Telecosm - Ike Elliott

Self Esteem is Overrated

I've been reading this book called When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, by John Ortberg, and ran across some funny statistics:

"In one survey, 800,000 high school students were asked whether they were above or below average in social skills....Want to guess what percentage of students rated themselves below average? Zero Percent!  Furthermore, 25 percent of all students rated themselve in the top 1 percent!"

And then there are these gems:

• "88% of college professors rated themselves above average.  25% rated themselves as truly exceptional."
• "Another survey of two hundred sociologists found that half believed they would become one of the top ten sociologists in the world."

It makes me wonder about all those theories about the supposed self-esteem deficit in the nation's schools.  The theory goes like this: "If our kids just felt better about themselves, they would have the confidence to try more things, and try harder."  So, teachers are encouraged to lavish praise on students.

Some managers take this approach with their employees, too.  I have a problem with that.  Heaping more praise on students or employees that aren't really making the grade just exacerbates our built-in tendency for self-deception.  As Mr. Ortberg's stats say, most of us already vastly overestimate ourselves.  I suspect I do.

In business, taking this "everyone is above average" approach is a sure recipe for underperformance. 

Don't get me wrong...I love the idea of taking a positive, encouraging approach with employees, and I am all for good coaching.  The key, though, is to set clear standards for performance.  Then, you have to be consistent about applying that yardstick. 

Or, we could take the Scott Adams/Dilbert approach and go on living without a clue.    

Tornado Demolishes Windsor, CO

A huge tornado ripped through Windsor, Colorado, just before lunch yesterday, destroying much of the town of 19,000.  Miraculously, only one person was killed, a camper at a former missile silo now turned into a campground, just to the southeast of town. 

Windsor is about 50 miles north of where I live, in Broomfield.  I'm an assistant scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 767, and we camped at the missile silo campground about 8 months ago.  The troop got to know Peter Ambrose, the caretaker of the campground, and his collie, K.C.  Ambrose survived the twister while holed up in a cinderblock restroom, but the dog ran out into the storm and was so severely injured that he had to be euthanized after the storm.  Ambrose's mobile home was swept away.

Troop 767 is going to try to raise some money to help Peter Ambrose and his wife, Sharon, get back on their feet.   If you would like to help, please let me know at ike@practiq.com, and I'll connect you with the Troop's treasurer.  We might also put together a work team to go up to Windsor to help, once we know more about the best way to help out, so please let me know if you're interested in helping out with that, too.

Thanks, Telecosm Readers: We've Hit A New Milestone!

I want to say a big thank-you to all of the many Telecosm readers on a big occasion.  The blog has now hit a high water mark of 301 Feedburner subscribers!  Not bad for a blog that started only last October, and of course, it is the readers that make it possible.  Thanks for reading and commenting both on the blog and offline.  It is gratifying to know that people are enjoying it as much as I am.

Thanks,

Ike

Spring Break Vacation Photos

Pop quiz:  Where was this photo taken?

I know it looks like Arizona, but if you guessed the Grand Canyon, you would be wrong.  This photo was taken last week in Waimea Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific", on Kauai.  My family visited this beautiful and varied little island over spring break, and what a trip!  It was my first time to Hawaii...now I know what all the fuss is about.

We went to Kauai on the advice of friends, and it was great advice.  What an incredible place!  From superb hikes through deep canyons, to great snorkeling, to whale-watching on the north shore, it was a dream. 

Rather than bludgeon you with all the pictures here, I've put them up on Windows Live Spaces, so if you are interested in seeing some cool shots of Kauai, you can view them here.  Enjoy!

PS - Yes, the vacation explains why there were several non-technical posts from my Uncle Fred and my late Grandfather this week. Thanks Uncle Fred, for filling in!  The vacation also explains why I didn't respond to some comments in as timely a manner as I usually try to achieve.  What can I say?  We all need a break now and then!

Thank You, Telecosm Readers

The Telecosm blog hit another milestone this week, exceeding 200 subscribers for the first time, after about 3 months in operation.

 

Thank you for reading and commenting on the Telecosm blog!

