Book Review: Escape from Cubicle Nation

I found this book via an actual friend (as in, know him in person, not just electronically) on Twitter, and I was intrigued by its punchy title. Escape from Cubicle Nation is written by Pamela Slim, an energetic "escapee" from corporate America who became a consultant for big businesses in Silicon Valley before turning her attention toward teaching individuals how to become entrepreneurs like her. And she's not fooling around: this book is definitely for people who are ready to strike out bravely on their own and turn their lifelong dreams into profitable businesses. If you're not up to it, she wisely advises her readers to stay where you are. It's not so much that starting your own business isn't for the timid, though that is certainly true; but Slim makes it clear that when corporate America turns on you in some fashion or starts to make your life miserable, "Hating your job intensely is not a business plan."

As it happens, I'm more of a corporate type than an entrepreneur. For the most part, I like working for large organizations and letting other, more interested people handle the bookkeeping, lawyering, insurance, and other stuff that doesn't fall under the realm of "communications." But all is not lost, according to Slim. More on that in a moment.

What won me over with this book was the author's "Open Letter to CXO's [chief executive officers] Across the Corporate World," which was her manifesto for why she decided to "take your best, your brightest, most creative, hard-working and passionate employees and sneak them out the hallways of your large corporation so that they are free of the yoke of lethargy, oppression, and resentment." What follows is a series of suggestions for how to make drastic (but unlikely) changes in American corporate culture, such as "Teach people how to get rich like you," "Don't ask for your employees' input if you are not going to listen to it," "Ditch the PowerPoint when yoiu have town hall meetings," "Focus on the work people do, not how or when they do it," and my favorite guffaw, "Forbid people to work while they are on vacation." Those might be fun changes to see...at some point.

Something became clear to me about one third of the way through the book: Slim's advice applies to a very specific, though admittedly large, segment of the American workforce: white-collar workers working in positions with high technical skills. Some jobs just aren't exportable. The first example that popped into my head was a line assembly worker at GM or Boeing, which is a job you really can't just pick up and do anywhere in the world, like a couple of her examples of successful entrepreneurs. You need to go where the work is. Of course those folks could start up their own machine shop, perhaps, but that involves investments in heavy equipment that isn't very portable or transferrable.

I don't say this to be critical, but Slim's emphasis on portability will not always resonate with people who want to open their own flower shop or set up some sort of business that requires a physical inventory. The choir she's preaching to is mostly folks who use their brains and computers to get their jobs done. The reason this emphasis is unfortunate is that her readership could have been broader if she'd focused on just starting one's own business. A lot of her advice does apply to any type of business, as she addresses all the practical concerns a potential entrepreneur needs to consider before starting. However, some of her advice, references, or analogies might fall on deaf ears because not everyone is operating in a corporate office environment.

All that said, the rest of the book rings true for me, and the author moves along briskly (as opposed to the science fiction book I've been slogging through on my Kindle for months, I got through Escape from Cubicle Nation in about a week). She covers not just the practical concerns of running a business, but also the social aspects of entrepreneurship, including overcoming doubters among your friends and resistance from your significant other, especially if you've enjoyed a great deal of success and stability in your corporate life. I appreciated her balance of encouragement and "reality checks" throughout the book. The bottom line for Slim, as you might suspect, is that you have to keep your eye on the ball and love what you're doing, or you'll crash and burn. More importantly, if you do crash and burn, you have to be willing to get back up again and work your backup plan(s).

So after reading this book, am I ready to jump out on my own? Actually, no. Escape from Cubicle Nation is not something I'm eagerly craving at this point in my life, and I'm honest enough with myself to know that I don't want to do all the paperwork entailed in running my own business. Plus--and this is probably most important--I don't have a specific thing that so sets me on fire that I think I can only do it well by starting my own business. At some point, maybe. In which case, I will return to this book, and reread its lessons, because Pamela Slim has all the bases covered.

Potpourri CXLV

Laissez les bon temps rouler...

Culture

It was "Embrace Your Geekness Day" at the New York Stock Exchange today. Get in touch with it, y'all!

NASA is sponsoring a science fiction writer's workshop. Hmmmm. Of course I had some snarky individuals tell me that I have been writing science fiction for the last four years, as I was writing for Constellation. That's just mean.

I think I've found a birthday gift for Doc: a coffee cup that combines Twitter and Cthulu.

Disney's new version of The Sorceror's Apprentice has a Facebook contest where you can win a trip to Disneyland and a chance to be an "Imagineer for a Day." Cool. Unfortunately, my stepmom still works for Disney, so I believe that makes me ineligible. Dagnabbit!

There's a place offering ninja training as a homeowner benefit. Weird.

From Father Dan: What's the future of furniture? Check this out.

Flight Global commemorated the 70th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain this week.

This was just cool: Art Deco trains from yesteryear.

Ever kissed an octopus? Me, neither. But some folks have. Blecchh.

