I have been given hints to this the last few months, but I'm finally moving forward with a new blog and book project on goal setting and productivity. It seemed like I had a set of impossible requirements for this project and that's why it was floundering for so long. I have no money to put into it and no time to devote to it. Yet, I want a highly successful, highly ranked blog and a blockbuster book. Impossible? It may seem that way, but I found a way.
So, how did I find the time to write? I didn't. I hired a writer.
But didn't I just say I had no money? How can I afford a writer? I can't. He's agreed to work on commission.
Luckily, the guy I'm hiring has such confidence in my ability to monetize his writing, that he's willing to work without getting paid up front. Boy do I have my work cut-out for me to realize his expectations. But he's also going to skin me alive if the money does come in, so he judged it worth risking his time early for the payoff later. What's best, we both win. We both get richer by this arrangement, and both realize our goals.
Yes, I need to put time into organizing the management of the project and marketing of the blog and book. But depending how quickly we can start making money, I might be able to outsource some of that as well. But with my new house settled, my new job going well, and my family happy and healthy, it was time to get this project under way.
5.29.2012
The morality of gathering Facebook information
A recently story about HR reps requesting Facebook login credentials caused a bit of an uproar recently. There's a lot that can be said about this, but here are some of my thoughts, focusing on why HR representatives may be tempted to gain that knowledge and then addressing why it is immoral for them to do so by requesting the login credentials. I don't let the job candidates off the hook though, as I believer their sharing of the login credentials is also immoral. Well... here are my brief thoughts. What do you think?
Generally speaking, the more information we gather about a specific context, the more accurate our judgments in that context. And the more information we gather about the other individual, the better we can evaluate their trustworthiness. In business transactions, the establishment of trust is a major condition for trade. To trade, information must be shared by both parties to establish trust. In terms of privacy, this means that some personal information may have to be shared to establish a trusting relationship with our trading partners. This is obviously context specific, as not all personal information is relevant. Depending on the type of trade, however, different amounts of information may be required. A security firm, for example, may want to much more detailed knowledge of their job candidates to ensure those potential employees do not violate the high levels of trust required for the job. That's why some background checks require interviews of a job candidate's family and friends. So I can make a case that under certain circumstances, a business may want to know how a person behaves on Facebook. How they obtain that information however is another matter.
This sharing of information is often context specific. People share information differently, sharing differing types of information and with differing expectations for confidentiality. Unless it is established prior to the sharing of information, it is impossible to know what information others deem confidential. On Facebook, it is impossible to know what posts by what people were shared with the expectation that ONLY their friends would see it. If you indiscriminately share those posts with others, you may be violating a confidential communication. Letting someone have your login credentials is unjust because you are gaining an unearned friendship. You are not keeping potentially confidential communications private. The HR rep is putting job candidates in an unjust position by asking for those login credentials. They are directly challenging the integrity of the job candidate.
Generally speaking, the more information we gather about a specific context, the more accurate our judgments in that context. And the more information we gather about the other individual, the better we can evaluate their trustworthiness. In business transactions, the establishment of trust is a major condition for trade. To trade, information must be shared by both parties to establish trust. In terms of privacy, this means that some personal information may have to be shared to establish a trusting relationship with our trading partners. This is obviously context specific, as not all personal information is relevant. Depending on the type of trade, however, different amounts of information may be required. A security firm, for example, may want to much more detailed knowledge of their job candidates to ensure those potential employees do not violate the high levels of trust required for the job. That's why some background checks require interviews of a job candidate's family and friends. So I can make a case that under certain circumstances, a business may want to know how a person behaves on Facebook. How they obtain that information however is another matter.
This sharing of information is often context specific. People share information differently, sharing differing types of information and with differing expectations for confidentiality. Unless it is established prior to the sharing of information, it is impossible to know what information others deem confidential. On Facebook, it is impossible to know what posts by what people were shared with the expectation that ONLY their friends would see it. If you indiscriminately share those posts with others, you may be violating a confidential communication. Letting someone have your login credentials is unjust because you are gaining an unearned friendship. You are not keeping potentially confidential communications private. The HR rep is putting job candidates in an unjust position by asking for those login credentials. They are directly challenging the integrity of the job candidate.
