I was glad to hear that they're coming around to seeing people as people instead of just as consumers. ;) I love how companies are gaining faces. They may have lost Robert Scoble, but they've learned the importance of having human connections! John said that they're moving more towards thinking of relationships, which is one of the things I've gotten really interested in.

In the course of the chat, John asked me what languages I program in. I rattled off a few - Emacs Lisp leading the list, of course. He had seen my resume online, so he knew that practically all of my experience was with free and open source software. I told him that was because open source was how I could work on things that mattered, even as an undergraduate in a Third World country. I loved learning from other people's code, and I still do. Microsoft won't—can't!—make me spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about open source. =)

What about IBM? If I can do Enterprise 2.0 evangelism, then it would be tremendously exciting to get in on the ground floor and help shape the technology. I've gotten to meet so many amazing IBMers through blogging and social bookmarking, and that kind of a connection isn't just something to walk away from! I also really, really enjoy mashing together all the Enterprise 2.0 services. =) If IBM can help me make *just* the right career for myself, then they've got dibs on my brain for taking that chance on me and giving me all these wonderful things to play with.

IBM doesn't quite have an evangelist track, though. I've been advised to look into technical pre-sales or business analysis. If Microsoft comes up with something that's an even better fit for my interests and goals, I'll consider them. After all, they have "evangelist" as a proper career path! =) I really want to be around lots of other people who do what I do or want to do, and I'd love to go to conferences and summits to meet other developers and evangelists.

John asked me what I wanted in a position. I want products and services that I'm passionate about and people I love working with. I want to get out there, meet people, and help them succeed by connecting them with other people I've met, showing them tools they'll find useful, and supporting them as they figure things out. I want to always be learning something new, always be playing around with something cool. The more I learn, the more I can give to more people. I want to be part of the community, and I want to help start communities elsewhere. I want to bridge worlds. I want to tell stories about the cool stuff other people are doing, and what people can do.

I like the picture John painted of evangelism. I'm going to do something like that. What company I do it with depends on a number of factors: the specifics of the career, how I feel about the company's solutions, the connections I have, the testimonials of other people within the organization... I'm looking forward to sorting that out next year! If I go with Microsoft or another company, that's okay - I think I'm creating enough value for IBM to make my fellowship more than worth it, and I'm going to keep ties with them. =)

Here's a sample job ad for the "enthusiast evangelist" position John mentioned. This isn't for Microsoft Canada, but it gives a good idea of the kind of work involved.

Come join the team that is changing the way Microsoft is connecting with influential end users as an Enthusiast Evangelist for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Headquarters. Our connection with “influential end users” lies at the center of Microsoft’s continued long term success as a platform company.

Candidates will be young graduates coming from a technical, marketing, media or other appropriate background and can prove to have a deep passion for technology. Participants must have excellent English and interpersonal communication skills.

Candidates are strategic thinkers, able to balance individual creativity with working as a team and will have a high degree of customer and partner focus.

We have created for you a program called MACH (Microsoft Academy for University Hires). Of this program, the candidate will participate in the Marketing programme which is a two-year international graduate course that will make the graduate familiar with the marketing culture at Microsoft.

The first year is structured academy training, and the second focuses on career development. The programme is for participants with less than 18 months of work experience. Though challenging, they equip the participants with the skills and know-how required for a rewarding career.

Required Profile

• Passionate about digital lifestyle and rich consumer experiences across different mediums and technologies.
• Individuals may come from either a technical, marketing, media or other appropriate background.
• A deep strong understanding of this end user community proven by participation in online communities and/or user groups.
• Flexibility in regards to work schedule and travel.
• Solid understanding of the competitive products (hardware and software) and how to differentiate Microsoft from its competitors.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills.

Candidates are born communicators with a passion for, and solid knowledge of the influential end users, the blogosphere and online media and most things that are part of the Digital Lifestyle.

The candidate will need to show the potential to develop strong leadership and program management skills as well as cross group collaborations skill and knowledge of the field.

