I’ve had this on my list of things to talk about someday, a recent post on almost the same subject by Sacha Chua along with my recent experience at the PASS Summit made me decide now was the time to write it!
Professionally I’m outgoing, most of the time. It’s hard to succeed in business if you’re not able to speak to groups, hold your own in meetings, and project some energy/power. I suspect few working with me or meeting me at a conference would consider me shy (though I’m often told that I appear serious – I am!). Some of that comes easily to me, some requires real effort, one of the reasons I put a lot of effort into my networking skills this year.
For the first few days at an event like PASS I’m out and trying to participate as much as I can, talking to old friends and meeting new people, but usually around the 3rd day (which is often day 1 of the event since I typically arrive early) I’m just tired of being outgoing, ready for some quiet time, where quiet time can be a conversation with people I know or just looking out the window for a while. I suspect I’m not the only one like this, and it’s a useful thing to understand – if you’re talking to someone/trying to meet/etc, and they seem a little withdrawn, it might just be networking overload.
As the title suggests, personally I’m more of an introvert, less likely to push to meet people, less likely to join in events where I’m not as comfortable. There are times when I push to be outgoing, but it’s a struggle against genetics as far as I can tell.
Of course most people aren’t going to know this about me, nor will I know how they interact with people either, beyond whatever signals we send. In practice we all do the best we can and try to meet halfway. About all I can see is that understanding my own behavior has taught me to look a little deeper when I run into someone that seems to be too loud, too happy, too withdrawn. It’s rarely rudeness, more often a default behavior which I don’t understand.
Not sure I explained it well, looking forward to your comments!
Last Monday was my first day back from the PASS Summit, planned for (and was) a slow day, just starting to catch up and figure out what needed to be done for the week. Tuesday morning was one of those where I just wasn’t focused, always frustrates me when I have a block of time to do good things and can’t get in the groove. Decide to go home for lunch, not long after that realize I’m tired, thinking maybe a residual from a long week in Seattle, decide to rest some. Rest for a few hours, worse instead of better but too late for a doctor visit, and not sure I’m sick yet anyway.
Tuesday night alternating fever and chills, couldn’t stay warm. Miserable night. Wed morning crushing headache is the main symptom, but in general not feeling well. Debate sleeping more or going for medicine. Not opposed to going, but why can the doc come to me? Drag out of bed, go to the nearest clinic, barely standing. They swab my nose, do some magic test, announce that I have the flu. Clarifies saying that for many people the red line on the test stick is usually light, on mine it’s a firm red line. Do I get a prize for really having the flu?
Prescribed Tamiflu and whatever else I want to take, rest, stay away from everyone until the fever is gone. Drop the prescription, home to crash again, my wife gets the medicine an hour or so later. By then the fever seems to have broken, take the medicine, drink more, back to sleep. Wake up, medicine, sleep. Sometime Wed night awake to find I’m soaked in sweat yet not cold – good? Seem to have turned the corner. Only had a subset of the symptoms, but definitely have me out of action.
Thursday I feel a little better, start thinking I should be working again. Go to the office about 2:30 to try to get some stuff done, by 3:30 exhausted and have to go home, eat some, sleep again, then feeling better (again!), watch some tv, get a better nights sleep.
Fri morning I feel almost human, eat a light breakfast and watch some reruns on TV. Still doing ok, so decide to go get some fresh air and lunch, try to work some. Manage a few hours, call it a day, just in time I think. Trying to finish up some notes I need to deliver for PASS, struggling. Ah well, go home, try to rest. About 6 pm I have a call with Blythe at PASS HQ and not hard to tell I’m still sick. Typically I can filter out just about any background noise and think in paragraphs, poor Blythe often had to wait for me to finish building a sentence. Felt like Superman sitting next to kryptonite, couldn’t stay focused. Try to do the the things I thought were most important (hard to tell by then), call it a day.
I’m writing this on Saturday morning having coffee at Panera after a good nights sleep. Still not 100%, but clearly better, doing some prep work for an 1130 call, then heading back home to rest some more. Have to work some tomorrow (having lost most of 4 days) to be ready for Monday. Not fun. I wouldn’t say worse than other times I’ve had the flu, just one of those things you have to endure.
