Ian M Rountree

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Archives for March 2010

An explanation of lacking posts lately (or) Dude, I’m Getting a Dell!

March 23, 2010 by Ian 4 Comments

Graffiti near Borough Market on FlickrFigured I should explain, since I’ve barely written anything lately.

I’ve been on small rations, computer-wise, for the last few weeks. My laptop (currently an enormous luggable Acer) has been doing downhill for about five months – the F5 key went, hell for web development, then the R key got shaky, both my shift keys are failing, which has forced me to draft EVERYTHING in Word, lest they go and I suddenly be missing capitalization. Then, of course, last week my track pad began to fail on 4/5 start-ups, causing me to resort to using my mouse. All. The. Time.

Now.

Under any other circumstances, I’d have been forced to make do until I could save up. I have on loan a netbook to type on, but that will be going back to its real owner shortly. For the projects I have going on in the very near future the netbook is an unfeasible option.

However, given my newfound love (You Need A Budget), some consultation with both my lovely wife, some fellow earthlings, I looked into Dell‘s options.

Bingo!

Without going into details, I’ll say two things; advice from friends on finances is not evil. Also, Dell’s customer support system is surprisingly awesome – three emails with them took less than three hours, and sometime around April 20th, I’ll be in business with an awesome Studio 17. It’s not the cheapest thing on the planet, but considering the other option is a throwaway laptop that would only last a year to two as my current monstrosity has, overspending to outstrip my needs in so astounding a manner is something I see as an investment in my future productivity. The backlit keyboard helps too.

What does this mean for my projects?

Thankfully, much of the principal writing for Dowager Shadow was done years ago – the writing we’re doing now is fill-in and editing based on beta readers vetting the plot. I expect that with perhaps a few exceptions (which I’ll try to warn people of) the stream there will go off without a hitch.

It does mean I’ll have to be less than scheduled on this blog. Sorry. I’ve made some commitments to projects run by others (I’m guest writing for and promoting three blogs next month and beyond) so I’ve decided to commit myself to the successes of new ventures, largely because of the lack of consequence this blog has at the moment. However, if I fail to post at least once a week, you’ve got my full permission to send hate mail or bash me on Twitter.

So I’ll be around – but until my shiny new toy comes in, I’ll be playing ninja.

Filed Under: Blog

The Flaws Inherent in the Exhibition of Inferiority

March 20, 2010 by Ian 1 Comment

Red Fail on FlickrA lot of self-help and personal advancement books talk about the utility of showing vulnerability in public. Hiding your flaws is counterproductive, especially for those of us whose business it is to be human above all else. There’s a problem with doing this intentionally, however, because it often comes off as making a claim to an inferiority complex.

“I’ve been a disciple of Brogan for a year,” you tell your clients. “And there’s no way I’ll ever be as good as him. But you’re still picking me, because of his strong influence on my work. A disciple is better than nothing, right?”

Do you have any idea how wrong this sounds?

I’m very familiar with inferiority. How familiar? I’m surrounded by a family of intensely well-educated people, who have staggering achievements compared to where I am now. None of them are famous, per se, but success is inextricably linked with certain measures of notoriety.

Snapshot of my family: My father is a well-respected member of the teaching community, among others, and holds two degrees. My mother is a nationally recognized fabric artist, who once upon a time taught at Red River College. My sister is one of the most intelligent people I’m ever likely to meet, and her husband is a brilliant graphic designer. My wife has forgotten more about art history and European history than you’re ever likely to learn since she got her own degree. My son knows more about physics at two than I did after High School.

What does this have to do with inferiority?

I barely graduated high school, a year late, have struggled with mental and behavioral control issues for most of my adult life, and I’ve only got seven years of work history at nearly twenty-eight. Compared to the half dozen degrees spread amongst my immediate family, I’m certainly the under achiever. But if I weren’t using this as an example, you’d never hear me mention it. Why?

Inferiority is counter-productive.

I’m a media dude. Lots of people I interact with are as well. In order to maintain and advance myself in this space, I need to not only work ten hours per day doing my paying work at Modern Earth, but also (when I’m doing it right) spend three to six hours per day tracking, tabulating, publishing, curating, communicating and cross-referencing the entire web as I find it. This means I work anywhere from ten to sixteen hours a day, on top of maintaining a family.