To be successful, this candidate will need to show pragmatism and willingness to roll up the sleeves and get the job done!

I'd love to talk more with people in both companies doing the kind of stuff I want to do so that I can get a better idea of what it's like. But yeah, exciting times...

On Technorati: career, purpose

Random Emacs symbol: gnus-summary-catchup-and-goto-next-group - Command: Mark all articles in this group as read and select the next group.

- From the Winner Within, by Pat Riley, coach, Miami Heat, as quoted in Business is a Contact Sport, by Tom Richardson, Augusto Vidaurreta, and Tom Gorman.

On Technorati: life, purpose

Random Emacs symbol: next-file-list - Variable: List of files for M-x next-file to process.

But I am also awakening to a gift I have with people. I want to reach millions and millions of people over generations and generations. I want to lift them up, inspire them, share my experiences with them. I want to tell their stories and help make their dreams come true. This is what I want to do with my life.

I don't want to wait until I've made my money before I do good. I want to get out there and live and love and do and write and speak and share. I will keep my needs simple, my schedule flexible, and my overhead low so that I can spend as much time as possible developing myself and other people.

I belong to the world not just as a mind, but also as a heart, and I will make a life that allows me to express both.

So, concretely, how can we make this happen?

• I want to repay the trust the university has shown in me by finishing my master's degree and doing well.
• I want to set up a newsletter and topic-focused blog that inspires people and shares tips with them.
• I want to write best-selling books. The second book will be easier than the first, so I should really just sit down, pull out material from my blog, do more research, and make this happen. Hey, maybe even before I'm 25. ;)
• I want to be a totally awesome professional speaker. That way, I can reach *lots* of people with not only my message but with my communication style. It's also a good reason to meet people around the world.
• I want to set up an organization for generous connecting.
• Lots more!

How can I make this self-supporting? I want to get as quickly as possible to the point where I don't have to worry about my expenses so that I can follow these crazy ideas for free. Then I can build up my crazy idea capital, and then we're off!

The best way for me to do that is not to plan for retirement at 60 with a slow-and-steady savings plan, but to take advantage of my crazy ideas, train my intuition, and get better at going from crazy idea to reality.

If I open my mind and look for ways I can create value for other people (like my networking business cards that list my favorite networking books!), then I'll probably be able to create enough value to make the kind of life I want.

(Crazy idea! Trust in coincidence by having business cards with random stuff on the back. Moo cards does this with Flickr photos. Why not do that with whatever you currently want/have? I think business cards should be short-run and current. That way, they're more than just a static piece of contact information, and you'll have reasons to keep giving people your cards and for people to keep reading yours! Maybe I should start date-stamping my business cards... Ah, now there's a great idea...)

Right. That's the ticket. I should keep a notebook of all these crazy ideas. Probably a blog page *and* a paper notebook. Probably part of my Moleskine. And I should go and make those crazy ideas happen, like advertising on my laptop or tweaking my business card, etc.

I don't mind giving the ideas away. I get terrific feedback. In fact, if other people pick up the idea and run with it, that means I get to train my crazy-idea sense for free!

Remember the movie Phenomenon? I want to be that guy, overflowing with lots of ideas and improvements! I want to be someone you tell about the cool stuff you're working on because I'll be enthusiastic about it too, and I *might* just go "Hey, what do you think about trying out ...?"

Simon's fantastic at designing systems from scratch. I'm good at thinking about how to improve something that's already there, finding things to smoothen, noticing things that are missing... Come to think of it, even my computing background points to this. Why do I love open source development? Because I can build on what's there! Why am I totally addicted to Emacs? Because it indulges my crazy-idea thing! Whee!

So I want the ability to explore all these crazy ideas even when I'm working. I have lots of options in terms of the type of job, too.

