How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Blog. Maybe.
Part Foo in a series of N...
OK. Apologies, as usual, for wandering off there for a while too long. We've been busy, of course - Christmas and all that - but that's no real excuse. Guess I just blogged off for a while. No particular reason, just sort of bored...
Before I forget - overdue birthday greetings to the third of the original BlogSprogs -Sawyer James Matrullo, who turned 1 on Christmas Eve. Congratulations Tom and Wendy, hope all is well in Mexico.
I've come close to putting pen to paper (putting pixel to Presario?) a number of times in the last month, but always found something more interesting or, at least, more pressing to do. Times like this I wish I was able to do the Bill Joy thing - "leaving the urgent behind to get to the important", as he's reported to have said when he fled Silicon Valley to set up shop in Aspen.
Whenever we've had the laptop on over the last few weeks, I've either been working on business development stuff (a.k.a. Mission: GetAJob), emailing friends and family, or playing Beyond Good & Evil (which is very cool, btw). All that plus entertaining, reading, and enjoying a terrific family Christmas = precious little time or desire to blog. Been having a lot of fun, in fact. So stuff Bill Joy.
This was going to be the "hello I'm back, and here are a few interesting links I've found" post, but then I had a funny little moment of clarity yesterday, so I think I'm going to set off in a different direction.
With all the intensive networking I've been doing in the last few months, I've been asked for my C.V. or bio a fair number of times. I've pointed most people to the online bio here, knowing that this means they'll probably wind up reading the main blog, if they're that way inclined.
I've had a tiny but significant frisson of doubt every time I've done this. I mean, quite a few of the people I've pointed here are people I'd really like to work with. There's always that little twinge of: "oh no, what if they read my blog and think I'm a complete dork?" It has been known to happen.
And then, earlier today, the question came up again. Someone I really respect and would certainly like to be working with asked for a copy of my C.V.
I went through the routine cycle of qualms before reaching a small, liberating moment of epiphany: I realised that, in truth, I don't care what potential employers or work colleagues might think about my blog. Or rather: I do, but in the right way.
I'll try to explain...
I'm sure I'm not the only one to have remarked on the increasing prevalence of disclaimers on people's blogs. It seems almost the norm for employed stiffs who blog to put up some kind of rider to distance their blog writing from their worklife. I remember watching the disclaimers start to pop up on blogs of Blogger employees within weeks of the Google acquisition.
Often these take the form of: "the personal views and opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of management", or "...not those of my employer", or some such rhetoric.
The problem I have with this is that for as long as I've been blogging, I've also been "the management". I've been part of the leadership team of every company I've worked for in the past six or so years.
So to state that the views I'm blogging are not those of the management would seem disingenuous - 'coz, honey - I am the management. (Or, at least, I was. Till they canned my ass. But you know what I mean.)
As an example, I don't mind the disclaimer on Robert Scoble's blog, FWIW:
"Robert Scoble works at Microsoft. Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here"
It's kind of a roundabout way of saying "YMMV".
But other disclaimers are rather more pointed, or just plain odd - at least to my current way of thinking. Take this example at Ray Ozzie's blog:
The views expressed on this website are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Groove Networks, Inc..
Er...? But Ray - you're the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Groove Networks, Inc. I'm finding the distinction a little hard to swallow.
For the record: I've had a disclaimer of sorts on this blog's "About" page for as long as I've been writing. It's here - "If you think for even a nanosecond that the opinions expressed through this site have any relation to the views and opinions of my employers, you clearly need to lighten up a little. Frankly, I'm not even sure half the time that the opinions expressed through this site are an accurate reflection of my own thoughts and feelings. Get a clue."
Thought it was kind of amusing at the time. Now I've really gone off it.
OK. I'm deliberately skipping steps in the logic here. I know. Bear with me. I just need to get this muddly thing thought through. It's cathartic. Feel free to go watch paint dry or something...
I know other employed bloggers who've wrestled with the disclosure boundaries at the intersection of work and blogging. And I've walked a fuzzy line in my own work life - steering an ill-defined course between two sets of work colleagues: those people who know about and read the blog, and the other set of people I'd rather didn't find out.
The little moment of epiphany came from realising that, of course, the people who wouldn't grok the blog most likely fall into the category of people who just wouldn't grok Michael anyway, so what the hell do I care what they think? I'd much rather be working with and for people who grok blogs and the whole "blogosphere" (*ack*) in general, or are open-minded enough to be receptive to this way of working with the world.
