Taking Control of your Future

Innovation and Leadership - Taking Control of your Future Carpe Cras – seize the future Jim Isaak New Hampshire IEEE/CS ITC Seminar March 8, 2011 www.JimIsaak.com

Who is Jim?
2010 (past) IEEE Computer Society President
Also past member IEEE Board of Directors
And NH Computer Society Chapter Chair
30 Years in industry
Digital, Data General, Intel, IBM and 2 startups
6 year in the academic community
10 Job transitions, 3 career transitions
All but first were “network” connections:
Colleagues from one job connecting to next
Colleagues from IEEE activities connecting to next
2011 Mar 8 Jim Isaak

The Hero in your life story
You have life time earnings power between $5 million and $50 million (software developer at $50K in 2011, 3% annual compound, 50 years no expenses, no investment.)
Most of that time you will be doing a job that does not exist today – one you could just love, if YOU make it happen.
Other options exist, your mileage may vary

A Different Way to See Yourself
The Unincorporated Man , by the Kollin brothers:
Sell shares of yourself (lifelong income)
Avoid being a “penny stock”
(parents own 20%, employers fund education in return for shares…)
What is your “Stock” worth? And Why? (and is “income” the real ROI?)

“ This is an interesting statistic... The most common study of CEO’s is not business, it’s not finance, it’s not economics – it’s actually engineering. It’s engineering .”
President Obama – Oct 15, 2010
White House Science Fair

The Basic Equation
Capital, wealth and value are created by: skilled creations, and innovative creations
Engineers & technologists invent the devices, and identify the solutions to tomorrows problems and opportunities
This is where real economic growth happens (and some of our ‘leaders’ get it)

Expect (massive) change
1969 (42 yrs ago) – Internet is “born” via US army funding, UCLA, NSF and Stanford – early “open source”
1978/9 (33 ya) – Altair produces first “personal” computer; Bill Gates leaves Harvard to write tinyBASIC for it. Franklin/Bricklan (Harvard/MIT) invent spreadsheet (do not patent idea) First Cell phones tested
1989 (22 ya) – Tim Berners Lee starts HTML (& ergo the web)
1993 (18 ya) – first smart phone (Simon from IBM)
1995 (16 ya) – Digital creates Altavista (first search engine) Hasn’t got a clue how to make money on it. (Google: 1998)
2001 (10 ya) Jimmy Wales starts Wikipedia
2003 Philip Rosedale starts Second Life
2004 Mark Zuckerberg starts Facebook
2006 Dorsey does first tweet
Note: Mean time to high impact inventions is shrinking exponentially (tied to Moores Law, etc.)

Your Future???
You will change careers (not just jobs) a few times
The job you hold in 10 years probably does not exist today
In a world overwhelmed by exabytes of data
A few possible predictions – circa 2050
Machine Intelligence – viable for “passing” as human (consciousness?)
Death by natural causes declining
Augmented reality the norm of daily living
Quantum Computing
Motes (sensors + Rflinks + simple processors as “dust”)

Add a touch of China
China will have the largest economy by 2020 and the largest per capita GNP by 2050
see: www.ted.com presentations by:
Joseph Nye on Global Power shifts
Martin Jacques on Understanding China
13 million geniuses, and more engineering graduates than the US (see “ Shift Happens ”)
China owns 1.15% of US debit (1.1 Trillion $)
Can you speak Mandarin?
India is not asleep either

2011 Mar 8 Jim Isaak Source: IEEE Spectrum Feb. 2011 93 – Japan 235 GF 96 – Japan 614 GF 97-2000 Sandia Labs 1830-12,288 GF 02 – Japan 41,000 GF 2004-2007 Oak Ridge IBM Blue Gene/L 367k -600k GF 2008 – Los Alamos, Roadrunner, 1,456k GF 2009 – Oak Ridge, Jaguar 2,331k GF 2010 Tianhe-1A China 4,701k GF

