April 5th, 2012 by Andrew

This post will be regularly updated (if it proves successful at all), as we have to get rid of a lot of stuff. We’re selling our house, and getting ready to move to a much smaller place as I prepare to return to school. Prices negotiable, for good friends/causes, but for the stuff I’m selling, most of it is already an awesome deal (I think). More stuff to come.

The big stuff

 I’m selling my Canon Pixma PRO9500MkII Inkjet Photo Printer (3298B002) for $300, OBO. Price includes the printer/cables, some spare ink cartridges (not every color), and a variety of fine art and photo papers. I’m also including 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers (Digital Process and Print) free with the printer (a $25 value), if you want it. It’s also available separately, if anybody really wants the book, but not the printer. I paid $750 for the printer, in 2010, and it’s only lightly used. It’s an awesome printer, but it’s just too big to keep in our new smaller apartment.

Next up, the Brother XR 7700 Computerized Sewing Machine w/Free Bonus Feet. More information here. Asking $80 OBO. Never used, still have the box. It’s not currently available on Amazon, but we paid $170 at Costco, as a “HOT BUY”, and it’s never been cheaper than $164 for a new one on Amazon (from a third party, not including shipping). Great sewing machine at a great price, for someone who needs/wants one.

Kayak with paddle. Plastic, single person, about 10 feet long. Picture coming later, but it’s orange and in good condition (used once). Male or female life jackets negotiable (neoprene, and in awesome condition). Roof rack negotiable (fits my Jeep – I think it’s Thule – I have two racks). Paid about $350, asking $160 OBO.

Small stuff:

Benzomatic propane torch and flint starter. Free OBO. Still has some fuel. (Taken – Steve Robb)

Books. All free, OBO – I would like a little pocket cash, but am open to giving them to anyone who wants them. Many are hard covers, even if I linked to the soft cover Amazon page. In some cases, I just did a text link:
Spy Hook and Spy Line

Every Spy A Prince The Complete History of Israel’s Intelligence Community

I spent an especially large amount of money on the Spanish stuff. It’s still free OBO, but if somebody is willing to pay $40 for it all, they get first crack at it. The software does include the headset, but it’s not as awesome as the price indicates.

These are all hard cover, and a couple are first editions (not that I think they’re valuable, but it’s kind of cool – I have two copies of Rainbow Six, both missing their dust jacket):

Exactly as shown in the link (books 1-6, paperback, set):

and in one book.

More books to come!

March 6th, 2012 by Andrew

I really enjoyed all my interviews, with every school, mainly because I got to spend 15-25 minutes talking with super interesting faculty members. Throughout my entire application process, I interviewed with five different faculty members, before withdrawing my remaining applications (eliminating at least one virtual conversation, plus however many interactions I would have had at Columbia). I just received my tentative itinerary for my trip to Wharton next week, and I’ll be meeting with TEN (10) faculty, not counting any involved with breakfast, lunch, dinner, happy hour, walkabout, or the various seminars, sessions, and the mysterious “EconSoc” blocks of time. It will be a very packed couple of days, but I’m so excited.

There is a small glitch with housing, which I’m sure will be sorted quickly. I was told I could book my own travel, or work through their travel agency and have it billed directly to them, and I told them I would book my own. I thought this included the hotel, and I booked three nights at a super cheap place (they said they would pay for one night), that was about a 30 minute walk from the campus (or less than 10 minutes by taxi). They ended up booking me one night in a hotel right by the campus, which looks very nice, but is probably much more expensive. We’ll see what they recommend. It would be a bit of a hassle to change my reservation to be for the first night and third night, but the hotel they chose is probably closer to the dinner location, and where everybody else is staying. We’ll see what they recommend. Either way, it should be a fantastic couple of days.

Also, I am meeting a member of my team who lives in the Philadelphia area for breakfast on Saturday. I’ve never met him in person (or actually any of the current members of my team), so I am looking forward to that. It’s a little weird to bring gifts, maybe, but I grabbed some Oracle stuff for him too (hat, mug, etc) – might as well make full use of the trip.

My Life, Wharton

March 6th, 2012 by Andrew

I canceled my Vonage service today. It’s gotten pretty expensive ($36 a month, after some hefty taxes and “fees”), and I only use it for work (and I don’t expense it). My work will be coming to an end in about six months, but I’m going to make do with other resources available to me. I have a VOIP soft phone through work, which usually works pretty well for me, when I want to use a headset. It’s not perfect, but good enough – and when it’s glitchy and impacting my work, it’s not really my fault, because I’m using the work provided too – I just prefer 100% reliability, which Vonage offered. I also have Skype, which I’ve connected by physical phone to (I’ve actually had Vonage and Skype both on my phone, for a couple of months, and it worked great, but the Skype works well enough that I’m willing to just stick with that). In case you’re curious, the device I use is the FREETALK® Connect Me Phone Adapter with 12 months unlimited US/CA plus $5 Skype Credit (yes, I bought it through that third-party, which I think is essentially the manufacturer, at that price – it’s also available directly from the manufacturer website, but it was a slightly better deal/combination for me to go through Amazon, though I don’t remember why – maybe the free shipping, or the $5 Skype credit). Using my phone, I can either dial any number I want, and it will use Skype, or I could dial # plus any number I wanted, and it would use Vonage. For about the first 5-10 seconds, Skype has lower call quality (usually just the ringing noises sound blurred, and maybe the first couple seconds of the call – though people always say I sounded normal the whole time when I ask). After that, I can’t tell any quality difference between Vonage and Skype. I haven’t set up an incoming number with Skype yet, but I may still do that, depending on what options are available for forwarding or ringing in multiple places. I never had a problem with Vonage, either than the pricing seeming a bit high, and the cancellation process a bit laborious (though it was useful in getting me a lower price last year, when I thought about canceling). The quality has always been flawless, and I especially appreciated that somebody could call, and it would ring in my home office, on my cell phone, and at my work number, all at the same time. However, I was especially impressed that they included in my cancellation details the fact that they’ll be holding onto my number for 30 days, in case I want to transfer it to another provider (I don’t, though it was a cool number). Maybe they have to hold it for 30 days by law anyway (though I’ve never heard anyone else mention that), but I was impressed that they shared it, and made it easy to know – it just felt like good customer service. Although Skype  has been fine for me so far, and I feel comfortable using it for 1-1 calls with my boss and employees, and even for hosting very large conference calls, I still give Vonage a slight quality edge, for now.

