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August 23, 2006

Meta-Techie?

Check out the current edition of Eweek for an article by Deborah Rothberg. Deborah provides some excellent advice for us on how to expand our impact and skills including thinking globally, having business sense, and becoming agile. My favorite is the designation of the meta-techie which is clearly encroaching on my domain.

A meta-techie is someone that has a strong technical base of skills coupled with the ability to explain to non-techies why technology is important.

Great advice, so welcome aboard the meta-train… Metadata Rules! It’s easy to make the complex sound complex, feel complex, and visually appear complex but meta-talent knows how to make the complex simple. The problem is that most of us and our shallow egos can not stand appearing simplistic. We assume that if we communicate something in simple terms that we will be perceived as less valuable. My favorite story about this was working for a very large paper company and getting a new boss who clearly had very little technical or business knowledge. After 4 weeks, he approached me with his smugness and said that anyone could do what you do. I agreed and replied. Yes, but no one could do it six months ago. He missed the point and I left within the next 30 days for another company.

Posted by Todd at August 23, 2006 12:31 PM