Advice

In Silicon Valley, The Line Between Humor And Reality Is Thin

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That App Was a Joke . . .  now it’s not.

I work in Silicon Valley, and trust me there’s a lot of weird stuff here.  That’s part of the charm.  We get fish curry tacos, monuments to water towers, and people who make apps that were originally jokes – like those mentioned in this article.  Yeah, you laugh at iPoo . . .

There’s many ways to look at this phenomena, but I’d actually like to add a different point of view – the insane stuff that becomes all to real is a good thing:

It reminds us that there is a market for almost anything.

It’s a demonstration of how fast something can be developed.

It’s a reminder that you CAN make it with a seemingly crazy idea.

It’s a reminder there’s still a lot of VC sloshing around.

It’s a celebration of the pure crazy that we can produce – and that means even if some of this crazy is, well, stupid, we can make the good kind too.

So let’s not decry iPoo, or the infamous Wesley Crusher sex novel, or any of this other stuff too easily.  Let’s remember right now that we have the tools, technology, and often cash to go completely bugnutz in our technology, media, and more.

Now that you remember that, let’s go make it happen, because if someone can seriously discuss Tacocopter . . . .

– Steven Savage
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

 

Promoting Professional Geekery #41 – Fansource All The Things

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

If you want to encourage people to use their hobbies and passions in their careers, start paying them or at least having them do work in kind for you. Or, in short, start fansourcing.

I’ve written about Fansourcing extensively – in my definition it’s using fan/geek connections to get goods and services.

When you fansource things, you perform a great service to professional geeks providing those services – and more:

  • You give them a chance to use you as a reference, promoting their career.
  • You give them a chance to apply their skills and thus learn more.
  • You give them a potential addition to a portfolio or resume.
  • You give them a chance for free publicity by being affiliated with you.
  • You give them the real experience of applying their skills.
  • You pay them or provide some other service for them.
  • You promote the idea of fansourcing so others do it (you are doing that, right?)

The result of good fansourcing? Promoting Professional Geekery in a solid, reliable way.

It’s easy to not do this. It’s easy to use a standard business card template or forget that you know the people that provide fansourcing. It takes time to get into the habit, but it’s a worthwhile one.

Do this enough and other people do it. Make sure your fellow geeks get enough time, attetnion, publicity, and money, and their ambitions can be realized.

Sounds worth it to me.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Promoting Professional Geekery #40 – Help A Professional Association With Communications

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

You know I’m big on joining professional associations as a progeek (I’ve been talking about it throughout this series). But beyond hooking up and doing some promotion, you can also dig a bit deeper and apply your communications skills and abilities.

Professional Associations have newsletters, blogs, and websites. Perhaps you can contribute to one – with your uniquely personal and progeeky point of view. There’s doubtlessly some things you can write on, so help spread the word to reach your fellows – and help people understand them.

Not up for doing a little content? Then apply your technical, clerical, or other skills to run the engines of communication. If you can put up web pages, configure blogs, or know Mail Chimp, you can help your professional association with cutting edge communications.

None of this appeals to you (or you don’t have the time)? Hook your Association up with some of your fellow geeks that can. Your friend who’s a master of Android can write a blog post about, well, Android. Your web guru friend who normally does sites for indie bands can jump in with the website. You help your association, your friends (who get practice, references, and maybe a bit of out-of-the-box thinking), and you do it all while maintaining your busy schedule.

All of these activities ensure that your association has progeeky content and contacts, so you can help them out – and help them keep in touch with progeeky content and contacts. This is especially good if the association needs to connect with the geek/fan/otaku side more, or is in danger of slipping away from it. Think of it as a subtler form of my suggesions for evangelinecing for or to the association.

Of course you also get to practice various skills, increase your contacts, and get other benefits yourself! So keep this optioin in mind when you want to promote progeekery.

– Steven Savage
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.