In other news, I resigned from the Rotary Club. It’s such a great organization, and a great group of people (both in the Milford Club, and in the Wellesley Club that I belonged to previously). My boss started holding his staff calls during the weekly club meeting a couple of months ago, but I kind of hoped that might be open to change, but with the new quarter it was extended at least through July. Probably in August, if not sooner, I’ll be moving to Philadelphia, so even if the schedule changed for August, I wouldn’t be able to attend meetings regularly anymore. I hated being a member, but not pulling my weight (even pulling my weight just means showing up for lunch, hanging out with awesome people, and eating great food), so I resigned. I also looked into the Philadelphia Rotary club, even though I’ll have way less money as a student, but it was even more expensive than my current club, which ruled it out in my mind (I was hoping they had a “coffee only” cheap option, and/or reduced dues for younger members, like the Boston Club, but no such luck). It’s kind of funny, that there is a club for people students and people under 30 (Roteract), but I never knew about it when I was young enough (technically, somebody told me I was younger than the minimum allowable age when I joined Rotary, but I’ve never seen that documented). Now I actually don’t have money, but am too old for the club I was supposed to join before, because I’m going to be a student. Hopefully I’ll be joining Rotary again when I graduate, and it will help me connect with my new community (in academia, I understand that you have very little control over when you end up geographically, but I’m actually kind of excited about that). Anyway, I thought the club members might be angry or mean about it (in a nice or passive aggressive way), not because of anything about them, but just because I felt guilty about loving such a worthy organization. It was the opposite – I received so many nice and congratulatory e-mails, it was amazing. I already planned on buying tickets to the annual wine and food tasting fundraiser coming up, but their awesome attitude makes me want to buy even more raffle tickets when I get there. I’ll really miss them, but hope to keep in touch with them, and hear updates about their great projects. It’s really been great fun, being part of Rotary all these years, first as possible the youngest ever member in Wellesley, and then transferring to the Milford club (which meets in Medway), to get to know my new town better. I look forward to joining again in 5 years.

Awesome Products, My Life

March 5th, 2012 by Andrew

Disclaimer: I have communicated with Professor Mollick, and he may be in a position of influence over my life, when I begin doctoral studies at Wharton. I am not writing this to brown-nose (nor do I know if he’ll ever see this), but it has me excited about some ideas I wanted to write about. We’ll see if they ever go anywhere. I do not have an iPhone, but my wife will be using one starting Friday, and will be using one starting next Monday.

Today, I saw this brief (11 minutes) presentation, on Steve Jobs and the development of the iPhone. I’ll let you watch it now. The entire thing is interesting, but I’ll only be writing about a short bit of it.

The part that excites me most is the part about the iPhone and the App Store (8:10 – 10:12). I’m not saying I have all the answers, or even the tools to come up with the answers yet, but the cell phone industry, and the dynamics of “apps”, is super interesting to me, and I have all kinds of questions about how it will work, and what the outcomes will be.

Starting with the information presented in the video, Apple created a very popular phone, but it was locked down – you couldn’t just download/install whatever you wanted to the phone, and not just anybody could create software for the phone. Through the efforts of tinkerers, access was created, perhaps illegally, but the market for applications was created. Interestingly, 98% of apps were given away for free at this point. People were developing apps to server their own needs, or for fun, but weren’t really monetizing their efforts. Apple decided to harness this creativity, creating the app store and an easy way to distribute apps, and to profit from them. The market moved from 98% free distribution to 18% free, 33% abandoning the market entirely, and 49% selling applications. Apple takes a 30% cut of the paid applications.

Already this is very interesting. I wonder what caused so many developers to drop out of the market. Is it the idea that being paid for something makes it less fun, as does doing something for less money than you know your neighbor is getting for the same effort? Is it that the App Store agreement was too onerous, for those who preferred to distribute software free over the internet? Was 30% the right cut for Apple to demand, or should it have been more/less?

What is even more interesting to me, though, is exploring what the future will look like. As most people know, the application store has been duplicated on the Android operating system, which is more open in general, which opens up all kinds of new dynamics. First, Android itself is open, and can be customized, or installed on a wide range of hardware. This allows companies to build phones with all kinds of features, like built-in projectors or screens so large you need a backpack because it won’t fit in your pocket. The more open environment also has contributed to there being more total apps available for Android than for iPhone. From Apple, though you have fewer total apps, you also arguably have better quality control, if not actual curating – and any app worthy of mass-adoption will probably be produced for the iPhone at some point, and probably sooner rather than later, so the degree of openness for applications may not be a competitive advantage for either camp. The flexibility in terms of hardware may benefit Android though – you can get smaller screens, or bigger screens. You can get cheaper, or more computing power and memory. You can get thinner bodies, or slide-out keyboards. With Apple, no matter what, you get the exact same form factor, and your only option is the amount of memory, which may become less of an issue as more services move to the cloud.

Interestingly, app developers are reliant on Android and iOS suppliers – their applications are worthless without the phones, and unless they’re willing to make less money total, they need to be on both platforms. At the same time, phone developers are dependent on application providers, who provide features that would be too expensive to develop for and include in every single phone (there’s no way every app that exists would even fit on any phone). However, there is also competition between the platform providers, and the application providers. Each are competing for a share of the total cost consumers are willing to spend for a phone that meets their needs. If enough consumers demand a particular application, which costs extra, Android and Apple will compete to provide it as a feature, killing off the application, and capturing that share. However, if the new phone can’t be sold for more, they will lose the 30% cut they received from the application sale, and may be worse off. There are essentially unlimited combinations of cooperation, competition, and imitation possible between phone developers (Apple and many others), operating system developers (Google and Apple), and application developers (Google and Apple for integrated features, plus countless others). On top of all those, there are often intellectual property lawsuits related to cell phone technology, as incumbents and entrants battle it out, partnering, pooling IP, cross-licensing, or playing hardball. I don’t know whether I’ll have the opportunity to study this extremely dynamic industry, but I sure I hope I do – it seems extremely exciting, interesting, and important.

