Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

"I am going to get started on this screenplay as soon as I finish reading these books on screenwriting."

"I am going to get started on this screenplay as soon as I finish this class on screenwriting/writing/creative basket destruction."

"I am going to get started on this screenplay as soon as I finish reading all these websites on how to sell my screenplay."

"I am going to get started on this screenplay as soon as I finish researching every aspect of it to death."

"I am going to…"

Many people wind up stuck in the "I am going to…" phase when they first get started with some new endeavor.  And even though screenwriting showed up as my example, it’s not limited to there… it affects things like novel writing, comic creation, game development, website building, backup and recovery planning or monster ranching.  Sure, you need to learn things, develop skills and research items, but after learning the basics, shift out of the "I am going to…" gear and start it up.

Book learning works, but only to an extent.  You can read about building a fire, but mastering that skill requires building one with your bare hands.  Imagine how you’d feel if you actually needed this skill and never used it before.  You can research data recovery procedures all you want, but mastering this skill requires an actual recovery or two.  Again, imagine how you’d feel if you actually needed this skill and never used it before. 

And the same goes with writing, you can read about writing novels, comics or screenplays all you want, but mastering that skill requires writing one of your very own.  Places refer to it as hands-on learning or OJT (on the job training).  In historical days, it fell under the guise of "apprenticeship".  And that type of training still works to this day.

Don’t get caught up learning everything about your craft or figuring out how to make something perfect.  Perfect is NOT a reasonable goal.  Near-perfect is NOT a reasonable goal.  You know what a good goal is?  Done.  You can do more with a completed rough draft than you can with a stack of books on writing.

Think of it like swimming.  Are you going to read a bunch of books or watch a bunch of other swimmers and expect to dive into the pool swimming perfectly?  Not likely.  You learn enough to get started and dive right in to get those arms and legs flailing in some semblance of a stroke (like a nice, easy doggie paddle).  Then you swim, swim, swim until it gets easier.  Evaluate your progress.  Give yourself an honest assessment and then take time to read/research/ask questions on how to fix problems you find.  But only do enough to find a solution and hop back to it.  Swim, swim, swim some more until you master that technique and get moving to the next level.

So, cut those "I am going to…" phases short and get moving.  Whenever you catch yourself going "I am going to…" just stop and change it to "I am going to get started right now."

I’ve noticed a strange recurring habit amongst companies out there.  It’s not quite a pet peeve, but it does have a heavy annoyance factor.  And it costs companies millions of dollars.  Here’s the setup:

Take your hardware budget and invest it in a million dollars worth of equipment.  Enterprise-level server.  State of the art routers.  Heavy duty SAN(s).

Now, do one of the following with that environment:

1 – Put dozens of resource-heavy applications/databases on that box and realize you should have spent the extra couple bucks on the next level enterprise server that has the backplane to support all those systems simultaneously.  "Come on, bits and bytes.  We can squeeze through that small tunnel!  Follow me!"

2 – Do just enough configuring to get the system up-and-running and leave it at that.  We threw money at a hardware solution, so that hardware should just motor along at screaming fast speeds right out of the box.  Who cares if that SAN could get a hundred times more throughput if things are configured properly?  Who wants a network that’s consistently timely and responsive? "Uhh… huhuh.  Uhhh… huh, he said box."

3 – Give an executive a personal file server all to him/herself. "Dude, they made me an exec and check out how fast I can stream my mp3s now."

4 – Use it as your development and production box where you’re letting your young system administrator (read: low salary power user laterally moved into the position) cut his/her teeth getting to know the ins and outs of the system.  "But we spent too much money on the server to afford a sysadmin!"

5 – Use it to keep your casserole warm for the company pot luck.  "Wow, this casserole is so… warm.  Someone promote this man!"

6 – Trade it in for an enterprise server with less CPU (and the exact same backplane) to save on licensing costs when upgrading the system due to resource-related performance problems on the server.  "Who needs CPUs when we can replace them one-for-one and get cooking with cores?"

Tech Survival Tip: When you encounter any of these situations in the wild, your two best options are to either run (run far… get a taxi if you have to) or negotiate a really good severance package or an upfront bonus (or both if you’re the Corbin Dallas of salary negotiators).