Bootstrapping Independence

How to Build a Computer Model of God

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Charlie B

Like most people, questions about the existence of God and all things spiritual plague me frequently. I want to believe in such things, especially when it comes to continuity of my consciousness. I don’t like the idea of disappearing when I die. I suspect most other people don’t either, which is what makes belief in systems like Heaven, reincarnation, or even Hell an attractive prospect to our minds. Despite my desire to accept religious teachings, I am constantly prevented by a simple fact: no one has found any physical evidence of something like a soul, or any mechanism which might enable a persistent consciousness beyond our current brain. The lack of physical evidence coupled with the strong benefit of believing in life after death, leads to strong doubt in my mind.

My assumption has always been: If something like a soul exists, and it affects our consciousness in any manner, then it must be detectable by some scientific device. I find it difficult to imagine that something can interact with my physical body without leaving any physical trace. But though I find it hard to imagine, is it possible for something like a soul to interact with me without leaving any physical trace?

I chose to test this hypothesis using a thought experiment, and ended up formulating a computer model to simulate our souls, the afterlife, and a spiritual model which requires no visible physical component.

Can Souls Exist Without a Physical Component?

I normally hate it when people use Physics principles or Mathematical theorems to justify something unrelated and not intended. That said, my thought process started with the wonders of Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. It says, in a nutshell:

Any sufficiently complex mathematical system will contain truths which cannot be proved using that same system.

It is much more complex than that of course, but it basically means that, at least in Math, some truths will always be out of grasp in the current system. What if the system we live in – Earth – has similar properties? Of course, moving from a Math system to life is a bit of a stretch. Instead, I thought, could I build a real life computer system which has these properties??

Building a Computer Model – Background

I want to give some background for those unfamiliar with systems design and computer science, and to make the concepts accessible to everyone without requiring much technical expertise. Please forgive me for glossing over some of the more technical aspects of these systems, and if you are sufficiently versed in virtualization, it is safe to skip ahead to the next section.

Starting with a basic computer, we have a few key components – Physical hardware, Operating system, and programs running on the operating system. It is possible to abstract out the physical hardware from the operating system by using something called virtualization – essentially you can have one computer which thinks it is a whole computer, but is really just a wholly contained slice of a larger computer, also known as a virtual machine.

It is possible to build a virtual machine which has no way of knowing whether it is, in fact, a virtual machine or not. A user or program running on this virtual machine can run as many tests as they please, but will never find any evidence of whether it is virtual or physical. It may even share the same physical hardware with multiple other virtual machines, but will not be able to find any evidence of those virtual machines existing on the same physical hardware. Granted, in reality most virtual machines do not work this way, but they could.

So far, I have described two distinct systems – The physical hardware and the virtual machine. There must also be a third layer – the Operating system which runs on the physical hardware and controls the virtual machines. This operating system, known as a Hypervisor, has incredible power. Today, we use these systems in IT departments to dynamically allocate system hardware resources to virtual machines. This is the conceptual framework around which we can build our model of God.

Programming Life on Earth

I want to create some computer code in this system which represents life on earth. Forget actual intelligence for a moment – the programs only need to act in some way similar to a life form. For this, I recognize a few properties that represent our existence in this life: we use up resources to survive, and when we die our resources return to the earth for consumption by other natural systems and processes. So far as we know, nothing happens outside of this natural process. Said another way, we allocate resources to live from our environment, and return 100% of them when we die. We have observed nothing that leaves us to live on after death.

So, in the model system described above, where earth is represented by a virtual operating system with no knowledge of any other possible systems, I represent life with a simple process which runs in a loop for some specified time, after which it ceases to function. The programs are allocated a certain set of memory when they are initialized, which will never increase until they stop running. This represents the space we take up physically in the world. The program has internal states, which are never saved to disk, but are stored only in memory, and represent our changing mental states. When a process is killed or dies of its own accord, its memory is returned to the virtual environment for use by other programs, and nothing is ever saved about it’s existence. This process represents death in the real world.

As a result, we now have a simple, layered model of life (processes), the universe (virtual machine), all sitting atop an unknowable God (Hypervisor).

Approximating Life after Death

The Hypervisor I created controls and monitors virtual machines on a server without any knowledge, but I want it to do more than simply allocate resources to the model universe – I want it to manage virtual souls and influence the virtual world without leaving any physical trace as well.

