A good friend, teacher, grad student, and former hi-tech consultant, recently blogged about and eWeek article which noted that many executives think telecommuting is a limiter to career growth. I posted a reply over on Libby’s blog but also thought it deserved a bit more thought. I will try to describe my experience with telecommuting for a large technology company.

A good friend, Libby, wrote in her blog …
This always-on attitude that pervades the workplace (not just mine, but many) requires that we, as the workers (both teachers and those in other fields) to decide what our lives will be like and when we will work, then set our boundaries, and then stick to [...]

The timing could not have been more perfect …
Conventional approaches to flexibility, such as flextime, don’t help time-zone warriors very much … Instead, they need ways to regain control over their time. … being explicit about personal commitments when they intervene, says Tess Mateo, Wyckoff, N.J., a director in the CEO’s office at PricewaterhouseCoopers. [...]

Here are the results of the “choose a clock face” …
[Poll=2]
The new poll is about health, lifespan, and instant gratification.

Here are the results of the lifespan question …
[poll=3]
The new question is about Linux.

Kathy Sierra, over at Creating Passionate Users has a thread of articles on the topic of “Inspiring your user-evangelists“. In a recent post, Kathy writes …
If you have to PAY people to evangelize your product or service, you probably don’t have a product or service worth evangelizing.
She goes on to say …
How to Create Evangelists [...]

I’ve had a long standing “equation” as a part of my projects related to furniture making / restoring / re-purposing (think Junk Brothers) as well as upgrades to the house.
If I enjoy the work, I don’t count the cost of my time.
If I need a new tool, I buy it.
If the results are of high [...]

I know so many people who would give me a real run for my money vieing for this job !
The real joke would be for all of us to apply

In my morning reading, I came across a “ten things about geeks” post. (I won’t get into the source, but if you know which one I read, go ahead and giggle to yourself.) In the ten “reasons” I saw the following …
a geek has no problem accepting that sometimes you want mocha ripple cherry fudge [...]

I read this article and thought - WOW, I actually do these things ! (Of course, once I got over myself, I thought about why I do these things and the counter argument of “information overload in the inbox”.)

Use your e-mail inbox as the point of entry for all tasks
Categorize your tasks
First thing each day, [...]

I should be moving soon so I am enjoying what will likely be some of my last walks in the woods near my home. I usually take my lunch break, a few days a week, to walk Zen on some wooded paths. It helps clear my head and keep work in perspective.
Today I notices some wildflowers [...]

In Stephen O’Grady’s post titled “It’s the Network, Not the Application: Online Desktops” he describes an environment where the computer is always connected to internet.
Some day this may be true but it’s not true today - unless you use the internet in a sufficiently limited way that satellite connectivity is productive. For many in the [...]

As I mentioned in my photo post all of about 30 minutes ago, a good friend of mine recently wrapped up a motorcycle trip thru British Columbia. He wrote about it. He closed his “ride journal” with some very good prose that anyone, who has closed one chapter in their lives and is starting another, [...]

Given any number of circumstances, this blog entry has no physical substance. Anything more for less esoteric would be inconsistent with the subject and the inspirations.
So, what does it mean to be the “last” ? If you take things literally - and by that, I mean all that we have been told of ourselves [...]

Its is quite amazing how you can start your day in the usual way and then have it change dramatically.  I started today “blog surfing” - which is not uncommon for me. I saw a post titled; “Lessons for a Successful Life“. The blogger made a compelling case for spending the next 90 minutes watching a professor [...]

I both chuckled and agreed when I read the post on Lifehacker. It describes the typical "geek" and having trained themselves to multi-task and when confronted with a situation that is best suited to focusing on just one thing - meetings and conference calls come to mind - it is difficult if not impossible to [...]

Roy over at Return to the Center had more than a short comment to the post “I don’t have a poor attention span ! I’m multitasking“. Roy’s comment was so good, I’ve promoted it to a guest blog entry …
The notion of multi-tasking is an interesting one to me.
It’s my experience, both personal and working [...]

I’ve been following the Mala saga over at RTTC. Now it’s time for me to dive in an attempt my first Mala. I will follow the instructions as closely as I can with one exception - the Guru bead.
I am taking a lesson from my grandfather; “when working with odd shaped pieces of wood or [...]

I must admit, 2008 is going to be a lot of fun if I can stick to Mark Stibich’s (PhD) top 10 ways to live longer. I will aspire to all ten but look forward to dedicating extra effort for some of the others

Drink Red Wine
Eat Dark Chocolate
Smile
Have More Sex
Relax
Make Exercise Play
Sleep
Spend Time [...]

This is a public service announcement …
I realize, looking over my past few blog entries, that I have little if any consistency with regard to content. Personally, I’m not all too concerned with that realization. I’m just not yet sure where I’m headed - or where I want to head for that matter.
The most interesting [...]

I am not advocating a life of libations. Rather, an experience this past week prompted me to look for similes elsewhere.
I decided I really wanted a good Martini. I had the right Gin, the right vodka, the right compliment (Lillet Blanc), and the right glass. Things were looking mighty fine. I didn’t [...]

My blogging has dropped off a bit over the past couple of months. It is mostly because I have been really interested in a few projects at work but because of the nature of the work, I can’t write publicly about it. It’s not the old “I could tell you but then I’d [...]

I was blog surfing this morning and started with a “link post” (one of those posts where the writer lists a bunch of links and perhaps includes a one-line comment. From there I followed it to a sane post (but not one I necessarily agreed with). And from there I got to an editorialized [...]

I went to a small public school in Maine and then went to a competitive engineering school in Massachusetts. I went from a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond. I quickly established a philosophy that served me well back then and still does today …
There will always [...]

I had the dumb luck and good sense to call a friend of mine “out of the blue”. The call may have been inspired by our mutual appreciation of a particular beverage but more so than not, it was driven by a real appreciation of life.
For anyone who remembers the lyrics to “Wear Sunscreen“, there [...]