Career

Book Review: Escape from Cubicle Nation

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Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur
by Pamela Slim

ISBN-10: 1591842573
ISBN-13: 978-1591842576

PROS: A good, friendly book that covers the process, psychology, and issues of starting one's own business.  Many personal and general insights are provided.

CONS: Occasional odd metaphors and "pop-culture" elements can distract.  The book does not cover everything about your own business in depth – but does advise where to go for in-depth information.

SUMMARY: An excellent, broad guide mixing psychology, encouragement, and advice for starting your own business.

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Stereotype-fu: Choose your stereotype!

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This is going to be the first in an ongoing series of columns on what I call "Stereotype Fu" – the art of using stereotypes to your advantage in your career.

A lot of us fannish and geeky types end up stereotyped – as we well know.  Trekkies, fanboys, lifeless gamers, nerds, fangirls, etc.  We're use to it, and often a little afraid of it – we're used to being viewed negatively due to simple associations, even when the stereotypes are not totally negative (or negative at all).

BOOKS could be written about why this happens.  My simple summary is that on the neutral side people like to find ways to classify things easy, and on the negative side some people need a group to look down on (and that drags into issues of the culture at large).

However, when we're starting businesses, interviewing for jobs, at work, etc. we have to deal with them.

I want to talk about using them to your advantage.

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What IS a Fannish Project?

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I often talk about the fact that fandom is great because it lets people do projects and learn from them.  However, I want to take a bit of time to define just what a project IS – and its counterpart, the Continuing Effort.

The reason I want to do that is simple – if you can understand what a project is, you can't easily analyze your fannish activities to determine which one's you've done.  Without doing that it's harder to assess or build your skills and experiences.

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