Looks like I got a case of the Mondays. But why?

Today is a bad day.  A particularly consistent bad day.  Not an awful day, mind you, but just bad enough to be laughably annoying.  And this got me to thinking…

Why is it that bad luck seems to come in strings… chains… in groups… whatever?

My example today:

• Had bathroom conflicts with roomie and her guest.
• Left in a hurry, forgot both cell phone and Google security card.
• Shuttle on the way to work was cramped, couldn’t work effectively on laptop.
• Due to bridge being damaged *and* another accident, I was late to work and had to push back a 10am meeting.
• Pulling laptop out of backpack at work, I accidentally broke off the antenna on my broadband wireless card.
• Allergies are acting up.  Blech :(.
• There were no communal coffee mugs left this morning.
• In a rush to grab my coffee-comfort (thank goodness for paper cups!), I spilled coffee grounds on myself.

Okay, so none of that is earth shattering.  My dog didn’t die, my wife didn’t run away with my pickup truck and shotgun, and I didn’t get beer spilled on me (admittedly, not having a dog, a wife, a pickup truck, a shotgun, or an affinity for beer makes this example somewhat inapt, but no matter).  Anyway, it’s still enough even-minorly-bad-stuff in a row (and by noon!) to make one wonder…

What is it about Mondays that causes so much misery?  Why do so many bad things seem to happen in a row?

Perception
Maybe we’re made cranky by the first bad thing, and thus are more attuned to subsequent annoyances.  Or, we subconsciously / culturally correlate Mondays with Trouble in our mind, and thus when bad things happen, this perception is simply reinforced.

Causation
Unpleasant incidences tend to directly cause other icky happenings (e.g., being late in the morning causes you to rush and be less careful and attentive, thus leading to forgetting important objects or procedures and/or causing you to move carelessly and stub various body parts).  Or unhappy moments make one more stressed or preoccupied in such a way as to be mentally or physically unprepared for typical challenges and obstacles, thus causing subsequent mishaps.

Any other theories?
And how is your Monday going so far?

Where is Adam (online)? My participation in and thoughts about various presence/sharing services

In case you're interested in stalking me and/or knowing what my thoughts are on various online presence / networking / bookmarking sites I have tried, here's a (completely unscientific, wholly biased, unabashedly uncomprehensive, and generally of questionable use) list :-D

FYI, I'm findable via my full name on the services below unless noted otherwise.  And sites owned/operated by Google are indicated by [g], as a brief disclaimer/reminder since I work for Google (but not on any of the
products or product-types below).

Social networking

• Facebook
  - a social networking site which used to be used primarily by college students (perhaps still is) and is gaining fame and respect in new quarters
  
  It's my favorite social networking service by far. I belong to the Google, San Francisco, Indiana University, and Northwestern University groups, and generally only add friends, co-workers, professional acquaintances I know decently well from meeting in person, and so on. I've actually found this to be useful not for making new friends, but rather for catching interesting info and fun tidbits and insights into my current friends' lives. I am impressed with nearly all aspects of this site: the strong configurability of privacy options, the reasonably-clean and standardized views*, decent navigability, and overall utility. I haven't really gotten into the groups, though, which mostly seem like exercises in humor and/or vanity.
  
  *This just in: According to Eliot on Wired, Facebook may be opening up its profile pages to widgets. Given the smart people I know that have recently been hired to work at Facebook, I can only hope that the service won't be horrifically MySpaced (uglified to hell and made practically unusable). But hey, if things turn south, I'll at least have people I can poke about it!
• Friendster
  - one of the first social networking sites, now apparently a haven for lonely Filipinos.
  
  I have an account here, but almost never log in. Some nice integration, I suppose, but nothing that really interests me. The brash obnoxious ads are a turnoff. And regarding the demographic reference... it's more a puzzled commentary on how various services (Orkut, Friendster, probably others) end up becoming so particularly popular in a handful of countries. I suppose much of this could be explained by the network effect (e.g., some popular Filipinos became active on Friendster, invited their friends...), but I can't help but wonder if UI / User Experience interlaces in interesting way with cultural preferences and expectations. Put more pedestrianly... I wonder what it is about, say, Friendster that causes it to appeal so much to Filipinos? (and Orkut to Brazillians, etc.) I bet someone has studied this. Paging danah...? :-D
• Orkut
  - a quirky social networking experiment by a Google engineer, now noted for its loyal userbase outside of the USA.
  
