News Alert: MassTLC merges MassNetComms into the fold - Mass High Tech Business News

News Alert: MassTLC merges MassNetComms into the fold - Mass High Tech Business News





The MassTLC name and current president Tom Hopcroft remain, MassNetComms' Mark Horan taking on a senior vice president role in the new organization.

Software firms enabling work-from-home jobs - Mass High Tech Business News

Galen Moore reports on Massachusetts startup firms using work-at-home for cost savings to IBM at-home employees working across multiple timezones. There is an interesting contrast between Sonian, which rents space when it needs an office, and MathWorks, which believes "success is 80% showing up."

Work-at-home is called into question when Agile methods are being used in software development, placing high value on face-to-face interactions. I highly value face-to-face interactions and have often benefited from hallway conversations. On the other hand, my development team is located in four distinct locations located across three separate states. We use email, the phone including audio bridging, and occasionally conference room-based video conference to keep in touch between face-to-face meetings. Some will throw IM, personal video conferencing, collaboration portals like SharePoint, and perhaps tools like Twitter into the mix in order to keep in touch. Even a face-to-face interactions kind of person sometimes just has to make do.

Q: Do you prefer the chance hallway encounter, or staying focused in the home office?

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Mastery, Just 10,000 Hours Away (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell)

At the spurring of some of my business colleagues, I recently read Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Marc S. pointed to the headlined article on WSJ which keyed in on one of the most intriguing concepts illustrated, that of the statistical significance of time spent training/studying/perfecting for an individual to become a master, maestro, or statistical out-performer.

No surprise here, but Gladwell's "10,000-hour rule" applied to potential virtuosos rated by a study done at Berlin's elite Academy of Music. Of the top third, all had played 10,000 or more hours at that point in their career. Perhaps more surprisingly, for those rated in the middle and least-talented, none of them had. There was almost a direct correlation between hours invested and talent.

What about innate talent? Gladwell doesn't dismiss that. His observation that at least in music, computer programming, hockey, chess, and elsewhere, talent requires practice--and a lot of it.

Another key: practice is not idle pastime, but rather "purposefully and single-mindedly playing their instruments with the intent to get better."

Thanks to Eddie D. for noticing Gladwell's interview on Colbert Nation. You can also check out the Malcom Gladwell video on Amazon.

Q. How will I purposefully and single-mindedly spend my next 10,000 hours?