glib, it can’t be a slogan, you know? If I’m going to parody your slogan, I have to be at least as glib as you are.
What exactly would be the point of slamming me for having Java certifications? I’ve worked quite a bit with MSFT tools (I was once a Microsoft Product Specialist, long ago and far away) and with Sun tools…and yes, even with IBM tools, over a 35 year career. I know who has and who has not abused my trust.
When you build software, your work becomes vitally dependent on the structural layers beneath you. Those who control it wield an extraordinary power over the continuing value of your work. This is true even if the software you build is no more complicated than a Word document…which is, if you think about it a bit, software itself.
On the other hand, if your creative medium is the back of a business card and a pen, you pretty much have total control over what we in the software business world call your “toolchain”…you might consider them to be the “means of production”.
Would you be as comfortable in your work if some one company could pull the plug on it after the fact and cause it to disappear, or become valueless?
That’s the big difference between being Java certified and being, say, an MCSE or MSP. If Sun pisses off enough people with their stewardship of the Java platform, somebody else will roll out a compatible alternative…and several times in recent memory this has come very close to happening.
The nice thing about Java tech is that we don’t have to buy all our tools from the Company Store. When MSFT truly embraces that value system (other than in the sense of “Embrace, extend, extinguish” — Paul Maritz), we’ll know the millenium has truly arrived.

By: steve clayton

steve clayton — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:58:18 +0000

thanks Josh — genius input there

By: /pd

/pd — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:20:29 +0000

I agree, the blue monster has a life of its own (right now !!)
but the moment value creation and brand equity builds on the blue monster– I wonder who will first lay claim that its theirs ?
Hugh , just a quick question — do those series of drawing still fall under the CC norms ?
TO be fair to MSFT ( as much as I have my own reservations !) , they did reboot themselves after the DoJ case, so change is possible, its only a matter of time they turn the change knob and move into high throttle. Its an imperative of business– Stakeholders will do anything to keep the fists in the $$ bucket. The leaky bucket syndrome certainly trigger’s kiss ass action, when the chips are down.
Change does not take forever, change happens instantly..ok thats a Tom Peters Quote -

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:52:45 +0000

Josh, lighten up. Anything that deals in absolutes is doomed to failure.
If demonifying MSFT gives your life meaning, groovy. But I suspect there’s some symbiosis there.
In the same way the Right need to demonify bleeding heart liberals to define themselves, and the Left need to demonify Christian Fundamentalists to define themselves.

By: John

John — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:01:28 +0000

Well one good thing to come out of the BM series is the series itself. I wouldn’t miss the cartoons for anything.
As for Microsoft, I’m not sure. I suspect the vested interests may be too great.
I echo Hugh’s view, and to put it differently as a Romanian / Israeli colleague of mine once said, “You can take a horse to drink but you can’t make him water”.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 17 May 2007 09:15:52 +0000

@Steve Clayton:
Change? What change? From a monster to a blue monster? Same old story. Doomed to failure. Sorry.

By: James

James — Thu, 17 May 2007 08:05:39 +0000

K,
Most complaints about the new Office system have been over the loss of the menu, so it’s generally a safe bet.
I don’t really know how much their finance people use Excel tbh. I’d assume quite a bit since they work at home and at the office, but I can’t say for positive. I wouldn’t say the ribbon is what got them to change tho, it was the added features that made working with the data much easier on their end that prompted them to want to change. They’re basically at a wash productivity wise at the moment, losing time learning the ribbon, but gaining it back working with the data. Over time, it will turn out to be more productive once they get accustomed to the ribbon. They didn’t want to spend extra on the addon either.
They should have left the menu bar in as an option, I agree. Uptake would have been much higher at this stage imho.
Cheers!

By: K

Thu, 17 May 2007 07:24:23 +0000

James,
Are your clients heavy, heavy Excel users?
’Cause in Finance we live and breathe Excel.
Any inefficiencies is a step back
and with the continuous downsizing,
we’re time crunched as it is.
Interesting that you knew immediately that
it was a menu issue
and that there’s already an addon available.
That just about says it all.
When customers don’t want to “upgrade“
even after the software is purchased,
there’s a serious product issue.

By: James

James — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:43:51 +0000

K
I had teh same misgivings from a few of my clients regarding the new version of Excel. Since they work from home as well as the office, I downloaded a 2007 trial for them and installed it on their home PC’s and asked them to try it out at home where they do little work, and use 2003 at work where they do the most.
A couple of weeks later, they let me know that they’d rather have the 2007 version at work.
Some people are going to be very resistant to change, and there’s nothing you can do to change that mindset, but people that are open will find that 2007 is better overall once you get used to the interface. If they really need their old menus, there is an addon out there that brings them back, albeit at a price.
As for the comic, good stuff. However, some people are what talented people would call mediocre, but the ‘mediocre’ is very happy with their achievements. Mediocrity is relative in the big picture imho. The only way for a mediocre person to realize their ‘mediocrity’, would be to interact with a talented person in the same field of knowledge. Then, their shortcomings in that particular area would be exposed for them to take action on. (Hope that makes sense, my thought process is mediocre~).
Cheers!