racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Chris Pirillo did it with his chest–his rent my chest idea seemed quite novel (probably would’ve been better if Chris were a girl ). Andrew Fischer rented out his forehead for ad space. Now Sacha Chua is tempted to sell ad space on her laptop lid, just as Stowe Boyd did with his T-shirts. Apparently, Stowe likes the idea.

There’s actually a business plan in there somewhere. People register with the company, get sent a new sticker every month that covers the lid, and take pictures to show they’ve put in on at the start and that its still there at the end of the month, and they get sent a small check. Fun!

I think it’s quite cool, too. Companies should be sure, though, to target people who frequently use their laptops in public, and not just laptop owners who usually leave their machines at home or on their desk at the office.

I think it doesn’t even have to be revenue-based, but it could be in-kind.

Hey, if someone will sponsor my coffee, snacks, WiFi connection and fare/gas every day just to get me to spend a few hours at Starbucks or Seattle’s Best, I would be all right with slapping some stickers on my V2000. I’ll be able to get some work done, get my daily caffeine fix, satisfy my sweet tooth, and probably get some extra dough.

Imagine if I spent three hours in Starbucks every day with a large “Seattle’s Best” sticker.

At any rate, revenue model or not, I think Sacha got it right that stickers on laptop lids–especially large stickers that shout out a statement–would definitely help in getting people’s attention. Who knows? You can even make friends along the way.

Want to meet interesting but don’t want to have to make the first move? Use the back of your laptop to get people to talk to you. Stickers are a great way to do that. My laptop reads “The geek shall inherit the earth.” I can’t count the smiles, chuckles, and conversations I’ve gotten out of it–and all I have to do is open my laptop!

I used to do this with my old ThinkPad, but I would probably have second thoughts about slapping on a sticker on my new Presario. Okay, it’s more than a month old. Still, the the likelihood of leaving sticky residue on my laptop lid is quite a worrisome thought. Someone should develop laptop-friendly stickers!

Hey, maybe K2 Interactive can do this, along with their regular marketing via blog ads. Or, I’ll probably work on the idea myself!

One drawback of being in an occupation that one can undertake from home (such as problogging and all sorts of other e-businesses), or when you’re telecommuting or in a mobile-working arrangement is that there is a tendency for you to do just that–stay at home all day doing your work there. Yes, you may be more productive this way. Yes, you could be getting things done better than had you been working at an office setting. Yes, there are no office politicking, overbearing bosses, chatty colleagues and all that.

But you don’t get to meet any people. You don’t get to go out and see the world-at-large. And this sometimes sucks.

Being an introvert such as myself, this could be even more troublesome, as one would not get to practice interpersonal skills that are equally important in business as a great idea and good execution. Face it–we may be the best damned programmers, the best effing writers, or the coolest web designers this side of the world, but without the ability to communicate with other people effectively, then we’re just running around in circles. We need to be able to reach out to be able to get where we want to go.

The Salesman

In other words, everyone has to be a salesman–and in our case, we have to sell our ideas, our ideals, our passions, so that other people would also share in what we believe in. And hey, we also get to earn this way.

Well, given that most ideas nowadays can be communicated over textual means–over the Web, email or instant messaging–you might think that actually talking to people is passe. Not really. I’m of the opinion that there’s still no substitute for a handshake. There’s no substitute to the sensual aspects of actually meeting a person face-to-face and seeing, hearing, and feeling (sometimes, perhaps, tasting and smelling even) all aspects of communication.

After all, communication is about 80% body language, 15% execution or tone, and 5% talk. Or something to that effect (I forgot the actual proportions but it’s the same banana).

You can’t transmit body language over the ‘Net. You can try, with webcams, VoIP and all, but this wouldn’t be half as exciting as seeing someone face-to-face.

A Matter of Choice

What’s great with not having to work in a regular workplace environment is you don’t have to deal with people. It’s certainly more comfortable when the pressure to fit in is no longer there. This way, if you get to reach out to people, it’s because you want to, and that you choose to. It’s a matter of personal choice.

In a regular workplace setting, you’d have to deal with bitchy cube-mates, rumour-monger next-door neighbors (if you’re fortunate enough to get an office with actual doors, walls and windows), drive-by-management-freak bosses, airheads of all sorts, and all that. You have no choice. It’s either you live with it or be labelled the outcast.

What’s great with not being tethered to a desk or not being bound time-and-space by your job is that you won’t have to deal with Ms. Biatch, Mr. Airhead, nor the boss from hell. You can get to deal with such people, though, if you so choose. But hey, wouldn’t you rather hook up with the cute girl over at the next table at Starbucks (and more especially, her sexy black MacBook)?

Live Life

So don’t just sit there working all day with that smug grin on your face, thinking it’s great being able to avoid people all day.

My advice to you: unmount your donkey, leave your abode and have meaningful intercourse with a fellow human (translation: get off your ass, go out and talk to someone). Or at least go somewhere and get to immerse yourself in the goings-on of real people. Eat out. Take a stroll at the mall, park, or anywhere interesting. Go somewhere and watch people live their lives (Go ogle for all I care)!

This is why I go out and work at WiFi-enabled cafes (everyday while waiting for Pia’s preschool class to finish).