  Ah, not much to say about the service at this point. I no longer use it, but hey, many many millions of people around the world love it.
• Multiply
  - What's a total of seventeen users times practically zero awareness? Join this service to find
  out!
  
  Seemed interesting initially, but it was hobbled by a confusing interface and an anemic adoption rate. I think maybe two of my friends at most use this service nowadays.
• MySpace
  - Just like what you'd get if you had a spastic monkey doing design, an evil genius devising navigation (how many ad views per simple action?), and a bunch of lemmings for fans.
  
  Aaaaagh! Make it stop. Make it stop! At least make it stop blinking-spazzing-playing-seven-clips-simultaneously and generally serving as an affront to aesthetics, art, common sense, and humanity. To
  preserve what's left of my sanity, I prefer to view the success of this monstrosity as due purely to the network effect (it was an early entrant, everyones' friends were on MySpace, yadda yadda). Anything else is just too depressing. And yes, I have an account here only so my surprisingly-less-enlightened friends will quit bugging me to establish one, so I suppose that makes me mildly hypocritical.
• Tribe
  - Want to meet artsy, hippie, burning-man types? This is your scene :-D
  
  I like the threadedness of the message forums, but the site feels a bit cluttered and unfocused. Plus... again, sorry to bring up the network effect, but... most of my friends outside of the Bay Area are elsewhere online.

Professional networking

• Ecademy
  - The professional networking site that's the non-American version of LinkedIn. But more
  expensive.
  
  Tried it once. Was annoyed at the apparent lack of any free level of service, so that was the end of that. I didn't see anything about this service worth paying for that I couldn't find via other online or  offline means.
• Ryze
  - "Hi, I'm a stay-at-home marketer. Would you like to join the most amazing wealth creation
  scheme that combines hot dogs, Buddhist monks, and..."
  
  Used to use this professional networking service quite a bit, but now it feels relatively empty and multi-level-marketing focused.


• LinkedIn
  - Like any other powerful tool online or offline; great if you use it wisely, potentially painful if you don't.
  
  I like this service overall. I've not used it much for my own networking, but I have definitely been pleased to help others... pass along legitimate requests, and so on. The key is not treating it like MySpace (adding everyone who requests you to add them), but rather judiciously linking to people you trust and who trust you... ideally, folks you have professional ties with or can similarly vouch for.

Resource sharing / reviewing / bookmarking

• CitySearch
  - Big, colorful, commercial, and overstuffed site that features user-submitted reviews on restaurants, hairdressers, etc.
  
  Used to use this, but have moved over to Yelp, which seems -- if not more accurate -- at least more interesting, more entertaining, and slightly-less cluttered and commercial.
• Del.icio.us
  - Lamely named social bookmarking site that's been (sort of) superceded by more robust and feature-rich offerings and is now owned by Yahoo
  
  The geek "Web 2.0" (ack, I feel dirty already) crowd latched onto this early on, and I never quite got the appeal. Other services have offered considerably more features... of particular note, the ability to take a searchable "snapshot" of the page when it's bookmarked for easier retrieval later. On the flip side, this site had (and still has) an admirably spartan feel to it. No ads (that I can see), and no clutter. For those who crave APIs, minimalist feature sets, and simple bookmark sharing, del.icio.us could still be a reasonably good pick.
• Digg
  - Watch out, here comes the highly-opinionated and non-buying mobs! (is so! is not! yeah, well, your mamma was an SEO! LOLZ!!!!!!!1)Okay, so perhaps that's a bit unfair. Digg was an interesting idea and still continues to surface some noteworthy or at least entertaining sites. But, as with many fine ideas, it's been creaking at the seams
  due to its mass adoption and resultant oft-moblike/groupthink feel. Anyway, I no longer check this site with any regularity... not enough time, too poor signal/noise ratio.
• Google Reader -
  An outstanding feed-reader that's easy and fun to useSure, I'm biased, but after an unsuccessful first version, the Reader team's got their groove goin' on. Nifty keyboard shortcuts (hit ? to see 'em!), a pleasant UI, and the capability (which I sadly haven't used yet) to make any of your tags/folders publicly-viewable. Now if they'd just combine this with a
  public-version of Google Bookmarks... :-D [g]


• StumbleUpon
  - A serendipitous and often wondrous way to surf the Web and discover cool stuffI shied away from this service for ages; I don't have time to aimlessly "stumble" around the Web! But I've been slowly using it more, and finding it has useful features and unearths cool sites for me :-D.
  [My Stumbleupon page]
• Yelp
  - Irreverent, sometimes painfully hip, but typically entertaining and often useful
  
