Mark Freedman’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category

When I drive to and from work, I listen to podcasts. It makes the trip go faster, and allows me to focus on something other than the traffic. It also takes my mind off the day’s events if it was a rather difficult one.

Quiet Time

But sometimes I need to shut everything off and have quiet time to really think. Listening to podcasts and the radio gets in the way. It can cause you to avoid seriously thinking about life and what you should be doing, which is something that can be uncomfortable to think about. That’s because this usually involves having difficult thoughts you have to face, and even terrifying decisions you have to make. But sometimes you’ve got to just sit in your car, and think clearly about these things without any distractions.

Life Defining Decisions

I was recently in this situation. My boss had set up a meeting for the next day to discuss my future goals at our company. I wasn’t totally clear in my head about my plans. Or was it that I was unclear about what I wanted to tell him? I wanted to say that I’d like to stay in the technology field, but I needed to work on something that would make a real difference in the world. There’s an idea that I’ve been working on for several years with a couple of other people. We’ve put together many revisions of a business plan, have a working prototype, and feel that if we can get this product out there, it could improve the productivity of millions of people. It’s software I’d love to use myself.

Eventually, a lot of us find ourselves in interesting but ultimately unfulfilling jobs. Some of us get to the point where we want to spend our time and energy towards making our own dream a reality, instead of supporting someone else’s dream.

It was during one of these deep thought sessions when I decided to tell my boss my true goals. I work for a startup (well, I’m not sure you could call us that anymore, but I’m one of the very early employees), and ownership is entrepreneurial. They know what I’m capable of, and I know the owners pretty well. I’d heard that they’ve helped other like-minded employees before, so I was willing to open up. It’s rather liberating to no longer keep this bottled up.

Literally Listening to Yourself

Even after turning off the podcasts, it’s easy to get distracted with bottled up thoughts bouncing around in your head. So one thing I’ve started to do is record my thoughts. This prevents them from slipping through the cracks, making it all too easy not to take action on a lot of this stuff. I’ve found that recording is great. I can review later, analyze better, and think more clearly. I often feel embarrassed talking out loud — even to myself. This is one of the reasons I want to try Toastmasters. Not only to get more comfortable speaking in public, but to feel more comfortable speaking to myself.

Since I began this habit, almost all of my blogging entries have originated from this self-dictation. I find myself debating a topic (with myself) for an hour, and later on I transpose it all to a draft entry. Over the next several days (or weeks, when I have a lot of recordings), I refine it, and eventually post it.

I highly recommend talking to yourself in this way. You’ll learn a lot about yourself just by listening to your thoughts through your own ears. You may not always like what you hear, but you will become more comfortable doing it. And it may lead to some life defining decisions.

The next step… video?

I don’t normally write general posts referring to other blogs, but for a while I’ve wanted to give a shout out to Penelope Trunk over at her Brazen Careerist blog.

Anyone who’s familiar with her writing is likely aware of how strongly people react to her posts (mostly negative, it seems, especially at her former Yahoo! Finance column, from which she was recently fired). She definitely brings out the vocal worst in certain (mainly conservative) readers, which is a shame. She appears to be wildly (un?)popular, because no matter how many people deride her posts, they’ll continue to read her.

I believe it’s because, despite what they say, she is hitting a chord of truth with them — even though they publicly claim to completely disagree with her. I think a lot of people are afraid to admit that they often agree with her, but it’s the “popular” opinion to disagree with her. Some of the comments are so downright mean, it’s almost as if they’re in complete denial of their true feelings. You’ll see a good sample of such comments from that recently fired article.

This may be the most controversial post I’ve written to date, simply because I’m here to publicly state that I do agree with most of what she writes. Not everything, but enough to make it worth my while to read all of her posts. There are some things she writes about or refers to that make me completely blush, but it’s part of what makes her so refreshing.

She has a hell of a lot of guts to put herself out there on a limb and state exactly what she believes about any topic, and she doesn’t seem to give a damn what people think. In a way, I live vicariously through her.

I often wonder how much of her attitude stems from her traumatic personal 9/11 experience, but I’m willing to bet it put her over the top for her “critics be damned” attitude. Many of us have some sort of connection to that day (I worked in those buildings for a couple of years in the 80’s, so I related to it at that level, although I knew no victims personally). But her experience was extremely intense.

I’m currently reading her book, also named Brazen Careerist, which of course, like the rest of her writing, is totally brazen. I definitely recommend it, despite the mixed (unsurprisingly) reviews it’s received. Overall, though, it’s averaged 4 stars.

If you want a good sample of a post that may outrage you (and make you think), check out her article about workplace practices that should be eliminated.

To kick off 2008, this post will be personal. Sort of a “get my bearings” post to start off on the right foot. You may want to skip reading this if you have something better to do, but it may spark some ideas for yourself.