Suggestions for making soccer more exciting (good luck with that): http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/2010/07/soccer-fever/#more-3040. My buddy Anika suggested to me that some folks view soccer as the equivalent of war. Well, okay, but if so, they need to work on their tactics. I actually watched the last 30 minutes of the World Cup, after napping through the first 90, and I noticed that while defensive formations/maneuvers tended to have 2-1 or better advantages, offensive efforts toward the goal tended to be singular, one-on-one play. When on defense, teams seem to fill their side of the field, but when it comes to scoring goals—you know, the point of the game—the offense only sends 3-5 players across midfield. Is that on purpose? Are those part of the rules of soccer? That, and perhaps the teams were too big for the game. Doc suggested that the field was too big—you can see higher scores in (for example) American high school games because they’re playing on an American football field. A smaller field tends to increase the likelihood of contact between teams. Anyhow, there are options for making the games more exciting (e.g. higher scoring). It’s very difficult to convince American audiences that “competitive” games that end with a 0-0 score are exciting. More scoring at least give one a sense of drama, rise and fall, changing fortunes, what have you. When a game goes on for nearly two hours and the most suspense you can muster is whether someone will score, that, my friends, is a recipe for a channel changing. Or a nap.

Here's an impressive, but vertigo-inducing hotel to see if you're ever in Singapore.

Science, Technology, and Space

From Tracy: an historical review of the NASA budget early in the Constellation Program. She made the point that there wasn't enough money for Shuttle and ISS at the time, which goes a long way toward explaining why there wasn't enough for exploration. Hm.

What do futurists actually do for a living? Check this out.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation has a Frequently Asked Questions document out to address "myths" regarding commercial space launch providers. For the most part, the document is on point. However, they neglect to address "human rating" standards, which are basically a bunch of extra bells and whistles that NASA adds to space hardware to ensure that astronauts have a better chance of surviving an emergency.

NASA has three new "Centennial Challenges" out there for competition.

This item made me a little crazy: some writer is advocating for the ending of air conditioning in the name of global warming. Brings to mind Jimmy Carter's suggestion that people turn down their heat and wear more sweaters when the fear was global freezing. My sarcastic response is, "You first, pal. Good luck with that." On a more practical note, people are about four times more likely to die from heat-related complications than freezing to death (see the Center for Disease Control here and here for the stats).

Brevard County, Florida (home of Kennedy Space Center) has its own version of Huntsville Space Professionals at work.

Paul Spudis has an article this week on NASA that's worth reading.

The future of composite repairs. This will become a bigger and bigger concern, as more and more aircraft have a larger percentage of their airframes made from composites.

From MIT: The Never Ending Drawing Machine


Graphical comparisons of the Gulf oil spill to other historical spills. While ugly, it’s not the worst (yet), by a long shot. http://www.fastcompany.com/1657758/infographic-of-the-day-the-gulf-oil-spill-isnt-the-biggest-but-itll-be-the-costliest-by-far and http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/three-decades-of-major-oil-spills.html.

Senator Nelson is looking to revive the Constellation Program at the expense of commercial-space launches. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-nelson-overturns-nasa-plans-20100711,0,2094998.story. NASA could be in for a long summer, waiting for its budget to come in.

 

Foreign Affairs

The bad guys are still out there. An al Qaeda-affiliated group from Somalia killed a bunch of people watching the World Cup in Uganda when South Africa's security proved too tough.

Education

This article deals with both education and creativity, and the state of both in this country. One interesting note: while this country is trying to "get back to basics," other nations are trying to copy our model.

Economy / Jobs

For my Huntsville friends...the following companies are hiring:

• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Davidson Technologies, Inc.
• Dynetics
• Kwajalein Range Services, LLC
• SAIC

First Meeting of Huntsville Space Professionals

One of the advantages of being on a no-overtime type of schedule is that if you work really late one day, you can get out early on, say, a Friday. That's what I did yesterday after kicking it until 10 p.m. Thursday. Since I had the time and might face employment drama after September 30, I decided to attend the first meeting of Huntsville Space Professionals (HSP), a group formed by some downsized NASA folks here in Rocket City, at Chan Auditorium at University of Alabama-Huntsville. The goal of the group is "Preserving and promoting Huntsville's talented human space capital." In short, they want to keep space jobs--or at least the people who filled them--here in Huntsville.

Also in attendance were Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and WAFF TV, Channel 48. (Note to the media: never mind your pushy questions--some people don't like your Very Bright Lights shining in their face--and I was in the back of the room.)

One of the speakers was Lori King-Taylor from Trinity Performance Solutions, which appears to be a staffing company of some sort. Another site she referenced was by the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce. Trinity is helping HSP with establishing a career center, which will assist people with a job search web site, resume writing, interview skills, 401(k) options, entrepreneurship, and counseling. King-Taylor encouraged the crowd: "Keep your head high. This is not your fault. You have done nothing wrong."

Tommy Battle indicated that his office is talking to some of the likely "winners" under the Obama administration's space policy, including firms like SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace, and Virgin Galactic. There are a lot of smart, space-minded people in Huntsville who would prefer to stay here, thank you very much, and there is a lot of specialized equipment and infrastructure needed to build and test rockets here in Alabama, so the road to space will still go through Huntsville. We'll see if these other companies bite or not. And we still don't know what Marshall Space Flight Center will end up doing under the new policy/budget. In any case, Battle is covering all the bases and working with the Alabama Governor's office as well. He had to go to a meeting, so he wasn't able to take Q&A.

