Better Living Through Blogging

Internet Explorer 6, Windows ME and Comic Sans: The Holy Trinity of the Web Joey deVilla Developer Evangelist Microsoft Canada

Better Living Through Blogging Joey deVilla Developer Evangelist Microsoft Canada

Who am I?

―Since it’s now fashionable to laugh at the conservative Academie Francaise, I have remained a rebel by joining it.― -- Jean Cocteau

The Take-Away

Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell)

How to Make Luck (Marc Myers)

There is a formula for success

Ability alone is not enough

Effort alone is not enough

You need opportunities along with ability and effort

You need ways to create opportunities

The Accordion

May 1, 1999 (daytime): Queen’s Park Cutback Protest

May 1, 1999 (nighttime) Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar

November 30, 1999: New York City

December 1999: Chapters Online Holiday Party

―I have no idea what you do, but I want to hire you!‖

―The street finds its own uses for things.‖ (William Gibson)

―The intention of users has more impact than the intention of the designers.‖ (Clay Shirky)

The accordion doesn’t scale

Blogging is Accordion 2.0

A Blogger is Born

―The word blog should be an acronym for Best Listing On Google.― (Will Pate)

―Tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.‖ (Clay Shirky)

Friends

B-Harmony

―Internet dating is a web of lies and obesity.―

Blogging Saves Lives

Heather ―Dooce‖ Armstrong

77% of recruiters surveyed say that they use search engines to check out job candidates.

1 in 4 hiring managers say that they use search engines to research potential employees.

There may be have been up to 50 million proper-name searches in 2006.

―Over time, the lack of a Web presence — particularly for IT professionals — may well turn from a neutral to a negative.‖

‖If someone came looking for a senior-level job and had left no mark on the Internet, I’d see that as a big negative.―

Tucows (July 2003 – November 2007)

―The fact that he had a blog was absolutely a factor. His weblog really gave us insight into how he was a great communicator, how he has a gift for the gab, his understanding of technology and his writing talent. It enabled me to drill deeper and get a better look at the kind of person he is.‖

[Well-funded, badly run startup] (November 2007 – March 2008)

b5media (March 2008 – September 2008)

Microsoft (October 2008 – ???)

Writing

10,000 hours

Exposure

$132,994.97? Really?

Accordion Guy, April 2008 – April 2009 2.7 million hits, 2.1 million uniques

Global Nerdy, April 2008 – April 2009 1.4 million hits, 1.1 million uniques

How Much?

4 jobs

6 years of employment at a decent to great programmer’s salary

From laid off to Sith Lord in 3 weeks during the econopocalypse

A call from a New York Book publisher

Where do you find the time?

Consumer: A gullet that lives at the end of the distribution system’s conveyor belt, who gulps down products and craps out cash. (Jerry Michalski)

―When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow and exclude people. So create.‖ (why the lucky stiff)

Thank You

The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century joeydevilla.com Global Nerdy globalnerdy.com Canadian Developer Connection blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs Contact me! joey.devilla@microsoft.com / joey@joeydevilla.com

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Better Living Through Blogging

by Joey DeVilla on May 10, 2009

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Better Living Through Blogging — Presentation Transcript