I agree that paperless billing is better for the environment. That is obvious. Less paper, less dead trees, better environment. Get it, got it, good. The thing that annoys me is I know that “EcoBill” is not Comcast’s attempt at saving the environment but rather a way of saving expenses. That’s right, every paper bill that Comcast sends out costs them money. Duh, right? It costs them for the envelope, the paper, the printing and the postage. Probably costs them in other ways too but those are what I could name off the top of my head.

How do I know that this isn’t an attempt to save the whales? I’ve been using Comcast’s online billing stuff for like a year and they’ve had recurring online payments the whole time. Yep, all they did is wrap their pre-existing online recurring payments with some green images that say “Eco.”

Nevertheless, I decided to go paperless and clicked the link. I was taken to a page where I logged in. Next stop, paperless bills, right? Wrong. Next stop was a page asking me to sign up for recurring billing. Sorry, I don’t want recurring billing, I just want paperless billing. I don’t like the idea of you taking my money automatically each month. If you really cared about the environment, I would be able to get paperless billing without giving you the keys to my bank account.

Oh, and another thing. If you really want to be “Eco” friendly, why don’t you stop sending me multiple paper advertisements for your triple play each week, when I’m already using two of those services? That would save a lot of paper. I guess maybe the “EcoBill” program is an attempt to make up for all of your advertisement spamming iniquities.

The reaction from folks when I tell them the news has been mixed thus far. About half say you’ll never go back and you’ll go on to great things, and the other half think I’m crazy to leave a good job in a “recession.”

I explain it like this to the haters. You know the look a lion has in the zoo? Now, contrast that with a lion in the wild. The zoo is me at Notre Dame and the wild is what I’m doing now. There is nothing wrong with the zoo. It’s safe, fun and gives you room to grow. Everything is taken care of for you and all you have to do is show up. Over time, I was afraid this would lead to complacency and I didn’t want to go down that road.

I figured right now is probably the only time I would do this as I’m not getting any younger and the longer you do something the harder it is to leave. I figure if this doesn’t work out, I can always go back to corporate/higher-ed but if I can work for myself, why not?

I spent my first few days at Ordered List in Portland, Oregon for RailsConf 2008. This week is my first actual work week from home and it has been great. I’m amazed at the distractions I had in my office at ND. Take lunch for example. At every job I’ve had, lunch is the centerpiece of the day. It doesn’t matter how productive your morning was or whether or not you are hungry, you always take lunch around noon. I’ve been engrossed in what I was doing the past few days and forgot to eat until like 1 or even 2pm. I wake up around 8 or 9, work hard for 5 or 6 hours and then hit cruise control for the rest of the night, tweaking things I did during the day and prepping for the next.

I know I’ll miss the day to day interactions with my ND co-workers as they were a lot of fun but I guess that is what the weekends are for now. :)

Side note: A few people have wondered if joining OL will affect my blogging here and at RailsTips. The answer is yes, but in a good way. I’m hoping to have more time and energy for blogging. The only change around here is the “Hire Me” ad bug in my sidebar and the only change on RailsTips will be a sexy new design (by Steve) and a more stable web host to serve it from.

If you are interested, you can read the welcome post on the new Ordered List site that features our new services and the fact that it is now a “we” instead of a “me.”

I was looking for some light reading this weekend and this magazine caught my eye. The cover page article is actually pretty interesting. The “Super Rich” part did it’s job in catching my eye but it would more aptly be named “The Secrets of the Super Successful” but I digress. I really enjoyed the article so I thought I would post the seven secrets here and several of the quotes that I highlighted in my copy.

1. Perseverance beats education.

If this wasn’t true, I feel I’d be in trouble in my profession. I’m a programmer the majority of the time but didn’t really take much computer science in college. I’ve gotten where I am completely through hard work, not through being smart.

“Smartness is an ability to absorb new facts. To ask an insightful question. A capacity to remember. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first.” – Bill Gates

Love the absorb new facts line and the connect things that normally don’t seem connected. I am fortunate to be around a lot of smart people, so often I just sit back and soak it all in. I also think one of my strengths is common sense and making things simple which relates to the latter part of Bill’s quote. Can we agree that I’m smart? No? Maybe next year…

“I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don’t know if you are born with this kind of passion or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.” – Sam Walton

I really think passion and a desire to do good are the best things you can bring to your career. People love passion. In fact, from what I’ve seen, people respond to passion over reason. The reason I team passion and good together is otherwise you might end up like Jim Jones or some other cult.

