Big Brook: October 2006

    Big Brook

    Relationships, People, Places, Ideas and Technologies

    Thursday, October 26, 2006

    Entrepreneurship and Learning... A Chuckle

    When I was a younger fellow in my thirties I enjoyed an unreasonable amount of professional and economic success over a decade and... got to thinking "I am a genius" (the dreaded big head syndrome!).

    Then... TA DA... lost a million four in 1991! Can I say "oh the wailing and the tears to learn (rather harshly I thought) that I certainly was not a genius"!

    After the few months it took for me to get over the shock, and of course, permitting time for my head to return to an appropriately normal size, I decided to find out why I lost the dough-ray-me.

    Up the that point I was a pretty good problem-solver and I demonstrated classic signs of newbi entrepreneur (great idea, great services, totally ignorant of business and financial management skills). Thus I went to the totally cool and totally awesome business librarians at the Toronto Reference Library, explained my oh so sad tale and asked if they would help me by putting together a reading list covering the stuff I ought to learn, hopefully including therein an answer as to why I lost all that dough (did I say "ouch!").

    Well, those lovely (and knowledgeable) business librarians put together a list of 200 books, some going back to 1910 and I read every one. There's what I learned:

    1. Other men and women had embarked on the journey of entrepreneurship and business and some had also taken the time to record and share their lessons learned.

    2. With the degree of ignorance I previously held regarding business and financial management knowledge, and as I had been dealing in millions, it was a bloody miracle that I had not lost way more money way faster.

    3. I added the important attributes of executive management and financial knowledge to my problem-solving and entrepreneurial skill-sets.

    4. I learned how to "smell risk".

    5. I learned that Peter F. Drucker's writings on management and society best suited my inclinations and long-term interests. In particular, Drucker introduced me to a few key concepts:
    • We live in a knowledge world!
    • There is no meaningful theory addressing knowledge work!
    • There are few meaningful measures for evaluating the effectiveness of knowledge work, and...
    • The great questions (which drive me daily!)... How does one make knowledge work productive? How do knowledge workers learn how to effectively collaborate with one another in order to accomplish meaningful and mutually shared objectives? How does one manage knowledge workers? What are the implications of knowledge work and knowledge workers for society and for the future?
    6. I added a question to Drucker's insights "How does one enable knowledge workers to earn sufficiently within a personally and professionally satisfying environment such as to thereby create personal economic security and independence while they live a balanced life (e.g., accomplishing their dreams, work, personal, family, play, learning, travel, friends)?

    7. I also created a distinction qualification to Drucker's insights "Whoever knows least in the knowledge world stands the best chance of getting their *ss kicked!". A few years later I rephrased this fundamental reality with a bit of humor "Knowledge workers have to love their burro, because... whoever knows least in the knowledge world will end up getting their poor burro's *ss kicked!".

    Oh joy!

    Labels: Chuckle, Entrepreneurship, Entreprenuer, Lessons Learned

    posted by Sheamus J. at 8:39 AM 1 comments

    Tuesday, October 24, 2006

    Women in Technology: Guardian Article

    The Guardian has written an excellent article which addresses the issue of Women in Technology. The insights and observations made by talented, competent and dynamic women (successfully) working in technology are well-worth reading!

    Sarah Blow, awesome UK software engineer, Founder of London Girl Geek Dinners, my good friend and a technological mentor was interviewed and liberally quoted within this Guardian article.

    Speaking of Girl Geek Dinners and for all you wonderful women in technology... Sarah has organized two (Wow! two!!) great girl geek dinners in Barcelona for November. These dinners coincide with (per Sarah's blog post)... "...Barcelona Girl Geek Dinners are just starting to come together, as such I have opened up the registration on the wiki pages. The event is open to anyone at TechEd and ITForum 2006 and also to those girly geeks based in Barcelona itself! It's even open to the guy geeks so long as they are invited by a girly geek who is also attending the event."

    Exciting happenings and great news all around!

    Oh joy!