The me on this blog is the real deal - not too different from the full and unfiltered offline me. (OK, so perhaps my blog self doesn't cuss quite as much as my real time self. I'm conscious to mind my language a little more online - just as I would offline when there's kids around. Can't pre-define the readership, so best to keep it relatively clean. And yes, I know I'm contradicting myself here, of course. Having just expressed my reluctance to compromise to fit within the expectations of a certain audience group, here I go fessing up to toning down the vernacular out of consideration for my audience. Fuck it anyway - I never said this was going to make any sense.)
Where was I...?
Given what I do for a living, it would be just wrong to suggest that the views and opinions I bring to this blog have no bearing on my professional life. It's not like I'm suddenly viewing the world through a different lens when I sit down to write. The subjects discussed may be different, but the world view is still the same - it's still my POV.
Of course the opinions and ideas expressed here are inherently linked to those of the companies I've been working for - at least insofar as I have embodied the ethos of those companies to some extent. (Hey! Do you think that's got anything to do with why I got canned from the last place? Failure to embody the corporate culture? Ahem. No comment. *cough*)
I guess I've said this before: blogito ergo sum (and vice versa: I am, therefore I blog).
Apart from anything else, it's pretty durned easy to find this thing anyway. There is only one Michael O'Connor Clarke you can find online, AFAIK. No matter how deep you Google (and trust me here - my ego-surfing leaves no hit unclicked), I'm the only me on the Net.
Any potential employer, client, or stalker who Googles me will pretty easily find this blog as the first hit.
(The curious fact that never fails to surprise me, BTW, is that people do Google me, from all corners of the globe, at the rate of about two hits per day on average, according to my server referral logs. People in countries I've never even visited show up here having Googled my full name. It's just odd.)
Back on topic: I've come to realise that the sort of people who might be baffled by the blog, or have any issue with the fact that I hang out here (and yes, I have been known to post from the office), are exactly the sort of people I have no interest in working with. No disrespect, no offence - we just have different ways of seeing (and vive la difference, fer sure).
This also means that I no longer have even the slightest twinge about pointing potential employers or prospects to this blog. I'm assuming that wherever I end up landing, I'll be coming into another management position, at which point I'll be quite happy to announce that the thoughts and opinions expressed here are indeed those of the management. And if the rest of the management team aren't comfortable with my ideas and opinions as expressed through this blog, then I probably wouldn't be happy working with them anyway, so knickers to it. Or we'll fight it out in some stuffy board room and then go off for pints. Not to say that they have to agree, of course. Just cut me some Voltaire.
So now that I come to think about it, what the heck was I so worried about in the first place anyway?
OK. Apologies, as usual, for wandering off there for a while too long. We've been busy, of course - Christmas and all that - but that's no real excuse. Guess I just blogged off for a while. No particular reason, just sort of bored...
Before I forget - overdue birthday greetings to the third of the original BlogSprogs -Sawyer James Matrullo, who turned 1 on Christmas Eve. Congratulations Tom and Wendy, hope all is well in Mexico.
I've come close to putting pen to paper (putting pixel to Presario?) a number of times in the last month, but always found something more interesting or, at least, more pressing to do. Times like this I wish I was able to do the Bill Joy thing - "leaving the urgent behind to get to the important", as he's reported to have said when he fled Silicon Valley to set up shop in Aspen.
Whenever we've had the laptop on over the last few weeks, I've either been working on business development stuff (a.k.a. Mission: GetAJob), emailing friends and family, or playing Beyond Good & Evil (which is very cool, btw). All that plus entertaining, reading, and enjoying a terrific family Christmas = precious little time or desire to blog. Been having a lot of fun, in fact. So stuff Bill Joy.
This was going to be the "hello I'm back, and here are a few interesting links I've found" post, but then I had a funny little moment of clarity yesterday, so I think I'm going to set off in a different direction.
With all the intensive networking I've been doing in the last few months, I've been asked for my C.V. or bio a fair number of times. I've pointed most people to the online bio here, knowing that this means they'll probably wind up reading the main blog, if they're that way inclined.
I've had a tiny but significant frisson of doubt every time I've done this. I mean, quite a few of the people I've pointed here are people I'd really like to work with. There's always that little twinge of: "oh no, what if they read my blog and think I'm a complete dork?" It has been known to happen.
And then, earlier today, the question came up again. Someone I really respect and would certainly like to be working with asked for a copy of my C.V.
I went through the routine cycle of qualms before reaching a small, liberating moment of epiphany: I realised that, in truth, I don't care what potential employers or work colleagues might think about my blog. Or rather: I do, but in the right way.
I'll try to explain...
I'm sure I'm not the only one to have remarked on the increasing prevalence of disclaimers on people's blogs. It seems almost the norm for employed stiffs who blog to put up some kind of rider to distance their blog writing from their worklife. I remember watching the disclaimers start to pop up on blogs of Blogger employees within weeks of the Google acquisition.