Ike

Eight Things You Didn't Know About Me

Thomas Howe pinged me in a post last week, asking me to divulge 8 things you may not know about me...so I'll continue the meme.  Here goes:

1. I was a music major for my first year in college, and had once hoped to go pro as a singer of classical music.  At 19, I got wise to the fact that tenor voices don't mature til their mid-30's and even assuming I was good enough to make it by then, I'd have to make a living doing something in the meantime, so I switched majors to computer science and discovered I liked it.  A lot.
2. I got married fairly young, at 23, to my high school sweetheart, and we are happily married with two teenage sons.  Kim is a 2nd grade teacher.
3. I was born in Ohio, but growing up I was a Navy brat, moving around from port city to port city every two years or so before the family finally settled down in Northern Virginia for the final few years of my childhood. Kind of made it hard to make life-long friends as a kid!
4. My cousin, Colin Kelley, is CTO of CallWave.  He is one year younger than I am, and we used to visit his family over Thanksgiving for many years, up in Philadelphia.  One of the many reasons I used to love to visit him was because he had a TRS-80 computer, and we used to spend the entire weekend programming the thing to do interesting graphics displays and games.  The "disk drive" was a standard audio tape player.  That's when I first got hooked on computers, I think.  Colin was a super-smart guy so I always admired him.  He studied VLSI chip design at Villanova, but ended up in telecom just like me.  Strange world.
5. I help run a non-profit called Global Hope that provides homes and care for abandoned and orphaned children.  We currently have three children's homes in Romania and are considering expanding to Kenya.  I've been to Romania four times for short trips to visit the kids.  It is a blast watching them grow up and seeing the difference the organization is making, one life at a time.
6. I learned a little guitar in college and in recent years have picked it back up and now play in my church band.  I started writing some songs a couple years ago, and a small record label thinks they are pretty good and the band is rehearsing to go into the studio and record a few of them.  I'm just enthralled by the experience and am having a great time learning about the process.
7. Staying physically fit is important to me, so I try to exercise five days a week.  My latest regimen includes running, yoga, and weight-lifting.  I change it up every now and then to keep it fresh. 
8. I got really burned out on going to technology conferences back when I was at Level 3, and I have managed to avoid going to any conferences for almost five years.  I think the streak will probably end this year, though.  There are too many people I want to see again, and conferences are often the most convenient places to meet.

Thanks, Thomas, for pinging me.   I'll ping Tim Lee, Mitchell Ashley, Brough Turner, and Moshe Maeir next.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Wow, do I have a lot to be thankful for!  It is Thanksgiving day here in the US, and I have a roof over my head in a warm home, family by my side, plenty of food in the house, great friends, 145 great subscribers to this young blog...the list goes on and on. 

A friend of mine who is building a very successful VoIP service provider tells me the most important characteristic he looks for when hiring people is "Do they have an attitude of gratitude, or a sense of entitlement?"  I think most folks would agree that they like to be around grateful people.

That's part of why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, a full day set aside to be thankful, to cook and eat great food, to be with family and friends.  And, as a reminder to myself that I have been blessed, I try to remember that there are many people around the world and in our communities who are far less fortunate, and I try to share my good fortune with them. 

Most countries don't have a Thanksgiving holiday, so I often ask my American friends who live in foreign countries what they do on Thanksgiving.  They generally celebrate as best they can (they can't always get the same kinds of food), and try to share the celebration with the people around them.  That feels right to me...we can do a lot to spread the attitude of gratitude to everyone we come into contact with by keeping perspective and making sure we remain grateful ourselves, and by sharing.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Ike Elliott

Thank You, Telecosm Readers

I want to thank all of the folks who are reading this blog on a regular basis.  The Telecosm blog is less than three full weeks old, and we already hit a peak of 100 subscribers this week.  Thanks for visiting, reading, and commenting at the Telecosm!
Ike

Another Good Week in the Telecosm

I'm having more fun with this blogging experiment every day, and it looks like the readers and commenters on this blog feel the same way.  We finished the week peaking at 58 subscribers according to feedburner, and are usually getting 200 hits a day.  Thanks for checking out this blog!

Lots of New Subscribers and Readers

Wow!  We've had a ton of new readers over the past three days, and a lot of new RSS subscriptions.   We had over 700 hits on Friday and Saturday, and feedburner says there are now 33 RSS subscriptions...much more than I expected for a blog that is just a little over a week old.  Thanks for coming, welcome, and I will do my best to earn the attention you have given to this page.

For all of the newcomers, an overview is probably in order: I plan to post daily, except when I am on vacation or holiday.  Posts will mostly be in the web/tech category, but I will share other things from time to time. 

I hope all of you feel comfortable sharing your comments here...the community will benefit from your thoughts.

Welcome aboard!