  Want consistently unbiased and deeply thoughtful reviews of restaurants and other local places? Then Yelp may or may not be your cup of tea. But if you're patient and have a good sense of humor, you can often glean quite a bit of helpful info about various places around town. The conversations in the Talk section can be surprisingly cathartic, friendly, and even useful. [My reviews]

Photo sharing

• Flickr
  - The most active and diverse photo sharing site I've ever seen, with a doggedly committed community-oriented management
  
  Sure, they've gotten a lot of flack after getting absorbed by Yahoo. Yes, like on any user-generated-content-site, there's bound to be crap, controversy, jerk-offs, and so on. But that aside, Flickr undeniably has an astounding number of gorgeous, hilarious, and downright captivating photos taken by talented photographers as active members. And speaking of active members... the Flickr crowd is hugely loyal, passionate, and not shy :-D. [My photos]
• Fotki
  - The skinnable and surprisingly easy-to-use popular photo site you've never heard of
  
  Sets within sets! While Flickrites are still begging for this, Fotki's had it for ages. It also has journals and a bunch of other doodads that are done better elsewhere, but thankfully that stuff doesn't clutter up the simple-yet-powerful photo interface. $30/year gets you unlimited storage and very cheap (and good!) prints. [My photos]
• PicasaWeb
  - Jarringly basic and spartan for geeks, surprisingly easy-to-use for normal people (who just want to easily share their photos with their family)
  
  Want to join a feature-rich photo site with great sense of community? This ain't it. But it's reliable and -- as a very nice bonus -- you can upload your videos to be displayed within your galleries (Google Video style). Best hidden feature: use the right and left arrow keys to zoom through galleries and enjoy the pre-caching and the perfect-fit-to-your-display views. [My Photos] [g]
• Honorary mention: Smugmug
  - I've never used it, but really like the attitude of its CEO and the intense, friendly customer-focus he has pushed throughout his company.
  

Instant messaging

• Trillian
  (my choice at home) - Offered in both a free and more-powerful $25/year version, Trillian is mostly reliable and amazingly handy
  
  No matter how much I try to convince all my friends to use Google Talk ("GTalk"), a ton of 'em still insist on sticking with Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, or -- dog forbid -- MSN Messenger! A few of them even still use their AOL accounts for e-mail; I've disowned those folks... but hey, I digress
  those other apps at the same time and having my computer grind to a halt, I use Trillian at home, which automatically logs me into all the networks and displays my buddies in a totally customizable and wonderfully compact single-column view. Downside? Sometimes connectivity to different networks is flakey. And though they promise a Web-based version Real Soon Now (tm), it's seemingly impossible at present to easily sync one's Trillian account across computers, so your chat history gets split between your desktop and laptop and so on. But hey, one app to rule them all? Pretty damn useful!
• Google Talk (my choice away from home) -
  Simple, great voice quality, usefully integrated into Gmail (and elsewhere).
  
  It's lightweight, fast, and just works. I really like how chats are (optionally) archived in my Gmail account, so I don't have to remember whether I e-mailed a friend or chatted with her about an upcoming party... I can do one search and know for sure that I forgot to invite her! [g]
  

Other

• Plaxo
  - "I'm updating my addressbook..." aaaaagh! Thankfully, Plaxo is much, much more than this.
  
  This is one of those sites despised by many geeks and, in fairness, journalists and other popular peeps who at least previously got deluged by the perfect storm created by clueless n00bs and a suboptimal viral approach pushed by Plaxo in the early days. With an improved emphasis on improving the existing network rather than wildly expanding it, Plaxo is now increasingly loved by millions of folks (like me!) who appreciate the service's (mostly free) offerings. The core feature which I use and find invaluable is the sync'ing of my friends' contact info into my various addressbooks. Plaxo has recently announced that their upcoming 3.0 version (ah, gotta love engineers' creative naming skills) will also support
  Gmail addressbooks. w00t!!! Disclaimer: I was a contractor with Plaxo a couple of years ago.
• Twitter
  - Look, I'm having a cheese sandwich! I just burped. I tat i taw a putty kat! i'm a twit therefore i am. Just got my cell phone bill, lemme open it up and... AAAAAAAGH!Twitter -- the oft-stultifyingly boring but oh-so-Web-2.0-utility that lets you, uh, share "what are you doing now?" ("I'm picking my nose, but it's really hard to do while typing...") Maybe it'd be more
  interesting if I had more friends on it. Feel free to twit (?) me at http://www.twitter.com/thatadamguy.

