Realty vs. Myth, 5 manuscript versions of Gettysburg Address

Being an engineer, I enjoyed Math, Physics, Chemistry, and many other sciences.  Studying Accounting and Finance was a close third to Math and Science.  These were exact things to understand.  When I was 14 I was working part-time after school, and it didn't work out as I wasn't fitting in.  Losing the job didn't really bother me which bothered my mom more than it did me.  What I think the event did do is get me into studying psychology, philosophy, reading Jung, Freud, and Zen Buddhism.  People's perceptions shape their realty.

Here is an example of perception.  I was curios to read the exact words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address.  We all take "four score and seven years ago…" as a truth.  But, guess what there are five different manuscripts of Abraham Lincoln's speech and each has its different place in history.

Despite the speech's prominent place in the history and popular culture of the United States, the exact wording and location of the speech are disputed. The five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address differ in a number of details and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech.

Here are references to the 5 different manuscripts.

^a The Gettysburg Address: Nicolay copy. The Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2010-09-15.^b The Gettysburg Address: Hay copy. The Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2010-09-15.^c Everett copy (jpg). virtualgettsyburg.com. Retrieved from internet archive 2007-06-14 version on 2007-12-10.^d Bancroft copy cover letter (pic), Bancroft copy, page 1 (pic), page 2 (pic). Cornell University Library. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.^e Bliss copy, page 1 (jpg), page 2 (jpg), page 3 (jpg). Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.

One of the lessons learned is the perception (of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address) is stronger than the reality (5 different manuscripts).

How many of these perception issues exist in the data center that the mass majority believe is true, but actually there is little data to support the perceived truth.

If you want to make it worse, there are some who benefit from distortion of perception as they create a reality that benefits their agenda.

Some of the smartest people know how to question common accepted truths as they ask for the data.

And sometimes those who speak less say more.

Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln was the second speaker on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Lincoln was preceded on the podium by the famed orator Edward Everett, who spoke to the crowd for two hours. Lincoln followed with his now immortal Gettysburg Address. On November 20, Everett wrote to Lincoln: “Permit me also to express my great admiration of the thoughts expressed by you, with such eloquent simplicity & appropriateness, at the consecration of the Cemetery. I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

273 Words to a New America (2:59 min)

Curator: Dr. John R. Sellers 
Week of: September 23, 2009

The Data Center World is getting smaller as it grows

One of my favorite books in high school was "Small is Beautiful."

Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. The phrase "Small Is Beautiful" came from a phrase by his teacher Leopold Kohr.^[1] It is often used to champion small, appropriate technologies that are believed to empower people more, in contrast with phrases such as "bigger is better".

After two weeks of being in LV and then SJ hanging around data center people having interesting discussions it struck me how small the data center world is.  Yet it is growing.

With Social Networking and the bigger getting bigger, there is a small set of people who are driving the industry forward.  Yet, there is an increasing set of people who demand data center services including IT organizations who don't understand how the small data center world works.

I think part of the problem for an newbie to data centers is to filter through the marketing and sales positioning to get the core of how the data center works.  The marketing folks are not taking an approach that "Small is Beautiful" and it is about taking small steps in technology to empower people to design, build, and operate data centers better than the past.

The small is beautiful approach is an interesting one, that needs to be studied more.

Do you know me if you read my blog?

I was at IBM's Impact conference in a smart fire side chat type of format with a bunch of media folks and an IBM VP.  We went around the room and introduced ourselves.  The IBM executive and I shook hands and then he said "I know you."  I quickly went through my memory trying to figure out where I had met the executive.  Sometimes the brain doesn't work the way it used and I couldn't figure out where we had met.  Then he said, "I read your blog." My first reaction was reading my blog doesn't mean you know me.  I've shared this story with a few and had a few laughs.  Then one of the my data center friends said well given the way you write and share your thoughts beyond the data center industry, people do feel like they know you.

After a few days in LV last week and a few days in Santa Clara catching up with friends and making new ones. I do think people know me through this blog.

This past week I hosted 30 - 40 people in a brew pub.  Went to a small dinner party that I helped reach out to some thought leaders who were in town to attend.  Last week was in LV was another pub social, dinner with IBM execs, and a 100 person party at PURE nightclub.  So kind of socially burnt out.  I have two days of rest before we host 50 people at our house for a going away party.  Only one guy going does any work in the data center industry that I know of, although there are a few real estate people who have done some data center work.  I think I'll take some pictures with my Canon 6D and post some.  I am surprised how photography does show up in some of the conversation I have on the road.

Part of what got me writing in the style to share more than data center stuff is when Olivier Sanche and I would jump into conversations and I would mention blog posts.  He cut me off and said I read everything you post, so let's just reference various ideas you have discussed and I'll tell you if I agree or disagree.  It's kind of like we were having linked cross referenced discussions with footnotes of relevant ideas.  It really tests my memory to remember what I posted on.  Sometimes I need to look at the daily e-mail posting from the site to remember what I posted on.  :-)  And, my local friends read my stuff more than my wife does and will send he posts to her with their comments.  In fact, I think the readers of my blog have a better idea of where I am going next than my wife does.  Next week is North Carolina,  then 7x24 Boca, then GigaOm Structure in SF.

