Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Video: Panel Discussion on “Drinking From The Firehose”

I was flattered to be asked to sit on a lunchtime discussion panel at last month’s Ann Arbor Day of .NET. David Giard moderated the discussion and Aydin Akcasu captured it all on video.

Dave’s posted the video on his terrific Technology and Friends site, and it’s well worth you spending 37 minutes to watch it. Not because I’m on the panel, but because the discussion covered a lot of things I’m especially passionate about.

Some of those things would include, in no specific order:

  • Technology’s moving fast, and coming in waves – but we’re empowered to do so many more things than we were even five years ago. I can focus on delivering value instead of writing infrastructure or tooling.
  • Companies need to invest in their workers’ training.
  • Workers need to get emphatic about owning their own careers. Companies need to support them, but you, not your company, own your destiny.
  • Managers need to support workers with time sliced out of the schedule for continuous, ongoing training. (I didn’t even ask permission with my management. I just directed my team to take two hours a week and go explore. That’s my job as a boss: get forgiveness instead of permission…)
  • Not learning every new shiny thing is OK. Maybe learn something about what biz value new technologies offer, but carefully pick and choose what you’re willing to dive in to.
  • Do spend some time exploring new things, though, because that learning will inform and impact how you work with your current technology.

Props to Dave for a great show, and thanks to fellow panelists Mike Eaton, Jay Harris, Patrick Steele, and Jason Follas. It was a pleasure being up on stage with y’all.

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