Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

A Cautionary Tale

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

With apologies to Hillaire Belloc, I thought the title of this post to be particularly appropriate. Here’s why.

When it comes to computer gadgets, I’m a danger to myself and others. And this is kinda frustrating because it’s so much fun to push buttons on web sites and download software, files, and attachments. Before the Web really became interesting, I used to routinely disable my computer by deleting things out of the control panel that I ‘knew’ I never used. When the Web finally got into full swing, the number of possibilities became practically endless. That brings me to the subject for today.

This blog is run on or by WordPress. This means that there are an untold number of apps, plugins, and widgets from which to choose. The other day, at the suggestion of someone who judgment I trust, suggested that WordPress users install Twitter Tools. By then, I’d learned enough about WordPress to be able to install this stuff myself.

So, I downloaded the program, put it into the appropriate file on my web page, and went merrily on my way. Unfortunately, there was another program in there that automatically shortened URLs. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I activated it as well.

After a couple of days, a friend of mine noticed that a sort of continuous loop had been formed on the blog. Because I had the blog connected to various social networks, when I posted something one place it automatically updated posts elsewhere. Unfortunately, this created a kind of perpetual motion. Altogether, about 40 unwanted messages were created.

Now this by itself was a nuisance, but not a huge problem. But, when I sent out the following -”Keyword stuffers are internet turkeys,” it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It wasn’t long before it looked I was the one doing the stuffing. Fortunately, a friend of mine spotted the problem, told me what to do, and then un-indexed them all from Google.

So, the moral of the story is to not mess with the technology unless you know what you’re doing. There’s nothing more humiliating than living up to the otherwise low expectations of others.

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Tags: Google, Twitter, WordPress
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Hiding Your Work from Your Boss

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

An interesting video on YouTube popped up today. It’s about how to hide your Twitter addiction from your boss.

I was attracted to this title because it reflects a new strategy for an old problem. This is a complicated issue and would require many more words to fully explain than what is appropriate for a blog entry.

In a nutshell, here’s the problem. Traditional management says that those who want a career with their company must spend all the hours available to them on work their employer has given them. The underlying principal is that time is money and that, therefore, all of your time should be devoted to making money for the company. This argument is flawed in a number of ways.

First, it is unlikely – and becoming more so – that you will have a career with any one company. More probably, your career will consist of contracts from several, perhaps a dozen or more companies. Next, because of this, some of your time must be spent preparing for and seeking out your next contract. Third, in any one of these contracts (and you should strive to negotiate these terms), you are accountable for what you do, not how long it takes. In this new world of work, time is no longer money. Only value is money. Some people can deliver more value in a day than others can in a week, a month, or a year. So, managers need to concentrate on managing the outcome, not the process.

To look at this another way. Let’s consider the training of a long-distance athlete. The coach says to everyone: “Today, you must run 10 miles.” So, everyone goes out to run. Of course, not all runners have the same level of fitness or an equal amount of ability. Some have longer legs than others. Some have high V02 than others. Some might feel terrible, while others feel good. Invariably, there will be people who finish before the others, maybe by quite a margin. Does that mean that those who finish first have to keep on running until the very last person completes 10 miles? Sounds like a stupid question when I put it like that, doesn’t it? The same thing is true in the workplace. Why should those who deliver a lot of value in a short time be required to work the same number of hours as those who produce less?

This is Another Fine Mess because all of us have to continually expand and develop our networks in order to take advantage of opportunities for work beyond the current contract. Managers need to wake up to the new world of work, and stop micro-managing the process. As long as people complete their work to the required standard in the time allowed, what does it matter what they do with the rest of their time. Managers need to mind their own business and let those contracted to work for them mind theirs.

Tags: Chris Pirillo, Twitter, YouTube
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