Lessons from a Tech Career in Progress
Part A: Business lessons 1 - Technology is easy, people are hard. The vast majority of people can learn - and even master - any technology, even the most complicated, with support, motivation, and time. Technology must be repeatable and predictable to be safe, much less useful. Consider composing on a mobile keyboard: complicated technology completely alien to even the most erudite barely half a century ago, but so ubiquitous today as to be globally influential. The vast majority of people (myself included) also have: hidden agendas, biases individual and collective, mad political motivations, and normal human failings. This makes us challenging, unpredictable but influenceable, and fun! Working with the raw public has been the best and most consistent part of my entire career, from hosting and waiting tables at Big Boy, up to my most impactful consulting engagements. From another perspective: tech skills as a general rule are teachable and learnable, but people skills must ...