• A high-margin job that will train me up and take advantage of what I can do well and the crazy ideas I can come up with - marketing and sales, maybe?
• A job that develops my skills even though it requires more work and concentration, such as writing. But not for long.
• Something that pays for my expenses without demanding any mindshare, such as waiting tables ;) (Can't do that on my work permit, though!)

Right. Getting a better sense of what I want in life. There we go. Does that sound like a plan? Let's make it happen. =)

On Technorati: purpose, life, :)

Not that the ideas proposed in the video were new to me. I take it practically for granted that you attract what you think about, that you notice what you're attuned to, and that the universe is one of abundance. The video was flashy and fast-paced, although you'll probably want to skip the pretentious first sequence and mentally edit out some of the more over-the-top effects. Despite the distractions, though, I managed to still my mind enough to attend to the video, collecting stories, gleaning insights, and reflecting on my own experiences.

There was a short lull after the video ended, then everyone else dug into the almost-forgotten fruits. I stayed still, turning the thoughts over in my head, permitting silence to fill in the gaps and listening to how I felt instead of immediately putting things into words. This was perhaps strange to the friends who were there. Shane asked me if I didn't like the movie. I smiled and told him that it was the story of my life, that I knew what it was to grow up attracting all these blessings. Lara agreed that everyone could probably find examples of experiences that fit, and the conversation went on - but still I kept quiet, reflecting.

A few hours earlier and I could have channelled the energy of passion and excitement into the discussion, matching the tone of Shane and Lara's voices, but I was in a serene mood. I haven't yet connected with either Shane or Lara on that level, when the silences are comfortable and one speaks when moved to. I've been that way with Quinn, and Jed, and Simon - yes, Simon has his calm moments, hard as that may be to believe. <laugh>

Serenity. Those who know me primarily for my enthusiasm and who have mainly seen me on the sugar-high I get on life usually worry the first time they see me in one of my calm moods, and even those who know me well often ask me if I'm feeling down. (Trust me, if I were feeling down, you'd know!) Serenity is that quiet stillness within me and the space I create in order to discern.

And now, hours later, I have a better understanding of how I feel.

I agree with the gist of the video: the mind is powerful, our attitude shapes our life, and our feelings and intuition give us a good way to sense how well we're doing.

However, thinking about it, I've come to realize that it is not the full secret of my life. What thesecret.tv describes is not my philosophy or my way of living. There is something different, something missing...

Ah. Here is the gap. The video focuses on receiving, but does not describe the great joy I have in giving. The video describes visualizing a goal, but I also love discerning a path. The video talks about uplifting the self, but my desires go beyond myself.

In order to serve, I must take care of myself, of course. I can't help people if I am miserable; joy comes from joy. But I am confident that if I listen and extend myself, the universe will nourish me. It always has.

I do not need to manifest anything into my life. Happiness is not something that is in my future, a puzzle with jigsaw pieces that I have to find and assemble. It is simply now. I have an abundance of opportunities, and my job is to explore them. It'll be *tons* of fun!

I ask the universe for some things, but in general the world gives me things before I even know to ask for them. If I am to receive anything, I ask for the discernment to see the best things to do at a moment, the beauty in each instant, and the ways to help people explore their potential.

On Technorati: happiness, purpose, friends, video

I have a lot of options ahead of me, and I want to think about this carefully. My first job doesn't have to be perfect, but it would be good to understand what my values and priorities are. I want to be extraordinary. I know, I'm 23 and my direction in life will change as I discover more about myself and about others. =) But it's good to think about it every now and then...

So here's where I stand, so far:

These are the two prospects I feel most passionate about, and I may be able to pursue them both. I don't want to be so heads-down in tech that I serve a narrow audience—only the users of my system—nor do I want to be so heads-down in management that I lose touch with my technical side. I think I can make this happen, though.

So, how can I go about doing that?

For social systems, there are all sorts of little things that I would like to build for myself or suggest to other people. I can learn good design through exposure and experience. I can write about features and systems I would like to see. I can even prototype them. I should spend some time learning how to make better user interfaces (a proper mouse may help!) and prototyping things on Rails or some other quick platform. Easy enough for me to get into.