5.24.2012
3 Keys to Picking a Career
All things being equal most of us want more money. All things being equal most of us want a career that brings immense personal satisfaction. What if those two things do not align? What if the career that you would love to pursue makes it extremely difficult to make money. Some common examples come to mind - teachers, artists, philosophers, and musicians. They all can be fulfilling careers, if only they would pay more. That's not to say that some of those jobs don't pay a lot in some instances, but for the majority of people who attempt them, the pay is miniscule. What can be done about that? What if you're one of the 50% of Americans that hate their jobs?
Read the rest of this post on Reason for Success.
Read the rest of this post on Reason for Success.
5.10.2012
Google Translate for Blogger
A new feature on Blogger, Google Translate your blog into any language. Cool feature. But for me, this is too little, too late. After learning all the capabilities that WordPress can offer, I will be switching platforms this summer - or at the very least creating a new WordPress site and primarily posting there. More news will be forthcoming.
5.05.2012
5 year goals update
Time to revisit my 5 year goals. Lately, there have been two major interconnecting questions consuming my plans for the future - 1) How should I focus my career? and 2) How to establish my financial security?
As I have mentioned several times before, I have been contemplating how to focus my career for the past year. I have now come to a clear direction - developing myself into web technology guru helping others make good decisions with web technologies. I'm not interested in being a specialist, like Facebook app guy or a eBay store expert. Instead, I want to be knowledgeable enough across the e-commerce domain to be an effective consultant, researcher, and educator in utilizing web technologies strategically to improve business processes. This is significantly different than my research agenda just 2 years ago, which included significant research in ethics. While I'm still interested in ethics and will still does some research in that area, the switch to e-commerce aligns my research with my teaching and with my financial goals.
In the financial realm, I want to develop a system for wealth generation that is more recession proof and less dependent on stock fluctuations. I am still worried about the economic condition of our country and where we might be 20-30 years from now. There is also a large unknown as to how the university system might change in the coming years. To address those concerns, I need to develop a system for wealth generation that can both build wealth rapidly and withstand economic upheaval, should it occur.
SMART 5 year goals:
The trick will be to devote enough time in my evenings and weekends to get the web businesses up and running. To get there, I plan on using what I learn from 100grandbrand.com, internetbusinessmastery.com, smartpassiveincome.com, and whatever other resources I discover along the way. In the process, I'll be developing knowledge to help with my classroom instruction and research. The training modules are part of my e-commerce class I teach at ECU, so the time spent on those classes are part of my normal job responsibilities. If they are successful, I might push myself to develop more modules above and beyond what's necessary for class. Those modules could then be encapsulated into package deals to sell for aspiring small business owners and/or web developers. In the real estate investments, I currently own a house in Michigan that I'm renting. I also have experience with owning a duplex. I plan to capitalize on that knowledge and expand my investments. If I spend time setting things up right and only investing in high ROI items, I should be able to make descent returns with minimal effort.
And then there are my nice to get to goals, but not high priorities:
As I have mentioned several times before, I have been contemplating how to focus my career for the past year. I have now come to a clear direction - developing myself into web technology guru helping others make good decisions with web technologies. I'm not interested in being a specialist, like Facebook app guy or a eBay store expert. Instead, I want to be knowledgeable enough across the e-commerce domain to be an effective consultant, researcher, and educator in utilizing web technologies strategically to improve business processes. This is significantly different than my research agenda just 2 years ago, which included significant research in ethics. While I'm still interested in ethics and will still does some research in that area, the switch to e-commerce aligns my research with my teaching and with my financial goals.
In the financial realm, I want to develop a system for wealth generation that is more recession proof and less dependent on stock fluctuations. I am still worried about the economic condition of our country and where we might be 20-30 years from now. There is also a large unknown as to how the university system might change in the coming years. To address those concerns, I need to develop a system for wealth generation that can both build wealth rapidly and withstand economic upheaval, should it occur.
