That's the problem is that the situation is vasly different for different people - which is part of these various trends, I figure.
For me no kids, no home, my wife in a job she'd outgrown, in a city with a meandring economy in the midwest. After I got laid off we basically decided to leave, and specifically targeted areas, companies, and industries appropriate to my skills and our needs. I had more interviews out of the state than in - and in my state I could at least interview for contracts. The employer I went with was one I hadn't even expected to be interested, and proved to be great.
So for us, it came down to staying was a bigger risk than leaving. Staying probably meant career setbacks or stagnation, and eventually being unable to leave if we wanted to, being locked into a limiting geography and set of opportunities. We also had the ability to be mobile.
But not everyone is us, and that's one thing that I find a bit chilling - I'm seeing a Mobility Gap affecting people's economic status. Both of our jobs can be done mobily, as telecommuting, etc. Both of us can move if needed, travel if needed. Not everyone else can.
Among our friends, we see similar signs - some are staying in one area bound by a home, kids, economics, or both. Others are taking their careers mobile, looking at other states and countries.
Here's a bit of a contrast from what I've seen - I left the midwest for the west coast (IT Project Manager).
The big problem is getting people to move. Regions change and shift and grow, and one of the terrible problems is that to get talent, you may have to get it from somewhere else. I worked with one company who, essentially, raided a neighboring state for talent. Even if the job count stays the same, the type changes.
And it'll all shift again. Five years ago, pre-9/11 my home state was hopping. Post-9/11 it never fully recovered, several changes affected the job markets, and people began leaving - me with them. Now, having moved, ironicaly, I'm gettng leads. Maybe it'll change in a few years, or maybe I'll end up having my company move.
Another friend who's a storage expert in my old home can't find anywhere to go with his career, and has no choice to go to the coasts with his level of expertise. But again - what happens in five years? In ten.
As my current boss put it, "Not everyone is brave enough to move" for a job. It's a helluva risk. And I think the changing demographics of need, combined with the fact some people don't want to move, create areas with talent gaps.
This is all on top of the fact that a lot of IT people are damn bitter, and understandably so.
When I'm hiring people? If there's someone less monoskilled, I take them. If we have someone IN the company needing training, I train them.
Sadly, what is often missed in the discussion, is that the society as a whole has pretty much failed on every aspect of this. Promoting greed and profit over long-term plans. Disparaging education until it's too late. Acting as if a social safety net is a bad idea. It's a pretty toxic brew that leads to us screwing ourselves over- or electing people to do it for us. I'm saddened the wake-up call took this long.
And of course outsourcing is about money. Money is a powerful incentive, and dealing with it will require a powerful response.
But until then, we're all going to be fighting to keep up to stay employed.
Being management, some managers are definiely jerks. But also having been on both sides of the issue, there are no small amount of people who are essentially monoskilled individuals, relied on one limited skillset and frankly have no idea how business, the world or even their own industry runs. I myself blame a lot of the educational and cultural systems in this case.
Is it the only reason for outsourcing? Hell no. But it's something to keep in mind while people address the other factors - because right now no one is going to save us but ourselves.
In my experiences on both side of the interviewer's chair, it's the extras. This article goes into some, but I'd say not far enough. If you want to survive in IT, be more than an IT person or be a hell of a specialist.
Being a programmer-turned-Project Manager, that transition makes it painfully aware that being good at a job in IT is often far more than having IT skills (just as good management is more than about basic business skills). My most vivid example was hiring a consultant who had less IT experience than some of the other programmers, but his other skils (management, experience in manfuacturing, business knowledge), let him code more than just good code, he got the code we and the customers needed. And his bug count and need for revision were incredibly small.
The one thing that annoys me is people act like there's a lack of such skills ONLY in IT.
Pretty much after reading my article,I began wondering if this guy even plays the games or hangs out with people online, and how the hell he's extrapolating this.
Games produce worlds. World's have certain rules and bounds. Different worlds have different systems. Converging these worlds kind of wrecks the individuality and specificity people want out of them. Starting over? That's part of the fun. Different personas? The same thing - we don't always want ot be the same person.
Sure, there will be convergence. It's going to happen. It'll be interesting (SL seems to be part of it in a way). But its not what everyone's going to want. Social elements and gaming elements can intersect, but the way he forsees it removes the uniqueness of worlds.
I of course suspect there will be some convergent systems. I can see, for instance, an OS MMORPG project with multiple divergent worlds. I can see expandable systems. I can see MMORPG tech used for social tech (hell, it is anyway). But shared worlds? I don't buy it.