For outsourcing, there might be a good opportunity to help set up a relationship between Direct Leap and either QSR or Exist. I know a few people who want to help me learn how to do this. I'm all for it!

My master's degree can help me with both. My research is related to the former, and my coursework is related to the latter.

Hmm. Sounds like a good plan. I've got other plans, just in case, but these are the two best plans at the moment.

On Technorati: purpose, reflection, career, business, outsourcing

Every time I use Emacs+Gnus+Planner+BBDB, LinkedIn, OpenBC or even my little black Moleskine notebook and fountain pen, I always find little things to improve. I'm in that zone again, and I'm having *so* much fun. Emacs and my Moleskine are nearly infinitely hackable within the constraints of computer and paper, respectively. As for LinkedIn and OpenBC—that *itch* is making me want to write code for someone else.

The last time I felt like this was when I was in the thick of Planner development, working with a fantastic community of enthusiastic users around the world. It was *amazing* being able to make all these little differences in people's lives. I stayed with the project until I found myself too content, and then I turned it over to someone else because it was something that deserved passion.

Maybe I've found my coding passion again, something wider in scope than the little ways I customize my blog or my e-mail client or my contact database.

The more I think about it, the more attractive it is. How strange that low-key services like LinkedIn and OpenBC appeal to me more than the big names in the industry! I have the feeling that I'll be able to make more of a difference there (at least for now) than in companies like IBM, Google, or Yahoo - although those three are certainly exciting in terms of the other cool geeks I'd get to work with...

... but oooh, imagine the opportunity to work directly with really cool users? I could so totally rock. I'd *love* to be able to bring my technical *and* social passions to the table. That feels like a good short-term next step.

Figuring out my options...

On Technorati: career, purpose, networking, passion

“Ask yourself three questions. First, what comes easy to me, but harder to others? The second question is, what would you do for work for years and years and never have to get paid for it? And the third question is, how can you be of service and how can you give back?” Gray advises.

Same questions my parents taught me to always ask myself. =)

On Technorati: life, career, purpose

I think I came to those thoughts because of various heavy things Simon and I had been talking about over the weekend, like the senseless tragedy of the war in Lebanon.

Looking around at my room, I poked fun at my inability to keep things as neatly organized as people here have. I said even after a year in Canada, I still hadn't gotten used to it, and I'd probably make room in my professional budget for managed housing or a housekeeping service.

Reflecting on that further, though, I realized that that weakness of mine wasn't a core part of my identity and that it should never be. I _can_ keep things neat if I take the time to, and if I can't make the time for that, then I should scale back my life until I can.

This led me to think about the difficulties people had around me, and thus the existential angst. With all these problems in the world, what am _I_ doing to help? Is what I'm doing with my research really worth it?

Instead of ignoring it or lying awake thinking about it, I pulled out a flashlight and one of my reflection books. There in brightly-colored markers were all these diagrams showing how I felt about life and what I wanted to do. (Thanks, Diane Lazaro, for giving me a creativity kit!)

In large blue letters, one page read: "I WANT TO TELL STORIES!" With that reminder, everything clicked into place again. I'm doing my master's research in social computing because I want to learn how to effectively tell stories about technology, not just because I want an excuse to stick around in Canada for a while. I'm part of Toastmasters and I'm exploring writing because I want to tell stories.

I want to tell stories because so many people have such interesting stories that can touch the lives of thousands and thousands of other people. I want to draw people's stories out and help them understand themselves more. I want to tell stories that will help people imagine what they can do with technology or how they can improve their relationships with other people.

Maybe that's how I can change the world. =)

I'm glad I drew those diagrams before. I love writing and drawing and talking and thinking. I know I'm going to run into similar questions again and again—I'm human, I forget myself—and having something to go back to gives me great joy.