So what?
Get a life! – I suggest it be your own
Include life long learning
Identify you passion – and related employment
The big growth areas in US Employment
Health care (taking care of old fogies like me)
Information Technology
Be a catalyst to creating the future you want

That’s nice – so how to do it?
Be connected ---
Online is nice, social media is critical
LinkedIn; Facebook; Blog – “show capabilities”
What is ‘above the fold’ for your name on Google?
But In person is also critical
Professional societies (IEEE, CS, what ever)
Have business cards!– email, website… Vistaprint.com for about $10 (quid pro quo)

Selling your self --
You have to do it “all of the time” interview, presentations, customers
Look right, in person and on the web (yes, first impressions count – 15 seconds?)
Think Positive – know your passion
1 minute “elevator pitch” – distinguish your self (authentic narrative)
Ask for the order (action desired)

Ask and Answer Questions
The way to become ‘visible’ in a community (online, in class, at meetings, etc.)
Is to ask a relevant question, or provide useful feedback – people will judge you by what you say, so be mindful of this.
Example: linkedIn Answers – track topics where you have insight, and provide answers where you can.

Keep on top of things
TED.com is “required reading” … (youtube for grown ups?) Expect it to show up in interviews
Attend relevant seminars, etc. Many are “free” (NH IEEE, Open Web Security Project (OWASP), NHLUG, and many other UGs) [Learn, network – build path to your future]
Many university courses are online videos (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, etc.)

Making things “Click”
Innovation rarely occurs in your “cave”
Interaction with others is critical
Expose your self to new ideas
Find “like minded folks” – But not just “clones”
Ask for help, favors – it tells folks you value what they have to offer – and often it is the shortest path to problem solutions.
Be aware of IPR obligations/risks (Patents, copyright…)

Leadership
Volunteer to help
Easier in the professional organizations
Make things happen – get a REP (utation)
Get experience –
Find mentors … help out … absorb
It is part of being visible
Be willing to “lead from the side” .. It is not an ego thing, it is a team-success thing

Social Capital
All of these things help you build social capital
Trusting relationships that you can leverage in future situations (and they can leverage you)
Can be via sports teams, church groups,
“ The old school tie” (it is not apparel) (The old boys club, etc.)
It is not what you know, it is who you know! (Not music to the techie ear)

The Counterexample
Dr. Douglas Prasher, biochemist
Isolated/cloned gene for GDP (green fluorescent protein)
“ If he had only networked with other scientists and institutions …he might of stayed in the field of bioluminescence” (Discover Mag. April 2011) also see: http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/243.page
His colleagues received the 2008 Nobel prize

What to employers want?
The IBM “T” –
Vertical reflects depth of knowledge/experience
The cross bar are the essential skills
Communication
Teamwork
Critical Thinking
Marketing awareness
Customer focus

Professional Society Resources
IEEE Computer Society Build your career website
Local seminars/chapter meetings
Publications (Magazines, Transactions)
Conferences, workshops, etc.
Standards activities
Curriculum development/Accreditation
Certification (CSDP/CSDA), voice in licensing

What do you want?
Money?
Not according to Dan Pink ( Drive ) and other’s
Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are key motivators
Check out Randy Pausch ’s Last Lecture – pursue your passion, what are your childhood dreams?

Other resources
Time Smart , Bill Chou in IT Professional , Nov/Dec 2010
Motivation – it’s not all about money Dan Pink’s book “ Drive ” and short RSA Animation video
Overwhelming data – see “ The Forth Paradigm ” edited by Tony Hey
Motivation theory: Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
IEEE Computer Society: Build your Career site
Jim’s blog, website, etc. http://jimsieeecs.blogspot.com http://www.JimIsaak.com (copy of this posted here)

Questions, thoughts… 2011 Mar 8 Jim Isaak

Taking Control of your Future

by Jim Isaak on Mar 07, 2011

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