Don’t Be Weird

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When I talk to companies about using technology to help solve problems they have, or to enable new things for their business, I usually end up telling them to “Try not to be weird.”

We are all different…..

At first glance this might seem to be something that gets me gently shown the front door with my coat in hand, and some explaining to do to my boss. What I mean when I say this is: realize that products and features are designed and created by humans who listen to customers, and then try to design things so that they help the most number of customers well. If you decide to use things in ways that aren’t somewhere in that sweet spot, you are sometimes making your own life harder. Notice I didn’t say impossible, or that it won’t work, or that you will be cursed forever. If you find ways of doing things that are unexpected or on the fringe of the normal use cases, you may find your total cost of operations to be higher, or end up with future upgrade issues, or just….. harder.

This is not new of course, software has worked this way for ever and ever. The biggest difference now is when we consider cloud based solutions and how fast they change. If you implemented something considered “weird” in your datacenter in the past, tinkered around and got it working, you might be good to go for years before those sins came back to bite you. These days, products iterate and change every quarter, or more often, and if you do something strange or unexpected you may find yourself regretting that sooner than you think.

Microsoft publishes things like reference architectures for this reason, among others. In general if you use these as north star guidance, you are likely to be in that sweet spot.

People should be individual and unique and revel in those differences. Cloud consumption and architecture patterns usually should not.

Middle Ages

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As I creep ever closer, or glide right past whatever middle age is (always a rather presumptuous term, really) I find that my preconceived notions are wrong.

Allow me to explain: for whatever reason when I was a kid, probably based on observations somewhere, I assumed that when I hit a certain age I would somehow instantly start listening to classic rock (or much more unlikely, country music) forever. I mean that my taste in music would just get switched over to classic rock permanently, and without my input. This has not happened yet. I mean, I enjoy that stuff just fine, sure. (although I do have a problem with noticeably racist asshole or otherwise socially problematic artists that younger me was either ignorant of or oblivious to. Think Ted Nugent, etc.)

So really, that’s a positive thing. There’s just so much good music out there, I always wondered why people didn’t listen to a broad range of stuff. Life is just too short to stop growing and discovering there. Overall this preconception is one that I am happy is wrong.

I also assumed I would start wearing my shirts wide open to show off my copious chest hair, framing several gold chains. In hindsight it’s entirely possible that many of these notions were formed while watching Three’s Company as a child. This one I have also not started to do. Mostly due to my lack of chest hair.

However, there is one that I just didn’t see coming. I mean this honestly, I absolutely had no idea this was in me. It’s like I grew another head slowly over time and noticed it in the mirror one day. It’s not something that younger me would be necessarily embarrassed about, but I sure wouldn’t be proud. So, I will share it with you here since I am trying to write authentic and real words here as part of my new resolution (of sorts).

Realize this is very personal, and difficult to talk about.
It’s my biological imperative to find the groan-iest of “Dad puns” absolutely hysterical. I mean, really funny. I think that stuff is amazing. It’s my jam.

I have been wheezing, crying, trying to read something that is by many standards just so so bad. I realize this, by the way. I know deep inside that this stuff is comedy junk food. It’s hacky, tired, refried jokes that have been around in many forms for decades in some cases. But try as I might to reason with me, it’s just too compelling. I LOVE THIS CRAP.

Anyway, that was cathartic. Now that it’s out there, I can promote my newest favourite Twitter account: @DadsPuns

It’s basically catnip specifically designed for me. I love this guy/gal whatever. Amazing stuff, makes me laugh every damn day. Give them a follow.

And for fellow middle aged pun appreciators, you are not alone.

Fear of Change

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Disclaimer: This is a rare work related post. I don’t usually write much about that but figured I would give it a try. If geek stuff bores you, well I guess you are screwed.

I’m in consulting services at Microsoft. That means I help customers use our products to solve their problems. Often they buy a new thing, aren’t sure the best way to use it, and then I or one of my colleagues come in and try to help. (Sort of obvious description of IT consulting I guess)

Sometimes in spite of the company deciding to invest in our products, then signing a services contract to get me there (let’s face it, those things cost money) I find that some folks that I talk to aren’t exactly excited about the changes that I represent. No surprises there, lots of people fear change. To some it represents a worry that they might lose relevance or influence. Many folks spend careers building their specific skills, and can resist hearing that a skill they fought hard to learn is no longer relevant. Or resistance to learning a new skill, either because they don’t want to invest in themselves or any number of reasons.

I myself have had those thoughts at various points in my career. Learning can be hard. Time and energy are ever more scarce resources. Some companies do not place an emphasis on employee growth and so do not allow for training time/budget. Employees are required to learn on their own time, or are not afforded courses and/or time to grow. It’s an unrealistic expectation, but one that persists at some companies.  Microsoft is excellent in this regard to their own employees, since for obvious reasons the source of some of this churn is driven by the company itself (due to many reasons; market, security, industry, etc.).  Some companies fail to identify to real costs of employee churn (and then costs of acquisition, replacement), job satisfaction, etc. that these practices can cause.

These reasons do not make change any more palatable or attractive for folks that aren’t excited about it, however.  So I find sometimes I am left trying to find ways to encourage, sway, or otherwise convince some customers to do things my way.  I’m not going to try to have a new take on the literally thousands of management books that try to solve these problems, I’m absolutely not qualified for that.  (and man those books can be dry, amirite?)

I have found that approaching these issues with the knowledge that all of this really comes from fear is one way that (even if not completely successful) moves the conversation forward.  Empathy is the thing that can swing the mood around to being open, uncross the arms, and have people lean in again.

Speed Post

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After fixing some WordPress weirdness, I finally get into the new post form just after my flight starts boarding. Boarding the fancy folks, at least. Not regular folk like me who have to file to the back and just suck it up.

However, here I am. Finally entering some real words on a real blog post? One with words? Well, as many words as I can enter in the 10 minutes I have before I get on a plane. I haven’t been blogging at all in the last while, spending most of my time on Twitter, which is a shame. I miss writing real things here. Or as real as I ever did. Which was actually not much. Silly joke filled incoherent crap. But I enjoyed it, anyway.

So, I won’t call it a resolution because that’s dumb. But rather an intention to write here more often than never, and try to write something meaningful. In the end this is a vanity blog after all. I mean if you go back through the years I have written about dogs, and kids and dumb things, but I haven’t really touched anything meaningful, really.

Not to say that I would expect much. I mean I’m not a real writer. And I’m definitely not one to share personal things, really. I guess I will just write about whatever. Maybe it will be work? Maybe not. Let’s see. The intention is to just write. So, jeez buckle up for the old school blog, I guess. Back when the Internet was capitalized.

See you soon, folks.