It’s a bright and brisk 67° today in LA. The birds are out singing. It’s bright but not exactly sunny. Just cold enough to put a bounce in your step, but not so cold you want to curl up in front of the fireplace. The kind of weather that’s great for running around, or for sitting outside with a coffee talking about interesting things.

Going into winter always bums me out a bit. Things seem to change after daylight savings time ends the first week of November. It suddenly gets dark a lot earlier, everyone’s cocooned in their coats, and reflecting on the past year starts to weigh on me. My mood fits right in as the cold, dark rains fall in December.

But on this first day of the new year, it’s crisp outside with clear blue skies. And that’s how I feel about the new year. I’m looking forward to 2010. I think it will be a bright and brisk year for me and Killer Aces, and I hope it is for you too.

Happy new year everyone!

* I want to say “happy new decade!” because it sounds cooler, but really, the new decade doesn’t start until next year.

I just read this article on OPEN Forum by the Behance team title Can Good Teamwork Involve Fighting? Great article!

I think fighting is an integral part of a strong team — with a few caveats, of course.  Here’s some thoughts on how to encourage productive fighting for the betterment of the team or project.

1) Come to a resolution at the end.

At the end of the debate or meeting, it’s important that someone wraps up the points of the fight, and that the team comes to a resolution.  Like that axiom for marriages (don’t go to bed angry), don’t leave a meeting angry.

It helps to have an uneven number of team members and/or a strong leader.  With an uneven number of team members, you can put the conflict to a vote*.  With a strong leader, they can weigh the options and pick a resolution.

* At KAM, we vote with percentages. What I mean by that is I might say, “I’m only 60/40 in favor of X, but you’re 90/10 for Y, so we should probably go with Y.”  Or we may choose to not fight too hard for something. Eg., “I believe 90/10 that X is the right way to go, but I don’t care that much about it, so we’ll go with your idea.”

Even if there are still unresolved points of contention by the end of the meeting, someone should summarize where the team does have (near) consensus.  Throw out the rejected ideas, embrace the stronger points.  Basically, move the argument along so the team knows where it stands.  It’s not helpful to rehash the same old arguments at tomorrow’s meeting. There’s probably new issues to fight over.

2) After the fight, everyone’s on the same page.

Once a resolution is reached by the team, it’s important for individual team members to not hold grudges or undermine the team’s decision.

If your idea is not what wins, you can’t keep reminding people (especially external people) that the team made a “bad decision” by not adopting your views.  After the fight, after the meeting, everyone’s back on the same page supporting the same conclusion.

This reminds me of what my pastor used to say after a contentious church election.  We may be divided during the debates and election process, but once someone wins, we are one unified congregation again.

3) Strong teams encourage dissenting opinions.

I want to hear all sides.  Heck, the Supreme Court even publishes dissenting opinions — it makes their final judgements stronger, not weaker.

If your team is always harmonious and everyone seems to share the same opinions, that’s a bad sign.  There’s two huge problems I see:

1. Team members may not feel comfortable enough sharing their dissenting opinions.  If the team can’t talk openly with each other behind closed doors, that points to a problem with the team dynamics and/or leadership.
2. If dissenting opinions aren’t presented, the team doesn’t get the benefit of seeing the problem from all angles and may miss out on awesome solutions or opportunities.

4) Everyone’s on the same team, with the same goals.

It’s helpful that we all want the same thing — success of the company or project.  That helps make fights productive.  If fights are becoming especially heated, it’s helpful to remind everyone what the overarching goal is — ie., company/team success.  Then if needed, refocus the fight on accomplishing that goal.

5) Pick your battles.

Fighting for the sake of fighting isn’t helpful.  And if you’re the one who’s always playing devil’s advocate and starting an argument, people will want to stop talking to you.  Save your “fight juice” for the battles that are important.

It’s helpful for our daily motivation to keep in mind why we do the work we do.  Maybe it’s to feed our families or to change the world or to be filthy rich.  No matter what the reasons are, keeping the reasons we go in to work everyday front of mind helps us do a better job and makes us happier on a day-to-day basis.

Here are my three reasons for working on Killer Aces.  (These were always floating around somewhere in my mind — maybe not quite articulated, but they were in there somewhere — and reading Philip’s post Dream Job or Day Job? this week pushed me to write them down.)

1. Financial independence.

This is the greed part of it.  I want to be rich not for wealth’s sake, but to have the freedom to do what I want.  One of my success visions of “financial freedom” is being able to book a flight to the other side of the world on a whim, and not having to worry about cost or scheduling.

2. Ownership of work.

This is the ego part of it. I was tired of doing work that benefited someone else.  I wanted to own my work.

3. Contribute to humankind / human history.

This is the fulfilling part.  Some ego plays into this too.

I want to do work that matters.  I want to make people’s lives better and leave a mark on human history.

One of my pet peeves is when people say “I could care less” when they really mean “I couldn’t care less”.