Okay, I’m trying it out now, just to prove a point I’d been considering for some time now. Also, it’s been one of my favorite Instant Messenger status indicators for a while now, among some other interesting ones. Bundle in the Gaim “Idle-maker” plugin, which makes you appear idle or away from the keyboard, when you’re really working away (or playing) at your computer, and that would make for good fun! Here are the usual suspects:

* Busy. Very. – Great for telling people you’d really really rather not be bothered unless it’s something important (like an asteroid’s about to land on the Pacific, and it would be TEOTWAWKI).
* I’m probably online, but just pretending to be “idle.” But then again, I might be busy. – This is great in combination with Idle-maker. I’m probably actually busy, anyway.
* I’m probably hiding. From you! – Ah yes, the good ol’ alternative to “Invisible” mode, especially when there is no “Invisible” mode, such as on Google Talk.
* “Invisible” or “Invincible” on Google Talk. – Only the smart ones notice you’re not really invisible at all. And Invincible? Probably true, this age we’re in (until we lose the innocence of youth and realize that we all do die sometime).

Hey, with the birthday nearing, isn’t this a great time for existential meanderings. Alcohol surely helps in that area. I just hope I don’t take in too much. Otherwise, I’d probably get the ultimate reaction/response to the greatest existential question.

If my IM status says “I’m dead,” I’m probably not.

There, now that I’ve probably been loading enough alcohol into my bloodstream to get the good ol’ creative juices kicking in, it’s probably time to put an end to this nonsense and start with some real work. Ah, so many things to write, so little time.

This is probably such a striking statement that it deserves the controversy that made me post about it in the first place.

Résumés or Curricula Vitae (plural of Curriculum Vitae, of course) may indeed serve as indications of potential to help job seekers to introduce themselves to prospective employers. Or for distinguished professionals, CVs may serve as records of accomplishment. However, Chris Pearson points out that there is only one thing that will matter to a smart person, and it’s not on your résumé!

Intelligent people really don’t care what’s on your resume. In fact, intelligent people don’t really give a damn about formal interviews, resumes, or anything of that sort. Sure, your portfolio matters, but even that’s secondary to the number one, be all, end all factor. It’s the one thing that matters above all else to any truly smart person with whom you’ll ever do business. What is it?

It’s you.

I agree (surprise!). In this day and age, you cannot really put your accomplishments (or potential) on paper, and expect the written word to adequately relay what it’s supposed to represent. Accomplishments are seen and felt, and usually when one gets to know another individual on a personal basis (or sometimes even in the virtual world).

But still, in many cases, it’s not the accomplishments that matter, but the potential. Usually, you’d have to meet a person face-to-face, or talk a meaningful conversation with them, and you will just know whether that person has what it takes to succeed, and whether his/her potential matches the field of expertise you expect that person to succeed in. And in most instances, you cannot just rely on your rational facilities to know, but rather your gut intuition.

In a way, this is how I work these days. I’ve done away with formalities and have instead actively sought out people whom I know have what it takes to make the grade. And I do not base it from their undergrad GPA or whether they have MBAs or PhDs in quantum physics or molecular biotechnology. I base it on who they are. (And yes, in a way this is also why I shun the intricacies of the corporate world.)

Résumés can still be a good starting point, though–perhaps just to give a cursory introduction of oneself–but not the end-all, be-all of things.

At times it’s still trial and error, but this is how I’ll learn, isn’t it?

One of the things I like best about Google Talk is the automatic logging of conversations–built into Gmail at that! I prefer IMs to be logged because of the following reasons:

* IM is increasingly becoming the business communication method of choice among netrepreneurs like myself–sometimes, email just takes so long for a quick response. So it’s good to have something on record. Email is already recognized as official communication here in the Philippines. As for IM, well, the law’s probably a bit more vague on that. But having a record of IM conversations assures me that I don’t forget anything, and that I can refer back to those chats when the need arises.

* I work on multiple computers. My laptop’s for when I’m mobile, and when I’m writing stuff. My desktop’s for the more power-hungry work (like games!). I like everything to be accessible from both PCs, and even other computers via the Web. Gtalk lets me access my chats from anywhere with a Web browser and a decent connection. Gtalk also lets my correspondent access the same thread over his/her own Gmail account!

However, the same does not go for Yahoo! Messenger, which I think is the IM of choice here in our country. Yes, YM has a lot of snazzy features, but what’s lacking with it is a decent logging capability. Third-party IM apps that run over the Yahoo! network, though, are increasingly getting better at this. And Gaim is one such application. Gaim is popular among the Linux-using crowd, because it lets them (well, us, actually) communicate over various IM networks that do not even release Linux-native clients, such as YM and AOL, for instance. Of course there’s a Windows client, too.

I use Gaim on my laptop, since I feel it has a smaller application footprint than YM (at least when running only over one IM network). I also prefer the clean, tabbed interface over the cluttered IM session windows of YM–something that you would appreciate with limited screen real estate of a laptop. And then there are the plugins. You have different functionalities for everthing from “idle-maker” (lets you pretend you’re actually away from the keyboard/mouse) to spell-checker, to the minute details like iChat-like timestamps.

And of course, what’s best is that you can set Gaim up so it will remember your conversations with your contacts. It may not be over-the-Web logging like Gtalk, but at least you’re sure to have a comprehensive log of your conversations with contacts, arranged by date. You can export this as HTML or text as a whole or on a per-day/session basis. YM does have an export feature for current conversations, but once you close that window (or the app itself), you lose the message thread forever.

I used to use YM on my desktop since I also had to use the video-conferencing feature once (YM supports both audio and video!). But since I rarely use that feature anyway, I think it’s best to switch to Gaim on the desktop from now.