Mental Echo

Archive for June 2008

Thomas Edison and Me

Created: June 28, 2008

So what do I have in common with Thomas Edison? Apparently we are both inventors. While thumbing through some junk mail the other day, I found a letter from the patent and trademark office letting me know that I am now an inventor on patent number 7384380. The patent is for a "Method and System for Detecting and Displaying the Impact of a Blow"and basically boils down to a three part system of embedding sensors in boxing gloves that measure the force of a punch, transmitting the measurements to a computer, and then displaying them.

Now, I hope you note the sarcasm in comparing myself to Edison and even to calling myself an inventor. I don't think the work I did on the system warrants me being called an inventor. The work the others did was truly inventive, but I don't really feel the same way about my contributions. That being said, it is still kind of cool to be named on the patent, and I really do like the work I did and the prospect of that work one day being on ESPN or any of the other big networks is awesome.

I think a more important point to make here is how caught off guard I was with getting the letter saying the patent was issued. Why was I caught off guard? Well, mostly because it has been five and a half years since the patent was submitted. How can it take that long to get a patent issued? It is ridiculous that any process would take that long. I am on my second job since then. I have moved twice. I completely forgot that I was even waiting for the patent to be approved. I don't understand how they could have that much of a backlog and how they couldn't fix the obvious problems with the system.

I hope something can get done to fix the patent system. In the meantime, I will bask in the glory of my new status as inventor extraordinaire (again, please note heavy sarcasm).

Categories: General

Onwards and Upwards

Created: June 13, 2008

Today was my last day of work at my current employer. I have been there for almost three years and it was pretty hard to leave. I am really excited about my new job, which I start on Monday, and look forward to the new opportunities I will hopefully encounter.

In a way, I kind of feel like I am letting people down by leaving, but it was definitely time for me to on. The people at my current employer are great. I am going to miss the entire development team, from the more seasoned developers that I have worked with from day 1, to the newer guys that I like to think I was able to mentor a little bit. I think we all learned a lot from each other, and I hope to one day work with them again.

Around the time I started looking for a new job, I picked up The Dip by Seth Godin. I am a little torn over how I feel about this book. On one hand, there are a lot of good points about making decisions about when to quit something and when to stick it out. But on the other hand, I kind of feel like it is irresponsible. Don't get me wrong, Godin constantly provides a disclaimer that you should only quit for a good reason, but I can see how this book could possibly push someone over the edge prematurely. In my experience, people tend to extract only the information they want to hear from a book/speach/article/etc. I can easily see how someone could gloss over Godin's counterpoints and just hear "Quit Now, Quit Now, Quit Now."

I personally don't think quitting should ever be an easy decision. When I look back at what I gained from my current employer, I realize that I wouldn't be anywhere close to where I am today if I hadn't worked there. The stack of technologies that I consider myself fairly proficient with has doubled or tripled in size from my first job to this last job. Even more importantly than that, I think I have matured a lot with my soft skills and a lot of that has to do with the quality of the team I worked with. Looking back at all of that, plus the relationships I made over the last couple of years, and it is no wonder that it was so hard to leave and say goodbye today.

In the interest of wrapping this up in a logical conclusion, I think if you decide to read The Dip, make sure you read all the words, and make sure you think long and hard about whatever decision you make. I am excited for the future and a little melancholy about what I am leaving behind. I am actually really glad I feel this way. It means that the last 3 years meant something to me. And that is pretty important

Tags: Books
Categories: Books, General

Mental Echo

Archive for June 2008

Thomas Edison and Me

Onwards and Upwards

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