Mobile industry, Strategy

February 29th, 2012 by Andrew

Social media is everywhere, and changing the way organizations operate and compete. Based on conversations I’ve had with my pastor (Dave Ripper of Grace Chapel), will be having (I’ll explain below), and things I’ve been reading/hearing, I’ve wondered how these ideas relate to “the church.” The church can mean a lot of things, but I’ll explore that idea a little more below as well. Note that there is no thesis statement for this post. I don’t know where it will go, but I’m thinking about it, so I decided to write about it.

An HBR blogger, Nilofer Merchant, says we’re in the social era, and has published Rules for the Social Era. According to the article, “Facebook, KickStarter, Kiva, Twitter, and other companies thriving in the social era are operating by the rules of the Social Era. They get it. They live it.” However, “too many major companies — Bank of America, Sony, Gap, Yahoo, Nokia — that need to get it, don’t.” She argues that large organizations are the proverbial frogs in water that is slowly boiling, and that there is little hope for them. The first “rule” is that organizations need to think lean, not big. “Most organizations operating today started when companies needed more operating capital. Being big was in itself a mark of success. And in fact, being big created a natural barrier to entry for competitors.” This already opens up questions of what the church is. Some people view it as the global community of Christians, with many millions of members, while others are selective in their focus on specific denominations, or congregations. Within my mindset, I’ll think of the global community as the industry level (because it doesn’t really operate as an organization, as we envision it). I do not belong to a denomination (and neither does my church congregation), but I’ll assume that competition exists at the denomination level and congregation level, and that the variation in organization size and structure mirror the competitive market. You’ve got GE/Catholic church on one end, and garage start-ups/house churches on the other end. In some countries the church is illegal, just as Google is illegal in France. My church is pretty large, and it’s my understanding that thousands attend on a typical Sunday. Grace Chapel has planted small churches, and started satellite campuses (which do some things on-location, and somewhat “independently”, but simulcast the Sunday morning message). It’s my understanding that they may also explore the idea of an “online church campus.” What that looks like is unknown, but I was nominated to talk to somebody about it, which helped spark my interest in writing this post. My analysis will consider all the levels imaginable from the perspective of my church (a big church, planting independent small churches, operating satellite campuses, and even going online).

The second “rule” from the HBR post is that organizations need to think conversation, and not [value] chains. “[Linear] models optimized efficient delivery of a known thing. But this doesn’t help us when faster, fluid responses are what we need…. But “conversations” can actually go deeper if you allow them to become central to how you work, rather than leave them on the perimeter of the work.” This could certainly be a valid criticism of the church, but I think the claim would need to be defended. Certainly “efficient delivery of a known thing” is a major part of organized religion. In the case of Christianity, the “known thing” is the Bible, and efficient delivery would mean getting that information into people’s heads in a way that they can understand, and where it will have an impact on their lives (and souls). The entire Bible can now be easily read online (and in over 100 translations!), which seems pretty efficient. If you have a Kindle, you can get the Bible for free from Amazon (and a paperback version is only $1.99, with free shipping with Amazon Prime or an order of at least $25). But the church isn’t just about distribution of the words. Jesus himself spoke in a way that would not be understood by everyone, and elsewhere it shows that the words can’t be understood without someone explaining them. So, the church, and its members, are there to explain, but how is that best done? Based on the life of Jesus, I think it’s safe to say that preaching and teaching is part of this, but also conversation, traveling and having dinner in the homes of a wide variety of people. I think it’s safe to say that the conversation has moved “to the perimeter” for many churches, and that this is a mistake. The question remains of what that conversation should look like though, especially when you believe that absolute truth exists, and that false teachers will spread falsehoods to destroy the group. How can the conversation be effective, without becoming the only thing?

The third rule is that organizations need to share, rather than tell. “When companies think of social media, they hope to get consumers to “like” them or “fan” them, as if that increased connection is meaningful. Again, that captures the marketing aspect but misses the strategic point. The social object that unites people isn’t a company or a product; the social object that most unites people is a shared value or purpose.” She argues that “when people know the purpose of an organization, they don’t need to check in or get permission to take the next step, they can just do it…. With shared purpose, alignment happens without coordination costs…. This is the foundational principle of the social era.” Though I don’t think Merchant adequately differentiates between “share” and “tell”, especially when “truth” is the “product”, but this seems central to the idea of the church engaging with the world around. It’s not just about being “liked”, or somebody saying they’re Christian on their Facebook page – it’s about a shared purpose that should unite and motivate everyone of the faith. You can’t just tell people to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” They have to share that value if they’re going to live it. You can coordinate feeding of the poor, but the coordination costs are too high to make care for the poor a 24×7 behavior without that “alignment.”

In another essay, Merchant argues that “for organizations wanting to thrive in the social era, being distinct is key to both profitability and winning. While there has always been a market for bespoke, differentiated items, until very recently that market served a tiny fraction of the uber-rich. But today, both macroeconomic forces, and technological advances mean that customized products aren’t just for the one percent. Instead, customized products and experiences can be for everybody, at least some of the time.” Fortunately, profitability is not the motivation for [true] faith, but there is an element of competition in scripture, whether it’s about defeating death and evil, or running the good race. More importantly, I think the requirement for conversation requires customization to some degree. If it’s different, based on who you’re talking to, it’s really not a conversation – it’s just preaching. This customization has a wide range of possibilities, and many of them have nothing to do with social media. You could spend time getting to know the poor in Boston, and inviting them into your home, or partnering with and mentoring existing leaders in South Africa, enabling them to succeed. Still, when churches have access to social media tools, the question remains of how best to use them.