My business – my personal business, beyond the scope of my job – is to get famous, get respected, and back up that fame with skills far better than anyone else available at my level, no matter what my level is. That’s the shill, right there; I’m here to build my brand. Anything else amounts to telling you about my cat’s day, rather than mine.

Doing your work to the best of your ability is impossible when you’re even the least bit focused on how much better someone else might do it.

That’s the key to the difference between inferiority and vulnerability. If someone in your field is more skilled, you’re vulnerable from a business standpoint only if your prospects can afford the fees that come with the competition’s skill, success, and notoriety.

Does this make you inferior?

Consider it this way. Your competitor – the guy at the top of your vertical – can command a $10,000 per day fee. You, at your best, command $800. Are you inferior because of your fees? Not necessarily; you’re more agile. Businesses which could not possibly afford to shell out ten grand to hear your competitor speak can probably easily afford you one thousand dollar seminar fee. Plus travel expenses.

Another example? Perhaps you have a family member who was the absolute top of her game – a maverick author or publisher. But you? You’re a chef. What’s better, you’re writing a book about cooking. Are you inferior in this task to your family member? I say no, because you know your subject material – and an expert about anything can write far better of a book than a jack of all trades ever could, especially where subject matter is the key to the power of the work.

Claiming inferiority makes an assertion that there is only one kind of social currency: Skill.

Not skill at anything, but skill as a generalized measure of personal worth. This is a mistake so many people make, and yet sociologists study the concept of divergent social currency with hushed awe.

Stop worrying who’s better than you are and start working on making yourself better than you are.

Image by griffithchris.

Filed Under: Blog

The Road to Financial Agility: Step One, Ignore Your Debt

March 16, 2010 by Ian 3 Comments

Dog Agility Class on FlickrI’m considering ordering a new laptop, because the one I currently work from is a broken old POS (I’ve had it for two years) which has had the keyboard replaced, the screen casing is broken, and it moves about as fast after a complete system reinstall as my previous laptop did having been used for a year. I can’t afford the new laptop, though, so I’m considering ordering it on credit, and dealing with the added financial weight.

It hurts. But being unable to work properly outside of my office hurts more.

I wonder if anyone really cares about just how much debt they’re in any more. Generation X was all about the money, and Gen Y is all about meaning – but the savvy Gen X demonstrated is being passed to their kids. The kids just don’t seem to care.

I’m in debt. Aren’t you? I looked at the statistics, though, and for someone of my age and demographic background, I’m in far less debt than many of my peers. I’ve been struggling with money for years, and couldn’t figure out why I was having such a hard time when others around my age and income had cars, houses, kids, pets, and still had cash left over for discretionary spending.

Then it hit me. Debt isn’t important. What’s important is how much strain it places on you.

Look at it this way; I have two options.

On one hand, I can get a computer which will serve my needs for the interim, by waiting and dealing with my current situation for the time it’ll take me to save up the – what, let’s say $800 – that the computer costs. Because I’m doing it this way, it’s cash in hand, which always hurts to spend. However, once it’s paid for, it’s mine, with no strings attached. It’ll be a painful month when I do bite the bullet and buy the computer, but the following months will be pain free, and let me move on with my life.

This method means I’m likely to get a limited life time out of it, replace it in two years, and spend another $800 to $1000 on yet another piece of stop-gap hardware. I could save up longer, spend up to $1500 on a very good laptop with top of the line everything, but I fail to trust the hardware to have a lifespan of more than three years. Especially in my screwdriver-punctured hands.

The other option means finding financing – a credit card limit increase, independent financing, or what have you – and get a very good, $1000 to $1400 computer, which based on my usage I can expect a much longer lifespan from for a number of reasons; storage space, processing power, memory and graphics all go far ahead of the curve as soon as you pay more than 50% higher than industry average price on laptops. At that price, it’s an investment, not a cost.

