The whole “Thank You” thing.

In a conversation on LinkedIn.com, several of us were discussing if saying "thank you" in today's overloaded age of email and messages was just wasting people's time.  The overall conclusion was no – even if it added one more email to someone's bursting inbox.

I'm on the side of saying thank you, and wanted to note its importance in career searches and the geeky job world.

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Let Me Bore You: Spreadsheets

And it's time for another entry in our practical yet boring columns.  This time I'm going to discuss another exceedingly common and boring thing that's worth knowing how to do in your career.

That thing is Spreadsheets.  Yes, spreadsheets.  Excel.  Columns and rows and sums.  Those things.

And as exciting as they are not to many people (personal note: *I* love spreadsheets), they are something you're going to want to know a lot about, and they're something you're going to want to use.

So.  Let's get boring.

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News of the Day 5/15/2009

Career:
A look at the jobs of the future – Erring towards green jobs, but with some interesting insights.

How a Gen Y'er got a dream job in the recession – Some useful personal insight – and he landed a very geeky job!

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics:
In parts of Chicago, home foreclosures are now more due to job loss than subprime – Interesting for stats geeks, and a reminder that with multiple crises on top of each other, the effects of one are hard to measure if you just assume.

Technology:
Web Startups may not need as much from Venture Capital any more – An interesting theory – that is easier to start up, easier to sell off, and in general a case where companies work much faster than they used to.  If this theory holds water, it means more companies are leveraging existing routes, support, markets, and tools – which in turns means existing systems (Salesforce.com, Apple's iPhone Apps store, etc.) in turn become more important to the economy.

Video Games:
Venture Beat's Top 12 trends in video games – Very in depth (and rather positive for the cautious VB).  One of the things I didn't consider is the role of 'backfill' in gaming – which is a huge market I think some are exploiting without knowing it.  Worth reading if you're in, want to be in, or interested in the industry.

Game sales take a hit in April – This may or may not be a sign of a trend, so I present it more as a curiosity and a warning.

– Steven Savage