To achieve this, I introduce a new function to the Hypervisor. This new function allows the system to look at any process running in a virtual machine by accessing (reading) a given memory location. In this way, the Hypervisor can view any processes state that it wishes. It may also store a copy of that state to disk without notifying or having the virtual machine environment have any evidence that it is happening. When a process dies, the Hypervisor can save the state of the process to disk, and still 100% of virtual machine resources are given back to the system. No evidence of this saving is left behind for the virtual machine to notice, since all of it happened outside the virtual machines scope and view.

It is now a simple matter for the Hypervisor to do some interesting things with the saved process states. It could, for instance, reincarnate the saved process into a new process in the same virtual machine by copying the saved contents into a new process, or perhaps only certain segments of the saved process state. It could also take the saved process state and insert it into a new process in other virtual machines, which could be completely different operating environments than the one the process originated in. In this way, the Hypervisor could approximate a process flowing through states of reincarnation or travel from Earth to Heaven or Hell, all without leaving a trace in the original environment.

Conclusions

As you can see, this model is flexible enough to account for all major religious beliefs on earth today, and creates a cohesive thought model by which souls could interact with the human world without leaving a trace. Furthermore, it can actually be implemented on earth with some approximation, allowing a program to exist as if it had a permanent soul, even if the environment it was created in was completely destroyed (say, by shutting down a virtual machine). It does not say if any major religion is right or wrong, it simply shows it is possible that observation may miss certain things which are unobservable from where we sit, but does not completely exclude them from the realm of possibility.

I would apply a caution to those who want to use this to explain other religious phenomena, or even when talking of the afterlife. Simply because no physical observation or cause and effect chain have been established for certain phenomena, does not mean that no observable events exist. It would be preferable to search for physical evidence rather than take something on faith alone, keeping in mind that absence of physical evidence may not mean absence of phenomena.

Posted in Technology | 56 Comments

Entangled

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Charlie B

As humans, we have two kinds of currency to spend at our leisure. The first is given to us at birth, a sum stored in a bank vault with a number on it, but we are never told what the total is. This is called Time. The second we start at zero, but can measure very precisely, and we call Money.

As we grow, we are at first able to spend time on whatever we choose, until slowly the freedom leaches away in society, school, and social obligation. At some point we realize that we have a lot of time, but aren’t very satisfied with the state of having lots of time and nothing to spend it on (or maybe we are, but authority figures tell us we shouldn’t be, and we listen), so we trade away time for money. This is the beginning of the end.

The interesting thing about money is: once you have some, you forget how to live with less. Somehow, over time, additional income begins to feel a lot like the lower income, and nothing has changed. This is why people making $20,000/year struggling to make ends meet can be in the same situation as people making $250,000/year struggling to make ends meet.

How could they possibly end up in the same place?

The answer is not hard for us to comprehend, but it is a simple truth many people don’t ever realize – that the entire modern system is setup such that you will be entangled to the proper degree. Every dollar you earn is another way to become entangled. It doesn’t have to be that way, but that is how most people end up.

Entanglement starts with a need, or a desire. Often, these are valid things that every human desires: love, freedom, security. Fundamental human desires are simple traps to entanglement. If we follow one of the most basic human needs, the need for water, it is easy to see how society has manufactured various levels of entanglement.

I need to drink about 8 glasses of water per day. My only real requirement is that it is fresh and disease free – that meets my needs as a human, so I drink from the tap. My wife’s friend read a book about how tap water contains cancer causing things like fluoride and copper, so she bought a filter for $20 and replaces it every month. Now, when she comes to our house, if I offer her tap water she asks for filtered water, so of course I also need to have a filter for her, of equal quality (or else I’d be cheap?). Thus I, also, pay my dues to the water filter companies. I drink tap water, but I am entangled to filtered water because of social graces, though the entanglement is weak since I have no problem stopping (it is stronger for my wife’s friend, who believes tap water causes cancer. I guess it might, I honestly don’t know).

Another friend of ours decided that filtered water was not quite good enough, so looked around for the proper water to drink and found Evian. He decided that this would be the only water he would drink, and began holding days worth of drinking water at his house, in the form of Evian bottles which he brings everywhere. He probably consumes $20 per day of water now.

To feed habits like this, we must pay one of our two currencies, Time or Money. We could spend time if we wanted to – collecting rain, digging a well – but almost no one does that anymore (why not?) Or we could spend money in various amounts (“market segmentation”) through tap water or bottled or whatever. How has a simple and easily satisfied need, which could be satisfied for free (and was for thousands of years) turned into a $20 a day habit?

