Beowulf, 1k Years of...

I've been busy orchestrating test plans, feedback and all the other important little details of early customer testing for Tonian. There has been little room for mental exercise, but I did get out a little.

I squeezed in the wonderfully irreverent Beowulf at ART: "A Thousand Years of Baggage"  In word, song and pantomime the Banana Bag & Bodice company walked the audience through the epic poem that we know and (probably do not) love. Beowulf's baggage is historical, critical and contemporary. The studying of Beowulf is unavoidable in American High Schools and a rite of passage for the English Major.  

There are no surprises in the fight scenes. The audience is even pre-conditioned by English teachers to see patriarchal and matriarchal motifs. Yes, Grendel is killed. The male bloodline continues into old age - until a dragon (hubris) does him in. What can you do when everyone in the audience knows the story?

First, be creative. We didn't come for the story. We came for the experience. Banana Bag & Bodice's performance started in the audience with music.

Second, get your audience involved. In 1k Years, the lecturers on stage who introduce the poem were clearly caricatures of our English professors - including one who quoted comments on a blog as if it were a fine critical source.

Third, focus on what you want me to hear. Where Beowulf the poem is repetitive, Beowulf the musical moves through quickly. 1k Years spent more time riffing on "Themes" than is did on old English.  

Finally, keep up the pace. I know what is coming next, don't waste time setting it up for me.

These same lessons are true if you selling technology. Our audiences are know so much that we need to approach the subject fully aware of their knowledge and why our approach is creative, empowering, focused and engaging.

Traditions...

My father, my daughter & I skied today.  I've been skiing with my Dad for about 42 years. This year, he has some trouble getting his ski boots on & off, but no trouble smiling, skiing and chatting on the lift. 

Cherish these moments!

Other Nuerons

I spend a lot of time with a keyboard. Most of my time is spent on the ephemeral form of email. Most of the hard work is in the longer form of white paper, data sheet and sales kit.

Today, I did something I've never done before. I wrote a 100 word story - and I used dialogue. I've never written anything with dialogue before. Because I knew it had to be short and precise, I tried something new. It was wonderful to do. I even like the result.

Innovation within constraints is both creative and problem solving. It fires different neurons.

Pick a narrowly defined project and do it differently.   

10 minutes a day

I was given a good harmonica for my last birthday. I have no idea why Traci decided that's what I needed, but that's what I have - and it is good.

Eventually, I grew tired of it staring at me across the desk. Inside the box is a lesson plan with simple instructions. Perhaps the most important one is this: "practice 10 minutes every day."

10 minutes may feel long to my family, but I can now play a tune.

Just 10 minutes a day...

More than reducing dissatisfaction

I am re-starting this blog for what I think is the 4th time.

I started this blog to live blog industry events. Now, I tweet them.

 I continued this blog to keep myself 'out there' as I transitioned. Now, I contribute to several others.[1]

I'm working for a start-up that is going very well, which means busy as all hell. I am still squeezing in time with family, friends and a semi-regular work out. I have friends posts of FB. Professional commentary on Linke-In. Short conversations on Twitter. And a handful of close friends with whom a SMS regularly. Why the hell would I type here when I should be finishing a white paper?

I need something that isn't work. Something that isn't driven by the kids, the meetings, or the calendar. This blog will provide me a few minutes of (semi) public space to record my thoughts.

So what made me log on? My January knocked my out a comfortable state of denial.

Clayton Christenson put it very well, "we work to reduce our level of dissatisfaction" I _like_ my work, my company, my colleagues, but I _love_ my family, my friends and my experiences. So, this blog is now going to be about experiences.

 This morning, I spent 30 minutes reading poetry, mostly ee cummings, and I feel better prepared for the day. I recommend you do the same. Seek out his love poems and read them aloud - even better read them to someone. Maybe they will read one back to you.

 [1] http://Open-pnfs.org http://sniaesfblog.org http://ww.tonian.com (and probably a few I missed)

Marketing Stealth

I have a lot of responsibilities at our little, stealthy company called Tonian. I am responsible for products, marketing and assisting on business development/technology meetings. It is the kind of project I like best - wide ranging with huge potential. The hard part is finding enough time to do the important, but not time critical things. Highest on that list is general marketing. I've launched out a Tonian Blog and we're working on building out a set of resources and positioning around our leadership in pNFS, but I am lucky to spend 1 day a week on it. We don't have a product to sell (yet), but we know what we want to stand for. We are going to define what Software Defined Storage really should mean. And it isn't the Storage Hypervisor. This isn't a trivial task and it will take time. So here I sit in Ben Gurion Airport for the 3rd time in 4 months. No customers here. I owe engineering a note on a feature. The board presentation for next week is in my CEO's hands. Time to think about marketing in stealth mode as I cross the Atlantic.

From little bits to big bits

An update from my world. I left the publicly traded mid-sized company to jump back into the small pond. I'm still thinking about data. Not the little bits that need to be correctly ordered and available in CPUS, but the bigger data that needs to be available in milliseconds over the network. I'm on the road more, but enjoying the adventure at Tonian. Blogs to come will include musing on Open Compute/Storage, the development of big "S" Standards, how virtualization changes the organization and the conflicts of being a company in stealth mode. Stay tuned...