Have you read an article called 'The Nature of Nerds' and its idea of F.I.N. - the Federation of Independent Nerds? http://www.managementlearning.com/art/cultnerd/ind ex.html Its last paragraph runs: "It may be interesting to reflect upon the open source argument. Microsoft argues for proprietary software. The nerds, in general, argue for open source. The argument has little to do with effectiveness and more to do with (business) ethics. Microsoft want to own the fruits of their investment. The nerds belong to an international fraternity. A prediction? Microsoft is a mammoth organisation but FIN (the fraternity of independent nerds) is bigger. If the thesis in this article is correct, the brightest nerds do not, and will not, work for Microsoft. We shall see!"
Some of the stuff about coding and it being cheaper elsewhere is industrial age thinking. Sure, a lot of 'nerdwork' is no more important in itself that assembly workers on an automobile production line and it is this stuff that gets done where it is cheapest. The added value stuff is the creative work, making new ideas and possibilities - which was what the web was. So OK, yesterday's creativity is today's production line - and this happens faster and faster. To some extent this is a matter of how nerds get managed and 'used'. Take a look at http://www.managementlearning.com/art/leadbala/ind ex.html: "Traditional methods of leadership were designed for supervision by factory workers. They emphasize regularity, measurement, orderly appearance, predictability and control. When leaders attempt to enforce traditional leadership in the new knowledge organization, they impede the flow of information, discourage creativity, inhibit adaptation and undermine productivity. In the new world, traditional power-centered leaders often achieve the opposite of what they intended. Leaders who do not understand this new world try to remedy their declining effectiveness by using power to quash dissent and by imposing tighter controls. Caught in a vicious cycle of decreasing access to knowledge and increasing use of power, they are puzzled by the organization's downward spiral in performance." and at http://www.managementlearning.com/art/cultnerd/ind ex.html "Management is orientated towards company goals. Nerds are not. Managers will have to live with this because the nerds are not going to change. You will motivate a nerd by enabling him or her to work on interesting problems in the way that he or she deems satisfactory. You can try to hurry them up -but there is a risk attached. The manager's priorities are not the nerd's. Drive too hard and you will have an empty chair pushed up to the computer screen. Nerds are mobile." Well they used to be more mobile than they are. The fact remains that management has still not learned how to work in the information age - and nerds don't seem to be able to tell them. While both think that it is about coding, the next step in creativity get's help up.
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Have you read an article called 'The Nature of Nerds' and its idea of F.I.N. - the Federation of Independent Nerds? http://www.managementlearning.com/art/cultnerd/ind ex.html Its last paragraph runs: "It may be interesting to reflect upon the open source argument. Microsoft argues for proprietary software. The nerds, in general, argue for open source. The argument has little to do with effectiveness and more to do with (business) ethics. Microsoft want to own the fruits of their investment. The nerds belong to an international fraternity. A prediction? Microsoft is a mammoth organisation but FIN (the fraternity of independent nerds) is bigger. If the thesis in this article is correct, the brightest nerds do not, and will not, work for Microsoft. We shall see!"
Some of the stuff about coding and it being cheaper elsewhere is industrial age thinking. Sure, a lot of 'nerdwork' is no more important in itself that assembly workers on an automobile production line and it is this stuff that gets done where it is cheapest. The added value stuff is the creative work, making new ideas and possibilities - which was what the web was. So OK, yesterday's creativity is today's production line - and this happens faster and faster. To some extent this is a matter of how nerds get managed and 'used'. Take a look at http://www.managementlearning.com/art/leadbala/ind ex.html: "Traditional methods of leadership were designed for supervision by factory workers. They emphasize regularity, measurement, orderly appearance, predictability and control. When leaders attempt to enforce traditional leadership in the new knowledge organization, they impede the flow of information, discourage creativity, inhibit adaptation and undermine productivity. In the new world, traditional power-centered leaders often achieve the opposite of what they intended. Leaders who do not understand this new world try to remedy their declining effectiveness by using power to quash dissent and by imposing tighter controls. Caught in a vicious cycle of decreasing access to knowledge and increasing use of power, they are puzzled by the organization's downward spiral in performance."d ex.html
and at http://www.managementlearning.com/art/cultnerd/in
"Management is orientated towards company goals. Nerds are not. Managers will have to live with this because the nerds are not going to change. You will motivate a nerd by enabling him or her to work on interesting problems in the way that he or she deems satisfactory. You can try to hurry them up -but there is a risk attached. The manager's priorities are not the nerd's. Drive too hard and you will have an empty chair pushed up to the computer screen. Nerds are mobile."
Well they used to be more mobile than they are. The fact remains that management has still not learned how to work in the information age - and nerds don't seem to be able to tell them. While both think that it is about coding, the next step in creativity get's help up.