Societal Entanglement has brought us to the point where every minute must either be increasing entanglement through desire fulfillment, paid entertainment, or working to pay off our manufactured addiction to it. In the end, eventually, it leaves us only with The Mundane Existence.

Posted in Modernism | Leave a comment

The Modern Industrial Slave Complex, or, Complete Entanglement

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Charlie B

Gulliver from Gullivers Travels

I often feel like a slave in the modern world. A machine repeatedly doing slightly different tasks. When visualizing how life makes me feel, I often visualize a large number of soft velvet ties pulling me down with increasing pressure. Each thread is so soft it can barely be discerned, and alone could be removed with little effort. But over many years the number of small threads has built up to be an almost unbreakable series of tangled rope holding me firmly down.

I am, thankfully, not the only one who feels this way, and some people have been able to articulate it better than I. See on elevating humanity and are most americans debt slaves. The term slavery appears repeatedly, and it approximates how I feel, but isn’t quite the right word for it. To find a better way to describe myself, I tested the idea of modern slavery by contrasting traditional slavery and modern ideas of corporate slavery:

Historical	Modern
Could buy right to be paid to work	Automatically paid to work
Entered into by force or birth	Heavily incentivized to participate
Desire to change owner out of slaves control	Can change owner any time, or opt to have no owner
Owner cared for well being	only individual cares for well being
Government / law supported	Government / law incentivized

I also considered the idea of debt-slavery, which I also think falls a bit short. Although a person can rent themselves for a number of hours (at a given rate of dollars per hour) to make up for a debt, I don’t see it as the default paradigm in the modern world. Instead, I see the rise of salaried company-persons and independent contractors. Both are expected to complete a body of work by a given deadline rather than a rate of work at $x/hour independent of work produced.

With that in mind, I considered how the current system differs from economies of work in the past, such as slavery economies or serfdom economies, with the more modern industrial and information economies.

Some traits of modern work-life:

Work is governed by government laws, social norms, and company policy
Work performed is determined externally by the organization (rather than internally by the worker)
Time is generally used as the primary measurement of value. Payment is given in return for hours or weeks of labor performed.
As a general rule, finding a method of completing work in half the time results in double work being assigned, not in half as much work for the same reward.
Time for non-work is strictly allocated (To weekends and holidays). Variances to the schedule must be justified within company policy.
Appearance and other non-work related factors are dictated by the organization. This includes time spent within the organization working, and outside the organization, though to a lesser extent.

Altogether, this is still not a very satisfying state of affairs, but definitely better than previous economic systems such as slavery or serfdom. Instead of trying to figure out how my life relates to an antiquated system, I decided to take a look at the current system instead and see what a more apt description might be. I started with what we currently call ourselves in the everyday: employees and employers. Employees are everyone who works for an organization, which is the employer.

One key thing I want to point out – generally an employer is not a human. It is almost always an organization – common examples include corporations, government, and non-profits. Every employee, including CEO’s and presidents, can be ejected by the organization and replaced, generally without material harm. The topic of organizations is too large to cover right now, so for today, I want to focus on the humans and the proper way to think of them – the Employees.

Employee, a word which derives from Employ, came about for the first time in the 1850’s, coinciding with the industrial revolution. Employ has been around since the 1500’s and consists of the following definitions: “make use of, apply; increase; entangle; devote”. It also derives from the word imply – indeed employ and imply started as the same word – which has remained largely unchanged as “to involve something unstated as a logical consequence”.

I would take this one step further with the observation that the word employee also has a common synonym – resource. The company I currently work for often refers to employees as “Resources”. Though not often mentioned consciously, this term is codified in all companies due to organizational departments known as “Human Resources” which manage aspects of adding and reducing human resources (employees).

From these background definitions, a better understanding of our current situation and why we call ourselves, universally, employees, emerges. The synonyms making up the word are good descriptors of the modern workplace and the humans participating in it. One stood out to me however as a superior word to use to describe ourselves, with a larger meaning embedded within it: Entangled.