So why write about being sick? For those of you not sick, it’s a reminder that all the vitamins and hand washing in the world can’t always ward off illness. For those of you who have been sick, you’re not alone! More seriously, for those not sick – especially managers – think of it as a reminder that having the flu isn’t just a day off with the sniffles. It’s a few days of just being sick, and it’s not an instant recovery either. It’s made more complicated when you add in the family, trying to keep them from getting it to, having you drop out of family life for a few days, and often the added complexity of one or more of them being sick at the same time. When that employee or team member returns, remember that it may still be a day or two before they are back at full throttle, that’s just how it has to be.
New friend David Easley shared two sources for hot sauce that I wasn’t familiar with:
I like some spice here and there, lately I’ve been on a wasabi kick. Thinking maybe it would make good holiday gifts, anyone have recommendations?
I’m sure you know what I mean when I say that I feel like my ability to task switch and be creative has been degraded lately. Fixing that means a break, and while a good four day weekend can work wonders, it’s not the same as a real break. Of course the challenge of working mostly solo is that if I don’t work, I have to do it before the break or when I return. That’s not quite as much fun as just walking out the door without a care in the world!
The PASS Summit is actually a break of sorts, a total change in routine, and a chance to hear new things, get energized about the tech side of things. But the trade off for me is the travel and the time away from home, neither my favorite things. Then it’s into the holiday season and the end of year flurry of stuff to do. So…when to take the break?
There’s no good time, but as of now my plan is to take four weeks off, the last two weeks of December and the first two weeks of January. I’ve got some cabinets to build for the workshop, tools to buy, landscaping that badly needs attention, books to read, and we’ll see what else. It won’t quite qualify as a vacation or sabbatical as I’ll still have to monitor email and deal with the odd problem. Not perfect, better than not doing it.
It’s something to look forward to, a break from the relentless grind of work (as it seems right now!).
I’m trying to pay more attention to things that cause me stress and how I deal with the stress. It’s helping some to work on the self awareness, but some of the reactions seem to be baked in, very hard to change some things that I perceive as stressful. As I’ve looked at my reactions, it seems like I see two different things:
One way to identify stress is to substitute the word frustrated. Not a perfect match, but a good way to get away from the negative connotation of ‘stress’. One example of stress for me is being on a tight but doable timeline and then having something unexpected and unrelated intrude. It’s not always as easy as pushing something back, and the instinctive stress reaction doesn’t help productivity.
Now it seems like that once the situation is over, goals met, that the stress would be gone. Instead – at least for me – it takes time for the stress to drain away. Given a few weeks of tranquility my stress index goes back to near zero, but I don’t usually get weeks, maybe days. Then when the next stressor comes along, instead of starting at zero I’m starting at 10, which makes it harder to get through the situation, and then when done without a longer recovery, maybe the next time I start a stress situation at 10 instead of 20. Over time that can really add a level of background noise/pain that hurts the ability to respond well to minor levels of stress.
I don’t know that life can be stress free. Or that it would even be healthy. But if I can see fewer things as stressful and develop methods of relieving cumulative stress, I see that as a pretty big advantage. Now to figure out how to do it!
If you’re going to spend 3-5 days in Seattle at the PASS Summit it’s worth sampling the local food rather than sticking with the ‘safe’ chain choices. I enjoy Diners, Drive-In’s, and Dives on the Food Network, so I grabbed the list of restaurants they had featured from Seattle. Haven’t tried any of them, but hoping to try at least one on my next trip. Been to one of these, or have another you think I should try? Post a comment!
Voula's Offshore Cafe 658 NE. Northlake Way Seattle, WA 98105 Tel: (206) 634-0183 Website: www.voulasoffshore.com
Mike's Chili Parlor 1447 N.W. Ballard Way Seattle, WA 98107 Tel: (206) 782-2808
Bizzarro Italian Cafe 1307 N 46th Street Seattle, WA 98103 Tel: (206) 632-7277 Website: www.bizzarroitaliancafe.com
Slim's Last Chance 5606 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA, 98108 (206) 762-7900 Website: www.slimslastchance.com
Georgia's Greek Restaurant & Deli 323 NW 85th Street Seattle, WA 98117 Tel: (206)783-1228 Website: www.georgiasgreekrestaurant.com
Pam's Kitchen 5000 University Way NE Seattle, WA 98105 (206) 696-7010 Website: www.pams-kitchen.com
See his quiet post about it here. This comes right after finishing up his first book titled Protecting SQL Server Data, available as a free download from SSC. John is a great guy and I’m glad to see that his ongoing efforts in the SQL community have been rewarded.
