Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
How leaders inspire action
This is great (and complementary to Tribes book by Seth Godin) video on how leaders inspire action, what is necessary to make success, and the Diffusion of Innovation Law:
Simon Sinek: how great leaders inspire action
By the way, if you haven't tried TED, make sure you do so.
Simon Sinek: how great leaders inspire action
By the way, if you haven't tried TED, make sure you do so.
What motivates us
Given my experience as a President of Computer Science Students' Association at my university and my recent readings (be careful! Hardcore evangelism!), I started to investigate a bit about successful, modern leadership. If you're interested, have a look at this video:
The surprising truth about what motivates us
The surprising truth about what motivates us
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Installing Skype for Fedora 13
Installing Skype on Linux is always a pain. After installing Fedora 13 x86_64, the following solution worked:
And, the good thing is, my mic and camera worked out of the box with it!
And, the good thing is, my mic and camera worked out of the box with it!
I hope it will work for you too.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Why you should speak perfect English in IT
I bet you've heard that at least a couple of times: "Learn English, man, it's crucial in industry". Indeed, it is. No doubt about that. But how far should we go? We're never going to be able to challenge native speakers anyway, right?
You're not going to like the answer.
Level 1 - local backyard
English is crucial for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a lingua franca of computer science and software engineering (actually, not only there, as you may have noticed). You talk English with team mates, you read reports written in English, you read blogs (guess the language!), you write code in English (don't dare to tell me you don't!)... English, English, English.
Secondly, almost all knowledge in this industry is presented in English, and the only reasonable way to take advantage of it is to learn the language (don't bother yourself with waiting for everything to be translated - that is simply impossible). If you want to be a better engineer, you have to read in English.
Thirdly, you'll have to speak from time to time with foreign employees, and the easiest way would be to use English, since everybody speaks it.
The basics of English should suffice, right? You can read, you can write, you can talk with other people. You'll survive.
Unfortunately that's true for a company far less international that you would expect.
Level 2 - facing the real world
When you get to a real international company, basic English is not enough. After joining a company that hires lots of people of different nationalites, you get exposed to real English. English spoken every day, every minute. You just have to be fluent - otherwise, you'll be totally worn out by the end of the day, being tired of translating everything both ways. You may get exhausted even sooner, if you're not lucky or qualified enough. That hinders you from expressing properly your thoughts and ideas, you loose your self-confidence, you make mistakes - both while talking to other people and coding. That boils down into one serious problem: you seem to be underqualified for other people. They get a bad impression about you. You loose points.
If your English is not good enough, you may run into problems with dealing with other people. You will simply be unable to communicate with them, solve problems or simply conduct design discussions. You won't be able to defend your ideas. You won't be able to even present and - worse - sell them.
And, most of all, you'll find it hard to become mates, and that may result in isolation and/or slower progress at work.
Fluency in English is also crucial for sucessful leadership. It's not an advice useful for PMs only. Without being able to communicate fluently, you won't be able to lead your co-workers. You may be pushed aside a bit. You won't have influence. Having no influence will be frustrating and you'll get the bonuses related to frustration, like getting bald soon.
Someone experienced, during one of his talks to students at my university, gave a hint how good your English should be:
You should be able to give this presentation in English as fluently, as you would do in Polish.
That's a good hint, but I believe this is the lower bound. Personally, I think you should not only be able to give a presentation in English as fluently as in Polish, but also be able to make it as enjoyable as you would do if you present something that you're really into.
That's all about selling.
Imagine you are speaking English with all of your co-workers (native speakers and people who actually do that: you can skip the excercise, and the whole rant as well). Imagine yourself not being able to get the jokes, come up with a funny reply, defend your position in the tribe. Will you achieve the same thing - position, status, respect? I seriously doubt. And what happened to the people that did not get the jokes?
