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Remotivated, At Least For Now
After watching former C++ and CORBA guru Steve Vinoski rave about Erlang in this InfoQ video, I’ve been re-motivated to try and learn a dynamically typed (yikes!), functional programming language. After starting to learn CLisp with the “Land Of Lisp” serving as my training reference, I’ve switched gears. I’ve downloaded the Erlang distribution, I’ve downloaded the Erlang Eclipse plugin “Erlide“, and I’m using “Erlang Programming” as my first training book.
The book’s first chapter describes an impressive list of built in features that have drawn me to Erlang like a moth to a flame:
- Erlang was developed to solve the “time-to-market” requirements of distributed, fault-tolerant, massively concurrent, soft real-time systems.
- Erlang concurrency is fast and scalable. Its processes are lightweight in that the Erlang virtual machine does not create an OS thread for every created process.
- Erlang processes communicate with each other through message passing.
- Erlang has distribution incorporated into the language’s syntax and semantics, allowing systems to be built with location transparency in mind. The default distribution mode is based on TCP/IP, allowing a node (or Erlang runtime system) on a heterogeneous network to connect to any other node running on any operating system.
- Global variables don’t exist.
As of now, I’m planning to occasionally blog about my Erlang learning experience as I inch forward into the weird and whacky world of functional programming. But; since I’m doing this on my own time, I’m a slooow learner, I love working in C++, we don’t use Erlang where I work, and my intrinsic motivation may vanish, I may abandon the effort. If I do decide to “bag it“, be sure to call me a quitter.
Thirty-Six Lucky Ones
With all this ranting that I do against hierarchical orgs, you’d think I would have been burned badly in the past by a succession of tyrant bosses. You’d be wrong. I’m fifty-two years old (D’oh!) and I’ve been working in hierarchies since I was 16. Throughout those 36 years, I can honestly say that I’ve never had a horrendous boss. I’ve worked for a handful of terrific ones that I deeply admire and respect. I’ve also worked for several good ones, and many average ones. In absolute terms, I’ve never felt underpaid, but in relative terms, I have (Waaah and Boo-Hoo!).
The “bad” experiences I’ve had within the hallowed halls of hierarchy were with 1 dimensional program managers, project managers, and product managers (damn-the-people-schedule-is-all-that-matters). Interestingly, the most friction I’ve been a co-creator of has been with manager wannabes. You know, those so-called technical peers who:
- talk a good, jargon-filled game to cover up their incompetence,
- continuously obstruct progress to fill their time and simultaneously cover up their own lack of contribution,
- don’t create any value directly – not even spreadsheets or Gannt charts in preparation for their upward advancement into the guild of management.
When those dudes do get promoted, and IMHO it has happened unconscionably often throughout my “career“, I steer clear of them. It’s BM city and my car ain’t gonna drive through it.
Even though I’ve been incredibly lucky with hierarchical bosses, I’ve known quite a few fellow DICsters over the years who’ve felt that they weren’t treated fairly by hierarchs – even by some of the exact same bosses that I’ve had.
How about you, what’s your boss story? Why won’t you tell me about it?
VHP Package
Several months ago, when I bought and read Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh‘s “Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion, and Purpose” book, I signed up for the VHP (Very Happy Person) program. I also followed the “Happiness Bus” around as it cheerfully toured the USA, spreading a little bit of happiness at every stop.
Recently, I received in the mail, unsolicited and free of charge, a cool little thank you package filled with these five goodies:
Since the care package contains a copy of the DH book signed by Mr. Happiness himself, Tony Hsieh, I’d like to try and return the favor by spreading a little happiness of my own. Therefore, I’ll send my unsigned copy gratis to the first person who indicates, via the comments section in this post, that they’d like to own it. Hell, I’ll even spring for the postage cost 🙂
Reporting Delay
The figure below shows a generic Bulldozer00 model (which means it’s outright wrong) of what happens ‘tween the time one experiences an “important” event to the time at which one communicates to others about the event. What’s an important event? It’s something that has meaning – which implies that it is person-specific. One person’s important event is another’s trivial yawner.