Entanglement

As our productivity grows, we must increase our work output to compete. As our debt load or lifestyle spending increase, we become further entangled in the industrial complex and less able to extricate ourselves from the system: we must work more to buy more, and work harder to compete. The more we buy into consumerism as a lifestyle, the less we are able to see clearly and become independent, as our social stature begins to depend on our consumerist successes. We are not bound by chains as in slavery, or by law as in serfdom, to a particular master or landowner. Rather, we are bound by the system in an ever increasing complex web of entanglement, from which the further we delve the less likely we are to escape. This explains why even CEO’s and entrepreneurs find themselves devoid of balance in their lives, unable to find satisfaction without the office, striving for ever increasing monetary value and property. They are as deeply entangled as the lower classes, albeit with more ability to escape if they so choose.

Consumer products at all levels are designed to reflect this phenomenon, striving to bring new consumers under their grip in a self sustaining spiral, simultaneously increasing entanglement of workers.

Consider products such as iPhones, which come out with a new model every year, encouraging pricey upgrades. The social pressure to have the latest one, coupled with the high cost of the device, ensures that a person must sustain income levels to match this pattern of behavior, or be threatened with social ostracism. The same product practice can be seen across the spectrum, from car re-models every three years, to fashion seasons or home decoration fads.

The traits I mentioned describing modern work fit nicely into this definition as well. They are either a direct result of entanglement, such as being able to choose a master but not go masterless, or a direct consequence, such as any behavior which benefits an organization and thus reduces the chances for someone to become dis-entangled.

The Rise of Entangled Persons

As laws supporting slavery in all its forms were being abolished worldwide, the industrial revolution was in full swing. The loss of traditional slave labor, coupled with a new way to mass produce consumer items, led to a system of entanglement emerging naturally. Organizations fight for their own survival, and because they are larger than a single person, they generate rules and systems to maximize survivability. By design, those who run the organizations are brought to believe that they are the organization, since the most powerful members have the greatest ability to harm an organization. In reality, they are not anymore able to escape entanglement than the common employee, and perhaps even less so since they must generally be highly entangled to reach such a position of power in the first place. Consider the kinds of perks CEO’s get, in general. Why are these needed in place of increased pay? Simply put: they greatly increase entanglement of someone into a certain lifestyle when increased monetary compensation is no longer enough to fuel increased entanglement at the same rate as other benefits.

Thus we have entered a system where even the perceived most powerful members of society are as deeply entangled as the average worker is, albeit using different mechanisms. Entrepreneurs, CEO’s, politicians. Each are entangled using intricate webs to decrease their likelihood of escape. Law, debt, equity, contracts, and property are the tools which can be used to tie someone to an organization and thus into the system. Only a few people have found ways to check out of the system and dis-entangle themselves.

Which brings us to possibilities of living which decrease entanglement instead of increasing it. I have recently begun to strive to dis-entangle myself as much as possible, and I have seen a number of people who have found ways for themselves to escape the system. The myriad ways to accomplish this, and how they work for individuals, are a post for another day.

Posted in Modernism | 17 Comments

The Mundane Existence

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Charlie B

When I was a child, I used to wonder why adults seemed so foolish. I would look around and wonder why adults did things that were so incomprehensible. Why did they do the same things every day, even though it didn’t make them happy, repeating the same routines day after day. They spent all their time frowning, creating wrinkles, and worrying about this or that, always serious and sad.

Over time, I have become one of those adults. I hardly ever play. I walk around all day with a frown on my face, worrying about one thing or another for no good reason. I do things that don’t make me happy and ensure I won’t get there anytime soon. But even though I am one of those adults, I am still not a whole lot closer to figuring out the why of it, or a different way of living. Although I like to imagine otherwise, my life is not all that different from anyone else’s. I started creating detailed logs of my days, in the hopes it would give me some insight about how to shift my thinking or activities. Each day doesn’t differ substantially from any other. A generalized version of my day:

