People, Process, Product, Customer, and how people fit in organizations
My best work has been in places that are process-customer, but I've done well in process-product as well. I have not done well in people-dominated...
In praise of simple tools
I write using Emacs and LaTeX. I'll grudgingly copy and paste to other formats because the organization demands it but I do better work with...
Broadly vs. Locally-useful skills
Early on, I programmed on mainframes in COBOL... I'm sure I could do it again. But I'd be tossing away some highly valuable, broadly-applicable and...
Get up, dress up, show up, never give up… and be replaced by a robot
Never giving up at the things you were told to do was the essence of work in the industrial age. Giving up quickly on things...
How I got hired at AWS
Being yourself matters as much as anything.
And be nice to the airline staff. They can really make or break your life....
What the fuck are you doing there?
"Hey man," I said in my native New York tongue, "You're not gonna believe this, but I'm calling from Frankfurt..."
"What the FUCK are you doing...
Lessons from the top of a snowy hill
Things are rather treacherous out there. In my neighborhood, we have new-fallen (unplowed) snow, on top of wet (now frozen) fallen, partly-decayed, slippery leaves that...
How I became “glue”
As has often been the case in my life, I was in a category of people who were not supposed to exist. I was that...
It’s not coming back
In 1945, some still expected the world to go back to familiar pre-crisis reality. They would be disappointed, as will those who are waiting for...