On Technorati: reflection, purpose

Random Japanese sentence: 虎を大きな猫というなら、同じように猫を小さな虎といってもよい。 You may as well call a cat a small tiger as call a tiger a big cat.

Sacha, saying that you don't want to be a programmer in the 21st century because you don't want Marketing between you and the user is like saying you didn't want to be a programmer in the 20th century because you didn't like waiting for the operator who carries your stack of punch cards to the computer. The way software development gets organized is always changing. It's getting lighter weight all the time.

And he's right, you know. I enjoy stitching systems together and thinking of just the right tool(s) to fit people's needs. I love working with people to figure out how they can make those tools a part of their lives. I need more actual practice doing this, I think - the technology evangelism I'm doing at IBM is barely a taste - but it seems like a lot of fun.

I want to be a technosocial architect. From Thomas Vander Wal's description:

Looking at the digital tools we have around us: websites, social computing services and tools (social networking sites, wikis, blogs, mobile interaction, etc.), portals, intranets, mobile information access, search, recommendation services, personals, shopping, commerce, etc. and each of these is a social communication tool that is based on technology. Each of these has uses for the information beyond the digital walls of their service. Each of these has people who are interacting with other people through digital technology mediation. This goes beyond information architecture, user experience design, interaction design, application development, engineering, etc. It has needs that are more holistic (man I have been trying to avoid that word) and broad as well as deep. It is a need for understanding what is central to human social interactions. It is a need for understanding the technical and digital impact our tools and services have in mediating the social interaction between people. It is a need for understanding how to tie all of this together to best serve people and their need for information that matters to them when they want it and need it.

Maybe I can hack code _and_ people. =)

On Technorati: career, purpose, reflection

Random Japanese sentence: 彼女がドアを開けるやいなや猫が走り出た。 No sooner had she opened the door than a cat ran out.

I'm not a technology evangelist as much as I am a storyteller. I can tell stories about non-technological things, and in fact I _love_ telling stories about so many different things and so many different people.

That's it! I want to tell stories!

Here's how my grad school research ties into it. My master's thesis will be about how to tell newbies stories about a social computing system so that they can understand the value of the system, so that they'll _get_ it.

I'm looking forward to going to work tomorrow. I plan to be on the first bus out and the last bus back so that I can catch up on all the stories on the blogosphere. I'm looking forward to writing, to calling attention to other people's stories. I'm looking forward to preparing more talks and articles, polishing stories and facts and ideas into presentations that might persuade people to try things out. That's what my life purpose translates to in terms of my very next action.

Short-term? Let's talk about one year. My master's thesis is one of my top priorities, of course, and I see it as a good reason for me to find out if stories are useful and what kinds of stories might help people understand social bookmarking. Orgchart, location, network? Lots of other ways to take advantage of someone's context... Anyway, it's shaping up to be a really exciting project, and something that I'd love to see translated into other areas like blogging.

No, I have no idea yet how I can make a living through storytelling. I want to learn how to write books and speak well. I may need to figure out what to do in the middle, while I'm still not "respectable"... <laugh>

I want to listen to people's. I want to tell people's stories. I want to learn about how to do those two things really, really well.

On Technorati: purpose, life, reflection

Random Japanese sentence: １匹の猫がカーテンの陰から現れた。 A cat appeared from behind the curtain.

After reading my post about being a girl, one of my closest friends wrote:

I never thought you ever got such thoughts:

And when the shadows in my head whisper that I'm not as good as the others, not as geeky as the others, I drown them in Emacs Lisp. ;)

I always saw you as someone strong and has everything together - yeah like you are a hitchhiker with your towel with you all the time ;)

I get that a lot, the nagging thoughts that I am not as good as others. It's kinda tough when that happens because I still haven't figured out what my strengths are. I am something like a Jack of all trades but a master of none. And that is something I have to live with everyday.