One idea I’d like to reinforce, is that even though this blogger has invented the term “social era”, our world has been social for a very long time. I think perhaps we are seeing an upswing in the idea of social right now, but that is partly because we’ve seen some harmful effects of the anti-social era ® (I just invented that term). In the old days, money lending was personal, and forgiving debt was common and fair (as was trying to pay your debts). These days, money lending is mixing huge anonymous pools of money, assigning it account numbers and acronyms like CDOs. Corporations will refuse to pay their own debts, but promote the message that some loans should never be forgiven, no matter what (even if you’ve died, and the courts have declared the debts void). Military conflict has always required some level of dehumanization (part of the reason for uniforms), but now remote controlled flying machines can rain death from the sky, and will soon be coming to a town near you. It used to be easy to know what the right thing was, but the US alone now has hundreds of thousands of pages of laws (and millions of pages more in regulations) – and if you cross an imaginary line, the laws are completely different. The average citizen violates countless laws every day, and some laws are so absurd that it can be considered anti-social or dangerous to obey them (I-95 in the Boston area is a major four lane highway, with a speed limit of 55 – and an average speed of free flowing traffic much higher). But before we had all these rules, standardization (factories and public schools), and constant communication, we had social behavior. Even with government, when the boss was a 3-month ship ride away, a governor would have to understand the values of their ruler, and make wise decisions based on those values, and what seemed fair. Now, fairness doesn’t even enter the equation. This conflict has always existed to some degree, and even Jesus battled it. He was constantly accosted by rule-followers, convinced that everyone was terrible, because they couldn’t follow all the rules. Jesus called them out as the assholes they were, and helped people, even if it was a day where working was prohibited. He hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors (even worse). He would talk with anyone, about anything. Should you get a divorce, give to the poor, eat grain from a random field? He’s talked about it, with people who had the questions. He had custom conversations, when the crowds weren’t getting too big. And when he got too many followers, he couldn’t delete his Twitter profile, but he did get in a boat and go to the other side. It was not all about the biggest crowd, or the most efficient communication – it was about social conversations. But what should that look like now?

There is some pretty low hanging fruit out there, for churches everywhere, and including mine. I think the really low hanging fruit is in sharing. Even if you don’t know what conversations will take place yet, you can share, and see where it leads. All events were canceled today, because of the weather. It was on the website, but was not tweeted. A lot of the church uses the same one or two devotionals, which are available online. It would be very easy for 1-2 people each day to blog or tweet their thoughts on that day’s devotional (for an idea of what I mean, here is today’s). If you’re going to have a thousand people from one community reading the same thing every day, start a conversation about it, and get them engaged! One thing they’re doing, that is cool, is encouraging everybody to read through the New Testament for Lent, with a specific reading plan. Even better, they’ve created a website with MP3s of the readings for each day, so you can listen while you workout, or while you drive, or while you lay there hating reading (I’m really enjoying them, and the varied voices, though I’m a couple days behind schedule). It wouldn’t be that overwhelming if the twitter account for the church tweeted links to that days MP3 and passage on the internet, each day. You would have a little reminder in your feed, that you can click your preferred medium, or ignore entirely without even the need to hit “delete”. They upload recordings of the sermons each week, along with associated study guides for follow up – they could tweet when those go live each week. These ideas would really work for churches of any size, but a mega church could also create an app, that can show real-time parking availability, updates for service times (that alone is usually a hassle to find on the website, and I can never remember), and events for the week.

Jumping into conversation mode, there are also a lot of pretty easy steps. Blogs and twitter are both pretty easy. Do you sometimes think? If so, write down what you’re thinking, when you’re thinking it. If not, share what other people are thinking (even better if you share what people you’re trying to have a conversation with are thinking). A cool think my church is doing is having one of their pastors have a phone conversation with every single member of the church (mine was Dave Ripper, which was awesome because he is awesome). What better way to start a conversation than calling every member, and spending 15 minutes asking them to tell you what they like or don’t like about the way things are working? It might engage them more in the rest of the stuff, but even if it doesn’t, it’s an actual conversation, and the start (or continuation) of an actual relationship. This stuff matters, as much more than social media. Offering interesting and relevant classes, in a more intimate setting, also really helps get the conversation started. I’ve taken a class on personal finance, and Jennie and I took a pre-marriage class before we got married. This included some churchy values, but I could see them also being valuable for anybody who needs to manage their money better, or wants to have a successful marriage (and there were people from outside the church in both of those classes). Right now Jennie and I are taking a class for already married couples, and participants range from newly married to married for 30+ years, and there are lots of great conversations in that group. We specifically chose it, to help solidify the foundation of our relationship before we go through the major life changes of falling income, starting school, selling a house, and moving to a completely new city. There are also tons of other topical courses, but it would be interesting if they started to branch out into interactive/online/social media versions of some of these. In particular, few people that attend the evening service (which is a lot of the social media generation) can attend most of the classes, which are only offered in the morning. However, with the explosion of online education, it would be interesting for the church to start exploring how they can engage their members, and society, by offering something online. If an early morning weekend personal finance class can bring in crowds, imagine the potential for an online version.

These are just some basic ideas, and I can’t dive into them too much right now (it’s very busy at work – and 10 PM), but I think there’s a ton of potential. Feel free to start a conversation with me about it.

Can a church be all social? I’ll close with a few comments here, but I think a particular church related organization can be all-social, but I don’t see any reason or benefit in a member only interacting in that way, just as it wouldn’t be appropriate for somebody to live their entire life on Facebook. However, I think there is some potential for very meaningful online interactions. There is an internet based Rotary Club, for example. An online church could do some things very well, perhaps including many of the things that most churches focus on. If somebody is going to just sit in a chair, and watch a sermon, they can do that from anywhere. They can maybe listen to some Christian music at home too, or even sing along, but I think that would really be inferior to the real experience of singing in a packed room with an enthusiastic crowd. Personal conversations can be facilitated online though, and might even be easier than offline (on Sundays, in mega churches, many people probably come and go without a single interactive moment, but level of interaction can be tracked in WebEx type software very easily). It’s also easier for some people to open up online, sharing their hurts and struggles. However, I think this would ideally be supported with some sort of personal interaction as well. Grace offers “life communities” – small groups of people that meet in homes. An online church could get together many people virtually for preaching, but facilitate location-based small groups all over the region, country, or even world, in ways that a physical building could not. Group video chats might offer some interesting possibilities here, for people to interact with the “global church” in ways that are not possible locally, but I don’t think the technology is quite there yet (when I skype with my friend in South Africa, it’s voice only – and that gets a lot more complicated with groups of 10-20).

