This is the wrap-up to my original "run" of Stereotype-fu columns. I'm sure there will be more, but I've covered most of my intended materials.
I'm going to close with a piece of advice near and dear to my heart: Being Stereotype Evolved.
Steven Savage
News of the Day 10/27/2009
Career:
Five handy tips on writing cover letters.
Hate Networking? So does Laurie of Punk Rock HR. However she still shares some great tips for those of you that don't hate it – or want to build up to tolerating it.
Economics/Geekonomics:
Guess what? Big Banks are not necessarily more efficient. Keep up on this issue because it will keep coming up in the economy . . . (also need I say a big bank may not be the best place to work?)
Law:
Judge rules former Midway execs didn't decieve people – and this sad end of the company apparently comes to a close.
Publishing:
Barnes and Noble won't just sell Nooks – it'll sell the Que – In stores. The Que is amore expensive reading device, and they don't see it as a competitor with the Nook. But this tells me B&N is ready to invest heavily in the potential of e-readers, even more than I thought. They're also into cooperation, which could be an interesting strategy in the Everything Wars – could it be a form of dilution strategy to go for a no-dominant-winner result. We need to see how/if their moves pay off, but I'm positive (and thinking this may provide career-worthy opportunities). More here.
On that note, there's some evidence from the UK that E-books are increasing interest in libraries. Good to know if you're in the geeky profession of working in a library – and also telling about potential ways your works may get to people if you're a writer.
Social Media:
MySpace is still moving forward. It may bring it's music service to MSN and Share content with Facebook. Yes, even a potential teamup with an old rival. MySpace's re-invention continues, and it's going to be interesting to watch. It seems to be a mixture of more focus and see-what-sticks. They're certainly not gone yet.
Technology:
The Apple Tablet could be a media device – and here is a discussion of what media it could host, focusing initially on comic books. There's also apparent attemtps to shop it to Australian media companies. There's Apple Tablet/iPad news coming thick and fast recently, so I'd keep up at TechMeme for the next few days.
Video Games:
The next Rock Band will apparently focus on The Who. A good choice, but I think that in a year the whole specialized-Rock-Band-thing is going to be wrung out. I'm concerned this (along with fitness games) is going to kick off a larger search-for-fad in gaming for a few years that won't be good for the industry.
Gamebryo development engine gets more expansions – Looks like Emergent Game Technologies isn't slowing down.
– Steven Savage
Technology, Speculation, and Failure
I've talked a lot about technology in this blog – it's both a geeky subject, and something we're all interested in and dependent on. Technology is changing fast and that changes jobs for ALL of us.
I want to address how technology is changing the nature of speculation and of failure in our careers.
For many of us progeeks and fan-to-pro types, technology is making some or all of our career ambitions easier. If you want to be a writer, you can self-publish the first edition of your novel, comic, or book. If you want to do a webcomic, the tools are there – including publicity tools. If you want recognition as a history teacher you can edit wikis, write for blogs and websites, etc. If you're a musician or an aspiring one I don't even HAVE to talk about what technology has done for you.
We all look at what technology lets us do from a positive side. I'd like to call out another advantage that the onslaught of new technologies has done for us that we may not be looking at – speculation and failure.