Getting hired by Google

I recently noticed that a fellow Googler posted some thoughtful tips about interviewing at Google, and -- now that I'm a bit more comfortable blogging about Work -- I figured I'd contribute to the conversation a bit by offering my own, unofficial tips.

Note the unofficial part. I work in Search Quality; aside from occasionally being asked to interview candidates (like most Googlers) -- I have nothing to do with our recruiting, recruiters, etc., nor do I pretend to speak for the HR folks. The stuff below is based on my own observations and opinions.

* * *

Application and interview tips
Broadly: be interesting, be humble, demonstrate outstanding competence in your direct area, briefly highlight your well-roundedness (academically, workwise, and personally), and clarify how you are an excellent
fit with both the position you're applying for and Google overall.

Admittedly, with an insane number of applications a year, it is a bit of a numbers game.  Some outstanding people get rejected.  And, though I haven't witnessed this personally, I'm sure some jerks get offers.  Luckily, Google's been overhauling its hiring processes, and I'm optimistic that particularly the percentage of great people getting overlooked (in relation to the number of apps) will decrease.

Some specific tips and notes:

• Write a decent cover letter


• Write with a tone that's professional yet warm... not stiff or dry.  Your (discernible) voice should come through.
• Keep it to one page (max!) or less.  Maybe even a lot less.
• Convince Google of the fits described above -- that's critical!!!
• Your resume can be in PDF, Word, HTML, or text formats (unless otherwise requested, of course!)


• But note that it will be ultimately printed out.  This means that reasonable pagination can be helpful and also suggests that a comprehensive 20 page document is perhaps not a great idea.  When you want your recruiter and interviewers to know more about your background & interests, links are your friends. 


• Respectful persistence can be appropriate


• If you genuinely have another offer on the table, let your recruiter know! If the recruiter promised to get back with you in [x] days, and in [x+1 or x+2] days you haven't heard back, politely e-mail them.
• If you have a friend at Google who can articulately and sincerely vouch for you, that can work in your favor.


• Your association / relationship with that person matters.  They'll be asked how they know you and how well they know you (and your skills).
• Passion matters and is skillfully perceived.  You're probably wasting your time unless you really are
  excited about a particular position.
• Getting turned down for one Google position does not mean you're ineligible to apply for another position down the road.
• General interview advice that probably applies for pretty much any company:


• Ask thoughtful questions.
• Allow time for traffic and parking and finding the right building. Google -- at least the Mountain View campus -- is a big place!
• Dress one or two steps better than you expect your interviewers to be.  Less than that, and people may wonder about your judgment. More than that, and people may think you're clueless or arrogant.


• The "right" dress at Google probably varies by department. Engineering folks tend to be more informally dressed than sales folks.  If you're interviewing for a senior management position, I'd probably dress a bit more formally than you would for an intern interview.  But the official advice also really makes sense here:  dress comfortably.  If you feel comfortable and confident, it'll show.
• Get a good night's sleep the two nights before.  Sleep deficits are cumulative.  If you have a
  morning interview, make sure you're getting up early the two or three mornings before to get yourself ready to be mentally and physically alert during your interview time.  On a similar health note, drink and eat smartly the day of your interview.  Hunger pangs are distracting.
• Invest in a good pen to take to interviews.  The heft and reliability can be a real-even-if-small confidence booster.  Taking occasional notes can help you remember info or questions for later, and also might indicate a sense of thoughtfulness and interest to your interviewer.
• On the whole, think of interviews kind of like first dates.  You don't want to do all or even most of the talking.  You're there to impress, to learn, to help determine whether there's a good potential for a relationship.  First impressions are important.  Show you are caring and thoughtful by asking good questions.  Avoid having spinach in your teeth (floss beforehand!).

Possibly-little-known factoid:

No Googler -- not even Larry or Sergey -- can singlehandedly extend an employment offer to anyone.  While candidates don't have to go through as many interviews nowadays, most candidates -- regardless of level -- typically interview with quite a few peers; team-fit is critical!

* * *

I expect to offer some more Google-thoughts in the future, but -- as a reminder -- this is my personal blog, and as such, I expect to generally blather on about anything I feel like discussing, ranting, dissecting, punning, lamenting, etc... which is more likely than not to be boring to the impatient sort.