I've switched from programming to Project Management recently, and find that my honesty actually helps. It's almost like its refreshing to people that, even when I use bizspeak, I MEAN something. And I love honest numbers. It's weird to think my competitive edge may be actual communication.
And what's the website of this firm? Now I'm intrigued.
Good business is indeed all about communication. Kudos to your integrety (and what IS your small business if I may ask).
However, in a world with a lot of bad business practices, communication gets quickly obscured. When most people are flinging BS, it's who flings the most convincing BS that wins.
The point of the Weasel Words actually is not communication, however. The last thing way too many wordweasels want to do is actually say something.
I more reccomend throwing yourself at the ground and missing. Or in the case of these films, it's probably more throwing yourself at the plot and missing.
I have an OS running my browser to run an OS shell on. Now can I get a browser on this OS so I can bring up web pages inside the browser inside the OS running on my browser running on my OS?
People with too much time on their hands decide to pre-emptively protest something decades away by getting naked.
So now, they've associated concerns over proper use of nanotechnology with people stripping in public. Nice job. That'll definitely encourage people to take such issues seriously.
I own a computer system for more reasons than gaming - development, office tools, internet connectivity, graphic editing, etc. This means, in short, I can game on it as well. I admittedly rarely do because I AM using all of the above, but still.
A computer is owned for a variety of reasons - a console largely for only one (though they are expanding). However the "footprint" of computers is rather large, so there's a reason to serve the market.
In addition, a computer is multifunctional. Any number of my friends and co-workers will game, code, chat, surf, and do gods knows what else online at the same time. A console itself, as of this time, is limited to one thing at one time.
The real question I'd say is how are things going to change in the future as distribution and price changes. The idea of some wholesale die-off seems rather extreme, and ignores the various possible outcomes.
Plenty of nice, kind, near-deaf people have been sharing their music with me for YEARS by the simple method of having gigantic speakers in their cars and blaring their music at a volume high enough to produce visible distortions in the air.
But now, with modern technology, they can annoy people who CHOSE to listen to whatever melody-impaired song they're playing.
Sadly, people on the sidewalk may loose out on such a chance, so they'll still have to employ their nuclear-powered speakers to continue their generosity.
That pretty much sums this up. A research into a kitchy phenomena revealed that things you'd expect anyway are true, at least as far as this kind of pop-culture acrobatics.
I'm not sure why this is Nature, and I'm even more confused as to why this is at Slashdot.
I used to be a programmer, but switched to Project Management. It's a transition filled with irony.
First, I can only do my job (IT PMing) because of ten years of computer experience. Where future PMs will come from in a declining IT population is a good question.
Secondly, as much as it goes against the grain of popular thought, not just any idiot can do management, just many try. If you're going to do actual work, it requires tactics, experience, communication, and broad knowledge. It's not for everyone.
My figuring is that no matter what happens, I can build the contacts and the skillsets to coordinate and implement tactics. Because right now while everyone is playing shift-the-programmer no one is actually thinking long-term and getting things done.
So, oddly, part of my career choice is based on the idea that people are making terrible decisions that I will then be paid well to deal with.
Though I'll decry Microsoft's problems, I do use their products often (usually as I have no choice). What I've found is this - Microsoft will fight and Microsoft will think.
The fights they pick we may not like. The plans they make we may not agree with. But the company is a self-survival machine and it's managed to do quite well for itself. Like it or not, they got to the top.
It may not always be on top. It may have to share the top. But they've got a deep war chest and people who are damned smart.
If Microsoft has weak points its inertia and the ability to adapt effectively. Microsoft sometimes takes too long to get things done, and some Microsoft plans seem to be less than stellar.
It won't go away. But the Microsoft of 10 years from now will NOT be the Microsoft of today.
I suppose some deep, True Geek part of me looks at something like a computer so primped and themed and marketed and finds it somehow just "wrong" to do to a machine.
Douglas Adams was one of my influences in my writing, my humor, and my ability to take a look at things in life. I'm glad he's getting additional attention with the film.
Trying to deal with an idiot on IRC. The server maintainer told him to try our alternate server at 127.0.0.1. And to keep trying because sometimes it was hard to get in.
Slashdot Mirror
That's the problem is that the situation is vasly different for different people - which is part of these various trends, I figure.
For me no kids, no home, my wife in a job she'd outgrown, in a city with a meandring economy in the midwest. After I got laid off we basically decided to leave, and specifically targeted areas, companies, and industries appropriate to my skills and our needs. I had more interviews out of the state than in - and in my state I could at least interview for contracts. The employer I went with was one I hadn't even expected to be interested, and proved to be great.