    Labels: Girl Geeks, Press, Sarah Blow, Women in Technology

    posted by Sheamus J. at 9:12 AM 1 comments

    Monday, October 23, 2006

    Hackers not Crackers

    Eric Steven Raymond has authored an extremely interesting and informative article entitled How To Become A Hacker. Well worh a read!

    Eric also makes an important distinction in the preamble to this (excellent) article, "Hackers build things, crackers break them".

    As a person who has dedicated his life to learning and to solving economic performance problems... I LOVE "The Hacker Attitude" as defined by Eric:

    1. The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved.
    2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice.
    3. Boredom and drudgery are evil.
    4. Freedom is good.
    5. Attitude is no substitute for competence.
    Oh Joy!

    Labels: Hackers, How to Become a Hacker, Problem Solving

    posted by Sheamus J. at 9:40 AM 0 comments

    Friday, October 20, 2006

    Visual Model for Complex Problem Solving

    Marshall Clemens of Idiagram has developed an exciting visual model to describe a process for complex problem solving. Well worth a visit and some thoughtful consideration.

    Labels: Complex Problem Solving, Visual Model

    posted by Sheamus J. at 1:01 AM 0 comments

    Thursday, October 19, 2006

    Resolving Business Problems 001

    Well, let's get busy... I am putting into action an idea recently suggested to me by my good friend from the UK, Sarah Blow (talented software engineer, and Founder of London Girl Geek Dinners). That is, (paraphrased) "Sheamus, share your knowledge, experience and problem-solving capabilities with others".

    The questions which follow are equally applicable to traditional companies and to technology oriented firms, including startups.
    • Do you own a business?
    • Do you want to create a startup?
    • Do you want to own a business?
    • Do you have business problems which you want to successfully resolve?
    I intend to present a methodology that will enable you to successfully resolve business problems (i.e., what to do and how to do it). FYI... I am an older and increasingly fit fellow (ancient and increasingly fit to some of you young people) with almost forty years of knowledge and experience in helping people within large and small companies to successfully resolve business problems. Along the way I founded my own small consulting company and had the wonderful experiences of both losing and making a million while working on great problems with great people in Canada, the USA, the UK, Hong Kong and Mainland China (PRC). If you want to know a bit more about my journey then by all means please feel free to start here and then follow the links which recount the story of my professional life.

    Also, please feel free to state your business related problems as comments to my posts or via email: sheamusj[at]gmail[dot]com. Then, where reasonably possible, I will make best efforts (not perfect) to analyze and resolve some of these problems with you and... Let's have a ton of fun along the way!

    Labels: Business Problems, Successfully Resolving

    posted by Sheamus J. at 5:52 AM 0 comments

    Wednesday, October 18, 2006

    Travel and New Perspectives

    We are born into a specific place, time and culture, and each culture has an influence on our ideas and ways of perceiving the world.

    I have come to realize that one way we can influence our ideas and ways of living is through travel for work and pleasure to differing countries and differing cultures... Thus two questions come to mind:
    • I wonder if it would be fun for you to take a little time and name each country you have visited?
    • And, upon brief reflection can you now easily identify three positive changes that have come about in your life as a result of your travel experiences.
    It's only fair that I go first and I look forward to learning from you.

    Travel for work and pleasure

    Canada... Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

    USA... Maine, NH, Vermont, Mass, NY, NJ, PA, Michigan, Ohio, Idaho, Wisconin, Illinois, District of Columbia, the Virginias, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Florida and California.

    United Kingdom... England and Scotland.

    Caribbean... Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Jamaica and St. Kitts.

    Mexico... Cabo San Lucas

    Hong Kong

    Mainland China (PRC).

    Three positive changes as a result of my travel experiences

    1. I now have the ability see, hear, feel and think about situations and experiences from a variety of very different perspectives... In technological terms somewhat akin to the principle of requisite variety.

    2. In China I was blessed to have the experiences, for the first time in my life at age 51, of becoming an immigrant and a person in the minority. These very personal experiences have enabled me to relate to people in entirely new and wonderfully useful ways.

    3. The magical journey toward mutual understanding, respect, acceptance and successful adaptation between people of differing cultures is at times challenging, at other times joyful and always... a gift.

