Archive for the ‘tom's journey’ Category

Twitter usernames and knuckleheads

Posted by tom.altman on March 12th, 2009
Social Media Marketing Madness Cartoon by HubSpot
Image by HubSpot via Flickr

So, my buddy Jason gives me crap everyday for my multiple twitter names: @vwtom and @tomaltman He gives me this round of balony becuase I am a knuclehead.  How was I to know you could change usernames on twitter.  I’ve been a web programmer for 10 years – I’ve never built a system where you could change usernames.  But Twitter did.

All I was trying to do was “unify” my “social media profiles”.  I have been using tomaltman as my handle for most things – and thought it would be good to have that on Twitter too.  So, it was a good as time as any to change.  I searched and secured the new name, walked though my Twitter friends list and got it all moved over…and boom.  Jason and @WagsTV are like – yea, you can just change it.

I was dumbfounded.  I couldn’t believe it.  How could I be so stupid – it remind me of some of the “old media” types I work with.  I assumed I knew you couldn’t change the username.  But I didn’t know what I didn’t know.  All I would have had to do was ask some people around me – and they would have told me.  But I assumed I knew better – because I was the WEB guy.

How stupid and narrow minded was that?  I acted like a jerk – mostly because I wasn’t open minded enough to ask – hell, I talk to Jason multiple times a day, but I didn’t ask…and now I’m a knuclehead.

I think newspapers need to realize they are acting like knucleheads.  Admit we’re not sure what to do.  Listen to the people on the front lines, yup – managers you’ll have to allow and empower those people to do what they think is right.  And most of all – gather all the young,hip, cool kids in the company and ask them what they would do.  Trust me, the information and just plain seat of the pants feelings they have is money – and if we don’t listen, we’re not going to make it.

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Seth's Blog: Personal branding in the age of Google

Posted by tom.altman on March 2nd, 2009

Seth’s Blog: Personal branding in the age of Google.

Woah…so I guess my questions is, isn’t it better to know?  Would we ever hire anyone if we knew everything?

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Shoving a camel through a needle

Posted by tom.altman on February 15th, 2009
Dromedary camel in outback Australia, near Sil...
Image via Wikipedia

There are a ton of Bible verses that I struggle with.

There are also some that I thought I had down pat.  (Yea, maybe a little over confident.)  One of those is:

Matthew  19:23-24
23Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

How many times have I heard this bible verse?, and I was a total lock on it’s meaning.  I knew it was all about the money.  I would hear it and think about it really feel good about my “knowledge and understanding of the Bible”.

Shazam – God throws in a curve ball

That brings us to the now.  I was on a weekend getaway this weekend with my family.  We went to a hotel/waterpark, the kids had an early out so we got an early start.  After we had left, arrived at the hotel and had dinner – we were headed back up to the room around 7 or 8 and we saw some other people from the town we were from come in.

They looked very tired, upset and not in a “happy place”.  Since the time we arrived and the time they had traveled – we experienced a good old Iowa snow storm.  It was 3 hours and 3 inches of snow.  You could tell they were having a rough time and I’m sure the weather didn’t help = maybe a missed turn thrown in to.

I was very empathetic about the situation – my wife and I had been there before.  This is one of those moments that happen, you don’t like it and you hope you can apologize and then move on.  But this image stayed with me for than night and then the next day.  I was struggling with it – then, on the way to Happy Joe’s in Dubuque Iowa…it came to me.

I don’t think the Bible passage is speaking about kicking rich people out of heaven.  I don’t think God gives a rip about how much money any one of us has.  I kept getting the passage and then this couple’s little movie in my mind.

I think it really means that when you have an excess of money – you tend to “pay away” your problems.  Like if the fridge breaks, you go buy another.  If the car gets a scratch – you rent another and send this one to the body shop.  No problem.  No worries – a little inconvenient, yes…but not a life changer.

So – when it comes to getting real, I think it is harder for people with excess cash; because money tends to hide the real issue.  The bible passage is not about rich people having to give all their money away to “punch their ticket” to heaven.

I think it is more about it being real hard for people with an excess to share and understand – until they learn to be a resource for others.  When that happens – you share your wealth and everyone wins.

Conclusion

I don’t know – man, all this Bible stuff is complicated!  :)

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Best Companies to Work For

Posted by tom.altman on January 20th, 2009
BEIJING - JANUARY 07: Residents play Ping Pon...
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I was reading this post from a new blog I found tonight called Employee Evolution – post from Fortune Mag tonight.

I got to thinking – if I’m ever put in charge of a company, not sure that will ever happen, but if I do…I think I’ll really strive for this.  I’m not sure how it would work – but I think the building blocks are just having happy people working there.

Now happy is not really enough – they have to be happy, passionate people.  But if you have those two things – I’m not sure how you can lose.  Because the passionate, happy people I know are wonderful.

They get so much done and are so much more productive than the non-happy, or worse non-passionate ones.  The worst kind are passion people in a bad place, I’ve been there too…many times.

