Moving to New York City

Well, it’s been a while but I have finally decided to leave my current employer (a company that I love) to move to the big city and change jobs. When I got my butt out of government consulting I re-tooled myself into commercial consulting with a long term aim of international experience. Over the last 7 months I have come to realize a few things:

1. I am getting quite good at managing internal consulting systems
2. I can manage profit and loss, invoices, operations, staffing, people, pretty well
3. I hate doing those thing … they are a necessary evil but not what I wanted to end up doing

So … what do you do when you wake up every morning saying “oh no, I have to to X again”? Simple … move your own cheese. I went through another exercise of trying to work out where I wanted to work, what I liked, what I disliked, what industries I preferred and many other aspects. I read Drucker and HBR again on managing yourself, re-read the Seven Deadly Habits of Successful People, dusted off David Allen’s Ready for Anything, cruised lifehack and other great blogs.

I decided that I wanted to get back to the presentation layer. I am very excited about the push towards a richer client-side experience (DHTML/AJAX, Flex, Adobe AIR, and Silverlight) and very excited about the future potential of multi-touch interfaces (moving away from the “mouse” to a tactile interface). I went looking for companies that might be interested in what I can do, while not needing me to manage the operations side of the business (that I do not like!). Unfortunately, the only road up at my old employer is up to “general manager”, business unit lead, C-level business executive. There are no specialties (short of being bucked down the org chart a few levels!) at the Director level.

So things are getting weird … I am leaving a company I have been with for seven years, that has grown me from a simple software architect into a fully fledged Director and engagement lead. I am moving to a smaller company, who is growing quickly. I am moving away from my home of 10 years, Washington, DC. I am moving to New York City to get closer to some international experience. I will be away from the family for a few months while they finish the school year and we sell up the house. I am feeling rather unsettled.

Filed under: NZ vs USA, USA, ample sufficiency, personal improvement , family, moving, multitouch, nyc, rich internet application

Boy, 5, boards wrong bus, left on roadside

Ok, so this is a fantastic example of the difference between the US and NZ. The story quoted below showed up in Stuff this morning:

A five-year-old boy who boarded the wrong bus was left on the side of a road 10km from his home. Matt Holmes, a Year 1 pupil at Tauranga’s Oropi School’s Year 1 was allowed to board the first bus run on Wednesday afternoon when he was supposed to get on the second one. The school today admitted responsibility and said it was “distressed” at what the youngster had to endure, The Bay of Plenty Times reports.

The boy was allowed to get off the bus at Waimapu Service Station – 10km from home. He then tried to walk home. A member of the public saw him and called police. His parents Tracey and Trent Holmes say were “horrified” at what had happened.

Police told the family they would talk to the school but were unable to lay charges.

Now pause for a minute, can you imagine what might have happened in the US? First of all the parents would be laying charges at the school, the driver, the school district, anyone they could point to. Damages would likely tally millions of “psychological damage” to the poor kid.

Now, there is no doubt that Matt was terrified, scared, and tired by the time he got home but isn’t this one of those little lessons you need to learn: don’t get on the wrong bus! I’m sure we all learnt it at some point. In New Zealand, the summary appeared to be “no real harm done, boy, no one will do that again!”. In the US, the outcome would likely be much different … what do you think?

Filed under: NZ vs USA, New Zealand, ample sufficiency, happenings

Coffee Culture

One of the things that those who know me, know altogether too well is that I love coffee. Not that processed bland, McCoffee you get at Starbucks, but real coffee. One of the big differences between NZ and the US is each’s implementation of the espresso or coffee culture. I think this is another example of the classic differences between the two countries.

In NZ, coffee culture is the new bar culture. People go to interact with other people, they write, listen, drink, eat, hang out and generally look for high dollar or premium brands: boutique coffee brands, great atmosphere, exotic shapes built out of espresso foam and milk …

In the US, coffee culture is about drive through Starbucks coffee joints with $5 lattes that might as well have come out of a machine. There is no art, there are no real baristas, there is very much a franchise, a commodity, and a huge market.

Now personnally, I like the NZ approach. The only few places I’ve found like that in Washington, DC are Murky Coffee and Mayorga.  Both of these joints have free wireless (I’m in Murky Coffee right now!), great atmospheres, fantastic coffee, and great music. But even at those joints in the US, people aren’t really interacting, sure they are working … many of them on their cute Apple laptops, but unlike NZ they are sitting alone, working!

Now most Americans sure are obsessed with work, the constant struggle to work hard, to get ahead, to become independently wealthy, to get a bigger, better car than the Joneses. I think the NZ ethic of working hard to play hard, leads to a much more interactive coffee culture, what do you think?

Filed under: NZ, NZ vs USA, USA, ample sufficiency, diet

Napkins

Ok, so starting off on my “ample sufficiency” train of thought here: one of the fundamental differences between the US and NZ is napkins (or serviettes as they are known in NZ). Yes, the humble napkin.

When I first arrived in the States from New Zealand, I’d often go to a restaurant or fast food joint to get something to eat. I’d decide, order, wait, pick-up, get a serviette, then go to sit down. I’d place the napkin in my lap or somewhere handy to stop any messes, then wipe my hands when I was done. That was just how I rolled …

Now it occurred to me (after a while) that I was the only one getting just one napkin! What could all those other napkins be for? How messy were these people? And more importantly, when did I become one of them. You see, I have become the many napkin getting tree thief. I OFten grab a whole wad of napkins (many tims to take a bunch back to my desk for sundry clean up tasks) but several napkins none the less.

I think this is a classic example of two American challenges: a society of plenty and the average American’s germaphobia. On the first point, in America things like napkins are “in the cracks”. They are veritably free, ubiquitous, and easy to dispose of. What do you think would happen if each napkin had “You just cut down a tree to make this napkin” on it? Maybe that’d make people stop and think. On the second point, the link above says it much better than me: the average American is desperately trying to by an antibiotic, germicidal soap, toothpaste, toilet seat, shirt, keyboard, etc… It seems a little crazy to me!

Filed under: NZ vs USA, ample sufficiency

Ample Sufficiency

So to kick off my series on NZ versus the USA in terms of living, working, and bringing up a family I thought I better explain a little cultural basis. One of my mother’s favorite phrases is “ample sufficiency”. To use it in a sentence: “No, I’d rather not have another chicken wing, I’ve had ample sufficiency”. It wasn’t until I was back in NZ this time that I realized exactly what this really meant, how it flowed out into the greater vision of the NZ state f being, and how starkly different it was to the US perspective on things. Now excuse me while I digress into generalizations …
In NZ, most of the people I know are aiming at “ample sufficiency”. They want enough money, a interesting enough job, something close enough to family to be happy. They don’t need the best car in the neighbourhood, they don’t need the largest house in the city, they don’t need many of the things, the average American family takes for granted. Do they want them?  Oh yes, they’d all love nice cars, big houses, something better than the neighbours, but they are less prepared to sacrifice life, love, and family to get these things.

The average  American family wants it all, they want the biggest house, the newest car, they must be better than the neighbours. If they all go to private school, darn it all we’ll go to a better private school. The ideal here in the US is: independantly wealthy, living the high life, with multiple houses, a few luxury european sports cars in the garage, and vacations around the world every year.

So for the rest of this wee series I want to explore what my personal po-dunk half-arsed personal socio-psychological theories tell us about the two countries, why this is so, and what I think might change it all for the better.

Filed under: NZ vs USA, New Zealand, ample sufficiency