Thanks for visiting this blog.  And, I guess people do know me through what I post.

-Dave Ohara

5 Tips for Successful Recruiting from The Pachera Group

The Pachera Group has a good post on Secrets for Successful Recruiting.  Finding data center talent is really hard.  The Pachera Group doesn't recruit far data centers, but their points are well made.

1. deep understanding of business
2. tremendous tenacity
3. a thick skin
4. courage
5. passion for people and making connections

If you are looking for Technical staff for other parts of a business The Pachera Group is some one worth checking out.

Disclosure:  Vikki Pachera a Partner of The Pachera Group is a great friend who I have known for 30 years.  I helped get her a job at Apple and we worked side by side on many projects.  She has worked at IBM, Apple, and HP on product development so she knows what is like to live the jobs she recruits for.

A respected Silicon Valley executive and widely-known new media and technology expert, Vikki Pachera is deeply conversant with a sweeping array of skill sets and disciplines. They include enterprise-level management, business development, strategy, hardware and software product development, consumer products, marketing, and professional services.

Vikki served as Vice President of Strategic Alliances & Business Development at Hewlett-Packard, where she brokered new business and developed frameworks to help Warner Bros., Disney, Oracle, and other company’s transition to digital media. She also held several other VP-level positions, served as an executive within Apple’s consumer electronics division, and co-founded a start-up software as a service (SaaS) company. She began her career as an engineer at IBM’s storage product group.

Vikki has placed executives in consumer electronics, media & entertainment, IT, retail & fashion, and enterprise companies. She holds a BSME degree from Michigan State and an MBA from Santa Clara University. She is an avid animal lover, and enjoys international and exotic travel.

Do you tolerate cheating in your data center?

I was talking to a data center executive and he got in serious trouble once with his PR team because he wasn't willing to lie about his PUE.  Luckily he stuck to his morales,  eventually left the company and the PR person.  He is one of the respected in the industry meanwhile no one ever hears of the PR person who thought cheating on PUE was OK.  

The WSJ has an article that discusses cheating in children and advises to understand what is causing the child to cheat.

Other children start feeling pressured at this stage by busy sports and activity schedules that don't allow time to study, says Kenneth Shore, an East Windsor, N.J., author and psychologist. "Parents can get a little panicky" and compound the problem by orchestrating kids' science projects, dictating sentences or typing their kids' essays, he says. Not only does this send the message that presenting someone else's work as your own is OK, but it suggests that grades are more important than learning—an attitude linked in research to higher rates of cheating.

Besides lying to cheat the numbers, the other type of cheating is taking credit for other people's work.  This is used by those who are making it seem like the smartest in the class.

The lesson learned for the parent with 17, 20, 21 year old kids is a good one.

Looking back, Ms. Heffernan wishes she could correct one mistake—telling her sons that cheaters are always punished. "To say that kids who cheat will get caught and they will be punished—and they will not gain by cheating—isn't true anymore," she says. Insisting otherwise only leads kids to conclude, "Mom doesn't understand," she says. Her sons shot down that argument in elementary school, telling her they'd seen other students cheat without getting caught.

It worked better, she said, to tell her kids, "Cheating flies in the face of the values of our family and the rules of the school." She told them they'd be letting her down if they cheated, and she wouldn't defend them. "Not only will they be in trouble at school—they will be in hell at home."

The data center executive could have gotten away with cheating on PUE, most would not know and he would get a pat on back for supporting the company PR person.  But, he would be seen by the insiders as some on who cheats to look good, and someone who cannot be trusted to do the right thing and tell the truth.

Being obsessed by performance metrics and looking like you are the smartest in the class, can lead people to cheat.

Good data center operators have a low tolerance for cheating, because cheating leads to bad behaviors and sloppy work that can affect the performance and availability of the data center.  Wouldn't it be interesting if you see through a person's history how much they cheated when they were in school?  Did their parents instill good values. The one way to see this is to see how a person is with their kids.  Most likely if they took short cuts growing up they think it is OK that their kids do as well.

Ms. Avant explained to Kaci that cheating was wrong, said she was disappointed in her and met with her teacher and principal. She says she also spends more time now going over homework, lowering her voice and encouraging Kaci to "be more up front" when she doesn't understand something. Kaci has since been showing her mother all her papers, including answers she got wrong. The third-grader still gets mostly As, and she has learned that "cheating is bad," Kaci says in a phone interview. If she doesn't know a test answer, "I just do the best I can," she says.

For parents, stressing intrinsic goals, such as mastery, learning and doing one's best, can be tough. But research shows it is one of the best ways to prevent cheating.