So for us, it came down to staying was a bigger risk than leaving. Staying probably meant career setbacks or stagnation, and eventually being unable to leave if we wanted to, being locked into a limiting geography and set of opportunities. We also had the ability to be mobile.
But not everyone is us, and that's one thing that I find a bit chilling - I'm seeing a Mobility Gap affecting people's economic status. Both of our jobs can be done mobily, as telecommuting, etc. Both of us can move if needed, travel if needed. Not everyone else can.
Among our friends, we see similar signs - some are staying in one area bound by a home, kids, economics, or both. Others are taking their careers mobile, looking at other states and countries.
Here's a bit of a contrast from what I've seen - I left the midwest for the west coast (IT Project Manager).
The big problem is getting people to move. Regions change and shift and grow, and one of the terrible problems is that to get talent, you may have to get it from somewhere else. I worked with one company who, essentially, raided a neighboring state for talent. Even if the job count stays the same, the type changes.
And it'll all shift again. Five years ago, pre-9/11 my home state was hopping. Post-9/11 it never fully recovered, several changes affected the job markets, and people began leaving - me with them. Now, having moved, ironicaly, I'm gettng leads. Maybe it'll change in a few years, or maybe I'll end up having my company move.
Another friend who's a storage expert in my old home can't find anywhere to go with his career, and has no choice to go to the coasts with his level of expertise. But again - what happens in five years? In ten.
As my current boss put it, "Not everyone is brave enough to move" for a job. It's a helluva risk. And I think the changing demographics of need, combined with the fact some people don't want to move, create areas with talent gaps.
This is all on top of the fact that a lot of IT people are damn bitter, and understandably so.
When I'm hiring people? If there's someone less monoskilled, I take them. If we have someone IN the company needing training, I train them.
Sadly, what is often missed in the discussion, is that the society as a whole has pretty much failed on every aspect of this. Promoting greed and profit over long-term plans. Disparaging education until it's too late. Acting as if a social safety net is a bad idea. It's a pretty toxic brew that leads to us screwing ourselves over- or electing people to do it for us. I'm saddened the wake-up call took this long.
And of course outsourcing is about money. Money is a powerful incentive, and dealing with it will require a powerful response.
But until then, we're all going to be fighting to keep up to stay employed.
Being management, some managers are definiely jerks. But also having been on both sides of the issue, there are no small amount of people who are essentially monoskilled individuals, relied on one limited skillset and frankly have no idea how business, the world or even their own industry runs. I myself blame a lot of the educational and cultural systems in this case.
Is it the only reason for outsourcing? Hell no. But it's something to keep in mind while people address the other factors - because right now no one is going to save us but ourselves.
In my experiences on both side of the interviewer's chair, it's the extras. This article goes into some, but I'd say not far enough. If you want to survive in IT, be more than an IT person or be a hell of a specialist.
Being a programmer-turned-Project Manager, that transition makes it painfully aware that being good at a job in IT is often far more than having IT skills (just as good management is more than about basic business skills). My most vivid example was hiring a consultant who had less IT experience than some of the other programmers, but his other skils (management, experience in manfuacturing, business knowledge), let him code more than just good code, he got the code we and the customers needed. And his bug count and need for revision were incredibly small.
The one thing that annoys me is people act like there's a lack of such skills ONLY in IT.
Pretty much after reading my article,I began wondering if this guy even plays the games or hangs out with people online, and how the hell he's extrapolating this.
Games produce worlds. World's have certain rules and bounds. Different worlds have different systems. Converging these worlds kind of wrecks the individuality and specificity people want out of them. Starting over? That's part of the fun. Different personas? The same thing - we don't always want ot be the same person.
Sure, there will be convergence. It's going to happen. It'll be interesting (SL seems to be part of it in a way). But its not what everyone's going to want. Social elements and gaming elements can intersect, but the way he forsees it removes the uniqueness of worlds.
I of course suspect there will be some convergent systems. I can see, for instance, an OS MMORPG project with multiple divergent worlds. I can see expandable systems. I can see MMORPG tech used for social tech (hell, it is anyway). But shared worlds? I don't buy it.
I've switched from programming to Project Management recently, and find that my honesty actually helps. It's almost like its refreshing to people that, even when I use bizspeak, I MEAN something. And I love honest numbers. It's weird to think my competitive edge may be actual communication.
And what's the website of this firm? Now I'm intrigued.
Good business is indeed all about communication. Kudos to your integrety (and what IS your small business if I may ask).