    Labels: New Perspectives, Travel

    posted by Sheamus J. at 8:51 AM 0 comments

    Tuesday, October 17, 2006

    The Extraordinary Women in Technology

    Girly Geekdom in Monday's post writes about a minor change undertaken by someone at .Net Magazine which resulted in a major change of meaning with respect to the participation and contributions by women in technology at a recent London BarCamp.

    I wonder if the person at the magazine who made this faux pas was male? And, I wonder if this error may have been an unconscious expression of negative culturally held values and attitudes toward women in technology?

    The HUGE issues of respect and equality of acknowledgement regarding the contributions of women in technology... I'm beginning to feel that women in technology are going to have to fight for equal rights and opportunities in the same way that women successfully fought for the right to vote.

    Labels: Equal Rights and Opportunities, Women in Technology

    posted by Sheamus J. at 9:39 AM 0 comments

    Monday, October 16, 2006

    Speeding up Firefox

    Element14 has an interesting post regarding Firefox (with thanks to Digg). The author:

    [1] States that Firefox does not have a memory bug, and

    [2] Provides Firefox "configs to change" and detailed instructions on "how to change" the configs in order to improve memory usage and to speed up the browser

    MAJOR CAVEAT... I am not a tech expert and as such I recommend you confirm the validity of the above Firefox configuaration changes from other sources before taking action.

    Labels: Firefox, Improve Memory Usage

    posted by Sheamus J. at 7:46 AM 0 comments

    Thursday, October 12, 2006

    Girly Geekdom Rocks

    Sarah Blow is that awesomely talented and exciting young software engineer from the UK, Founder of London Girl Geek Dinners, my technology mentor and very good friend.

    Well stop the press... Awesome news... Sarah has just started a magnificient wowzer new blog... Girly Geekdom!

    You gotta check it out, take a peek, leave a comment!! Gasp... I have a feeling that Girly Geekdom is going to become REALLY HUGE in the blogosphere!!!

    HUGE congrats Sarah!!!!

    Labels: Girly Geekdom, London Girl Geek Dinners, Sarah Blow

    posted by Sheamus J. at 8:26 PM 0 comments

    Exceptional Search Resources

    Have you ever wished that you could be more effective when searching for information and knowledge on the Internet?

    I certainly do as... I know with all of my being that getting better at searching will produce better results and save me great gobs of time.

    Stop the press... Great news... This morning I discovered a knowledge seekers gem, an exceptional free Internet-based resource made available by the University of California Berkeley Library regarding the Internet, the WWW and Searching. It is part of their UC Berkeley Teaching Library Internet Workshops.

    Major kudos to the UC Berkeley Library and I highly recommend this site to everyone who wants to become more effective in producing useful search results.

    If you know of other great searching resources... How-to's, tips and techniques... I would appreciate your kindness in sharing these additional learning resources as comments to this blog post, and I'm equally sure that other people will also appreciate your generosity and benefit from your knowledge.

    What a great day!!! More knowledge... easier, faster, better!!!!

    Labels: Searching How-To Resources

    posted by Sheamus J. at 9:41 AM 1 comments

    Engineering Blog Readership

    Brian Halligan has written an informative, on-point and useful post on Small Business 2.0 entitled, "Engineering Blog Readership: 7 Ways To Drive Prospects To Your Small Business". I highly recommend Brian's article.

    BTW Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah are the Founders of a very exciting start-up which has an equally exciting focus on the needs of very small business (VSBs). Their start-up is called HubSpot and you ought to check out their site.

    I expect to have access to a Beta version of HubSpot's offering within the next few weeks and will post regarding my on-going user experiences.

    Labels: HubSpot, Software Start-Ups, Start-Ups

    posted by Sheamus J. at 1:09 AM 0 comments

    Friday, October 06, 2006

    Moo Cards... Gasp!!!

    Discovered Moo this morning, and nope, not on a farm. You have to check out this adorable idea and fab personal presence eye-popper.