Oh, and one last thing: please keep comments on-topic as a courtesy not only to me, but to the cool folks reading my blog. Thanks!

* * *

Related entries:
- A blunt note to HR folks and interviewers
- How to evaluate your current job & career... and thoughtfully consider future options

and lastly, for a blast-from-the-past... some perspective & a bit of cranky ranting...

- What do you do? (self = job?) And how are you?

How much would YOU pay not to be obligated to tip?

I’ve had it with tipping.  The more traveling I do—for business or pleasure—the more I despise the uncertainty, the uncomfortableness, the need to have petty cash on hand.  When will someone—an influential someone—say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?!

Tip too little, and you risk imperiling the quality of service you receive in the future from that person… plus you may look like an idiot or a miser in front of friends and business acquaintances.

Tip too much, and you look like a chump… and your wallet is made thinner (sometimes much thinner).  And you feel like a moron for being taken advantage of.  Heck, in some countries, you risk really offending someone!

This is one of the many reasons why I love Europe: you typically round up to the nearest euro when you eat out, and that’s that.  Adding to the coolness… for takeout food and pretty much else, what you see on the billboard or pricetag is what you pay.  15EUR?  You pay 15EUR; taxes, fees, etc., all included.

Now, back to the insanity that we endure in the States… Here’s just a sampling of recommended tips from a recent AAA (Automobile Association of America) article:

$2-$3 to your shuttle driver, $2 per suitcase to the skycap, 15-20% for the taxi driver, $2-$3 for a shoeshine, up to $5/night to your hotel maid, $5/day to a pool attendant (?!), up to $3 per round to the bartender and $20 (!) to your sommelier.

Sick yet?  I am.  After all, where’s the $5 we should be giving to our professor after a fine lecture, the $3 to the garbage man when he picks up our smelly refuse, $5 to the guy who trims our garden, $4 to the busboy in your work cafeteria, and $10 for your colleague after he helps you draft a memo.

But that’s ridiculous, you note.  Isn’t the colleague already getting a salary?  Why should you be responsible for bribing him to do a job that he’s already supposed to be doing?

And you may further argue, hey, but the waiter is getting a crap salary… if it weren’t for our tips, he’d practically starve.  But, I’d retort, why the hell is it OUR (awkward) responsibility to make up for employers’ cheapness?  And who the hell picks 1) who gets tips and 2) how much a “proper” tip is by profession and location?

Don’t get me wrong:  I think that everyone deserves a living, decent wage.  And I’d be quite pleased to have 15% or whatever automatically tacked on to my restaurant bill… so that the cost of my meal actually covered an appropriate salary for all involved with the occasion.  What about crappy service?  I’d do what I do when I encounter crappy service or products anywhere else:
- Firmly yet politely complain to the right people.
- If the matter remained unresolved, simply refuse to patronize the establishment again and warn my friends.

...and, of course, the opposite for good service (yes, I *do* write “thank you for the outstanding service” letters, sometimes by hand… and I wish more people did this).

Frankly, I doubt most folks are primarily motivated by money in their jobs anyway.  Does giving the waitress an extra $1 cancel out the urgent and occasionally rude demands we sometimes inflict upon her?  Not to her, I’d bet.  In fact, I’m pretty sure she’d rather we stuffed the dollar back in our wallet and treated her with respect and patience.

By extension, one could even see tips as demeaning… suggesting that “those kind” of people are only apt to do a good job if they’re thrown fish (dollars) like trained seals.  You don’t see people giving tips to lawyers and doctors, and no, it’s not purely a pay thing.  Frankly, I’m betting my bartender friends make quite a bit more per hour than most of my lawyer friends… honestly.

Of course, with all this said, I’m not only angry, but also rather resigned and un-optimistic about the crappy tip-required culture of ours ever being reformed.  I mean, what would it take?  If Our Goddess Angelina stopped tipping tomorrow, she’d just be vilified in the Enquirer and nothing would change.  If Bush didn’t tip next week, people would just (probably correctly) assume that he was unable to compute the tip even using a calculator.  No, I think it’d take an act of God, or maybe a good-looking denizen from outer space.  Until then, I guess I better just remember to keep a lot of ones in my wallet and just grit my teeth when I say “thank you.”

How I blew off Google... and more pre-Google career tidbits

Happy Googleversary!
As I was getting ready to board the Google Shuttle home recently, a colleague (who started at Google on the same day I did) poked me and jokingly wished me a "Happy Googleversary!"  Right then it hit me that, yeah, I had been at Google for a full year.  Wow!