However, in a world with a lot of bad business practices, communication gets quickly obscured. When most people are flinging BS, it's who flings the most convincing BS that wins.
The point of the Weasel Words actually is not communication, however. The last thing way too many wordweasels want to do is actually say something.
I more reccomend throwing yourself at the ground and missing. Or in the case of these films, it's probably more throwing yourself at the plot and missing.
I have an OS running my browser to run an OS shell on. Now can I get a browser on this OS so I can bring up web pages inside the browser inside the OS running on my browser running on my OS?
People with too much time on their hands decide to pre-emptively protest something decades away by getting naked.
So now, they've associated concerns over proper use of nanotechnology with people stripping in public. Nice job. That'll definitely encourage people to take such issues seriously.
I don't think 5 generations myself. I see more 2-3. But I think you're on the right track.
Technologies are changing and converging all the time. Things don't die in many cases - they're adsorbed, modified, extended, or cloned.
I own a computer system for more reasons than gaming - development, office tools, internet connectivity, graphic editing, etc. This means, in short, I can game on it as well. I admittedly rarely do because I AM using all of the above, but still.
A computer is owned for a variety of reasons - a console largely for only one (though they are expanding). However the "footprint" of computers is rather large, so there's a reason to serve the market.
In addition, a computer is multifunctional. Any number of my friends and co-workers will game, code, chat, surf, and do gods knows what else online at the same time. A console itself, as of this time, is limited to one thing at one time.
The real question I'd say is how are things going to change in the future as distribution and price changes. The idea of some wholesale die-off seems rather extreme, and ignores the various possible outcomes.
Plenty of nice, kind, near-deaf people have been sharing their music with me for YEARS by the simple method of having gigantic speakers in their cars and blaring their music at a volume high enough to produce visible distortions in the air.
But now, with modern technology, they can annoy people who CHOSE to listen to whatever melody-impaired song they're playing.
Sadly, people on the sidewalk may loose out on such a chance, so they'll still have to employ their nuclear-powered speakers to continue their generosity.
. . . man, what parallel universe did that response come from?
Methinks you responded to the wrong comment, our you're just spamming.
That pretty much sums this up. A research into a kitchy phenomena revealed that things you'd expect anyway are true, at least as far as this kind of pop-culture acrobatics.
I'm not sure why this is Nature, and I'm even more confused as to why this is at Slashdot.
I used to be a programmer, but switched to Project Management. It's a transition filled with irony.
First, I can only do my job (IT PMing) because of ten years of computer experience. Where future PMs will come from in a declining IT population is a good question.
Secondly, as much as it goes against the grain of popular thought, not just any idiot can do management, just many try. If you're going to do actual work, it requires tactics, experience, communication, and broad knowledge. It's not for everyone.
My figuring is that no matter what happens, I can build the contacts and the skillsets to coordinate and implement tactics. Because right now while everyone is playing shift-the-programmer no one is actually thinking long-term and getting things done.
So, oddly, part of my career choice is based on the idea that people are making terrible decisions that I will then be paid well to deal with.
Though I'll decry Microsoft's problems, I do use their products often (usually as I have no choice). What I've found is this - Microsoft will fight and Microsoft will think.
The fights they pick we may not like. The plans they make we may not agree with. But the company is a self-survival machine and it's managed to do quite well for itself. Like it or not, they got to the top.
It may not always be on top. It may have to share the top. But they've got a deep war chest and people who are damned smart.
If Microsoft has weak points its inertia and the ability to adapt effectively. Microsoft sometimes takes too long to get things done, and some Microsoft plans seem to be less than stellar.
It won't go away. But the Microsoft of 10 years from now will NOT be the Microsoft of today.
A good point. Fakegeeks. Or Posergeeks.
I suppose some deep, True Geek part of me looks at something like a computer so primped and themed and marketed and finds it somehow just "wrong" to do to a machine.
For people who need to go out of their way to say they're geeks.
(Where as geeks with nothing to prove make an R2-D2 case mod on their own).
Douglas Adams was one of my influences in my writing, my humor, and my ability to take a look at things in life. I'm glad he's getting additional attention with the film.
Goodbye and thanks for all the books.
Trying to deal with an idiot on IRC. The server maintainer told him to try our alternate server at 127.0.0.1. And to keep trying because sometimes it was hard to get in.
Never saw him again.
[Young Mr. Grace] You've got a criminal mind, you have.
Whose the most evil this week? Up-and-comer Google, or Microsoft, the old standby?
Though seriously, scummy as this is, it doesn't surprise me.
Either think outside of the box or get buried in it.