2. Make your own luck.

My dad used to play the quarter game with my sister and I. He would flip a quarter and whoever guessed correctly would win all the change in his pocket (which was often dollars!). I won the game one time out of maybe 50 in my life and my dad probably lied because he knew I couldn’t take another loss. In fact, he used to pull out the quarter and I would run away crying, yelling that he should just give Em the money. I say all that to point out that making your own luck is important to me because I don’t have any. :)

“I don’t consider myself to be lucky. I think luck is preparation meeting a moment of opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey (this ones for Erin cause I know she loves herself some Oprah)

Luck can also be defined as having vision or being flexible or forward thinking. – Anna Isgro, article author

“I don’t remember any mistakes, only the opportunity to overcome problems.” – James Sorenson

“Vision is what determines who will be a leader. Great leaders can see how a situation will play out and take action in response.” – Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad

3. Gamble, but wisely.

“People who win are careful with their thoughts, not saying ‘I can’t do that.’ Or ‘It’s too risky.’ Or ‘I can’t afford it.’ Instead they say, ‘How can I do that?’ Or ‘How can I reduce my risk?’ Or ‘How can I afford it?’” – Robert Kiyosaki

4. Know your market…intimately.

“Experts have more highly differentiated cognitive abilities. They can see opportunities others can’t and figure out how to turn them into a business.” – Kelly Shaver, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies

I know the web but that is not my a market. It is a tactic. So what do I know intimately? I grew up on a farm. I probably know farming better than any other web developer. Farming, at least on the scale that my dad operates, is very technical. Chemical measurements. Irrigation systems. GPS. Knowing when to sell and buy. Hedges and futures, etc. That said, there aren’t a lot of people building web applications for farmers and co-ops. It could be a huge market.

5. Focus obsessively, and work, work, work.

Focus is uber important. You have to hedgehog. I don’t necessarily agree with the work, work, work though. Maybe it’s important to be a billionaire but I think you can be plenty successful working normal hours.

“The rich don’t base their actions on what’s easy and convenient.” – T. Harv Eker

“If you don’t know every aspect of what you are doing, down to the paper clips, you’re setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.” – Donald Trump

6. Timing is everything.

“I had zero expectations that the market was efficient or had a clue about what it was doing. So when I had the opportunity to protect myself, I did. – Mark Cuban, who sold broadcast.com to yahoo and then sold his yahoo stock in 1999 before the 2000 dot com bust, he now owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks

Enough said. Mark Cuban is the man.

7. It’s not just (or even mostly) about the money.

“No one is saying that they don’t like wealth; but what matters more is the innovation, the intense commitment they have to an idea and the difference it can make. Money is the byproduct.” – Raphael Amit, Wharton School management professor

Once you hit comfortable, money is no longer an issue. It’s about creating value by making something great (whether it’s a company or a piece of software or whatever).

Conclusion

I love lists and quotes, so needless to say, this article hit home with me. I’ve been thinking and reading a lot lately about what makes people successful. I haven’t read the rest of the magazine yet but I’ll post again if I find anything else this good.

Burnout starts when people lose their belief objectives are attainable, regardless of how hard they work; when effort and outcome aren’t linked in any rational and understandable way; or when they feel their work is misjudged and they no longer understand clearly what is expected of them.

Burnout does not occur from working too hard or too much. It happens when we feel that promotions, respect, and [insert what you desire here] are not based on our level of effort. It happens when we feel that our effort will not get us anywhere. Burnout is not anger, it is exhaustion. So how can you avoid burnout in your employees? Recognize effort and reward accordingly.

The irony of burnout is that it often happens to the very people who were most enthusiastic and full of energy and new ideas at the start.

I don’t think it is ironic that enthusiastic people tend to burnout more often. Think about it. More enthusiasm equals more effort, and more effort that goes unrewarded equals more burnout. Seems like it is not the fault of the enthusiastic person, but rather the person who should be rewarding them.

People have always warned me about my enthusiasm as if I will eventually burnout because I spend too much time doing what I love. Seems to me that my burnout is more of an issue for my boss to keep a tab on rather than me. As long as he or she rewards me according to the enthusiasm and effort I put in, there is nothing to worry about. If they do not, well, I guess I am destined for it because my enthusiasm is not going anywhere.

Does this ring true with anyone else or have I had an epiphany for one?

Recommendations

What would I recommend? I would recommend keeping it simple. Have three options for each question instead of five and cut the number of questions down to five or ten. If I would have received a simpler survey, I would have filled it out and they would have some data instead of wasted paper and shipping.

Work from large to small.

Due to my previously mentioned perfectionist nature, I often get stuck in the details. The book pointed out that “Success and satisfaction is in the details, but you’ll also find stagnation, disagreement and delay. There’s plenty of time to be a perfectionist. Just do it later.” Now actually doing that is going to be tougher, but it is a great point that really hit home with me.

Just Wing It and Scale Later.

Too often things get stuck in plan mode. The book suggests, “Create a great app and then worry about what to do once it’s wildly successful.” That makes a lot more sense to me. I understand that scalability needs to be in the back of your mind, but it shouldn’t drive a project. Make something great first and get it out the door as quickly as possible.

If you try to please everyone, you won’t please anyone.