Also in the last few weeks, coincidentally I presume, many folks -- particularly fellow alums -- have been e-mailing me to ask about what it's like at Google, how they can get a job there, etc.  I will be e-mailing all of
them back (sorry for the delay!), but in the meantime it's prompted me to do something I've been planning to do for a while:  write a few (okay, maybe more than a few) words on how I ended up at Google and what my thoughts are about working there.

How I blew Google off
As many of you likely know, I was fascinated with Google for years before I started working there.  In fact, in 2000, I featured Google in a department newsletter I wrote for the then-high-flying high-tech PR firm -- Niehaus Ryan Wong ("NRW") -- which I worked for as an Interactive Strategist.  In 2001, my entire department was laid off and so I got to Google for "how can I save my pride and find a cool new job?"  I ended up using my online communication skills to keep me sane and mostly in the black doing consultant / contractor stuff.

I think it was in early 2002 that I made a pretty big mistake, however. The conversation went something like this:

Friend:  Hey... I got a job at Google... you know, the search engine... it's really great!  I think it has some huge potential, you should work here!  Want me to submit your resume?

Me:  Congrats!  But... it's in, what, Mountain View or something?  And -- no offense -- how interesting could working on search really be?  And I'm doing just fine on my own, but thanks!

Yes, I now rank that as one of my most severe and painful bouts with cluelessness.  I wised up not too long after that and applied for a couple of jobs at Google; got some interviews and the recruiters ultimately told me
politely and firmly that I had a good attitude, fine credentials blah blah blah, but wasn't a good fit for the positions.  And looking back, it's clear they were right.

The good life... and how I grew weary of it
Over the next few years, I enjoyed working as a consultant / contractor with some super companies, a bunch of great people, and some understandably demanding but usually interesting clients.  But despite the cool projects and decent money and improving professional reputation, I grew weary.  I missed having a set of regular colleagues I could banter with and learn from face-to-face.  I missed having a mentor.  I wanted, also, to mentor others... and not just online.  I got tired of flying back and forth to Los Angeles for a client; 'twas a nice client, but I hated the city and the traffic that plagued it.

Most of all, I felt wistful about never having worked for a medium/big company, never getting to really have a feeling of ownership in a company that provided products/services internationally.  I wanted to be even a small part of something big but not faceless, have an impact, have significant room for growth careerwise and otherwise.

As you'll see below, I am thankful to have found this in Google.  It's not a utopia; there are things about the company that greatly frustrate me, there are days in which I feel overwhelmed and stressed.  But these days are few in number and gratifyingly dwarfed by the days in which I am very, very happy to be surrounded by people I respect, doing things I see as valuable, for a company that excites me and treats me ridiculously well.

A few words about companies I worked with or even just interviewed with pre-Google
Before I talk more about Google, I thought I'd share with you a few quick personal thoughts about some companies.

Some companies I worked with before Google:

• Plaxo: Very smart people. Collegial office conveniently served by a shuttle from Caltrain. Fascinating problems to solve. And their core product is hugely useful, increasingly well-designed, and truly has no equals. No need to send out "update my info please" notes; just enjoy the network effect of having lots of addressbook info updated. My interviews here were friendly, hands-on ("Okay, show me how you'd do this..."), and challenging.
  
• Intrapromote:
  Friendly, hard-working, supportive folks who've been doing SEO for quite some time... and who happen to have one of the more concise, unpretentious, and underrated SEO blogs around. Through Intrapromote, I got to work on some pretty huge online campaigns with major Fortune 500 companies and the experience opened my eyes to a lot of tough issues that large sites face every day. The
  interview process with Intrapromote was refreshing: very open, informal, and sensible (no lame questions, no useless under-pressure crap).
  
• Virgin Digital:
  I'm saddened by how this service flamed out in the U.S. The execs I worked with here were admiringly passionate about music and about enabling people to share their love of and insights about music with each other. They were motivated by the right ideas but -- given that the service didn't survive -- unfortunately hobbled by either a lack of resources, bad luck, poor execution or all of the above. My
  interviews were... well, not really interviews. This was a case of, hey, Adam, we know your work, we've had some good chats, when can you start on this project? That's not to say that Virgin's consultant/contractor hiring was haphazard or careless, but rather that the President (who hired
  me directly) was pragmatic, efficient, and no-nonsense... operating on an intuitive (and, I humbly think, accurate :-P) sense that I was a decent and appropriate fellow to work with.