This is one of the reasons why I think out loud. I want to connect with other people on a deeper level. It is important to me to be human, approachable and understandable. This blog will not be a polished, professional archive of useful articles. It will have my cooking misadventures, my existential crises, my questions. My issues, as a friend put it. Yes, I have issues. Not very earth-shaking ones, mind you, but I have more questions than I have answers - and I love that!

I talk a lot about feeling insecure, but that's because I love looking for what I can learn from other people. I don't feel threatened as much as I feel inspired. My confidence is not a show that I put on for other people. When I'm in my element, the energy I get from people and from the situation fills me.

When I falter, friends help me remember. You help me remember who I am and why I'm here. My blog lets me go back and look over things in my own words, searching for similar times to find out what I did and how I resolved the situation.

Sometimes it may seem that I'm worried too much about how I measure up to other people (5'1/4"? ;) ) or that I feel too insecure. But hey, we all have different strengths, and I love exploring different things in order to find out how I can be of most benefit to the world. =)

(Besides, one of the cool things about this picture is that the bird on the lower line can see everything that's going on! ;) )

On Technorati: purpose, confidence, selfconfidence, blogging

Random Japanese sentence: 寝る前に猫を外に出すのを忘れないでね。 Please remember to put out the cat before you go to bed.

Although I've studied the material provided here, what I would really like is to be able to hire someone who is 100% comfortable with these technologies to help me get accustomed to them. Like a "new media coach" ;-).

On Technorati: purpose

I had such a strong reaction against his ideas that I had to stop myself from being frustrated. I recognized that I felt he didn't understand what unconferences were about. I also recognized that I couldn't yet articulate the differences between unconferences and conferences in a way that would make the changes and benefits clear. I was frustrated, yes, but I was frustrated with myself for being unable to figure out how to hack unconferences into Filipino culture without turning the event into yet another thing that divides speakers from audience instead of creating a community of participants.

I knew Dominique wanted to help me think things through, but the strength and irrationality of my reaction made me realize that I needed to first think things over with people who know the unconference culture and who may have insights into helping a new community adapt.

I need more insight from people like Chris Messina and David Crow. How does one hack unconferences into a society's culture? How can I help people go from a strongly hierarchical culture to a flatter one? Must ask Don Marti, too...

I don't have answers. I don't even know where to start. One good thing is that I can recognize when I'm hitting a wall, though. When I heard Dominique repeat his suggestion for inviting talks from outside disciplines and I knew I just couldn't listen well enough to do him credit, I thanked Dominique for sharing his thoughts and confessed my inability to discuss things further at this time. I need to talk to the others first. I need to figure things out.

You know, it's just _so_ tempting to not think about how to hack something like unconferences into Philippine society. It would be so easy to just enjoy the fruits of other people's labor in a tech culture that's starting to take off. But I want to bring these ideas home...

And you know what? Maybe I don't need to figure out how to get people out of their chairs and into the conversation. Maybe I can focus on just meeting the Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, the connectors who are reaching out to me and to each other. I'd like to meet them in person and get them to talk to each other. Maybe I don't have to think about doing that this August. Maybe I can do that this December, if I can afford to go home.

I don't feel bad about being asked tough questions. I feel bad about not knowing the answers and not even being able to explain why something doesn't feel right. I just need to talk to more people and try more things in order to figure out what to do.

And I seriously need hot chocolate and a hug, but that's just because I'm feeling all lost again... I'll try to postpone thinking about it until Friday, as I'm booked until then.

On Technorati: :(, purpose, philippines, barcamp, unconference

Random Japanese sentence: うちの猫って甘えん坊で、どこでも私のあと着いて来るのよね。 My cat is such a baby, she follows me around wherever I go.

I cooled off in Chapters, reading books on things like T-shirt surgery, business, and small talk strategies. The ideas blended in with my reflections on the past few weeks, and I realized something about myself that I hadn't dared admit before.

The things I'm good at and want to get better at? They look suspiciously like sales and marketing.