This post was long delayed. It’s been my longest writing dry spell in months, mainly due to some rough times in my life right now (more on this later). In addition, as in 2007, it’s taken me about three weeks to figure out my focus for the coming year. I really kicked off 2007 on January 20th, when I started my diet. It was a year of extremes for me, and one I’d never want to experience again. There were some very positive achievements, but some seriously depressing and frustrating times. But I’ll focus on the positive here to kick off the new year.

1. 2007 was the year I finally lost the weight I’ve wanted to lose for about 25 years. I reached that point of “I had it.” That point where you just can’t take it anymore. And I lost around 70 pounds. I still want to lose another 10 or so, but as long as I stay around where I am, I’m happy. I haven’t been in this good shape since, well, ever. This is the first time I can remember feeling slim. My previous slim days was another life ago, and I never knew fat then, so I didn’t have anything to compare it to. This was a great year as far as this is concerned, and it wasn’t really painful at all. Wish I did it years ago, but at least I DID IT!
2. 2007 was the year I finally helped kick off a user group. I’ve wanted to do this for several years, and by pushing for it and making my intentions known, I got myself into a situation to make it happen. I initially tried to do this on my own, but realized it was impossible. Thanks to Leo Junquera and Louis Edouard, this is now real. Louis ran the prior version of the .NET user group ON HIS OWN, which amazes me. And without his role at UConn, none of this would have happened. And Leo has an amazing ability to find unbelievable speakers, and has great ideas for making this so much more. And not only did we start one user group, but actually two user groups AND the next great thing that happened…
3. 2007 was the year I helped run a very successful code camp. This came together so fast, that it took some time afterwards for it to hit me. It’s given me a lot of confidence to organize this type of event in the future. I also discovered through this experience that I’m a much more capable manager than I previously thought. I sort of grabbed that role, but I’m sure my co-chairs, Leo and Louis would do just as well managing future events. This whole experience has gotten the wheels turning in my mind for so much more!
4. 2007 was the year I really started writing. But it’s still so much less than I want to write. I’m still trying to find my voice on the page and just be myself. I tend to hold back a bit, and I feel some of my writing is still a bit stilted, but I’m learning to relax. I’m starting to feel a little less self-conscious about it (and, ouch, my parents are reading ). I have so, so, so much to say, but I need to stay focused.

In 2008:

I want to write a lot more. I want to get much more involved in other conversations on other blogs and such. I feel I have a lot to contribute, but I have to prove it, mainly to myself. I need to learn to be myself in my writing. I claim I’m opinionated, but I sometimes hold back on that. I need to concentrate on a few main topics to keep this blog focused. I’ve been reading a LOT about blogging, and I’m taking many of the ideas I’ve read about to heart. Like Bob Walsh suggests in his book Clear Blogging, I’m going to try to focus on what I’m most passionate about. There are several such topics, some of which are unrelated. Some people recommend having separate blogs to keep the audience (hah!) interested and coming back for more. But since this blog is named after myself (uh, no ego involved there, no sir ), I think it’s more fitting to be true to that. So I’ll follow another implied suggestion of Bob’s, which is to dedicate a topic or sub-topic to each day of the week. If people are only interested in one or two topics, they can choose to only visit on those days. Or if they subscribe to my feed, they can ignore the articles from some days, knowing that I’ll be writing on interesting (to them) topics the other days.

As of now, here are the topics I care most about, and will be dedicating to different days of the week (haven’t assigned which, yet):

• Productivity (mainly through technology)
• Micro-ISV (I’m working on starting one, so I’ll walk through that experience)
• Training and Education (I’m also looking to start a training company or wing of the Micro-ISV venture)
• Leadership (my roles have been leadership roles for the past 20 years or so, and I have a lot to say here)
• Music (this is a major passion of mine, but a bit off-topic from the above items, so this may be a weekend topic)

Also in 2008:

I want to get the new Micro-ISV off the ground. My team and I have been working on this in fits and starts for several years, but it’s finally close to reality, and now my current employer is aware of my dreams for this. Being entrepreneurial themselves, the founders may be willing to help. I understand that they’ve helped other employees. Unfortunately, my business partner for almost 20 years (in my previous consulting company, and one of the partners of this new venture) is in very critical condition after a bad car wreck in December. As of this writing, he’s been in a coma for a month, and we have no idea what’s going to happen. But this has lit a fire under all of us to get this going, and secure the funding we need.

I really can’t plan much more beyond the above two major goals, on top of continuing my work for the technical community with the user groups.

One more thing. I’ll often have other random thoughts that I’d rather not post full articles about. So I’ll post them as little notes at the end of my normal posts, clearly delineated so you could ignore if you’d like. Sort of like a personal Twitter. Here comes one now…

Random Thought:
Angels and Airwaves’ new album, I-Empire, is currently my favorite album of all-time, bypassing U2’s The Joshua Tree. I may change my mind next year, but it took 20 years to knock a U2 album out of first place for me. I never get sick of it, and I can listen 100 times a day. Amazing stuff. It’s magical.

