NYCPHP Meetup

[paul at devonianfarm.com]

From: Jason Scott <JasonS at innovationads.com>










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Nope, I think MOST of you are full of sh*t. Unfortunately, such
is the bell curve of life – 7 out of every ten people fall below the
curve. Two of the three in the upper half are respectable. And then there’s
the one. The one out of every ten who can outperform them all with his or her
eyes closed. That one person is the difference maker. That is the person hiring
managers will pay for. That is who I struggle day in, day out to find.


     And that's the big problem with the IT industry.  An inability to deliver consistent results.

    It's easier to find a good heart surgeon than a good data modeler in my town.  That's because

(i) there's a system for producing heart surgeons,
(ii) heart surgeons get paid well,
(iii) there's a system for certifying heart surgeons,
(iv) heart surgeons have a social status that people take seriously -- they don't have to waste their time justifying themselves with customers, managers,  and co-workers who don't know jack.

    Akerlof won the 2001 Nobel prize in economics for his analysis of the used car market:  a lot like the IT job market.

    Let's say you're hiring a data modeler...  Odds are 7 out of 10 you'll get the kind of guy who doesn't like the relational paradigm,  is afraid of joins,  and leaves behind filemaker databases with one table and 700 columns.  The market value of all data modelers is discounted by the the fact that you'll probably hire a dud -- on the off chance that get a good one,  he's going to get burned out because the people he works with (particularly the 7 out of 10 duds) are going to assume he's a dud and waste half his time justifying himself.

----

    The other angle here is that I'm not enthusiastic about moving to NYC.  NYC and San Francisco are the only two places on earth that I'd consider moving to,  but that would really wreck my personal life,  ties to my extended family and a lot of things that matter to me.  If I knew I was going to get the perfect situation,  it might be one thing,  but odds are 7 out of 10 it will be another bad scene and who wants to deal with that.

    Overconcentration of economic activities in certain areas is one of the problems of the global economy.  I talk to corporate types in the city,  and they think Bangalore is closer than Binghamton.  We've got cities upstate that have excellent an quality of life and a much lower cost of living than the city -- business trips to the city are an hour on the plane or a few hours on the bus.

    How long are you going to keep repeating the things that don't work before you realize you're going at it the wrong way?

  
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