Now, before all the geeks start booing and hissing me for selling out, let me explain why I think this is perfectly in line with my geeking. ;)

I love the way technology makes my life better. I love technology so much that I want to help other people figure out how they can make the most of technology. I can't hack _all_ the things I want people to know about, but if I know other people who can, or I know of products or services that can do the job, I want people to discover them.

I want to learn more about building relationships with people and between other people, and I want to build those relationships by helping people discover things that might be useful for them.

It fits me, too. I love telling people about cool tools and interesting technologies. I love writing down notes during conversations and following up with people afterwards. I love connecting with people and understanding where they're coming from. Heck, I love reading every single blog post inside IBM, getting the overall picture, and connecting people whenever I can.

Hooray! I have more words to describe what I want to do. I can recognize more opportunities. I have a better idea of what help I need to get. =) I need to learn more about sales and marketing in order to figure out how I can get started and how I can scale. I have a long way to go...

On Technorati: purpose

Random Japanese sentence: 私は犬の方が猫より好きです。何故なら前者の方が後者より忠実ですから。 I like dogs better than cats, because the former are more faithful than the latter.

That's a very broad goal. What does it mean?

I want to help people make the most of blogs, wikis, podcasts, vidcasts, social bookmarking, social networking, community content management systems, whatever. I want to help them figure out how to use version control systems and request trackers and mailing lists. I want to make it easier to use phone and e-mail and little stickies on the fridge...

What should I learn more about? I need to figure out how to set up a blog farm, a wiki farm, a social bookmarking site, Drupal, etc. Bryght does hosted community sites with Drupal, so they'd be good mentors and models. I'm also interested in the social aspects of it. My research into innovation diffusion and technology adoption _totally_ makes sense in that context.

Mmkay. That sounds like a plan. I'm going to need some help figuring out how to make it happen, but that resonates with me.

I don't mind working on mind-numbing web stuff if I'm working with fun people. I don't mind explaining for the nth time what a blog is and how people can use blogs for fun and profit, because I learn something new every time I talk about that. And of course there are so many things that aren't even on most people's radars...

Right. That sounds like what I want to do. Now, how do I go about doing it?

On Technorati: purpose, social

Random Japanese sentence: 私は犬の方が猫より好きだが、それは前者が後者より忠実だからだ。 I like a dog better than a cat, for the former is more faithful than the latter.

On Technorati: career, purpose

I'm _supposed_ to be a Maven. That's what computer geeks do - they geek. They grok. They learn something inside out. Strangely, though, I have the feeling that this isn't quite my thing, that this isn't quite what I'm meant to do. I guess it relates to my teaching philosophy. I'm not the expert! <laugh> I don't know everything, and I'm much happier helping people learn than trying to teach them everything they need to know. Besides, hanging out with people far more brilliant than I am makes me feel decidedly un-Maven-ish. =)

You know what I have _tons_ of fun doing? Connecting people with other people. I really, really want to help people make things happen, and if I can connect them with other people with similar or complementary passions, that would be totally awesome! I also _really_ have a lot of fun listening to people. I sell, sell, sell - not stuff, but ideas, passion, confidence... I sell people themselves. I sell dreams of what they can do. I _love_ doing that! (And to think I used to be an INTJ...)

So I need your help figuring out what I'm going to do with my life. =) Software developer? I can do that, but there's just so much else I _also_ want to do. I'd love it if you could help me imagine what my future can be so that I can prepare for it better. =D It's not exactly the kind of thing you'd find in, say, What Color is Your Parachute...

On Technorati: purpose, aha

Random Japanese sentence: 猫がソファーでねむっている。 The cat is sleeping on the sofa.

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Also, technology evangelism. I can very much see myself doing tech evangelism for the next ten, twenty years. For that one, I need to be close to the people I train—but the world is changing, and it's not just North America any more. I wouldn't mind being based in Asia, for example... ;)

I like that more than serial startups. =) As for startups: I don't mind just convincing someone else to teach people how to get started. I don't have to teach it myself. I just have to connect people who want to learn with people who can and want to teach...

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