And companies I interviewed with and received offers from immediately prior to
working for Google:

• Art.com: Classy and friendly people, very nice office overlooking the bay, and a damn neat product. The recruiter I dealt with was helpful and instantly likeable. All of my interviews were comfortable, reasonable, and -- most importantly -- truly two-way... conversation, not interrogations.
  
• Microsoft's MSN AdCenter: The MSN AdCenter campus is in beautiful Redmond (nice!) near one of my favorite cities (Seattle... yay!) but... located adjacent to a shopping mall away from the main MS campus (yuck!). Interview questions tended to focus on what I've done, and how I might handle client situations. Not terribly surprising. Suggestion to the AdCenter team and all other companies, for that matter: If you're having a final-stage candidate do a full day of interviews, invite him to lunch with some of his potential-future colleagues. Giving him a box lunch to eat alone in an office is not only a bummer for the candidate, but robs you of the opportunity to see how he or she relates to others... and that sort of interaction, IMHO, can be quite revealing ;-). On a more positive note, I was relieved and pleased at how thoughtful my MS recruiter was throughout the process. When I told the guy I had an offer from Google, the fellow didn't throw any chairs, but rather was extremely kind and supportive and urged me to take the time to make a decision that was best for me.

[Music] Instrumental Jazz Soloists - If you can't sing it, don't play it

I’m guessing most of you probably just think of me as an Internet geek, but I used to be a classical pianist geek, choir geek, and jazz pianist geek.  I have performed over 200 times, won a bunch of Bach festivals, and studied under jazz greats Ashley Alexander, Frank Mantooth, and others.  This does not inherently make me a wonderful person, but it does (IMNSHO) give me a right to talk smack about some fellow musicians and a nasty trend which I’ll detail below.

Sadly, though, there’s little proof of my musical history, or at least little proof that I can share; for instance, I recently called the music department of my alma mater (Northwestern University) to get copies of my jazz performances in ‘90-92, and alas, they no longer have the recordings.  Ack! :-(  So you’ll just have to trust ol’ Grumpy Gramps today.

So what’s my cranky rant for today?  Well, I’m sick and tired of jazz musicians ignoring their audience… more than that, downright ignoring the beauty of musicality.  More and more often, I hear jazz performers—young students and adults alike—musically belching through way-overlong solos that—despite oft-impressive technical wizardry (wow, he can play 743 notes a minute!)—bore everyone to tears… perhaps even the solo’ist himself.  And I think back to one of my fabulous jazz teachers at Northwestern who gave me a delightfully straightforward and valuable piece of advice:

“Play less.  Say more.”

And so I did… slowly but surely learning to integrate recognizable and fun bits of TV show themes, adding short and sweet call-and-response phrases, and so on.  My solos began to sing—not just shout “look at me!”—and as part of this, I connected more with my fellow musicians (who could hook on and really play with me) and audience members who’d come up to me afterwards and chuckle, “Hey, I caught that bit of the Muppets in your solo!” or even the more basic, “Your solos are FUN!”

Furthermore, I began to understand why so many of the world’s greatest jazz musicians (particularly in the swing/big-band era) were and for many remain so loved.  Their solos were a conversation, a song in and of themselves with the audience.  Not too much talking, nothing too fancy except for maybe a tiny flash here and there.  When you hear these solos today, you inevitably smile… often because you can sing with them, you know where they’re going, it’s not just a bunch of notes, it’s part of a melody, part of a melody you understand and can relate to and know it was made for you, not for the solo’ist.

*  *  *

A few weeks ago, I was at a benefit concert which featured an award-winning youth jazz band.  It was, even according to my friends who invited me, a cringe-inducing evening.  I looked around while these young men—obviously talented but horribly misdirected—were solo’ing and solo’ing and saying nothing worth listening to.  “Artubation,” I ruefully called it, and one of my friends chuckled and sighed.  I looked around at the large audience:  few were actually looking at the musicians.  People were reading their programs, looking around, looking generally bored and uncomfortable.  For crying out loud, I thought, I can understand that these 16-year-old musicians might not know better, but where the $&#$! is their adult director, and why is he so horrendously clueless?!

Yes, I blame their director 100%.  In his quest to mold musicianship, he’s failed to impress upon his students the necessity and beauty of musicality.  Of connecting with your audience, not to mention your fellow musicians.  Yes, even those kids looked bored up there.  Okay, it’s time for the trumpeter’s solo.  blah blah blah blah… okay, soon it will be my turn.  Quick, think, what am I gonna play this time?...

