Y. Karp? Why Not!

Are you on the same side as your employer or employee? Read my latest blog post on LinkedIn . See what I'm up to www.ykarp.com Yossi's Magazine: Everyone Needs One of These www.ykarp.com/magazine Follow on Twitter: @ykarp Subscribe to Y. Karp? Why Not! or follow on Facebook Add this blog to your RSS feed reader

What Star Trek: The Next Generation gets right about work/life balance. Published on LinkedIn Yossi's Magazine: Everyone Needs One of These  www.ykarp.com/magazine Follow on Twitter:  @ykarp Subscribe to Y. Karp? Why Not! Add this blog to your  RSS  feed reader

We've all worked for free at some point. Why do we do it? Should we do it? Why do we work unpaid overtime hours and feel good about it? Thanks to our sponsor: Dr. Reuven Rosenberg of The Integrative Health Center www.drrosenberg.net Israel: 058-432-5849 US: (516) 321 1155 UK: 44 203 734 8291 Skype: dr.rosenberg info@DrRosenberg.net facebook: @drrosenbergihc Some reference material mentioned in this podcast episode: 4 Reasons You Should Work for Free - Amy Morin The Economic Man Click here to listen on Stitcher:  http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=152797&refid=stpr Click here to listen on iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/il/podcast/y-karp-why-not/id1291793305 Click here to listen on TuneIn:  https://tunein.com/radio/Y-Karp-Why-Not-p1038454/ Or play the episode directly from here: Yossi's Magazine: Everyone Needs One of These www.ykarp.com/magazine Follow on Twitter: @ykarp Follow on Google+: +Yossi Karp Subscribe...

There are many different types of personalities in the workplace - heroes and villains, alike. I'll let you decide which one is which. The Flash This person gets their work done very quickly. Once the task landed on their desk, the turn-around time to completion is lightning fast - and The Flash is ever-proud that the work is always delivered before the deadline. That's not to say that the quality of the work is always good. Attention to detail is usually the main casualty, as is consistency. But the sooner the task gets checked off the list, the better. The Enforcer The Enforcer knows every single company policy, by-law, and industry standard. If a colleague tries to bend the rules, The Enforcer is there to make sure that the law is obeyed. Dotted "i"s and crossed "t"s are more important than meeting deadlines. Sometimes innovation, flexibility, and timeliness are sacrificed, but to The Enforcer, doing it right takes precedence over all. Superman T...

I love Aussie slang. It can be colorful and evocative, and it reminds me of where I grew up. We once had a handyman who inserted "strewth" and "bloody oath" into every sentence. I betcha he went down the pub to shout his mates, or invite them back to watch the footy and rip into a six-pack. A rudimentary Google search will find any number of web sites listing Aussie slang. On most of those sites you'll find multitudes of Aussie phrases inappropriate for the workplace. I'll refrain from mentioning any here. However, there are some seemingly innocuous Aussie phrases that you should avoid using because they can erode your colleagues' confidence in your abilities. No worries A favorite phrase of mine, "no worries" is ingrained deep into my DNA. When talking with other Australians, I'll add "mate" to the end. The problem with "no worries" at work is that, by using the word "worries" you suggest that there c...

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines - the one true motivator to get work done. The problem with deadlines is that even if the promised delivery date falls within the deadline, the Requestor still sweats until the job is done by the person actually doing the work. This leads to the inevitable visits to the worker's office for constant (and unnecessary) progress updates. Last week I was asked to edit a PowerPoint presentation. The requested deadline was "by the end of the week". I agreed to the deadline, but I had a full schedule, so I only planned to deliver it by lunch on Thursday (the last day of my work-week). I knew it was a one or two-hour task, so I wasn't worried about delivering it on time. I suffered through the constant visits and reminders from the Requestor, but I stood my ground and stuck to my schedule – after all, he wasn't the only one to whom I had promised work. I am reading a fascinating book by Nir Eyal called "Hooked" , about how comp...

