OPEN INSIGHTS Newsletter
Issue 46 – Interests Aligned
Aug 4, 2008
by Sean Hull
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In This Issue:
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
Are Your Interests Aligned?
Hiring new people, or starting a new job, always involves thinking about your interests. If you are a company hiring, you’re thinking about what position you need to fill, how long it will take to get the new hire up to speed, how they will mesh with your current team, what kind of money they will be expecting, and if you have a bit of perspective on the horizon, you are hopefully also wondering how long they might stay with the company.
If you’re an individual looking for a new job, you’re going to be considering various factors too. You’ll look at the compensation in salary, what types of benefits and retirement plan is available, health insurance, and even other fringe benefits like day-care for kids, or a pool table in the break area. Or perhaps you are in the fashion industry, so being able to hob-nob in the right circles, or at the right parties, may be a tremendous side benefit to you. Of course the day-to-day factors such as how far is the office, what is the commute like, and who will you be working with are also factors. And don’t forget the question of how it will be building your career, and the intellectual or other challenges be from day to day.
If you’re a consultant, the factors may include the size of the contract, potential business building, and connections to future prospects, how it will grow your portfolio, how you like working with the client, if you feel they’ll be friendly, or adversarial. Will the work be remote, onsite, or include travel? Will it be a tight schedule, or finished at leisure? And then whether you like the work, whether it is challenging, and exciting.
In each of the scenarios above, different players have interests, as nations on the global stage. Each group has their own driving force, whether they acknowledge it or not. We all act in accordance with our needs. This is important to recognize. Once we recognize this, it’s easier for us to stand in the other ones shoes, and understand their needs.
So what are aligned interests? Well that is the best of all worlds, where business, and relationships really prosper, and grow. It is the proverbial win-win situation in business, where everyones needs match up. When this happens you sometimes feel like it’s a pleasure to go to work, that you’re lucky to have this job, or when a company feels they’re lucky to have the talent they have on board.
We may not all have the perfect opportunities, but when we consider our interests, and those of the people we’re working with, we’re more likely to align our interests, and work better together in the process.
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Programming Perl, Perl + Oracle
Oracle Indexing – What, Where, Why?
Create a Database Manually – When & Why?
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part I
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part II
Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part I
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part II
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part I
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part II
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part I
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part II
In our last interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We’ve also moved our podcast to Odeo for Audio Podcast hosting. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already!
Alpha Dogs – The Americans Who Turned Political Spin Into A Global Business
If you’ve ever watched a political campaign, you’ve probably felt a mix of different feelings from frustration, to surprise. It never ceases to amaze me how different the visual medium is from the written one. In todays world, clearly the visual medium of tv & internet has tremendous influence on people’s perspectives. The fascinating thing is to read about how these guys turned this whole thing into a big money consulting business, and peddled their brand of politics around the world. This is a great read, and whether you like it or not, these forces do influence people, so why not try to understand what they are, and how they work.
Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive – Robert Cialdini
Cialdini’s original classic "Influence" has been on the short list of good books on this topic for years. His new title sifts much of the dense reading into 50 simple axioms. He presents each with a great example from the real world. This book is a breeze to read, and you can flip through the contents of 50 questions at the beginning to find just what you want. Worth every penny.
A little inane humor to brighten up your day… Jessica Hagy has this cute little blog called indexed. She uses index cards to illustrate little truisms, often with funny comments on venn diagrams. Here’s a funny one the relationship of status to money.
We all want to optimize our sites for Google. I mean other than a select few, that’s where most of our traffic comes from, so the more our site plays well with Google, the more users, readers, customers, and clients will find their way to us.
Most of the SEO material I’ve read has been pretty sparse, and unclear. But I’ve been following the topic over at my good Felix’s #comments blog, and I’m starting to get it. So you can too! Take a read: Google loves me, again!
If you haven’t been following the news on the topic, take a look over at this NY Times piece: Silicon Valley Start-Ups Awash in Dollars, Again. Personally I don’t think there is much hysteria this time around, sure there’s some, but not much. The industry is more mature now, and computers in general have lost their initial wow factor, so people are general more sober, and able to step back and see what is actually useful, can make money, is making money, or might well make money. That’s the root of investing smart.
Issue 44: Gaining Legs
Issue 43: On Prudence
Issue 42: On Efficiency
Issue 41: Roshomon Effect
Issue 40: Self Taught
Issue 39: Reputation Management
Issue 38: Are You Fast Failing
Issue 37: A Real Open Book
Issue 36: Rarity of Excellence
Issue 34: Hindsight Is Always 20/20
Issue 33: Market For Experts
Issue 32: Different Heritages
Archive: Past Issues
Oracle DBA Interview: click here
Tools for the Intrepid DBA: click here
Oracle9i + RAC on Linux/Firewire: click here
Migrating MySQL to Oracle: click here
MySQL Disaster Recovery: click here
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
In a nutshell, Oracle. Everything related to and surrounding the database technology we specialize in, but specifically setup, admin and tuning of Oracle technology. I have 10 years experience with Oracle, wrote a book on the technology, and write and lecture frequently. I’m founder and senior consultant of the company. In capacities where your company might hire Deloitte, AIG, or Oracle Consulting we can bring the same level of service and experience, at about half the price. Simple equation.
Looking for a top-flight DBA? Visit us on the web at www.iheavy.com.