Unconscionable.  True, I’m not-so-subtlely betraying my contempt for much of modern jazz and indeed, even many famous “jazz musicians” today, but so be it.  But I’m hoping the pendulum swings back (no pun intended)... so musicians are no longer making music for just themselves, showing off, squeezing in as many notes as they can… but rather delighting dancers, listeners, fellow musicians as well as tone-deaf music-appreciators.

So, in closing, I simply wish and urge this…

Soloists:  If you can’t sing it, don’t play it.

Vanessa Fox (nude!) urges me to expose my...

No ands, ifs, or butts—this titilating title and content isn't just a naked attempt to get a leg up on my subscriber numbers.

I normally keep this sort of thing close to my chest, but when Vanessa Fox invited me to bare all my reasons for blogging, I felt bound to oblige.

Ironically, just the day before, I was asking myself the very same thing (no, not why didn't I pick a more sexy blog name... okay, that too!... but primarily, why DO I blog?). Seriously.

And what I came up with at that time was this very-honest list:
1. I don't know.
2. I don't know.
3. I don't know.
4. I don't know.
5. Honestly, I don't really know.

That, of course, may go a long way towards explaining why I seem to average about a whopping post or two a month nowadays :-(.

But, to avoid disappointing Vanessa and all 42 of you others who read my blog, I did some more soul searching and came up with a decidedly more interesting list of reasons why I blog, or at least why I think I do.

I determined that I've had decidedly different motivations to blog before and after working for Google. And -- in contrast with some of the others participating in this meme -- apologies in advance for the more-serious / comparatively-boring nature of my answers.


Key reasons why I blogged before becoming a Googler

1. While working on my own and quite often working from home, blogging was an additional way of "connecting with the world," and especially with like-minded geeks.


2. On a related note, since I was spending very long hours in front of the computer doing client work, it was also a convenient way of blowing off steam.


3. I've been passionate about Google for ages, and figured by being a loudmouth about my Google wishes and gripes and such, I might effect positive change :-D.


4. As a contractor/consultant/online-communications-mercenary, I viewed my blog as a bit of a showcase. In particular, I felt it was important to demonstrate that I had a basic understanding of online communications, possessed information and also opinions (hopefully even interesting ones!) on a variety of geeky and non-geeky topics, and was, frankly, someone that'd not be too terribly boring to work with. Along those lines, I also viewed it as a bit of a filter; anyone who'd turn up their nose at my online-evident eccentricities was likely someone I wouldn't want to work with anyway :-D.

Reasons why I still blog

Well, I'm certainly not looking for any consulting gigs nowadays, and when I have Google ideas or gripes or questions, I just walk down the hall or bug a colleague by e-mail or IM. Still, though, I continue to blog (and enjoy doing so) for other reasons...

1. It entertains and amuses my friends and I guess others as well. I have good friends all over the world, and they've told me that even my lame entries make them smile.


2. I enjoy spotlighting geeky hobbies and passions that others might not know much about and might enjoy getting to know (e.g., Lindy Hop) :-D.


3. I've greatly appreciated what I've learned from others on the net and feel that it's karmic'ly right to share a bit in return (tips, reviews of products and services, and so on)


4. I kinda feel obligated to blog. That doesn't mean I don't find it fun and rewarding, but there's also the negative motivation of sorts: I've built up a brand, however insignificant and badly named, and invested a crapload of time into not only the content but the infrastructure/design/etc. behind this blog as well (don't laugh! just implementing that stupid menu above took forever, not to mention the re-templating + importing after switching from MT to EE. Abandon all that work?!!!!!!!)


5. I'm inspired by many other bloggers, seeing how much they inform and inspire. The generalist nature of my blog means I'm unlikely to ever become a major blogebrity and I'm rather content with that, but I know that even non-A-level-bloggers wield a power to do good through their writing, however cliched that may sound.

* * *

On that note, I'd like to tap five fine female friends of mine to give their top five reasons that they blog (or thwap me with a wet e-noodle for forgetting that they have already disclosed such info on their blog):
- Erica ("Erica's Joys")
- Jen ("Nonsense Verse")
- Meg ("Little Meg Goes to Grad School" -- where I even have a thankfully anonymous guest mention :-P)
- Susan ("Let's Eat")
- Thu ("Of cats and code and random stuff" -- and birthday girl this weekend!)