Ever had a day when a bunch of small things run together to create a day you wish you had missed:
It’s a great example of stress. Any one of those alone is minor, a couple combined are frustrating, all together – wish I could rewind and try again!
I try to be balanced on new technology and ideas, trying to find the middle ground between hype and usefulness, time and money, fun and work. When Twitter first came out I didn’t pay a lot of attention besides my usual reading about what’s new, not being a blogger at the time and not having a need then for ‘micro-blogging’. Since then the world has changed, both for Twitter and for me. Twitter seems to have morphed into something beyond micro-blogging, what my friend Steve calls sidewalk conversations. And me, my job and interests have changed such that blogging is both fun and work, and I’m in the idea/thinking business, so reaching a larger audience both makes sense and appeals to my sense of trying to do better.
I’ve put it off for a while for a few reasons:
So while I’ve had reasons (and in truth have just enjoyed being stubborn about it!), all my friends seem to find value in it and I don’t see any of them as easily hypnotized (well, maybe one or two!). I’m at the beginning of a mental re-org, deciding what things to continue, what things to adds to my list, and importantly, what things will get removed next year. Should Twitter go on the list?
And by the way, the title isn’t a typo!
I’ve always thought it made sense for events; announcing last minute changes and adhoc meetups, reminders about upcoming events during the day, less certain about just day to day stuff. I’ve got two events coming up, SQLSaturday #21 and the PASS Summit, so I’ve had it in mind to try there anywhere – which means learning how the Twitter thing works. I’ll be doing some reading this week to try to learn the basics, and I’ll give it a try through the end of year and then write up more notes. As I do it, I’m going to try to understand more about it:
Ah, checking Twitter already are you? Sometime between now and Friday evening I’ll post something on Twitter. Something interesting? That remains to be seen!
Yesterday was a typical Florida afternoon, sudden down pour of rain, but not a storm. Just slow solid rain for about 45 minutes. Rain always seems to remind me to stop and take a break, watch the world go by a bit. That got me to thinking about having or not having a window and how much I value it.
My current office has windows running the length of it, from about 3.5 feet up to the ceiling. It’s a second floor office and the view is ok – looking out/down there are a few trees, but about 75 feet past that is a standard strip mall, and the backside at that. It’s a standing seam metal roof, and when it rains it’s mildly interesting, watching the water roll down in sheets. It’s mildly amusing too, as one of the stores in the strip mall is a bar, and on the roof on the back side (facing me) are three beer bottles. Always makes me wonder first, why some knucklehead would throw a bottle on the roof, and then, what kind of skill/luck does it take to get it on the roof without breaking and/or rolling back off?
On sunny days there’s always a squirrel or two out, and it’s not uncommon for them to leap the 5 feet or so to the building and then run along the window sill just barely hanging on. Makes this scratching sound that makes you turn to watch for the few seconds before they are gone, never seen one fall yet! The windows carry over into our small kitchen area, and perhaps the strangest thing we’ve seen was a vulture perched on a dead limb just outside the window…while we talked about economy!
The office before that was horrible for me, I had no windows at all. Hated it, but at the time it was the best we could find, smaller spaces being hard to find. Back before that, I spent just about 2-1/2 years in a 3rd floor office that looked out over a small parking area to a tree line. Third floor actually gives you a decent range to look, and the thing I remember most about that was that if you look at the top of the tree line you’ll see trees “fighting” for top position, the winners being very tall but very thin in most cases, sticking just above the rest to get max sunlight. Probably my favorite office/view so far. Before that I was in an interior office, and my only view outside was through the CIO’s office directly across the hall (looking out onto the same tree line), but it’s not the same.
Having windows isn’t quite the same as having a view, but it’s a start.
Does it make a difference? Maybe not to everyone, or maybe more accurately, not everyone finds it to be a big deal. I’d be very reluctant to go back to an office without an outside view, I do some of my best thinking looking out the window drinking coffee.
It was nice to work through my email and find a bit of positive news instead of more work! I’m in for another year it seems, and was great to see both Brent and Jeremiah make it onto MVP Island without booting me off. I did about the same amount of community work as the year before, still sticking to my plan of doing the things that either make sense for work or that I just want to do.
