Random Words

[mdlbear]

This is going to be pretty random. I spent much of the day agonizing over a job application (which I finally finished, after about three weeks of writer's block) and an hour or so doing some necessary house repair; after which I've been vaguely out of it, and feeling as though I might be coming down with something. But it's NaBloPoMo, and I'm posting.

I'm still suffering from writer's block on the verbiage for a mailing list ad. I have a pretty good opening sentence (I think) but when it comes down to saying what it is I actually do, I come up empty.

Sometimes you just need to hire a curmudgeon to get annoyed at your computer, or your website, so that you don't have to. Get friendly advice, gentle coaching, understandable explanations, and expert help, from someone who's been using computers for over half a century.

Opinions? The reason I'm stuck is that I really don't know what I do that people would be willing to pay me for. I think I mentioned that I went to a day-long seminar on "Growing Your Consulting Business", and I've been reading books on consulting, all of which assume that you know what in heck you're doing. And have been doing it for a couple of years and just want to get better at it. You have to have at least some clients before you can specialize.

One of the posts I have planned for this month is a brainstorming session about just what I can do. I thought briefly about doing it now, but I think having a brain may be a prerequisite.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here being kind of appalled at how little I've done -- I've been looking at old posts, and old unsent drafts; old notes for projects that never got finished and in most cases never got started. It doesn't do much for self-confidence.

Our cats are being adorable, as usual. Desti is lying on my gig bag -- it's soft-sided and empty, so her weight makes a little hollow for her to lie in. It's also black, so she's pretty well camouflaged. Ticia is lying on the floor with her head on the side of the gig bag. The other thing Desti does is sit on my lap, or my computer. I can close the lid on my laptop and use just the external monitor, but it's remarkably difficult to type with a cat in one's lap. Browsing, yeah; I can do that.

A programmer looks At a blank emacs window, Mind equally blank.

NaBloPoMo stats:
   3887 words in 6 posts this month (average 647/post)
    472 words in 1 post today

Comments

[archangelbeth]

That sounds like a good first sentence! (Though I'd lose the last comma, personally. O;> )

And then maybe something like, "Some of my specialties include... [bulletpoints]"? Where the bulletpoints are things you know you'd like to be doing, and then go back over them and brainstorm how to slant them to market. (It's nearly 2am here; my brain also AWOL. So I'm losing words. But basically, write first, then look at them and figure out how to explain why that's a useful skill? And then use that explanation. Ugh, I hope that makes sense...)

*crosses fingers*

[mdlbear]

Thanks! Yeah; that makes sense. I think. I actually have a list like that, only it's a full page and not well-focused. Then there's the gap between what I'd like to do and what I think I could get paid for.

Nifty first sentence.

[jesse_the_k]

I gently suggest that you need to create a huge list of things you can do, and then edit it.

When I assess the likelihood of each item as I go, I end up paralyzed.

Re: Nifty first sentence.

[mdlbear]

Probably a good idea. I've done the first part of that exercise several times; I need to do the editing part.

[ravan]

How about "problem solving"? Whether it's software architecture, design or implementation, sometimes you really do need the grey-hair geek who's done a version of that before. This shit repeats, which a lot of the kids don't understand, so a fundamental understanding of how things work over several iterations is gold.

A lot of the young punks don't see that - they are convinced they "invented" something new each time they implement client-server, batch processing, or package management. They throw new acronyms and languages at the same old fundamental problem and call themselves "genius".

But when they get stuck, you can unstick them. You may not be expert in the language of the day, but some things don't change that much (for loops, while loops, functions, library calls, etc.) If you start with the design and structure, you can solve problems before even looking at the code sometimes.

Over the last 50 years, the more things change in the computer field, the more they stay the same. You have the experience. Sell the gravitas.

[mdlbear]

Thanks -- good observation.

[archangelbeth]

Belatedly: agreeing with jesse_the_k -- time to edit the list!