Passionate, non-happy people are destructive.  Why?  They have gangs.  What? Gangs?  Yes, these are people who have charisma and a posse.  They can undermine forward progress quicker than you can imagine.  And it’s the worst kind of destructive – it is deep and wide.

[kaltura-widget wid="bux0ftswvc" width="410" height="364" addpermission="0" editpermission="1" align="center" /]

So, if you come across a company I am running someday – look for the one with casual day every day and ping pong tables in the lobby.  We don’t need no stinking lobby – but we do need ping pong tables.

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St. Paul and the 3%

Posted by tom.altman on December 16th, 2008
Paul and Jesus atop St. Peters Bascillica
Image by scot2342 via Flickr

I’ve been involved with a bible study which has been extreamly interesting.  It basically “follows” Paul and his travels after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.

The interesting thing about this was something I picked up in watching the DVD by Peter Jennings called “The Search for Paul“.  It is when they are talking about how Paul converted the God-fearers (These Gentiles had adopted the Jewish faith with their code of morality and attended synagogue services, but who were not full converts and did not want to submit to circumcision.) to Christianity.

Paul converted them very slowly and while building a releationship with them.  They estimate the converstion rate at approximatly 3%.  This means that we’re talking for each of Paul’s peeps – they converted one God-fearer.  TWO to ONE ratio.

The concept really blows me away – it really seems like the same when we are trying to build anything.  We need to get the people who truely believe – to do the help convert the “others”.

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It's a problem with the system.

Posted by tom.altman on December 7th, 2008
Justice at Fabric with the huge lighted cross ...

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been involved with a small group for 11 weeks now with one more week to go discussing the apostle Paul and his impact on Christianity.  The study is really wresting wih the concept of Justice through Peace vs. Justice through Victory (War).  The authors (Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan) are really intent on the concept of the message is more important than the literal text, and it is a very good study.

This week was a lot of informaiton about how it’s the system which need to be changed.  They brought up the idea of racism and sexism – the difference from the 60’s to today.  Not a single person would tell you that a black man or a woman hd the same opportunity as their white, male counterpart 40 years ago as they do today.  Not saying that everything is level today, but no one would agree that they were as close then as today.

It really gets you thinking about what can be accomplished in a half century…but the point is people changed the system.  When there is a problem with the system, youneed to address it to the system.  And hopefully, with the changes played forth in the recent election – some changes can be realized.

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"Be the Left Tackle on Your Team"

Posted by tom.altman on October 28th, 2008
Solon Flag Football - Solon vs. Mt. Vernon

Image by vwtom_ia via Flickr

I came across this post while adding a new follower to twitter – thank you “MarkVB”. The post is called “Be the Left Tackle on Your Team“:

Today, I received an excellent piece of advice from someone I trust. I was told to think about a football team. Think of myself as the left tackle on this team. When we huddle before the play, what would the team think if I said to the team that I had an idea on the type of play we could run. Try this play since I think it will work. First off, the quarterback may not like the idea that I decided to butt in and give suggestions on what we could do better. It could come across wrong to the quarterback since his left tackle seems to think the team should try another approach. He is the quarterback and is expected to lead the team. Everyone else on the offense puts their trust in the quarterback and his playcalling, even if they disagree with the play selection. As the left tackle, it is my job to do what the quarterback decides to do and play with the team. Protect the quarterback and do my job to the best of its ability to hold off the opposition.

That is the way I need to think from this point forward. Play with the team and do my job as the left tackle.

This is great advise and I some I need right now…but first – I need to find out what position I’m supposed to be playing!

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Pointing at the moon – but with what finger?

Posted by tom.altman on October 12th, 2008
Fingers reaching to the Moon

Image by ganzoman via Flickr

For the last six weeks I have been involved in a bible study at church which is centered around the big time Bible dude Paul.  It’s by a couple of cool Christian cooks Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  I think they are truly called “progressive Christians” – but these guy are intense either way.

But a cool concept can up tonight…it was in response by a mentor type guy Dick.  He asked: “What is the Bible?  Is it the word of God?”  My first response wanted to be “yes” – but then I had to think is it?  I kind of said – it’s not the Word of God – but words about God, inspired by god.  We discussed it for a while and then Dick shared a cool concept.  (It is taken from Marcus Borg’s book – “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time”)

He describe the Bible in an example they have used in Buddhism for describing Buddha.  Thing of the teachings (or think of the Bible) as a finger pointing to the moon.  The finger is NOT the moon (or the finger is not God) – but only a guide to help you find the moon (or to help you find God.)

That was cool.  I just loved than analogy – and it really takes a lot of pressure off me.  I put a lot of guilt upon myself for not reading the bible.  I love learning more and more about God and other cool Christians, but I always feel like maybe I need to study the bible first – then progress onto these studies I do now.

Maybe this is what some of the Gentiles felt like back in the day – when some of the Pharisees and Rabi’s were saying the only way to get to Christ is through the Jewish faith…they preached the no shortcut method.  Well – if I already know where the moon is – why do I need to study the finger…it will probably just pollute my mind anyway!  :)

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