Level 2.5 - emmigration
If it happened to you that you had to emigrate, you may have found that speaking fluently with people living at the place you just moved in (I assume that's a place where local yokels speak different language than you do) is somehow crucial to make them become your new friends. And making new friends outside of your home country is hard. It's all a matter of psychology - in the long run, you'll need these people so that you have someone to chat with or enjoy local events. It's not a problem of having a wife or not - people are social and enjoy packs, usually of size bigger than 2. It's also a bit different thing than at work, where it is a matter of being succesful. Here it is a matter of (enjoying) your life.
Conclusion
Speak English and never stop improving - that would be the general thought. We may not be able to challenge native English speakers in literacy or poems - but we may be able to joke with them, sell our ideas and buy theirs. We may be able to hold a position in the crowd - and not fade out in the both work.
You're not going to like the answer.
Level 1 - local backyard
English is crucial for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a lingua franca of computer science and software engineering (actually, not only there, as you may have noticed). You talk English with team mates, you read reports written in English, you read blogs (guess the language!), you write code in English (don't dare to tell me you don't!)... English, English, English.
Secondly, almost all knowledge in this industry is presented in English, and the only reasonable way to take advantage of it is to learn the language (don't bother yourself with waiting for everything to be translated - that is simply impossible). If you want to be a better engineer, you have to read in English.
Thirdly, you'll have to speak from time to time with foreign employees, and the easiest way would be to use English, since everybody speaks it.
The basics of English should suffice, right? You can read, you can write, you can talk with other people. You'll survive.
Unfortunately that's true for a company far less international that you would expect.
Level 2 - facing the real world
When you get to a real international company, basic English is not enough. After joining a company that hires lots of people of different nationalites, you get exposed to real English. English spoken every day, every minute. You just have to be fluent - otherwise, you'll be totally worn out by the end of the day, being tired of translating everything both ways. You may get exhausted even sooner, if you're not lucky or qualified enough. That hinders you from expressing properly your thoughts and ideas, you loose your self-confidence, you make mistakes - both while talking to other people and coding. That boils down into one serious problem: you seem to be underqualified for other people. They get a bad impression about you. You loose points.
If your English is not good enough, you may run into problems with dealing with other people. You will simply be unable to communicate with them, solve problems or simply conduct design discussions. You won't be able to defend your ideas. You won't be able to even present and - worse - sell them.
And, most of all, you'll find it hard to become mates, and that may result in isolation and/or slower progress at work.
Fluency in English is also crucial for sucessful leadership. It's not an advice useful for PMs only. Without being able to communicate fluently, you won't be able to lead your co-workers. You may be pushed aside a bit. You won't have influence. Having no influence will be frustrating and you'll get the bonuses related to frustration, like getting bald soon.
Someone experienced, during one of his talks to students at my university, gave a hint how good your English should be:
You should be able to give this presentation in English as fluently, as you would do in Polish.
That's a good hint, but I believe this is the lower bound. Personally, I think you should not only be able to give a presentation in English as fluently as in Polish, but also be able to make it as enjoyable as you would do if you present something that you're really into.
That's all about selling.
Imagine you are speaking English with all of your co-workers (native speakers and people who actually do that: you can skip the excercise, and the whole rant as well). Imagine yourself not being able to get the jokes, come up with a funny reply, defend your position in the tribe. Will you achieve the same thing - position, status, respect? I seriously doubt. And what happened to the people that did not get the jokes?
Level 2.5 - emmigration
If it happened to you that you had to emigrate, you may have found that speaking fluently with people living at the place you just moved in (I assume that's a place where local yokels speak different language than you do) is somehow crucial to make them become your new friends. And making new friends outside of your home country is hard. It's all a matter of psychology - in the long run, you'll need these people so that you have someone to chat with or enjoy local events. It's not a problem of having a wife or not - people are social and enjoy packs, usually of size bigger than 2. It's also a bit different thing than at work, where it is a matter of being succesful. Here it is a matter of (enjoying) your life.
Conclusion
Speak English and never stop improving - that would be the general thought. We may not be able to challenge native English speakers in literacy or poems - but we may be able to joke with them, sell our ideas and buy theirs. We may be able to hold a position in the crowd - and not fade out in the both work.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
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