5:30 AM: Alarm goes off. Hit snooze repeatedly. I had hoped to stretch and meditate for 30 minutes, but I fail to get out of bed.
6:00 AM: Force myself out of bed. I get up only when I know I will need to rush to make it, and have a good shot at being late to work. Even so, I don’t really start moving until 6:15.
6:45 AM: Done with shower, and various things surrounding it. Dress for work. Prepare to take out the dogs.
7:00 AM: Dogs have been out and fed . Make breakfast. Pack lunch. Brew coffee.
7:10 AM: Eat breakfast. Read a book, the paper, or blogs.
7:30 AM: Get in the car. Drive to work. Spend ~30 minutes in traffic.
8:00 AM: Arrive in the office. I might be late, sometimes up to 20 minutes late, sometimes up to 10 minutes early. Walk to my desk, settle in. I usually have 30 minutes to respond to emails and finish work before my first meeting. Plan for meetings at least 3 out of the next 4 hours.
11:45 AM: Meetings coming to a close. Feeling de-motivated. To-do list has doubled. Projects are behind schedule. The list of things to complete is too much to handle. If I can leave for an early lunch, I will. If I can’t, I piss away my time by reading blogs/news/technology articles for 15-30 minutes.
12:00 PM: Go to car. Drive to coffee shop, usually caribou or starbucks depending. Buy a coffee even though it won’t make me feel any better. Sit in the parking lot and eat the lunch I packed. Listen to the radio. Try to relax. The hour goes quickly.
1:00 PM: Back in office just in time for next meeting. Stay on the phone 3-4 of the next 4 hours. When not listening to the meeting, work on to do list. Respond to the 100+ emails that come in during the day. Try to be pro-active instead of reactive. If I can find 20 minutes free on my calendar, sometimes I go for a walk.
5:00 PM: Meetings are done, so I can get real work done. Start running down the to-do list in terms of priority. Sometimes, I can’t motivate myself to work. My job is just not that interesting most of the time, but I can’t imagine a better one without working for myself.
6:30 PM: The cleaning people have arrived at the office. I pack up. Go home. Either I pissed away my time reading interesting articles or accomplished something depending on my mood. I feel burnt out.
7:00 PM: Arrive home assuming no after work errands. Say hello to those living with me. Change out of work clothes.
7:15 PM: I would like to spend some time unwinding, but I have to be social. Spend time with family. Eat dinner.
8:30 PM: Dinner is done. I am the only one who doesn’t enjoy TV, but I feel obligated to watch it to be social. One or Two nights a week I will work instead. Occasionally I will work on my startup for an hour. Chances are I will take flak from my family if I don’t spend enough time with them.
10:00 PM: Everyone else is going to bed. I crack open the laptop to continue work. Either startup or office, depending on the need. Sometimes I write.
11:00 PM: How am I feeling? If I am groggy, I get ready for bed. If I am ok, I work for one more hour.

My weekends don’t differ much. I will spend more time on my startup, and the rest of it trying to catch up with family, doing errands, yard work, house work, paying bills, or whatever else needs to be done. Relaxing almost never occurs on the weekends. Bonus: I sleep until 8 or 9 in the morning Saturday and Sunday.

I want to escape what I see as my life prison. This blog is an effort to document my attempts at dis-entangling. A lifestyle business seems to me the best way at this point, but after more than three years of trying and not being materially closer to my goal, I have some concerns about my approach. Other lifestyle designs don’t appeal to me or seem realistic in my current situation. I consume enormous amounts of content and ideas, and though I see examples of people who live differently, I don’t see how to apply their lessons to my own life and situation without sacrificing the few things that make my life worth living.

I have become incomprehensible to myself. I live the mundane existence from which I can find no escape.

Posted in Modernism | 42 Comments

Building Blocks of Startup Success – Authenticity

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Charlie B

Something really rubs me the wrong way about the business of software conference. I can’t quite put my finger on it – something about the whole thing just feels wrong to me, which is (only partly) why I don’t go. But, being hypocritical, I do check out some of the output and even find it quite useful. Today, I watched Jason from A Smart Bear talking about rules and when to break them, which reminded me of one of my core businesses tenants, being authentic, though he never stated it that way.

I have met several founders who, for one reason or another, decide they are going to follow the conventional wisdom against their own better judgment. Later they ask: Why did I hit this rough patch? Don’t follow the conventional wisdom! I mean, ok, do it if it makes sense to you, but don’t do it just because you don’t have a better idea.

I read a lot. Every day. Probably too much stuff which fills my brain with interesting facts and figures and ideas and strategies. Some of them I really want to apply to my business. I want to apply them tomorrow. Sometimes I have even done that, but it has never worked out well. What has worked out, is taking some of those inputs, stepping back and saying “How can I transform this into strategic advantage for my business?” and then applying my analytical skills to it, making sure not to compromise with my goals and values. This is authenticity.

Take one example. I don’t like adwords. It’s too expensive. The only time I click on ads is when I am checking out competitors. I tried it. I took a competitors ad, did some research on how to make great adwords (what do I know about making good adwords?) and tried multiple variations. I lost money. Plenty of clicks, not so many conversions. Organic search converts at a much higher rate for me. Maybe I could improve my adwords strategies, but why should I? I don’t really like the model in the first place, at least at this stage in my business.