However, it does mean I’ve increased my immediate debt level and dug into my monthly budget for some time to come. I’m only shelling out between $50 and $75 per month, but if I ever need that exact amount of squeezing room, I don’t have it. However, it does mean I don’t have to save up, which means getting what I need sooner, and while I’m taking the constant nickel-and-dime hits to my budget, I don’t need to drop two-thirds of the month’s pay in one go.

What does this have to do with agility?

The options simplify really easily – either a) delay and take action all at once, risking what feels like the short term, but if anything drastic happens in that short term, anything beyond doesn’t matter at all. Or b) take action now, over the course of a long period, with no immediate risk or stress, but leave myself open to all the risk and stress that comes with neglecting what is in truth a very measurable expense.

Financing is such a dangerous situation – all debt is – because it encourages neglect of responsibility and abdication of resolve.

However;

Large purchases, even when sufficiently planned, can put your entire budget and living situation in jeopardy, because emergencies are, by nature, impossible to plan for.

Neither of these scenarios changes the fact that I need a new computer and lack the hard cash to buy one at a whim. Still, isn’t it interesting to think that no matter which way I end up going, there’s still risk, and different rewards and, at the end of the day, the actual amount of debt I’m in doesn’t mean as much as how well I can handle whatever gets thrown at me outside of my plans?

Image by Dave Hamster.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: computer, financial agility, hack advice, plans, sell my soul, work

Confronting the Absense of Evidence

March 11, 2010 by Ian 2 Comments

Imagine you get asked a very simple question.

So you research. You dig in, follow the rabbit hole, and find a few dozen answers the exact question, plus a few more scenarios where the simple question may mean entirely different things based on external circumstances.

But here’s the problem; it’s all wrong.

It’s so simple, and it’s within your specialty, so you immediately assume you know the answer. But, it turns out, the question is deceptively simple – so much so, that you immediately begin to doubt not only the assumed answer, but the veracity of your skill at answering simple questions within your specialty.

The term we use around the office for tis kind of problem is “Analysis Paralysis” – coined by Susan, the SEO Sensei.

It applies to more than simple questions, but they can be a total pain to deal with, because they’re so unspecific that usually they leave a huge amount of steering room. The number of answers you find for simple questions simply can’t be handled without knowing some kind of process for refining these questions.

Like raw ore, the simple question has so much potential, so much possibility untapped that we’re tempted to find shapes in the rock. But by beginning to shape – to find answers – without first refining our understanding of the outcome we’re looking for, and defining our action plans.

How can we do that? By never allowing ourselves to answer a simple question with anything but pointed, directed querries which will help turn the simple question with a huge rabbit hole attached into a wide ditch which gives us only one possible answers.

So, simple question: does this make sense?

Filed Under: Blog

The Trouble with a Lack of Deadlines

March 11, 2010 by Ian 2 Comments

I really dropped the ball on The Dowager Shadow this week, and it’s killing me.

I went nearly a week without a post, and then three in a row, missed a day… And so on. Now, we’ve hit the end of Chapter Two, and Chapter 3 begins on Friday. Posts are scheduled right up until the end of the month, but it hurts anyway because it’s a funny way to behave for a project that’s finished for all intents and purposes, but for breaking it up and posting it all.

So why did it happen?

The same reason any beginning project has hiccups – I didn’t set myself appropriate deadlines, and let other things get in the way of the project. You must have had this happen, am I right?

That’s the trouble with fluid deadlines. If you don’t have a schedule – an editorial calendar, or a goal for full publication – you’re bound to let something slip eventually. Luckily for me, that was this week, when Dowager Shadow has all of twenty subscribers and no one is commenting, rather than two months from now when it’s finally got traction.

But isn’t it amazing that this happens at all? I mean, productivity happens when you want it to, doesn’t it? And I wanted the novel do go off without a single hiccup, which was why I spent six months planning the launch before I launched. Silly, right?

But what I failed to do – what so many of us fail to do in our planning – was set hard and fast goals.

And how can you win if you’re not keeping score?

If you’re unfamiliar with The Dowager Shadow, or need to get caught up, check out the Table of Contents page and start from Prologue One, “Shadow Hunter” – it all follows from there.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogs, dowager shadow

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