As I look back at one year as an MVP (and I don’t claim to be typical), I’ll share some thoughts:
My only plan for year two is to nominate more people for MVP. I’ve put two in so far and I’m going to try to find at least one person a month. I’ll look for people that are doing good work and have good character, and let the MVP team figure it out from there.
You can read the full text of it in today’s SSC Newsletter, the quick summary is that for many businesses a database is a toaster. They don’t care how it works, they don’t want to do anything to it, they just want it to work. If it breaks they fix it or call someone. Give it a read and see what you think.
I’m slated to write one a month and I haven’t settled on a theme yet, and don’t know if I will. More likely I’ll look for ideas as I’m out with groups and look for things that intrigue me, not much different than how I find blog ideas. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
It’s also funny how you can so easily add one more thing to your task list. Writing one editorial a month doesn’t seem like a lot, even writing twelve a year. But at an average of an hour each, that’s 12 hours that’s either added to the stack or taken away from something else. Ideally you know the answer to that before you say yes!
I try not to post too many links without some thoughtful commentary, but I ran across this and thought it was worth mentioning. TinEye takes an image you upload and then looks for it on the web in all it’s variations. They’ve got some interesting matches shown, all based on the image and not meta data.
I glance at Make (magazine and web site) from time to time, and recently have been recording and watching their TV show as well. The most recent issue has something called the Rok-Bak chair, a fairly simple (or so it seems!) project made from one sheet of plywood and some odds and ends. You can see a picture of it at http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol19/?pg=90. I think I might paint mine rather than go with the plain wood finish, but we’ll see how it turns out first. The first step is to layout the cutting diagram per the instructions at http://makezine.com/19/rokbak/ (free download and I didn’t want to post their image). I spent probably 30 minutes getting all the lines transferred over and about another 30 minutes doing the cutting. Breaking down plywood always a bit tedious, have to make sure the work is supported and some are stopped cuts that have to finished with a jigsaw. I was pleased that the two side pieces came out as a pretty good match, never a sure thing when you combine the chance of layout errors with unguided cuts. If I was making more of them I’d build a template first, rough cut the pieces and then use a router to make it precise…though there isn’t much extra wood along a couple lines and might have to be tweaked to allow that.
No picture yet, just a stack of hopefully cut correct plywood! Hopefully I can find another hour in the upcoming week to make some good progress.
I enjoy woodworking as a hobby and as I try new things I find that my work habits during the learning stage tend towards chaotic and I wind up with stuff every where. Part of that is just enthusiasm, wanting to move ahead and do stuff, part of it struggling so hard to master ideas and techniques that I wind up with tunnel vision. That often leaves me with tools, notes, and everything else stacked all over the place.
It’s a pattern I see in beginners with SQL too. They are intensely focused on syntax, trying to map how it works to whatever tool set they used before, and the early work is rough. As they begin to get over that first bit of learning curve they can then start to think about how do more interesting things.
You could call it lack of discipline and that’s true to an extent. On my new projects I need to slow down, clean up more often, try to see which tools I’m really done with and can put away. But it’s also true that I often don’t know when I’m done with a tool. Maybe I think I’ve done the final drilling, but then I find I missed something, or drilled a hole in the wrong place!
Many years ago I worked with an engineer that was meticulous about his work environment. He laid out a set of 8 pencils and pens in a certain way, had his log just so, and as he worked he would pickup a pen, use it, and then put it back in the right place. At the time I didn’t entirely appreciate the discipline it requires to build good habits, even if I still tend to think that one was a bit much.
Another story from even further back, I had a co-worker who drove a car that didn’t have the now entirely common warning buzzer if you left your headlights on. He had devised his own system; each time he turned the headlights on he took a clothespin from the ashtray and put it on the door handle, that way there was no way he could (reasonably!) exit without noticing the clothespin and that would cue him to turn off the lights and put the clothespin back on the ashtray. It worked well enough, though sometimes it did seem like a man that could do that every time could just as easily remember to run through a mental checklist each time he turned off the car.
For me, I find it’s easier to build bad habits than good ones, and probably true of most people. Good habits require you to make a continuing investment of energy that doesn’t seem to have a clear pay back. It’s also important to remember that while we might have good work habits on something we do all the time, we may have to build those habits on something new – think starting to use SSIS if you’re new to it.