You know how sometimes, you buy from a business but just don’t feel quite right about it? Chances are, those businesses are very large and hard to replace in your life. Don’t be like them! That’s your competitive advantage. Not being like the companies no one (well, almost no one) likes. As explained in The Russian Fox and the Evolution of Intelligence, humans are really good at detecting cheating, or uneven social contracts. I think it’s similar when it comes to doing business which is inauthentic or in it only for the money. If customers get even a whiff of it, they’ll be out the door. If you compromise in one area, say, marketing strategy, where else have you compromised your core?

Sometimes, this leads to missed opportunities, or lost customers. That’s ok. In the long run, it enables growth. If you have a good product, or a great service, then the customers you want will be well aligned with your business and will appreciate the authenticity. Those that don’t appreciate it probably aren’t customers worth having, even if they have a fat wallet.

So, where are you compromising?

Posted in Bootstrapping as Method | Leave a comment

Creative SoundBlaster ExtremeMusic Static issue with Windows 64 bit

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Charlie B

Just as a service to anyone who might hit this issue. Upgrading to Windows 7 can sometimes cause static to erupt on speakers when using a creative card. I found some working drivers, but can no longer find the original link. I believe they are part of the Daniel K driver set, but searching through his releases today facing this problem after upgrading to Windows 7 SP1 and having sound stop working, followed by getting the sound to work but with heavy static. Thankfully, I found these drivers on a backup disk I had and re-installing fixed the issue.

My Card: Creative XFI ExtremeMusic

Problems: Music not working or working with heavy static. No official drivers corrected the issue, including the latest beta drivers.

Solution: Install this driver set. Since I couldn’t find it after much searching, I hosted it here. Please post in comments if there is a more “official” download location. I’ll continue to host assuming it doesn’t take up too much of my monthly bandwidth.

Download: Daniel K Creative Working Windows 7 driver set

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

How To Improve Website Performance (With Drupal, PHP, MySQL and Apache)

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Charlie B

Recently, when my new website security scanning startup site launched, I was inundated with traffic – receiving several thousand hits in the space of a few hours. Coupled with several website security scans my site was running, and the load was more than my server could handle, forcing me to restart Apache several times. After this, I decided to focus on tuning my application performance, based on number of requests served per second, and page load time. In this post, I’ll cover how I tuned the following tech stack components to improve results:

Infrastructure (Hardware) improvements
Apache Settings
PHP
Application performance

Prepare yourself – this is a very in depth tuning article, so grab a cup of coffee and get your tuning hat on!

Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged application performance, drupal, performance tuning, website launch | 13 Comments

New Business Launched – Golem Technologies

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Charlie B

After many months of work, I have finally officially launched Golem Technologies, a website and web application security scanning SAAS application. This is designed to be the world’s easiest security scanner, offering one click scanning (only enter a URL and you’re off) as well as in depth and easy to understand security analysis.

I encourage you to check out the site, and let me know if you have any feedback. I have begun executing the link building and PR campaign I wrote about in my pre-launch checklist. In a few weeks, I’ll report back the results here.

Posted in Bootstrapping as Method, Startup Challenges | Tagged entrepreneur, Golem Technologies, Security Scanning, startup, website launch | 3 Comments

5 Tips for Starting a New Job

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Charlie B

In my last post, discussing how to reduce stress related to work, I mentioned that I have recently been offered a promotion, which brings with it a host of new challenges and opportunities. Along with the positive, comes a lot of anxiety as I begin to transition out of my current job and into the new one. How can I be sure to maximize my success? How do I add my own achievements to the position without undoing the positive things my predecessor put in place?

To help myself transition and boost my chances at success in the first months on the job, I put together an action plan, which has been working out very well for me so far. Thus, I thought I might share it with you.

Leave Your Current Job In an Organized State

Though I am moving on, I think it pays to leave my current job in as organized a state as possible. This ensures the person who follows in my footsteps will have positive things to say about me, and leaves a lasting impression with my former boss. If you are staying in the same company, it significantly reduces the amount of calls/emails/IM’s you receive from people picking up where you left off – with a new job to worry about, every minute is precious!