SMART 5 year goals:
- Research and publish at least 10 articles in e-commerce. 2 were done this year, so only 8 more to go.
- Get promoted to Associate Professor. The research above will help with the above goal. It will also help establish myself as an expert for my later initiatives, listed below.
- Establish and promote several web based businesses generating at least $20k a year passive income.
- Develop and market high quality training modules in e-commerce for my classes and to publish on YouTube. I start my first round of recordings this summer.
- Establish and promote a consulting/education business using the above training modules for marketing and earning at least $36k a year.
- Establish a real estate investment business to invest earnings from other businesses.
- Double household income - from the above initiatives and my wife returning to work.
- Support and encourage my family with their goals.
The trick will be to devote enough time in my evenings and weekends to get the web businesses up and running. To get there, I plan on using what I learn from 100grandbrand.com, internetbusinessmastery.com, smartpassiveincome.com, and whatever other resources I discover along the way. In the process, I'll be developing knowledge to help with my classroom instruction and research. The training modules are part of my e-commerce class I teach at ECU, so the time spent on those classes are part of my normal job responsibilities. If they are successful, I might push myself to develop more modules above and beyond what's necessary for class. Those modules could then be encapsulated into package deals to sell for aspiring small business owners and/or web developers. In the real estate investments, I currently own a house in Michigan that I'm renting. I also have experience with owning a duplex. I plan to capitalize on that knowledge and expand my investments. If I spend time setting things up right and only investing in high ROI items, I should be able to make descent returns with minimal effort.
And then there are my nice to get to goals, but not high priorities:
- Write a book on productivity and goals
- Write a autobiography on one of my major life decisions (Not saying what it is yet :)
- Write a textbook or two
- Publish an article in a top journal in my field
I have an endless supply of ideas and not nearly enough time to do them. It's a great feeling.
5.02.2012
How Does Google Search Work?
Google returns searches in a half a second. How do they do it?
What can a web developer do about it?
First - Before you write a page, think about what search terms people might type to get to your page. Make sure that those terms appear in your title, keywords, text, alt image property, etc.
Second - Don't include every search term under the sun because the major search engines look on this negatively.
Third - Promote your web page in hopes others will link to it.
What can a web developer do about it?
First - Before you write a page, think about what search terms people might type to get to your page. Make sure that those terms appear in your title, keywords, text, alt image property, etc.
Second - Don't include every search term under the sun because the major search engines look on this negatively.
Third - Promote your web page in hopes others will link to it.
4.27.2012
3 down - 2 to go
In this my 300th post, I'm going to do a little happy dance. I just received news that a 3rd article of mine this year was accepted for publication. Only two more to go to reach my 2012 goal. With two additional articles already under review, two articles over 75% complete, and several new projects in the works, I feel like a research rock star.
What's even better, I am getting to the point where I can read my own research and objectively evaluate its quality. It's a great feeling to be able to critically evaluate it, identify problem areas, and know how to fix those problem areas. Pretty soon, I might actually be good at writing.
This summer my time will be split between up to 3 research projects. That's not counting any time I may throw at a revise and resubmit should one arise. Today, I'm working on Evaluating Information Systems Ethically: A Case for Objectivism." My goal is to finish and submit this article by the end of May. My social media project is also a top priority for me. Although, we're in a holding pattern waiting to hear back from a potential sponsor. Depending on how these two projects go, I have a third project in ethical decision making I can work on as well.
What's even better, I am getting to the point where I can read my own research and objectively evaluate its quality. It's a great feeling to be able to critically evaluate it, identify problem areas, and know how to fix those problem areas. Pretty soon, I might actually be good at writing.
This summer my time will be split between up to 3 research projects. That's not counting any time I may throw at a revise and resubmit should one arise. Today, I'm working on Evaluating Information Systems Ethically: A Case for Objectivism." My goal is to finish and submit this article by the end of May. My social media project is also a top priority for me. Although, we're in a holding pattern waiting to hear back from a potential sponsor. Depending on how these two projects go, I have a third project in ethical decision making I can work on as well.
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