Anyway, I think it’s an interesting question. I’m not an expert on this, by any means, but please feel free to share comments, ideas, or criticisms in the comments. I have not re-read any of this, and I wrote it over many hours, on a busy day at work, but I hope you’ve found the thoughts interesting.

Church, Social Media

February 29th, 2012 by Andrew

Meanwhile, Barankay offers another caveat, this time one that addresses the time-honored tradition of face-to-face interviews with job candidates. “The predictive power of interviews is low unless they are very structured, which includes asking all the candidates the same questions, and then grading and evaluating them the same way,” he says, adding that extensive research backs up this finding. “A freeform interview where you just meander along in a conversation doesn’t reveal any important information.” - Why the Job Search Is Like ‘Throwing Paper Airplanes into the Galaxy’

Oh so true! If only every manager had to read that short paragraph. I would say this has been one of my most important accomplishments at Oracle. Based on my success in hiring, I partnered with a co-worker (who hired me, and is now a senior director), and we developed some rigorous training materials for interviewing and hiring. We put together a larger pool of possible questions, indexed by specific skills/personalities/values, and with various depths for each area depending on how important it is. We’ve also delivered training on how to interview (things to look for, and how to dig deeper if you get a superficial answer), but the most important aspect is to carefully consider what you need in a new hire, to select the appropriate questions for what you need, and then to ask the same questions to every candidate. It does nothing for you if you really like the way somebody answered a particular question, if you didn’t even ask that question to the other candidates. For all you know, they might have answered it just as well, or even better. Just as bad is the fact that you can’t really develop an effective baseline if you don’t see a lot of answers to some of the same questions. Even if you know a particular candidate is terrible based on the first few questions, working through the list and carefully observing their reactions and answers will make you a better interviewer, and might help you pick up on warning signs you might have missed in your next interview. I can’t speak highly enough about the importance of effective interviewing practices.

Hiring, O work

February 28th, 2012 by Andrew

It breaks my heart when close friends and family are going through hard times. One of my cousins, who is really cool, is going through a rough time. I last saw him at my grandmother’s funeral, and he was looking sharp, in a nice pressed suit. He’s a single dad, and his daughter couldn’t get enough of him. He was talking about going back to school, and getting a college degree. He’s smart too – he has that kind of potential. Since then, I’ve heard his hit a very rough patch, with substance abuse problems, and is now homeless. I haven’t heard from him since, but I thought he was calling me the other day. When his name showed up on my caller ID, I was very excited. I thought it was a great sign, and he was probably doing better. Except it wasn’t him calling. Somebody had found his phone on the ground in the park, and was trying to get a hold of somebody who knew where he was to get it back. She called me because we shared a last name, but nobody knew where he was. I called my dad, who talked to his mom, to arrange for them to get his phone back, and hopefully back to him at some point, though I don’t know if that’s happened. I decided to check in on him on Facebook today, at work (it’s our fiscal quarter end, so lots of long hours sitting in the office). The last activity on his wall was from three weeks ago. “hi dad i miss you” – does it get any more heart breaking than that? I love you, Ben, and hope you’re back on your feet soon. I’m here if you ever want to talk.

I did get some good news today though. My brother Adam, another awesome guy, has a job after a long time looking. He’s had some rough patches of his own, and thought he might have to move back to MN to my parents, borrowing money to get there. And now he’ll be earning money and building savings again. He’ll be washing dishes in an Indian restaurant opening in Portland, OR. He’s smart, and a hard worker, and should be able to work his way up. He’s brilliant, and I hope things really work out for him. I also hope he’s able to get a college degree at some point, and do something he really enjoys, that stretches his mind. He had the top ACT score in his high school class, and like me he skipped some high school, and started college early. What I love most about him is that he’s always happy, with whatever he’s doing, and wherever he’s at. I always try to get him to move to whatever city I’m living in – hopefully I’ll get the chance to live close to him again sometime. Some of my favorite memories with him are when we were both skipping years of high school, and commuting to college together, 30 miles each way (we lived in the middle of nowhere, Breckenridge, MN).

Broken World, Personal Stories

February 28th, 2012 by Andrew

So, I’ve decided to accept the offer from Wharton, and withdraw my remaining applications. This has many implications, some of which remain unknown. This will be a long/rambly post.

One question many people ask me is when I’ll be starting. I haven’t been given that information yet, but I have a few clues. A university calendar was included in my welcome packet, which describes new student orientation beginning on August 30, with classes beginning September 5. I know that MBA students have a number of activities that begin much earlier in August, including a math test, retreat, and learning about the core and diversity. I don’t have any indication that I will be part of that, or any comparable activity though. I think my best clue, until I hear otherwise (perhaps at the welcome days), comes from the Wharton Doctoral Calendar. This appears to show new PhD student orientation on Tuesday, September 4, and the first day of classes as Wednesday, September 5 (aka, my third anniversary). I suppose when the entering class is so small, starting activities and orientation the day before the first day of classes works.

One of the biggest implications is that we have to sell our house. This was already a given, but committing to a specific course of action (leaving job, moving, and starting school), stipend (generous, but much lower than my current income), and start date writes that into stone as a requirement. The to-do list for selling the house is pretty long, and mostly includes a lot of odd jobs. A wind storm this past weekend blew down a section of our fence, which needs to be repaired (by replacing at least one fence post). I have to paint my office – it’s been taped, and the paint has been in there for years, but I never got around to painting. I want to replace a couple switches around the house (they have new plate covers, but the switch inside is a little grungy – probably not an issue, but I already have the switches). We also need to touch up paint a little. We have a pool, that we’ve never used – I’ve thought about getting rid of that, but will check with our real estate broker to see what he recommends. We also will need to throw away or give away a lot of stuff, because we’ll have substantially less space in our new place (at least 50-75% less, but we’ve also seen listings in Philadelphia with less than 10% of the space of our current house). We certainly won’t have a need for, or space for, a kayak in Philly. We also have things like a snow blower (gift from my real estate guy – will probably return it to him) and a lawn mower (borrowed from my real estate guy), so some of the answers will be easy. We will be bringing our bikes, and expect to be using those a lot – fortunately I already have a bike rack that I can attach to either of our cars. In general, selling and moving the house will require a lot of busy work. We hope to list the house in April, because we’d rather sell sooner than later, and removing the uncertainty will also be nice. We can live with Jennie’s parents for a few months if needed, or move down early (I can do my job from anywhere). If we live rent-free for a few months, that will help us save the money we’ll need for first/last/security in Philly, and parking (if we get a 24-hour campus parking pass, it’s $2,300 a year, and most apartments don’t offer parking).

