The Musings of a Wanna-Be Radical

Once you see (and truly accept) the ugly that is possible in others, it is hard to go back to unseeing the potential for that ugly in nearly everyone you meet (see last post).  That said, learning to hold back some enthusiasm in the pursuits and efforts that require introducing new people into the collaborative space is difficult. It is my own nature to lean in and push hard on everything I put my mind to accomplish which makes me vulnerable to those who recognize that part of my nature.  Their instinct to take advantage of the efforts of others means that I need to remain vigilant to protect myself which requires me to limit my efforts on their behalf until I am more certain that their values align with my own. This rebalancing of my natural inclination to support without question to one of a cautious watchfulness of my time, effort, enthusiasm, and intellect is what I find myself focused on these days. In the middle of that, I am finding the questions that interest me to be ...

I'm reminded this morning of some painful experiences that I went through beginning back in 2016. In late 2016 I took a job with a company full of promises and short on honor.  Unfortunately I did not know how to discern this reality so I plunged head-first into delivering on the promises I made only to be given the "we just don't think we're compatible" speech. From there I helped start a company with a cold-blooded narcissist, and because I lacked the emotional intelligence I failed to protect myself and fell prey to the CEO and his self appointed narcissist supply. That situation continues to haunt because I am a shareholder and have some unfortunate connections that prevent me from completely severing from the ugly. There's more... Much more, but let's focus on my work environments.   I turns out that there are folks in this world who's first (and probably only) thought is for themselves. This was a hard lesson for me. One that has radically change...

 Water exists in various states, the most famous being solid, liquid and gas.  There are many more ( Check it Out ). Can data be said to exist in various states? Data can be at rest (stored), in motion (being transmitted), or being transformed (processed). It can even be in a quasi dual state of at rest and transmitted when it is being displayed. Does shifting the mind to consider the states of data change anything about the way we treat it? Would it shift our approach to the user-community if we thought of data in a different way?

 If this is true, how to we ever hope to help people who are trying to figure out what they're personally interested in doing as a career? When the potential workspace is SO large, where does one start?  How do we make it simple enough to be easily digested, yet informative enough to ensure we are not creating false expectations, or (probably more importantly) scaring students away from the "hard" stuff? What is THE Problem? Students are not aware of the diverse career opportunities that exist in the information technology space. Students who have a limited interest in the “technical” part of I.T. are not aware of the non-technical aspects of the work. Why does this problem exist? There is not a definitive IT advocacy group that has defined all the potential careers in the market There is no "simple answer" to what a career will look like so we have analysis of too many choices Guidance counselors are only able to "guide" on subjects they have informa...

 In my musings over the last several days I have decided there are few fundamental problems that the educational system could use some help in solving, specifically in the context of educating students interested in IT careers.  These include: Students are not aware of the diverse career opportunities that exist in the information technology space. Students who have a limited interest in the “technical” part of I.T. are not aware of the non-technical aspects of the work. Schools are not providing effective career advice to students with the interest in I.T. Career counselors have limited ability to evaluate a student’s interests, abilities, and suitability for the various I.T. career trajectories. There is no concentration of an IT career track in HS. College degree tracks do not help students effectively prepare for an IT career. I think I'll break these down further in following posts.