Dancing Naked On The Bridge – While You’re Building It
Part 3 in a Series.
Robert Quinn describes wresting with uncertainty as “Building the Bridge as You Walk Across It” (ISBN 0-7879-7112-X Amazon / City Lights)
I just spent a day configuring an iPhone to “talk” to a Microsoft Exchange email system, to transmit “packets of data” back and forth. We humans call these “packets of data” “email messages.”
The Blackberry, by Research In Motion , is really easy to configure, even if you’ve never done one. Blackberries have been around for about 10 years, and have been tightly integrated with MicroSoftOutlook and Microsoft Exchange for all that time. Most implementations use a Blackberry Enterprise Server, aka a “BES” or “BES Server.” They are really easy to configure. Apple‘s iPhone is very new. Apple looks forwards, not backwards, so configuration with Exchange 2007, the “current” release is easy. Implementation with Exchange 2010, the next release, will also be easy. Implementation with Exchange 2003, the most recent release, is easy – after you’ve done it. The first one is a gangbuster, humdinger, man-eater, meat-grinder. I spent hours on the phone with network security people, Apple tech support, and email gurus.
First of all, don’t use the iPhone’s “Exchange” configuration. That just won’t work. Period. Configure it instead as “other,” then use the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol, Defined in RFC 3501.) The other major wierdness is users authenticate as “domainuseruser” not “domainuser”. That makes no sense, it borders on magic, but it works. If you’re having trouble, contact me. My consulting rates are reasonable.
So the bottom line is – I do this naked bridge building thing every day. It actually can be fun.
Uncertainty, as it applies in Quantum Mechanics, and first described by Heisenberg, the more you know about one property of an object, for example, its momentum, the less you know about another property, like its position.
It may not keep you sane – but if you let it drive you nuts you just might as well quit. Thing is, there’s no jobs where you’re certain of anything, other than the sun will rise in the east, and set in the west – as long as the north pole and south pole don’t move too much. If you’re a doorman you don’t know who’s gonna walk in the door. If you’re the First Violin in the Philharmonic and every note is written on the page you don’t really know what the Conductor is going to do. Your conductor may pull a Victor Borge.
That’s why Howard Hughes retreated to his mansion. He couldn’t deal with uncertainty. And he had the money to retreat. Others – Steve Jobs at Apple, Bill Gates, formerly at Microsoft, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt at Google, and Yvon Chouinard at Patagonia, surf the wave. I’d rather be Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergy Brin, Eric Schmidt, Yvon Chouinard, than Howard Hughes. Hughes is gone. His money didn’t keep him alive.
(That’s why the most important thing for Jobs to come up with next, is his successor. That’s what Disney, GE
, IBM, HP – the best of the companies profiled by Collins and Porras in Built To Last do so well.)
“What,” you ask “if, unlike Hughes, you can’t afford to reatreat into a (well appointed) cave?”
You can cry, drink, whine, or grit your teeth and wing it. But if you’re gonna wing it, you may as well focus your gritted teeth into a smile. Take Chouinard’s advice, and go surfing.
And remember the Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared.” So while you’re dancing naked on the bridge to tomorrow, bring some sunscreen.