Another big step is mentally and relationally preparing for the move. I’ve been reading academic articles, and practicing math for a while, but I really want to kick it into high gear now. Everyone has told me to just show up rested (and hopefully I’ll do that too), but I feel sensitive on this issue because I’ve been out of school for so long. I want to start strong, to make it easier to stay emotionally healthy through the natural ups and downs that are sure to follow. I’m actually enjoying learning how to use Mathematica, but still need to refresh my calculus skills (and would like to push further into linear algebra, which I never had much of). I haven’t done any preparation for statistics yet, but want to do that as well. I did fine in terms of grades for statistics in college, but never felt like I really understood the “natural” concepts behind it. I also don’t know statistics software at all, and that seems like it will be pretty important. The requirements include an entire sequence of PhD level statistics courses, and most empirical papers I read include a lot of statistical data that I mostly skim over, that I’d like to understand better. Just as important will be a wide range of relational changes. I’ve been in MA since 1999, and have made a lot of amazing friends. I’ve worked for the same company for nearly nine years (it will be over nine before I leave), and have even more friends there. I have family (in-laws) that will be harder to see. I have a great church community. I want to make the most of my remaining time with all these people, and set up a process for keeping in touch going forward (maybe more regularly Christmas letters). I also am excited to start a lot of new relationships. I already have a few leads on potential new friends in Philly (friends of friends), and churches (from personal recommendations, and the Penn website). I’ve also found the details of countless fascinating clubs and organizations at Penn (though many seem more geared towards MBA students – though MBA students are also much closer to my age than most of the doctoral students, who are younger on average). I am also interested in living with some cool people, which I can hopefully know are awesome in advance, but I’m pretty open-minded.

That brings me to the next big question – of what life will be like in Philadelphia. I’m from very small towns in Minnesota, and have lived in the suburbs of Boston for a while. If all goes according to plan, we’d like to live near the campus, so this will be our first real experience living in a large city. Space will be at a premium, and we’ll probably try to walk, bike, or use public transportation as much as possible. I kind of like the idea of not having a car there at all (especially since it will cost a fortune to park, and ZipCar is much cheaper for occasional usage), but Jennie is really concerned that she’ll need one for her work. Amazingly, it sounds like she’ll be able to keep her current job, working remotely (returning occasionally, I’m sure, and perhaps going to college fairs and churches to recruit in the PA area). This will make it easier to go to Costco (though we may not have the space to buy in bulk like we used to), but I’m still worried about money in general. We are working to streamline our expenses as much as possible. Our rent will be lower than our current mortgage, and our student loans will be completely paid off by this summer (we’ve been working on that for quite a while). Overall, the experience of Philly should be a net positive – especially since we don’t need to worry about Jennie’s work. It’s still a little scary though (especially if we have trouble selling our house).

I did not originally intent to commit so early, and withdraw my remaining applications, but things just came together, and felt right. I contacted Toronto and Michigan to withdraw my application today, even though I had interviewed with both. I also withdrew from NYU, U of Chicago, and Columbia. I would have loved to visit Toronto (seems like a cool city, and one of my employees works there), and Chicago (awesome city, and I have family there), but I don’t think I would have been swayed from UPenn, and would have felt bad about wasting the time and money of such good programs/schools/people. Michigan also seems super cool, as a school, but less interesting to visit alone. Jennie could not have kept her current job working from any of those locations though, which made it easier to commit to UPenn. I really liked NYU, but was worried about cost of living in NYC. Columbia is probably a great program, but I never got super excited about it, partly because they offer so little information on their website that it just felt very generic. I was also tempted to wait, because UPenn told me to let them know if I got any higher offers I was seriously considering, and they could use perhaps that to justify higher stipends. However, I can’t imagine a stipend that I would consider seriously from the remaining schools, with such a strong fit and connection with UPenn, and I wasn’t going to lie about my considerations for a few extra bucks. I also wondered if committing early might make me look eager in a bad way, but I decided again, that I’d rather be open an honest, regardless of the outcome (and I don’t think they’re going to change their mind about me, just because I happily accept their offer earlier than expected). I also joked with a co-worker that I want to accept before they realize their mistake. I don’t think they actually made a mistake, but I do feel extremely lucky, blessed, and fortunate. It’s such an amazing school, and I’m sure they choose from a lot of amazing candidates. It happened to be that I got an offer, but I easily could have ended up somewhere else (or nowhere else). One of my recommendation writers joked that I should not forget the little people (meaning him), but I’m pretty sure I will never forget where I came from – especially since I will be returning so often (hopefully at least once a year, especially after I’ve graduated and have income again). I also plan to be grateful, forever, to all those who have made my success possible (and it’s a very long list, but especially includes that professor who wrote me a recommendation). I still can’t believe how blessed I am. I still sometimes think to myself, “what if the calls, e-mails, and offer packet were all other things, that you’ve somehow misinterpreted.” In that case, they’d probably have to lock me up. I have never even been to Philadelphia, or the University of Pennsylvania, but I know how amazing it is, sight unseen. Note: being e-mailed by several current faculty and students, encouraging me to commit, may have helped sway me as well, but I think I mainly moved early because of the other factors mentioned.

