Not a long-term strategy

“asshole” is not a long-term strategy - Tamson McMahon (great post - read it)

I loved Nathan Mielke's comment on last week's blog post about the changing role of the CTO. He summarized the change as: 

"....soft skills are hard and hard skills can be outsourced."

Made me think of my number 2 rule in Machines Are the Easy Part: People Are the Hard Part [free download]:

2.            It’s always, always, always better to be a nice person than an ass.

You will make mistakes at home and on the job. So keep this in mind: People will forgive your mistakes if you are generally a nice person; they never forget them if you behave like an ass.

One of my technicians once warned a teacher: “I am beginning to think it is easier to make you mad than to make you happy. Remember, you are a lot more fun to watch when you are mad.” The teacher got nicer.

 Thus endeth this Sunday's sermon.