What bothers me is that the two phrases are opposites, and the incorrect usage flips the meaning on its head.  The speaker is saying the opposite of that they mean.  They mean to say “I don’t care”, but when they use the phrase incorrectly, they’re actually saying “I do care”.

It’s a sign that the speaker is being careless with their words, and the listener is suppose to ignore what they’re saying and think the opposite.  It’s like saying “I don’t love you” when I mean “I love you”.  I don’t think society would be as forgiving for that mistake.

I’m especially peeved when I hear the incorrect usage from professional writers and journalists.  They should know better.

And yes, I could care less about this.  Really, I could. It’d be better for my mental health too.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly.  Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of the sense of freedom I would have soaring through the air.  Now that I’m in my thirties, I thought it was about time to start pursuing that dream, and I took the first step by reaching out to the one pilot I knew.  And boy am I glad I did.

My friend Thanos gave me a great primer on learning how to fly. He graciously spent an hour on the phone giving me pointers on sites, organizations, and the general path to getting a pilot’s license.

Even though I had done some cursory Google searches on learning how to fly, the tips Thanos gave me in that hour long conversation were invaluable.  Getting a pilot’s license is pretty confusing.  There are different types, with their own restrictions and paths, and Google only provided a smattering of confusing advice.

Spending an hour on the phone with Thanos, he was able to give me a big picture idea of what it meant to learn how to fly.  We talked about why I wanted to do it, what to expect of the 100+ hours and $10,000+ process, and what it was like at the end (when I have a license).  We talked about how the general aviation world works and how he uses his private pilot’s license.

I love the one hour primer by experts. If you’re looking to learn something new and somewhat complex, do yourself a huge favor and find someone to give you a primer. Buy them a cup of coffee and just pick their brain.  It’ll make the journey so much more productive and enjoyable.

Or you’re an expert in something a friend wants to learn, give the gift of a primer.

Thanks Thanos!

45% of employers check social networking sites before hiring (NYT)

I’m surprised the number isn’t higher.  An employer is doing themselves a disservice by not checking online for mentions of a potential hire before offering them a job.

The survey mentions social networking sites, but doesn’t say what percentage of hiring manager just do a simple google search.  I wouldn’t specifically go to the social networking sites.  I’d google a potential hire’s name and see what comes up.  Their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles should be on the first page, unless they have a very common name.

One of the commenters on the NYT article says,

Why don’t HR people try doing their JOBS instead of using stupid social media sites to screen candidates?? Spare me. What laziness.

I think the HR people who are doing Internet searches as part of the screening / hiring process are actually doing their job better.

I think you are probably a good person.  I know the vast majority of people are not actively trying to hurt me.  So you’re probably not going to screw me over.

But there’s a chance.

There is a non-zero chance you’re really mean.  I’m afraid of being humiliated / robbed / knifed.  It’s bound to happen someday and you could be the one.

Funny thing is you’re probably thinking the same thing about me.  Neither one of us wants to be vulnerable first.

It’s a trust issue.

Let’s turn it around. How would I react if you introduced yourself?

Well, I’d smile, tell you my name, and shake your hand.  Then there’s a good chance we’ll talk about something moderately interesting.  Every so often, we’ll talk about something really cool.  And once in a blue moon, we’ll find a lifelong friend.

So if you’re just like me, it’s probably going to be okay if I say “hi”.  You’ll probably be friendly. There’s a very good chance you won’t humiliate, rob or stab me.

<deep breath>

Okay, let’s give it a try.

Hi, I’m Greg…

—

That’s how I convinced myself to get off my ass and talk to people.  99.999% of the time, it works flawlessly. I’ve haven’t been knifed for introducing myself yet.

When typing for the Web, do you still insert two spaces after a period?

I do.

Even though in HTML, it’s the same as only inserting one space, and so is an inefficient habit, I still hit the spacebar twice after every sentence.  I guess it’s a by-product of learning how to type in 1989.

We are the sum of all the little things that happen to us.

The nearly infinite combination of good and bad experiences, decisions, reactions, opportunities, friendships and relationships, thoughts, etc make each one of us unique.

That’s why I’m fascinated by people’s stories (and their reactions).  It’s why I can easily “waste” hours reading personal blogs or mundane status updates.

Those experiences may be mundane, but they’re new (and interesting) to me.  I may never live that experience myself, so I appreciate all the sharing people do on personal blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

I want to live a thousand lives. Vicariously, if I have to.

I know you have a lot of awesome ideas in your head. Maybe you have several projects deep into development. There’s a ton of potential there. Just imagine the benefits!

Problem is, all we can do is imagine it. It doesn’t exist unless it’s out there, live for the world to play with.

Sprint that last mile to launch, and launch already! 99.9% done (and thousands of hours in development invested) has exactly the same value as the idea I came up with 10 minutes ago — which is exactly nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch. Oh-so-close to launch doesn’t mean squat for anyone outside your organization.

So launch faster next time. Don’t wait for it to be perfect. Just iterate more often.