The length of the reporting delay (RD) is critical. If it’s too short, then one can suffer from foot-in-mouth syndrome like Bulldozer00. If it’s too long, with infinity being the limit, then the lack of disclosure can eat away at one’s psyche and cause stress and ill-health.
In dysfunctional corpricracies, the unspoken tool of “fear imposition” keeps the RD of many DICsters at infinity, or in layman’s words – STFU. What’s the nature of your RD?
Repeat Champion
Fortune magazine recently hatched its coveted list of the “Best 100 Companies to work for in 2011“. Two top ten winners, repeat champion SAS, and Zappos.com, have been on my faves list for a loooong time. Who’s on your list?
Don’t Listen…. Imitate
To most (but not all) corpo execs and fatty middle managers everywhere, take heed:
“Children are never good at listening to their elders, but they never fail to imitate them.” – James Baldwin
OMG, I’m so embarrassed! In yesterday’s post, I hinted that I sort-of wanted to do away with my Father Guido Sarducci “find-the-poop-in-the-picture” pattern of immaturity. Nevertheless, if this quote from the “Wilde” man doesn’t hold a grain of truth to it, then I’m hopelessly hosed:
Life is too short to be taken seriously – Oscar Wilde
Without Any Sting
Thanks to @stefanstern, I discovered the MIX. In this blarticle, Moving Past Austerity—Let’s Make 2011 the Year of Honesty, Humanity and Generosity, Polly LaBarre eloquently states what I wish I could, and without any offensive sting:
“zero-sum thinking, profit-obsession, power, conformance, control, hierarchy, and obedience don’t stand a chance against community, interdependence, freedom, flexibility, transparency, meritocracy, and self-determination.”
When you feel isolated and alone with your “abnormal” thoughts about a particular topic, it’s always comforting to discover others with similar opinions. Polly, in specific, and the MIX, in general, fit the bill for me. Now, if I could only learn how to keep immature, offensive language and childish poopie pictures out of my posts, I might soothe the occasional pangs of guilt that course through my being.
The line between constructive passion and destructive obsession is a tenuous one. Do you tread the line, or do you keep yourself warm and cozy and numb, hiding in the womb and not wanting to “get involved“?
Follow Me!
The Amazon Kindle has a kool “share” feature. You can highlight a passage in the book you’re reading, write an introductory note for it, and then e-send the note-link pair to twitter. Here’s what one of these shared note-link pairs looks like in a Twitter timeline:
The link displayed in the tweet points to an online stored version of the highlighted text that is visible to the public. Here’s an example book snippet that I recently tweeted:
Sometimes, after sharing a passage from a spiritual book, I get one or two new Twitter followers the next day. Of course, they sign up to follow me cuz I’m wise and insightful, not because they have something they want to sell to me. Someday, I’ll move into the upper echelon of the spirituo-sphere with the big boys and girls:
Peer Relationships
As you move up into the Bozone layers in a DYSCO, in addition to honing your Kiss-Up-Kick-Down skills, your horizontal relationships with your peers mysteriously start to change…..
Of course, the diagram is totally wrong and it lacks credible scientific evidence to back it up, no? Hey, what do you expect from a L’artiste?
Temporary Reprieve
Since I‘m an egomaniac and I often feel guilty about being one, I bash the “I, ME, MY” thought source all the time. However, since eliminating absolute black and white binary thinking is a major blow to my ego, I feel compelled to give credit where credit is due.
Being too lazy to concoct my own tribute to the ego’s sunny side, I’ll steal and regurgitate Steve Taylor‘s eloquent words to pay homage to “me“:
So there. Now that I‘ve said nice things about the “enemy“, the temporary reprieve is over and it’s time to get back to ego bashing. Stay tuned for more hipocritical ego bashing in the future.
Why am I here?
WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
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