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.

Read more

More Thoughts on The Everything Wars

I've written about the Everything Wars a few times, and frankly, some of it seems to be sneaking up on me.

You may remember when I said that I felt the core of the Everything Wars was Microsoft, Google, and Apple, with tangents in the e-book area and gaming.

I think I was being kind.  It started that way, but the more I watch what's going on in the news, I think the Everything Wars have rapidly expanded.  Yes, Google, Microsoft, and Apple are core players, but it seems EVERYONE is jumping into the fray directly or tangentially (usually the latter).

Read more

News of the Day 10/22/2009

Career:
The key to success? Hustle. Getting moving. A nice succinct summary of a serious truth – if you want success, get moving. As a person who once spent a good chunk of a 5 hour airline flight writing columns, I can say hustle works.

Getting your hustle on in blogging may help Technorati reports on bloggers who make money blogging is interesting – I'll note that the economic situation probably skews this, but a good read – and may give you some ideas. And hey, keep up the Hustle . . .

Economics/Geekonomics:
7000 people a day exhaust their unemployment benefits. That's a million people in less than 150 days. The Senate is still holding up unemployment benefit extentions. This isn't good news for the unemployed or the economy.

The US may not be able to help the global recovery, consumer-wise. The numbers certainly don't look hot. We can expect more global economic shifts with weakness like this.

A jobless recovery looks more likely – Says the Atlanta Fed. Jobs are scare, small businesses are shedding them disproportionately, record job cutbacks, record high permanent job separations – all add up to an unpleasant picture. This may actually reflect a new trend in the modern economy as is – it seems a lot of recoveries of the recent past have been jobless.

Law:
(Yep, I added a law section. These days, I think Geek Law and Fan Law have come into their own)

Nokia files patent infringement lawsuits against Apple – Not sure why it took until now, part of me wonders if this is general Everything Wars strategy, and the recent trend has been dogpile-on-Apple as of late.

John McCain jumps into the Net Neutrality issue – and is against the FCC's rules. I think this is more symbolic than anything else (and probably a play for political relevance). Not sure it'll have much effect on the ongoing issues.

Movies:
If you thought Dune or Lord of the Rings was Unfilmable (even after the films), try and imagine the complex Culture novels adapted as movies. On the negative side . . . it'd be hard to find people that 'get' these books. On the other it's an incredibly rich setting to mine. I'm concerned an adaption of this size is an indicator that media companies are looking to mine past product even more.

Publishing:
A lot of journalists want their companies to move to digital faster. The demograhpics sound unusual as well. A good read if you're in news, and maybe in publishing in general.

Check out these Twitter Users who are shaping the future of publishing

What? Amazon.com's UK version of the Kindle is very limited and restricted – Another bad play in my book – and another opportunity for competitors. With the Nook coming out, this makes them look worse.

Technology:
OK, Windows 7 is out. Here's an obligatory review.

Video Games:
GameStop looks to jump into Digital Distribution with a mix of expand-and-acquire. Note the acquire part – it'd probably be easier for them to jump into DLC by buying a service or company than making their own. They also want to "aggregate" downloads. Clearly they're busy re-inventing themselves early. I smell job opportunities . . .

– Steven Savage