    It's all about a fun and highly effective way to take your virtual presence with you into the real world with a gorgeous Moo card. Cool factor of 10... Your colleagues, family and friends will love it!

    Labels: Moo Cards, Tres Cool

    posted by Sheamus J. at 7:47 AM 0 comments

    Wednesday, October 04, 2006

    iTunes 7 Radio Connection Problem Solved

    Yesterday downloaded the Mac iTunes 7 software update.

    The Problem... Thereafter could not get any connection to any radio station and as it turns out many many people were experiencing the same problem

    Actions taken

    [1] Reached out to ehmac, the great FREE Canadian online Mac community.

    [2] Went to the troubleshooting forum and asked "Help".

    [3] One of the great ehmac community members, handle "Vexel", researched the problem and found the solution.

    [4] Followed Vexel's instructions, rebooted my computer and voila... Everything now works perfectly.

    Huge kudos go to the ehmac community, to Vexel and to Mode22 of the Apple discussion forum.

    The Mac community rocks!

    posted by Sheamus J. at 6:53 PM 1 comments

    Tuesday, October 03, 2006

    HubSpot is Coming

    HubSpot has a big idea and a great focus... Serving very real business needs for the millions and millions of very small businesses (VSBs)... Making it easy and making it affordable. Holy Hold Onto Your Hat Batman!

    And, we may very well expect to see a HubSpot Beta version of their initial product offering within the next few months.

    Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan are the prime movers behind HubSpot. These two brainiacs have great experience, admirable track-records and highly complementary skill-sets. Talk about a winning combination!

    Speaking of a winning combination... There are two outstanding recent posts addressing powerful issues for entrepreneurs and VSBs relative to the Internet, one written by Brian in Business 2.0 with the second written by Dharmesh over at the Onstartups blog. I highly recommend a reading of these thoughtful and thought-provoking articles.

    Best wishes to the entire HubSpot team as they drive toward the Beta version finish. I know I'm excited by the possibilities!

    Labels: HubSpot, VSBs

    posted by Sheamus J. at 10:06 AM 0 comments

    Monday, October 02, 2006

    Soflow is Cool

    A big thank you goes out to Sarah Blow, hugely talented software engineer from the UK and Founder of London Girl Geek Dinners, for introducing me to the Soflow website.

    Soflow is a super social networking community for professionals where they can post their profiles and create connections, in a way somewhat similiar to Linked In, although you may find making making connections on Soflow is a much easier and straight-forward process.

    Take a peek and see what you think... Tres cool!

    Labels: Social Networking for Professionals, Soflow

    posted by Sheamus J. at 11:29 AM 0 comments

    Sunday, October 01, 2006

    Sunday Morn Notes to Self

    A few of my goals at the start of 2006:
    1. Learning to better understand what is sometimes labeled as Web 2.0, and more specifically, to better understand the interaction factor of which social networking is but one aspect
    2. Learning to better understand the ethos of blogging... with HUGE appreciation to Sarah Blow UK software engineer, Founder of London Girl Geek Dinners
    3. To identify new and original Internet based ideas that might be converted into successful growing companies
    4. To begin a blog on a test basis... with major appreciation to Google and its amazing free Blogger platform
    5. To begin a dialogue with a few talented young people in the technology world
    Still lots to learn and understand with some good progress across all goals and realized last evening that I'm beginning to get it. I love the road ahead... top down, technology shining and feeling the pixels in my hair.

    Labels: Goals, Sunday Morn Notes to Self

    posted by Sheamus J. at 8:41 AM 0 comments

    About Me

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    Name: Sheamus J.
    Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Five incredible sons, three wonderful daughters, grandfather thrice, awesome darling wife. Made a million, lost a million, discovered something useful.

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            Previous Posts

            • A Lifetime In A Month
            • Knowledge Workers and Money!
            • Five Things You May Not Know About Me
            • What A Party... Happy New Year 2007!
            • Thank You For An Awesome 2006
            • Christmas 2006
            • Maggie K. Fox has Spunk!
            • Living Your Dreams is Hot!!!
            • Think Differently... Brainpark is Hot!
            • Snap is Way Cool and... Very Hot!

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