Just starting this, let’s see how it goes. This entry is going to be longer than most of them, primarily because it is the first and I want to get some notes into this. First, I’ve been reading a lot. In the past several weeks I’ve burned through a bunch of interesting reads:
Although I’m only half way through Leader… so far I’ve been trying to mix a set of book recommendations from a coworkers, and a corporate “must read” selection. I have really enjoyed getting back into reading, and find it so much more satisfying than most of the TiVo that I normally watch. I want to re-read Tipping Point, however I can’t find my copy and I’m not willing to buy it again . (As a side note – if you dig revisionist history (I’m not sure I’m using the term correctly, but basically non-mainstream history texts) they you should check out A People’s History of the United States by Zinn. A bit of a socialist’s rant, but a very interesting book.)
Reading motivational books, whether management based (like Leader) or technical (like Code Complete) always gets me pumped to want to do the right thing. Unfortunately I’ve gone through the cycle one too many times, so I know that it is almost impossible to live up to the ideal every day. I guess I’m just hoping that one of these days I can keep it going for more than a month!
I’m starting my blog, partially because I’m starting to read them. I went on a business trip with several people and “discovered” blogs there. I started with Ray Ozzie’s and then started finding (and getting references to) all sorts of them, like Joel On Software and John Udell to name a few. I find this form of communication to be very compelling. I have a horrible time organizing, collecting, and recalling information that I get. I’m hoping the act of creating a type of indexed journal will help me. I haven’t decided yet if this is going to be an internal (corporate), public, or private (home) blog. For now, I’ll assume that I’m going to publish this publicly.
With that last phrase comes the admission – I work for Microsoft. I love working there. I haven’t worked at many other places in my real “career” however I did join a startup with a couple other folks several years ago. After working on my own for a while I appreciate Microsoft even more. It is a create company to work for and I look forward to going into work every day.
Disclaimer: The views I express here are my own and do not represent the views of Microsoft or its management.
In this blog I won’t disclose confidential information, release dates, product features, etc. – so don’t send me mail asking. In addition, I’m not starting this blog as a tech support forum – so please don’t send me mail asking for it. <G>
Just found an interesting site: Netcrucible, which hosts Joshua Allen’s blog, which has links to other Microsofties that are blogging… hmm… I should talk with these folks to see how they got started and what feedback they have gotten at work.
Our bedroom television (46” RP TV) appears to have died tonight… my wife and I are debating if we should try to live without a tv in the bedroom… hmm…