The purpose of every HR department is to practice the HR policies set by the company. HR reps aren't there to represent the employee - unless, of course, the company policies and the needs of an employee happen to coincide (sexual harassment issues, for example). This may seem to be a sweepingly broad statement, but it is the reality of corporate life. If you haven't already experienced HR's two-sidedness then you probably haven't been paying attention. The benefits, fun and good feelings that the HR department is responsible for are merely part of a wider aim to smokescreen employees from the true company goals. For instance, the purpose of company fun days, parties, food and birthday gifts is to lull you into a sense of loyalty, community and belonging so you won't leave. Call me a cynic, if you like. I prefer the word "realist". And, yes, I have been burned by HR before, but that was back in the day when I naively thought that HR's job is to hel...

Video Games are Good for Kids I love a good video game. There is a certain satisfaction when you blast the aliens out of the sky, build a profitable transportation system from scratch, or clear three snooker tables in under two minutes. But all these games are just time-wasters - or are they? Back in seventh grade, when we started using Apple II computers at school, we learned how to make the Logo turtle move around the screen by entering certain commands. What was the point of teaching us Logo? Was it simply a distraction from regular classwork? The answer lies within an article entitled, "LOGO, the Cry of the Turtle is Heard in the Land" by Ian Gronowski, reprinted from a 1984 edition of the Australian Apple Review, here . The reason, Gronowski says, for teaching Logo to kids is that: "Logo provides the learning environment, the context with which the child learns how to reason." In other words, devising the most efficient command to instruct the Logo turtl...

It has been quite some time since my last blog post, mostly due to other extra-curricular projects I have going at the moment. It is difficult to find time to write blog posts when family commitments, work, writing a novel for pre-teens, practicing my Akai EWI and resuming an exercise routine I had laid fallow for about half a year, all seem to get in the way. Here's an interesting link to a website that describes how 25 famous people, such as Stephen King, Charles Darwin and Winston Churchill scheduled their day. The thing that strikes me about most of the daily routines described is that these people behaved as if the world revolved around them. Most of them even had a scheduled socializing hour - those friends who could not abide by it be damned! I find that one of the most important skills in my job as a Technical Writer is to manage my time properly. On any given day I could find myself working on anything from proofing 300 page hardware specifications through to creatin...

I was looking around at the electronic devices we use everyday. None of them are single-function, for example: My mobile phone is also my camera, diary, MP3 player, GPS device and multimedia device My camera is also a YouTube uploader, GPS tracker and a photo-editing device My desk phone at work is also an address book My MP3 player is also a radio and a storage device My e-book reader also surfs the web Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that HTC has developed a number of smart phones with Facebook deeply embedded into the interface and that there are dozens more planned for release in the near future. I recall the good old days when a phone was used to make phone calls. Now, every device we have needs to be able to do more than one thing. In fact, one of the hallmarks of a modern smart-phone is that it is "multitasking" - that it has the ability to run two or more applications simultaneously with the ability to switch between them. Older smart-phone operating syste...

I recently changed my computer's wallpaper. It used to be a picture of stars forming , photographed by the Hubble telescope. The desktop is now a deep black, with an imposing picture of Batman set off to the right. Not the camp Adam West Batman from the 1960s, but a serious Batman who is on a dangerous mission to protect Gotham city from deranged villains. Aside: See my November 2007 blog post called " Not Everyone Can Be a Superhero ". I see this picture several times every day the thought crossed my mind that we, as Technical Writers, have what to learn from Batman. I'm not saying that the Caped Crusader is a perfect metaphor, but he does have what to teach us. Batman is Focused Whenever Batman is on a mission, he knows what his goal is and he goes after it. However, Batman does have an overview of the larger picture. Taking down a villain often has an effect on the rest of the city, the political landscape or for him, personally. So Batman is accutely aware ...

[ NOTE : This blog post replaces a previous one by the same name that was mistakenly uploaded before it was ready.] Technical experts and engineers invariably reach a point in their careers where they have to decide whether to remain in a technical role or to move into a managerial position. For some, the decision is very easy. They may have absolutely no ambition to be the boss; they may recognize that their personalities are not suited to managing people or projects; or they might simply love the technical nature of their job, which they don't want to give up. Alternatively, the thought of a management position may be an attractive one. Perhaps they will finally have the power to make decisions, affect change and manage projects the way they see fit. After years of slogging it out as a programmer, they can finally move into a role where they don't necessarily have to learn every new popular programming language; a cursory understanding will suffice. Also...