5 Years ago, I quit Microsoft after 14 years with no idea what I was going to do next. What I did know is after 5 years I would be working on things that were much bigger and more fun than than what I was doing at Microsoft when I left. Working on Win3.1, Win95, Windows 2000, and Windows XP were the most fun I had at Microsoft and I have the best memories. Working at Apple, re-architecting the physical distribution system, being part of the hardware team on the Macintosh II, and working on software components for System 7 was when I had the most fun at Apple. HP fresh out of school, I had all kinds of ideas on what I wanted to try. Ideas in quality/reliability engineering, process engineering, and distribution logistics were fun. Yeh, I am engineering nerd. Why can’t the same ideas I worked on 30 years ago be applied to data centers?
I am lucky being 100% Japanese ancestry that I don’t look my age, but with 30+ years in high tech and even spending my summer jobs working in semiconductor companies, I am ready to move on to start having more fun like I used to. It’s been fun having the role as a blogger, but it is not what I want to be known for 5 years from now, and too embarrassing for my kids.
Being a Blogger is not what it used to be (humor)
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2011 AT 6:39AM
I saw this cartoon and my kids are not old enough to make this point, but I also don’t tell my kids friends I am a blogger.
What do I want to do? I want to get back to the fun making solutions to solve tough problems. 20 years ago, I took a sabbatical from Apple. 15 weeks from Memorial Day to Labor day, I got to enjoy the summer just like a kid. Well a kid who started Zen Meditation when I was 14. Summer was my time to think. As my wife once said you like to think about how to think. After all that time off, at the end of sabbatical I realized I loved to solve tough problems. Energized I went back to Apple and told my manager I really like to solve problems. Her response “that is nice, but we are about process in this group.” Within 9 months I left Apple to go to Microsoft to be the guy to get fonts for FE Win3.1- Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea where top priorities.
A year ago my wife threw me a surprise B’day party for my 50th.
Now I am going to turn 51, and I am going to give myself my own present. I am going to start having fun again. Solving really tough problems. Going to all these data center conferences, meeting great people, watching the industry, working on various consulting projects I have all kinds of ideas on problems that need to be solved. As Lion King’s Rafiki made a simple statement. “It is time.” It is time to start solving the problems like I used to do at HP, Apple, and Microsoft.
What does this mean? Part of what this means is I am going to start travelling less, spending more time developing solutions and less time researching ideas. Also, as it is the beginning of summer and it is the last day of school for my kids today they want me home more.
In addition to my surprise b’day party, we went to Italy for my 50th.
I have one event today that I will be attending today as a technical guy not as a blogger. The event staff was nice enough to make an exception letting me attend as he understands my multiple roles. Small world I sat next to one of the presenters at the event from SEA to SJC and reviewed his slide deck, making some suggestions. And, he did say I thought there was no press at the event. I told him I am attending not as press, but as a technical guy who knows a bunch of data center and server technology. The blogger role has been useful and gets me media status for attending many events, but it is also limits what people think you do. How many media people have these business cards?
I’ll be at GigaOm Structure June 22-23, and my next data center conference will not be for a while. I will be at 7x24 Exchange Phoenix as I’ll most likely be presenting there on something.
Submit a Presentation Proposal Today!
2011 FALL CONFERENCE
November 13-16, 2011
Arizona Biltmore
Phoenix, AZ
Leveraging Innovation
Does this mean I’ll stop blogging? No. I will be blogging about different things though. And, besides I was getting kind of tired of seeing the same presentations repeated.
Although am I really going to change how I blog as my criteria has been what are the things that solve problems? There I go thinking about how to think.
Some of the projects I have identified are with those who want to discuss data center ideas in an open and transparent manner. Organizations that think of themselves as Fiercely Independent Companies, like I am a Fiercely Independent Guy.
Thanks for reading this blog.
-Dave Ohara