There are also a lot of logistics for my entry that still need to be worked through. I sent several forms, and a deposit check today, but I know there will be more. I need to send a photo, for one. I don’t have any current photos of myself that I completely love, and Jennie has said I need to get a haircut before I take one (I’ll need/want one before the welcome days anyway). I also will have to send my transcripts at some point (they just review uploaded scans as part of the admissions process, but it says they will need real ones if an offer is made). The PhD program coordinator for my department said information about that would be included in the admissions packet, but it actually wasn’t. I don’t foresee any problems, but that is part of my paranoia. What if they see something different on my real transcript that they didn’t notice in the scans? Even if they did, I don’t think it would change anything, because they only say offers will be canceled if they don’t match, so it could just be my mistrust of bureaucracy. Some schools require very low resolution scans to be uploaded, but my scans for Wharton are very legible, so it’s even more irrational in the case of this school. We will also have to figure out health insurance. Current both Jennie and myself are on my work insurance. Once I leave my job, I’ll get health insurance through the school. I don’t know if she’ll be able to sign up for her work insurance right away, but I also don’t know if her work insurance would be any good in Philadelphia anyway. We can pay to add her to my school insurance, but I don’t know what that will cost yet – but it probably makes the most sense. There is also a long list of vaccinations I’m required to get. I’ve already have had a number of them, but will need at least one new one. It may also be a hassle to document, with my health records all over the place. Among other things, they want either a Chicken Pox vaccination or proof of immunity. I’ve never even heard of the vaccination, but I did have the Chicken Pox when I was a kid. However, I think my insurance might cover a vaccination (preventative), but does not seem to cover lab tests at all, so I may get a vaccination for that anyway, even if I don’t really need it. Our taxes will also be a nightmare next year, with income in at least two states, while changing residency in the middle. I don’t know how Jennie’s taxes will work at all, because her employer may not be able to take out Pennsylvania taxes automatically, but if she’s actually living and working in PA, that’s where it should be done. Taxes in general are a hassle/nightmare. It seems my fellowship will be subject to federal and state taxes, but possibly not to medicare/fica – and a portion of it will be subject to a city income tax. We’ll need to figure out a new banking arrangement as well. Right now Jennie and I have different accounts, at different banks. We’ll probably want to consolidate with a bank near the campus (though a quick google search seems to indicate that both of our banks have branches in Philadelphia, so it may be a non-issue). I will also need to sign up for UPenn login credentials and e-mail.  Lots of busy work.

There’s an AMAZING SUNSET RIGHT NOW. I will also miss my amazing office, with big windows, and a great view. I’ll have to try to keep it in the organization. I would transfer it to Priscilla, but she’s moving out west.

We’ll also need to figure out auto/renters insurance, PA registration and drivers licenses, and more. This could also be complicated, because we may leave one of our cars with Jennie’s parents (maybe we can get them to pay for insurance and maintenance if we let them drive it). It technically should probably stay licensed in MA, if we’re keeping it here year round. There are several advantages to leaving a car with them, including that we would not need to pay for parking or storage (insurance is cheaper than parking, crazily enough). Also, if Jennie keeps working for her current employer, she could take the train/bus up, and then use her car, without having to drive back and forth. She could maybe also leave it parked on her campus, and take the train there, but then she’d have to figure out maintenance during her trips, and it would waste a parking space for most of the time.

I’m sure there’s so much I’m not even thinking of yet, but there will be a lot of hoops to jump through.

In other news, I ordered some pens at work yesterday afternoon, through our procurement site. My manager approved the purchase later in the afternoon, and I received an e-mail this morning saying the PO had been created (this is done after manager approval – and had to have been done sometime last night, perhaps automatically). Today the pens arrived, via FedEx, at my office, shipped from PA. That seems crazy fast, and unnecessarily efficient for shipping some pens. They’re nothing fancy, but I do like the way they write (uni-ball 207 Retractable Micro Point Gel Pens, blue ink). I also ordered a cool Verbatim TUFF ‘N’ TINY 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive, to back up my e-mails, because my computer’s encryption software is acting up. It blows my mind how small/cheap thumb drives are now (you can’t tell that well from the picture, but it’s insanely tiny). I noticed a co-worker with one the other day, and I guess his whole department got them. Pretty cool new toy – hopefully that arrives soon (it’s actually more “urgent” than the pens, though hopefully my computer won’t die anyway).

Applying, Awesome Products, Grad School, My Life, Thankful, The Future

February 17th, 2012 by Andrew

I have been accepted to the Management PhD program at WHARTON!!!!! I got the call more than an hour ago, and I’m still in shock. Literally, my face is numb, and my hands are shaky – I’m so excited. This is so big, in so many ways – it’s literally a turning point in my life.

Not only is Wharton one of the best business schools in the world, from a lay perspective, they are also at the highest level of management research in general, and doctoral training specifically (as told to me by my mentor, Professor Minniti, and also reinforced through reporting on publications in the top journals). More interestingly to me, they produce some of the most interesting research in the area most of interest to me – innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship, with regard to technology and the technology industry. In my essays at some other schools, I mentioned that I can apply to the lessons of the typesetter industry to the technology industry, and ask questions taking those ideas further. The paper I’m referring to, “Unraveling the process of creative destruction: Complementary assets and incumbent survival in the typesetter industry” (a super interesting paper) was WRITTEN AT WHARTON! I didn’t mention it in my Wharton application, because it probably would have come off as sucking up, but that paper really is super interesting, and related to the type of questions I’d love to research! Also, that professor was bribed away, and now teaches at Harvard, but is probably at a career level that I wouldn’t have worked with her as much anyway. Not only is Wharton amazing, but their undergraduate program is extremely competitive, their MBA program is probably even more competitive, and their PhD program is the most competitive! Last year, 186 applicants yielded 4 matriculants, in the management program. It’s mind-bogglingly competitive – I’m in shock. My face is literally numb, and my hands shaky, 90 minutes after getting the call. From their website (emphasis theirs), “Admission to the Wharton Doctoral Programs is highly selective. We seek students interested in conducting leading-edge academic research to advance business knowledge.” Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?!?!