You probably have a list of ongoing projects to hand off, and a whole lot of knowledge in your head. Make a list of projects and activities you perform today, then build a spreadsheet with each project or responsibility, who you think should take it over, the current status, and next steps. Share this with your boss to get approval and let them know it is your transition plan. You should make an effort to document the knowledge in your head as thoroughly as possible before you leave, making sure someone could pick up your work without talking to you if necessary, or after a couple meetings if absolutely required.

List out skill and knowledge gaps, then plan to address them

The job I am moving into requires a large super-set of the skills I have today. I know I will have to take time to come up to speed on certain skills, but I don’t want that to affect project timelines. To remedy this, I made a long list of key skills I believe I will need in the new job, but am not yet as proficient as I need to be. For my new job this includes some team management skills, process knowledge, domain technical skills, and assorted other skills. For each skill on my list, I came up with a plan to address the shortcoming and a timeline. Some of them will only be overcome in several months while others can be overcome quickly before the job even begins, allowing me to hit the ground running.

I also find being up front about your skill gaps with your new boss gives you some leeway, and he or she will often point you to people or resources to help you close the gap faster.

Architect a 30-60-90 day plan.

Whenever I am coming into a new job or major project, I find it helps to put together a short term plan (accomplishments which can be completed in 30 days) 60 day plan (medium term accomplishments) and 90 day plan (longer term and ongoing).

My 30 day plan consists largely of gathering feedback from my new peers on where the organization could do better, learning the nitty gritty details on the floor, and getting to know my new team. Starting around day 30, I will begin to institute changes which are the easiest to manage and will garner the least resistance. By day 90, I should have hit my stride and be comfortable in the role, and moving onto the bigger swing changes which will take significant time and effort to pull off.

For each time period, I recommend having a list of goals you want to achieve, and at least a basic plan of how you will achieve them. The closer the goal, the more specific you should be. Since new jobs typically contain a lot of uncertainty and learning, things farther out can be more idealistic and less concrete – they will probably change anyway, but it’s important to get perspective early on.

Reach Out to Others

If possible, reach out to your new set of peers, managers, and employees. They have a lot to teach you, and transitioning is all about learning. Take a humble approach and setup one on one time with as many people as possible. I like to meet with people starting with a set list of things I want them to teach me, but reserve at least half the time for open ended discussion.

In the first half, I may ask questions such as:

I know you do all our sourcing. Could you walk me through the overall sourcing process at a high level?
How do you configure <application/server/whatever>?
Who else do you think I should meet with?
I am new to project X, can you tell me the background of the project, and where we are today?

The second half I leave to open ended questions, where I want them to tell me what they think is important about my role, rather than what I think is important. I’ll ask questions like:

What do you think could be done better in this role?
Is there anything you think I should know/be aware of?
I found X explanation very interesting, how can I be involved / learn more?

I generally make these up on the fly depending on the person I am speaking with. I make sure to at least meet with every close peer, my immediate manager, and each person reporting to me and have a similar conversation. The specifics will change depending on who you are taking to, but the overall goal is to get a feeling about your work relationship, and to help close the skill gap or find new gaps you hadn’t known about before.

Notify Family, Friends, and External Commitments

Starting a new job is a major life event, so be sure to get the support of your loved ones ahead of time. Letting your family know you will be focused for a period of weeks and may be more stressed than usual, or working longer hours, often gives you extra room to have a smooth transition. Additionally, you may not be up to going out as often with your friends, so letting them know you may be less available can help prevent any resentment they feel if you see them less.

Finally, if you participate in community activities, you may want to notify them as well, since your time may be reduced or your mental stress level will increase.

The main goal of this action is reduce external stress by letting people know you are in a period of transition. Most people will be understanding, and supportive of your new role. Who knows, maybe they will even buy you dinner to celebrate!

And…

In the end, remember that a new job is recognition for a job well done, or for your qualifications. No one expects you to perform perfectly right away. In my current company, we expect a ramp up time of 6 months to one year, so cut yourself some slack and realize good planning and communication are all it takes to start successfully in any new job.

Posted in Career Satisfaction | Tagged career satisfaction, motivation, opportunity | 1 Comment

Dealing with Stress in Your Small Business Startup

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Charlie B

Lately, I have been feeling overly stressed. A number of good things have been happening to me, but along with those good things comes stress. Recently, my company offered me a promotion, which brings with it a host of new responsibilities. I am in the transition process now, which essentially means I am working both my old job and my new job as I migrate existing work to other employees and take on new work while learning the job. Harder still – it is a management role with a new team who is still learning the ropes, and it is a highly technical leadership role. As a result, I have continually put off work on my business even though I have a very short list of things to do before launch (I am already working too many hours and finding time for my loved ones is hard enough. I might not be forgiven for working on a startup which they see as “optional” given my strong corporate career).

