Order Me Around

So here’s where you get to order me around. Lucky you!

I’m a Dork

I read about a few topics that I really love, but that make me a huge dork. You can benefit from my dorkiness for the time it takes to:

a) tell me what to write about, and

b) read what I write.

You Like My Stuff

You like what you’ve seen so far, or you wouldn’t be back. But it lacks focus. I get that. I’m an eclectic bunny. You want some reliably good content. I’m cool with that.

And I can write some good stuff on occasion. I want there to be more occasions. I like writing good stuff that you like to read. It’s fun.

Stuff I’m Good At

So here’s a quick list of the things I’m particularly good at that I’ll write about more:

• Business management. The people stuff. Not the MBA stuff. Anyone can do that. I have an IT bent, because that’s the area I’ve worked in most of my career, but in different industries.
• Open Source Software. I run Ubuntu on my laptop. I’ve run some form of Linux on my laptop or home machine for 10 years. You would have seen one of my articles on how to get prepaid wireless broadband working, or getting sound working on my Asus laptop.
• Documentation. I’m a huge documentation nerd. It’s a love/hate thing, but I can teach you a thing or two about how to beat Word 2007 into submission.
• Presentation Skills. I’m more about the written stuff, and I’m not all that good at it, but I love it and can point you at good stuff.
• In that vein: Graphic Design. Again, I’m not ace at it, but I can give you pointers if you’re clueless. I’m the halfway house of graphic design. I’m step 2 of the 12 step program. Oh! And I have a bunch of friends who are graphic designers, so if I get stumped I can ask them.
• Photography. It’s a hobby. I can point you at beginner tips for digital photography, and point you at the best places to learn. We can get better together!

Why Read My Stuff?

I work at all this stuff during the day, so I know a thing or two about it. Particularly the IT management and architecture stuff, and the documentation bits. I read a lot about it too. You might not enjoy reading all of Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct (though you should, because it’s an awesome book), but I can clue you in to the best bits.

Consider me a shortcut to knowledge. You can say “Hey, Justin, explain why the passive voice isn’t always bad, but how to use it effectively in my writing”, or “Why am I totally allowed to end a sentence with a preposition?”.

Or maybe you want to know “Hey, dude, I’ve just been made team leader. I have no clue what I’m doing, and I’m scared shitless. What do I do?” Been there. It’s not that bad, and I can give you some pointers, sure. The fact that you’re asking the question means you’ll be awesome. I’ll tell you how.

But like I said, I have eclectic interests, so I could write about all kinds of stuff. It’ll take me a while to try some things and check my blog stats for what works, which will just waste a lot of your time. Blah. Let’s get straight to the good bits, yeah?

So What Now?

It’s really easy. Just leave a note in the comments telling me what you want to read about. I’ll oblige. You tell me what to do, and I promise I’ll write about what you ask for. It’s kinda awesome. I’d take advantage of me.

Seriously. You get to mainline expert advice that normally costs my clients big money. Except for the graphic design and photography stuff. I don’t advise on that. I pass that on to experts I know. The other stuff, yeah, I know that well. I want to give away some of this knowledge for free. No, I don’t really know why. Let’s work it out together. What do you say?

If you’re not too keen on leaving a comment, that’s ok. Email me at [email protected] and I’ll keep it just between us. If you’ve been reading for a while, you already know how I feel about your privacy.