The Blog of Burgher Jon

Had the following conversation over the weekend:

Kim: God bless blackberry moonshine

Me: Is that moonshine with a full keyboard and integration with my work email?

Kim: It’s moonshine that makes you forget about that work email and how to work that keyboard. And so smooth doing it.

As this post is going up on my website, I’ll be crossing the finish line of the Charlotte RaceFest Half Marathon.  It’s a good little tune-up for the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 2.  The full marathon (26.2 miles) will likely take me 5.5 hours but the winner will finish in about 2 hours; this in spite of the fact that I’ve been training for 6 months.   Granted that’s training while I work 60 hour weeks, travel and work on my MBA; but believe me I’ve spent a lot of time running and the winner will literally run more than twice as fast as me. 

Over the course of training for the marathon I’ve come to appreciate the simple fact that we as humans are not all built the same.  I just don’t have the legs, lungs, heart, etc… to run that far that fast.  This got me thinking, are human talents as widely spread in other disciplines?  Sure it’s easier to measure someone’s talent in a marathon then it is in say engineering or graphic design, but does the same talent gap exist?  Are there people that are more than twice as good at engineering as other engineers who have been “training” at it?

I’m going to assume that the same gap exists.  This leads me to my next set of questions, where the unsolicited advice comes in.  Are you doing something professionally that you can run in 2 hours?  If you can’t run your current job in 2 hours is it because you haven’t trained for it or because you don’t have the talent?  Is there something you can switch to that you can run in 2 hours?  Are you employing people who are running 6 hour marathons in spite of their cheerful manner and best efforts?  Are you properly rewarding your 2 hour runners?

I’m sitting at my mechanics’ shop without a laptop, so I thought I’d play with my phone a little. I haven’t had too much time to play over the last few months so I had 22 application updates waiting. After installing them, I’m ready to give out a little advice and hopefully take some in the comments.

First, applications I use everyday:

• Gmail. It looks beautiful on the Android. The seperation between the gmail app and my work email (including contacts and calanders keeps me sane).
• Foursquare. The latest foursquare application is fantastic. They finally show me a list of my last 20 or so checkins so I don’t have to dig to find a place I recently checked in to. I feel like I should have more friends on foursquare, I’m burgher jon there too. Add me.
• Local Search. Its amazing. Open up the browser, type what you want and see all your options. The browser is location aware so no need to play with maps.
• Facebook. Easy access to my feed. Including all of the mafia wars and farmville filters I’ve setup.
• Seesmic. The best twitter client I’ve found. Especially useful for navigation from my feed to a specific tweet to the person that made it to their follow list. That’s how I find most of the people I follow.
• Google Voice. This has transformed how I think of my phone. For more details see this old post.
• Astrid. The best todo list app out there.

The applications that save my ass in various situations:

• 10001 Cocktails. Lots of funat the bar, try the pick a random drink game.
• Google Maps. My car has built in GPS, but I still use this for traffic and construction updates.
• WordPress. Blogging everyday is tough, but easier with this app. This ability is currently saving me an hour of time tomorrow (this post won’t go up until then). My only gripe is that there isn’t a function for bullets (had to go in and add them once the post was on the computer).
• Skype. Essentially free calls from any wifi hot spot in europe!
• MLB At Bat. This is the only pay app I use. Its great for following a box score or listening to a game.
• PowerNap. Great for getting 15 mins at the airport without missing your flight.
• The Weather Channel. I don’t let weather dictate my life often, but when you have to, this is the best thing out there. Its a very clean app, with lots of features.

That’s my list. Anyone have anything I missed?

I just got back from the United Kingdom and I have this to say about their TV; it’s AWFUL.  The news isn’t bad, but the television itself is just horrible.  When low-budget cable TV networks don’t have anything better to do they show syndicated episodes of Simpsons, Seinfeld and Friends.  In the UK, that’s the only watchable programming.  The other night, during prime time, one of their main channels (equivalent to networks) was playing that John Claude Van Damme movie where he’s in a prison.  In PRIME TIME!  Even USA wouldn’t show that in Prime Time.

So you know what happened while I was in the UK?  I unplugged my TV and read/worked nearly all day.  It was fantastic.  I’ve rarely gotten as much done as I did in that week and a half (in spite of hour long underground commutes).  Which brings me to the question in the title.  Of exceptional TV and a lack of reading/working in the evening, which came first?  Who’s the chicken and who’s the egg?

I don’t have a clever answer, but if you do I’d love to see some guesses in the comments.

For a long time, arguably continuing to the present, there has been a distinction between “skilled” and “unskilled” labor.  Skilled labor was typically defined as requiring a higher education, while unskilled labor could typically be taught on-the-job in a relatively short period of time.  This division between skilled and unskilled, is becoming antiquated.  Knowledge is becoming a commodity.  A higher percentage of the US, not to mention the world, has received higher education.  So what will separate our children’s skilled class from their unskilled class?

In a word, “skills”.  The new skilled person will have to be able to do something that requires more then knowledge.  Actually, better stated, the new skilled person will have to find the thing that he/she can do uniquely well, without requiring an edge in learning.

Let me provide a couple examples:

• In the glory days of McKinnsey, a successful consultant was someone with an MBA who could supply you a ream of cookie cutter papers customized to your business.  Now, I can get MBAs to answer my questions on yahoo answers and I can read their reams of paper on wikipedia or in their blogs.  Failing those, I can hire an MBA for $12 per hour from India.  A successful consultant tomorrow will be one who can lead my organization to change, one who by her personal touch and problem solving skills can navigate and solve my problem.  If you’ve ever worked with consultants, you know the two different types I’m talking about (the latter is much rarer).
• It used to be a good lawyer was priceless because of the knowledge they possessed.  They had those books of case law memorized and knew how to get me out of any bind.  Tomorrow, when Google knows case law better then the most knowledgable lawyer, a “skilled” lawyer will be the one that can use the art of persuasion to convince a jury to move one way or the other.  If all I need to know is the rules I’ll ask Google, or an outsourcer trained in searching law books.

This all sounds quite depressing, doesn’t it?  It’s ABSOLUTELY not.  While what I just said is bad for the newly unskilled consultant or lawyer, it’s absolutely fantastic for me.  My startup can get access to the knowledge once reserved for the “old skilled” lawyers and consultants for virtually free!  Imagine what that allows me to do, I can focus on MY skills, with a significantly lower barrier to entry.  I can save all that money to hire a “new skilled”‘ executive to run my company better then any of the “old skilled” ones could have.

This will help the cream rise to the top, and that’s always good for a market economy.