Since I am feeling so many stressors at once, I thought I would put together a bingo list of stress reduction tactics I have used over the years along with my perceived cost of practice and short and long term benefits.

Meditation

Topping my list is meditation . The practice of sitting still and trying to think of nothing. I personally find Zen meditation to be the best, but each person is different, so use whatever school works for you. If you have never meditated before, it is easy to start. Simply find a place where you will not be interrupted for a few minutes, and there is as little distraction as possible. Sit on the floor or a chair with your back straight, close your eyes, and try to have no thoughts come into your head. If a thought comes, notice the thought and then return to not thinking.

If you are just starting out, you can count each time you breathe in to help train your mind in the practice of avoiding thought. Count to 10 breaths, then restart at 1. Set a timer for 5 minutes and continue this for the entire time without breaking. As you get better, allow yourself to stop counting and increase the amount of time you sit for.

Benefits: Extremely relaxing. Reduces stress, improves overall life quality, improves thought function and clarity.

Cost: It will probably add to stress the first few times you try it. Meditation takes practice and time. Completely worth it.

Tips: If you find it hard, use meetup to find local meditation groups which can help spur your growth. This may involve additional time and possibly money.

Physical Exercise

Working out 5 days a week will do wonders for stress. I always feel happier and more energetic while on a regular workout schedule… unfortunately, I also haven’t been on a regular workout schedule for a year now, and need to get back to it.

I personally found the best routine to be about 30 minutes of weight lifting, followed by 30 minutes of hard cardio to be the best overall combination. Each day I would focus on a different part of the body for weight training.

Benefits: Long term health, less stress, morale booster, you are more aesthetically pleasing

Costs: A lot of time, generally 1.5 hours a day for me when including travel/stretching/showering. You may also have to pay for gym membership and workout clothing.

Tips: 30 minutes of cardio is almost unbeatable as a motivational tool.

Project Planning

I was once told that if you feel overwhelmed, make a list of things to do. This actually works. Make a detailed list outlining how to get from point A to point B. Once you are done, start executing, but by then a lot of stress will have gone away already. I also like to add in task dependencies, completion dates, required resources, and a host of other stuff and make it into a full fledged project plan, but that’s a personal choice. The down side of this is that sometimes it shows you how much you have to do and can be de-motivating.

Benefits: remove the unknown from the stress, increase productivity

Cost: May add to stress, takes up significant time and effort

Tips: Use excel, or learn how to use project management software

Being Present

This is an incredible tactic I picked up during some of my most stressful times. When I am feeling overwhelmed, my immediate instinct is to start multi-tasking in an effort to complete as much as possible. Instead, focus only on what you are doing right now and on nothing else. If you are writing a blog, then focus only on the blog. If you are driving, then be present while driving – notice other people in their cars, the sounds of the road, the signs and sights you pass. Don’t let anything but what you are doing in this moment distract you.

Benefits: meditation-like clarity. Improved efficiency, sense of well being. I usually sigh in relief after about 30 seconds of being present in a non-working environment (walking, driving, waiting, etc)

Cost: This is very hard to maintain.

Tips: remind yourself how beautiful the world is if you just look around, and how ineffective multi-tasking truly is. I also find it helps to remind myself that in the scheme of things, all my worries are petty things and I probably won’t remember them in a years time.

Eating Healthy

Another common thing I try to do when stressed is to grab quick and unhealthy food like a burger or a pizza. In the long run, this only slows you down and makes you feel terrible. Instead of grabbing a pizza, make a quick salad. Eating healthy will energize you more over the long run and improve your thinking, allowing you to get more done. Additionally, the release of positive chemicals such as B12 from a healthy diet will improve your mood and reduce stress and physical causes of stress.

Benefits: long term health, increased energy, improved thinking

Cost: doesn’t taste as good, and takes willpower

Tips: find a good juice bar and learn to love protein shakes

More Techniques

Even with all of this, I am still feeling stressed. Does anyone have some tips they can share with me I can try out and see if I can’t reduce some of my stress load?

Posted in Personal | Tagged awareness, planning | 7 Comments