Often these take the form of: "the personal views and opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of management", or "...not those of my employer", or some such rhetoric.
The problem I have with this is that for as long as I've been blogging, I've also been "the management". I've been part of the leadership team of every company I've worked for in the past six or so years.
So to state that the views I'm blogging are not those of the management would seem disingenuous - 'coz, honey - I am the management. (Or, at least, I was. Till they canned my ass. But you know what I mean.)
As an example, I don't mind the disclaimer on Robert Scoble's blog, FWIW:
"Robert Scoble works at Microsoft. Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here"
It's kind of a roundabout way of saying "YMMV".
But other disclaimers are rather more pointed, or just plain odd - at least to my current way of thinking. Take this example at Ray Ozzie's blog:
The views expressed on this website are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Groove Networks, Inc..
Er...? But Ray - you're the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Groove Networks, Inc. I'm finding the distinction a little hard to swallow.
For the record: I've had a disclaimer of sorts on this blog's "About" page for as long as I've been writing. It's here - "If you think for even a nanosecond that the opinions expressed through this site have any relation to the views and opinions of my employers, you clearly need to lighten up a little. Frankly, I'm not even sure half the time that the opinions expressed through this site are an accurate reflection of my own thoughts and feelings. Get a clue."
Thought it was kind of amusing at the time. Now I've really gone off it.
OK. I'm deliberately skipping steps in the logic here. I know. Bear with me. I just need to get this muddly thing thought through. It's cathartic. Feel free to go watch paint dry or something...
I know other employed bloggers who've wrestled with the disclosure boundaries at the intersection of work and blogging. And I've walked a fuzzy line in my own work life - steering an ill-defined course between two sets of work colleagues: those people who know about and read the blog, and the other set of people I'd rather didn't find out.
The little moment of epiphany came from realising that, of course, the people who wouldn't grok the blog most likely fall into the category of people who just wouldn't grok Michael anyway, so what the hell do I care what they think? I'd much rather be working with and for people who grok blogs and the whole "blogosphere" (*ack*) in general, or are open-minded enough to be receptive to this way of working with the world.
The me on this blog is the real deal - not too different from the full and unfiltered offline me. (OK, so perhaps my blog self doesn't cuss quite as much as my real time self. I'm conscious to mind my language a little more online - just as I would offline when there's kids around. Can't pre-define the readership, so best to keep it relatively clean. And yes, I know I'm contradicting myself here, of course. Having just expressed my reluctance to compromise to fit within the expectations of a certain audience group, here I go fessing up to toning down the vernacular out of consideration for my audience. Fuck it anyway - I never said this was going to make any sense.)
Where was I...?
Given what I do for a living, it would be just wrong to suggest that the views and opinions I bring to this blog have no bearing on my professional life. It's not like I'm suddenly viewing the world through a different lens when I sit down to write. The subjects discussed may be different, but the world view is still the same - it's still my POV.
Of course the opinions and ideas expressed here are inherently linked to those of the companies I've been working for - at least insofar as I have embodied the ethos of those companies to some extent. (Hey! Do you think that's got anything to do with why I got canned from the last place? Failure to embody the corporate culture? Ahem. No comment. *cough*)
I guess I've said this before: blogito ergo sum (and vice versa: I am, therefore I blog).
Apart from anything else, it's pretty durned easy to find this thing anyway. There is only one Michael O'Connor Clarke you can find online, AFAIK. No matter how deep you Google (and trust me here - my ego-surfing leaves no hit unclicked), I'm the only me on the Net.
Any potential employer, client, or stalker who Googles me will pretty easily find this blog as the first hit.
(The curious fact that never fails to surprise me, BTW, is that people do Google me, from all corners of the globe, at the rate of about two hits per day on average, according to my server referral logs. People in countries I've never even visited show up here having Googled my full name. It's just odd.)
Back on topic: I've come to realise that the sort of people who might be baffled by the blog, or have any issue with the fact that I hang out here (and yes, I have been known to post from the office), are exactly the sort of people I have no interest in working with. No disrespect, no offence - we just have different ways of seeing (and vive la difference, fer sure).
This also means that I no longer have even the slightest twinge about pointing potential employers or prospects to this blog. I'm assuming that wherever I end up landing, I'll be coming into another management position, at which point I'll be quite happy to announce that the thoughts and opinions expressed here are indeed those of the management. And if the rest of the management team aren't comfortable with my ideas and opinions as expressed through this blog, then I probably wouldn't be happy working with them anyway, so knickers to it. Or we'll fight it out in some stuffy board room and then go off for pints. Not to say that they have to agree, of course. Just cut me some Voltaire.
So now that I come to think about it, what the heck was I so worried about in the first place anyway?