This is a turning point in my life, for reasons beyond how amazing this opportunity is. By the time I start this program, I will have spent more than nine years at Oracle. This is an amazing company, that has been unbelievably dynamic during my years there. Revenues have tripled, with total employment more than doubling during my time there. This is despite crazy turnover – at my two-year anniversary, I had the median years of experience in my division (hours can be very long, with high burnout). I’ve changed positions repeatedly, seeing a breadth of product lines, working in a variety of very important roles – negotiating huge deals, participating in merger integration planning and execution, managing teams ranging from 4 to over 90, sometimes working 100 hour weeks. Through this, I’ve been part of a company that has revolutionized the nature of competition in the enterprise technology space. It’s been an amazing experience, and I’ve met so many amazing people – and this will take me away from that, and into a whole new world.

Geographically, this will also be a huge change. I grew up in small, rural towns, across Minnesota. I was fortunate enough to start college early, after two years of high school, as part of the PSEO program. I applied to one college, out-of-state – the only school at the time that guaranteed financial aid packages that would meet 100% of financial need (with loans – many top schools now guarantee full-rides to anybody from that socioeconomic background). I got in, and moved to suburban Boston in 1999, and I’ve been in suburban Boston since. I’ve met so many great friends, from Babson, from work, from Grace Chapel, from Medway Village Church, from my neighborhood, from volunteer organizations I’ve been part of, from Jennie’s family, and more. After 13 years, I’ll be moving – a very scary thought. We’ll be selling our house, and saying so many good-byes. We’ll be moving to a new city (probably Philly – though I’m still waiting to hear from a number of amazing programs – though this offer will be tough to beat). Not only will it be starting over, in a new city, but if it is Philly, I’ll be living in a large city for the first time (a  very different experience from living in the suburbs). I’ll be joining a number of completely new communities – school, neighborhood, church. I’m really excited, and I know I’ll meet a lot of amazing people, and I can’t wait to find out what they’re like.

A huge change, on top of all this, is the move to the academic community. I have some ideas of what that will be like, from talking to friends and mentors, and reading blogs, and more – but I’m sure things will be different in ways I can’t even imagine. I’ve been reading academic articles for a long time, first because the ideas interested me, and then with an eye on joining the community, but it’s always been as an outsider. Academic articles will now be for me to understand the state of knowledge in my new community, and with an eye towards producing my own original research. It’s scary, it’s an honor, and it’s exciting. I’ll be developing a whole new vocabulary (I scored 98% in the verbal section of the GRE, and I see words in academic papers that I’ve never seen before all the time). I’ll be approaching questions with a whole new mindset. I’ve already been working to advance my math skills, with Mathematica, and modeling software, and refreshing core math skills (I had a couple semesters of calculus, statistics, and quantitative modeling in college, but I’d like to get all that back, and  more – Khan Academy is helping with the more advanced stuff, as well as the guidebooks for the software I’m learning simultaneously).

Financially, things will change dramatically, especially in the short-term. Jennie will need to quit her job, as part of the move, and the stipend is a fraction of my current salary. The move may help with part of that adjustment, and Jennie and I both grew up very poor, but it will be an interesting shift. We plan to have our student loans paid off by this summer, which will help. It will be interesting though. We are taking a marriage class at our church (for already married couples – not like a pre-marriage class, though we did that a couple of years ago too), which we hope will help keep our marriage strong through this transition. Jennie also is working at a school right now, in admission – a career change she made partly to plan for our future, knowing that it was possible we’d be moving eventually, for a teach job elsewhere, if not for grad school. We’ve been working towards this for a long time, but it’s still a scary jump.

This is all so huge. In so many ways. I’m sure they’re not even all mentioned above, but these are the things rushing through my mind right now. It’s been more than two hours since the call, and I’m still numb. Jennie is working super late tonight, spending the night at a co-worker’s house, and working tomorrow – so it’s kind of crazy that we can’t even talk much about it now (though she did find out about it from some of her co-workers, who apparently were on Facebook – somehow she didn’t get the text I sent her, but she had time to give me a quick call). I am going out with her parents tonight, so we can talk about it some over dinner. We’re going to hear John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, speaking about belief in miracles, at Harvard. This feels like a miracle.

In other news, I was rejected by Harvard last night. I actually didn’t feel much after that, partly because I expected it (interviews were reported on the message boards much earlier, and I didn’t have an interview). I also felt like I would get something else great (though I was still very nervous about Wharton – I had a feeling I would end up at Michigan, Chicago, Stanford, NYU, or Toronto – I also applied to Columbia, but wasn’t sure about the fit). It was further softened by getting an e-mail to check my decision online, on my phone – so a lot of time went by before I could actually check – but I’m pretty sure acceptances never come in the form of an automated alert, when all of these programs accept so few applicants. We’ll see what tomorrow holds, but if Wharton is the only acceptance I get, I’ll be thrilled.

Applying

February 16th, 2012 by Andrew

I signed up for a number of free online courses prior to the new year, covering topics including game theory, model thinking, and technology entrepreneurship. So far, all the courses have been delayed, but preview videos have been made available for Model Thinking. I’ve enjoyed the videos so far, though the content has been pretty basic so far, and the quantitative methods have been far less challenging than I’d hoped for (I hoped for some good practical practice for my math skills). If I had control of the curriculum, I would add a lot more questions along the way (each 10-15 minute segment has at most one question built-in). As basic as it’s been, it’s also been very interesting, and I’m looking forward to the final course product (and more advanced lessons). What really has me excited though, is that in the session on Schelling’s Segregation Model Professor Page introduces modeling software that is free (always a plus), and easy to use from home. It’s called NetLogo, and you can download it here. He does not show how to download/install/use it, or how to set up or load the model – he just illustrates different scenarios in the model in the video. However, I wasn’t going to settle for that. The download and installation are very straightforward, and while the layout is initially confusing, I found that you can load the specific model he demonstrates from the Models Library (Sample Models > Social Science > Segregation). The coding itself seems relatively straightforward, so I hope that I can figure out how to make my own interesting/simple models (and hopefully the software is used more in later segments). It seems so easy and user-friendly – it’s kind of amazing that modeling isn’t used more in everyday life (maybe it will be, after this class). I don’t know how things will evolve, or how busy I’ll be with getting into a school, or not, but I’ve created tags for the course and the software, so that future progress can be monitored (or future users can learn from my experience in making their own models, perhaps). Very exciting!

Model Thinking, NetLogo