Do you realize that the default option for Microsoft Outlook is to automatically send an email immediately after composing? This has to rank as one of the most short-sighted decisions ever made by a software design team. I’m shocked that they still haven’t changed the default. I know they’re trying to make it easy for everyone and their grandparents to send email in as few clicks as possible. But did they ever stop to think of the damage this has caused over the years? I picture those sitcoms where someone is trying to reach into the corner mailbox to retrieve a letter they didn’t intend on sending. And forget about the “recall” option. That only serves to raise a red flag to the recipient that the email is controversial. I don’t know if other email clients do the same, since I’ve been using Outlook forever, but before I go on, let me tell you how to turn this setting off immediately:

Select the Tools / Options menu item, then the Mail Setup tab, and uncheck the Send immediately when connected check box in the Send/Receive section. This is where you find this option in both Outlook 2003 and 2007 (I don’t have an earlier version lying around to see if it was always in the same place).

You should never “publish” anything without taking the time to review and germinate over what you just wrote, for the same reasons you don’t want that email to go out immediately. As been discussed everywhere since blogging became ubiquitous, putting your words into print online IS FOREVER. It doesn’t matter if you place special files on your web pages to block those archival site bots from caching your pages (admit it — you’ve tried pulling back some embarrassing posts) — it is NOT foolproof. As soon as you click “publish”, IT IS TOO LATE. A blip in time on the Internet is a century for traditional media.

Even if you aren’t writing in the heat of the moment, and you’re just writing an informational blog post, it’s always a good idea to write, rewrite, edit, and then let it sit overnight. What may seem innocuous at the moment you typed it may seem incomplete, completely wrong, or even worse — unintentionally offensive or controversial the next day. I rarely, if ever, post the same day I write an article. The feeling of discovering a major gaffe before you publish is liberating once you make this a habit.

Sure it’s tempting to post right away to maintain consistent output on your blog, but you can do this even if you post every day — you’d just be writing your posts a day before they become public, and no one would ever know, even for timely topics. I’m writing this on Tuesday, but until I told you that, I may as well have written this on Wednesday — you couldn’t care less. But if you saw what it looked like on Tuesday, you’d thank me .

I wouldn’t wait a day before sending simple emails (which should still be proofed), but for any significant email or post, I’d recommend following the “write, rewrite, edit, walk away, publish” pattern.

Your words (and videos, and photos — you know who you are) live on the Web forever. You don’t want it haunting you years from now.

I’ve been wanting to expand my blogging, and my writing abilities, so I’ve been doing some research on how to be a better blogger. While doing my research, I came across a post by Brian Clark over at CopyBlogger , who asks the question "Are you a courageous blogger?" He states:

"You need the courage to alienate the wrong people in order to resonate with the right people. You need to stick to your convictions when people tell you you’re wrong simply because your knowledge doesn’t mesh with their opinions. "

I’m 100% convinced that he is correct, but that it doesn’t only pertain to blogging. This is true in life and leadership, in general. If you want to make a difference, you’d better be prepared for the inevitable backlash from the people who will completely go against what you believe.

I gave up trying to please everyone at work very early in my career. I have very strong convictions, and stand up strongly for what I believe in as a leader in whatever company I’ve ever worked for. Sometimes, especially when trying to stand up to management, you will find yourself very alone. Even if others agree with you, many people shy away from anything that resembles confrontation, even when it’s just simply standing up for what they feel strongly about, and even if they can easily provide support to back up their beliefs. I feel that only true leaders understand the benefits of putting their necks on the line. It’s what separates them from the followers and lemmings of the world, which is, of course, the vast majority.

At times, I still feel a little hard-headed and stubborn after I’ve expressed my opinion (I have to work on that emotion), but I have found that people tend to respect that I stand by my convictions.

One of the reasons I haven’t written as much as I would like here is that I have not been able to transfer that same attitude to my public writing. I have absolutely no problem with it in face-to-face discussions, but I sometimes feel that expressing myself in writing and sharing my professional experience would get shot down online. Come to think about it, I have occasionally expressed myself better on public online forums, but maybe tying it directly to my own name on my own blog is holding me back a bit.

When I started this blog, I subtitled it, "I have nothing to say." But I removed that subtitle because I actually have plenty to say. I’m just still a bit afraid of putting it in writing. I recently wrote a follow-up email to a comment I posted on Scott Hanselman’s blog . He asked me why I didn’t post it on my blog instead of emailing it to him. I had the usual excuses of not being ready to blog full time yet, etc. I should re-think that.

Looks like it appears that I still need to work on becoming a courageous blogger.