This is obvious, but I think it is good that the book discussed it. You can’t please everyone. It’s just not possible. Focus on pleasing the users who are going to love your app and become evangelists.

Any feature that requires learning will only be adopted by a small fraction of users.

A user can only learn and use a certain number of features. If they can get what they need done, they won’t spend the time necessary to learn the correct or easier way to do it. Their way works and that is all they are interested in. This is why feature bloat is bad. Nail down which features are going to be used and don’t add the others in. This keeps the app simple and easy to use.

Decisions are temporary so make the call and move on.

Again due to my perfectionism, this is often an issue with me. I painstakingly analyze what would be the best way to do something. In the end, what keeps you inerested in and excited about your app? Progress. Making decisions quickly means you can spend more time getting things done, which means you will remain excited about your app.

Done. Start to think of it as a magical word. When you get to
done it means something’s been accomplished. A decision has
been made and you can move on. Done means you’re build-
ing momentum.

Five Antonio Salieris won’t produce Mozart’s Requiem. Ever. Not if they work for 100 years.

You don’t need a hundred programmers. You need a few great ones. Excellent point.

That said, the more homogeneous a group of people are in their thinking, the narrower the range of ideas that the group will openly consider. The more open minded, creative, and courageous a group is, the wider the pool of ideas they’ll be capable of exploring.

Some teams of people look to focus groups, consultancies, and research methods to bring in outside ideas, but this rarely improves the quality of thinking in the group itself. Those outside ideas, however bold or original, are at the mercy of the diversity of thought within the group itself. If the group, as a collective, is only capable of approving B level work, it doesn’t matter how many A level ideas you bring to it. Focus groups or other outside sources of information can not give a team, or its leaders, a soul. A bland homogeneous team of people has no real opinions, because it consists of people with same backgrounds, outlooks, and experiences who will only feel comfortable discussing the safe ideas that fit into those constraints.

People worry about the wrong thing at the wrong time and apply their intelligence in ways that doesn’t serve the greater good of whatever they’re trying to achieve.

The lesson is this: “Speed kills”. I was never very good at pool, but this one guy there was, and whenever we’d play, he’d watch me miss easy shots because I tried to force them in with authority. I chose speed and power over control, and I usually lost. So like pool, when it comes to defusing smart people who are defending bad ideas, you have to find ways to slow things down.

In 1876, Thomas Edison set a goal to have one major invention every six months and one minor invention ever 10 days. He came very close to achieving that goal.

This line was plucked straight off a sign at Greenfield Village this weekend. It was outside the replica of Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park complex. Edison is credited with some 650 major inventions and over 1000 patents (above is the phonograph, I believe). He was an inventor and he set goals to be the best. I am a web developer and I am just cruising. I am pretty inspired by Edison and I think it is time to set some lofty goals for myself. What do I want to be? What do I want to be remembered for? I have been a sponge for my first few years involved with the web soaking in all the information that I could. Though you should never stop learning, there does come a time when you need to start using what you have learned or you will get fat and slow on information. I think now is that time for me. It is time to set goals and do something great. But what…?

What on earth do undershirts and professionalism have in common? I thought you might ask that. Well, the Meronas are packaged in a simple, elegant black package with a few shades of grey to complete the look. The fonts on the package scream elegance. No tag, no shrink, and the armpits never stain. Ok, the armpits will probably stain, but only time will tell. My point is that despite the fact that I know the Hanes will do the trick, I couldn’t help but pick the Meronas because of the packaging. I think presentation is often overlooked by web designers. They assume that because they are the best, or the fastest, or the cheapest or all of the above that they will win the bid. Errrr. Try again. Why is it that your competitor can charge an arm and a leg and wins the majority of the battles between you? Most likely they have made the client feel like a king and presented themselves as the best.

This is far from an essay on professionalism and presentation. I mean, seriously, I used the word armpits and made mention of myself in only an undershirt. I just want to point out a few ways that you can ‘appear’ more professional.

1. Letters – hand-written or typed. It doesn’t matter which. Think about the last time you got ‘real’ mail. A personal letter mentioning how you enjoyed meeting with them and that you guarantee you will do everything in your power to meet their every need goes along way.
2. Questions – verbal or electronic. Many web professionals believe that the client wants to hear about all of their solutions. Errrr. Try again. The client wants to hear intelligent questions that show you are actually listening to what they say AND that you care about what they say.
3. Contact – verbal. The best way to earn and keep a clients trust is by staying in contact with them. Who do you trust? If you are like me, you trust those you are close to and spend time with. Do the same with your clients. Spend time with them and keep them informed each step of the way and they will not stray. Sorry for the rhyme.

These tips are nothing out of the ordinary and probably nothing that you haven’t thought of or heard of before. They are just a simple reminder that a little bit of professionalism and presentation can go a long way with the people who pay your bills. So what is my opinion on the Meronas? The softest undershirt I have ever owned.