The HSP guys also contacted former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, who is now an "eminent scholar" and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UAH. Griffin was out of the country, but responded to Q&A via email. His general comments were that (unsurprisingly) he was not happy with the new policy, but that he has "no influence over this matter." With regard to people worried about looking for jobs, he recommended that people "look in Huntsville first," pointing to opportunities on the Army side of Redstone Arsenal. For dedicated souls who still want to work for NASA, he recommended reviewing the Space Policy and "go where the money is." On the whole, Griffin hoped that Congress "just says no to the ridiculous space policy advocated by the Obama administration."

After reviewing Griffin's emailed-in responses, the HSP folks reviewed the status of the NASA budget. H.R. 5614, the "Protecting Human Space Flight Act," which was introduced by Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) "To impose certain requirements on the expenditure of funds by National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the Constellation Program." More to the point, the point of the bill is to slow down or stop what's going on with Constellation. Otherwise, the NASA budget is entering the "markup" part of budget cycle, where Congress takes what it's been given and starts fiddling with the numbers. The House started its markups June 29, the Senate is due to start theirs July 14. The main difference in the Senate bill is the addition of one more Space Shuttle flight in June 2011. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes "number crunching" going on at the moment, so we'll see what happens. While NASA received a $19 billion budget from the House, they deferred a decision on how to appropriate (spend) that money. We're very likely looking at a Continuing Resolution (CR) come the start of the new fiscal year (October 1).

The HSP guys opened the mike to public comment. There were some questions from the audience on job assistance--the primary reason most folks were there, I'd gather. If the HSP guys were disappointed that more people weren't fired up or getting up to speak, they covered it pretty well. That's not how this town works. Engineers aren't that exciteable, in my observations, and excessive activism is sometimes a political risk.

One gentleman from Southern Capital Management said that he would be willing to share proceeds from a property that he is selling as a commercial property--if folks are willing to put in "sweat equity" to help improve it. Sounds like it'd be serious digging and sweating. He was looking for people with their own Bobcats. Still, the offer's there if you're willing to work...

Otherwise, several Human Resources reps from Technicore, MTS, and United Space Alliance went up to the front of the room to talk to people and collect resumes or other contact information. The HSP guys mentioned that Jacobs was hosting a job fair at the Huntsville Museum of Art 9 a.m. to Noon July 13, and that HSP would be having a meeting at the Monte Sano Lodge next week sometime. Then the meeting more or less broke up.

I am not certain how to rate the effectiveness of this meeting. As I walked in, they were passing out copies of the Obama administration's space policy to make people aware, and they "weren't asking people to take a stand either way." About 50 people showed up, and they managed to get the mayor and the media to show up, so that's a step in the right direction. The HSP guys were looking for feedback on what else they could be doing. I honestly couldn't say. The uncertainty around Huntsville will be around for awhile. "We're caught in a big political game that's going on over our heads," as more than one person said. What happens next is anyone's guess. In the meantime, unfortunately, this group will be necessary for awhile.

Actions vs. Intentions

This conversation grew out of a story writing and editing session I had. I was trying (politely, of course) explain that the ending this person had selected for her character was boring because his salvation/resolution came from outside--the ever-dreaded deus ex machina. What I was trying to explain, as patiently as possible, was that her character had to earn his salvation. Finally, I tried another example. I said, "Look, let's say you had a million dollars in your estate, and you wanted to give it to your kid."

Horrified, she said, "I wouldn't do that!"

I asked, "Would you just give it to them when they turned 18, or would you make them earn it?"

"Earn it!" she said firmly. Then she added, "I don't think I'd even tell them I had it. I wouldn't want them to be spoiled."

"Great," I said, and then related the example back to her character and why an unearned reward did nothing for him. The discussion of earning vs. rewards continued, and we meandered into politics, partly because she had a utopia she wanted to include in her story.

"I'm very concerned about social justice lately," she said. "I just saw the Michael Moore movie, Capitalism: A Love Story." Rolling my eyes, I let her continue. "I don't think capitalism works."

There after followed a five-minute explanation of her feelings regarding the homeless, how they needed "dignity" and shouldn't be thrown out on the street. "They should have the basics: food, shelter, dignity." Dignity was a big thing with her. But she didn't want to talk or think about "rich or poor" or where the money would come from--you know: the actual cost of feeding the welfare state. She just wanted people to have enough money or possessions at the end of life to have dignity. This was the same person who didn't want to tell her own child that she had a million bucks, but she was willing to do whatever it took for social justice to prevail. I didn't have time to ask her these questions, but I couldn't help wondering afterward:

• If fictional characters or your own kids learn and value something earned more than something given to them, why wouldn't the total strangers you want to supply with "dignity?"
• If you wouldn't give your own kid $1M without them earning it (if then), why would you expect rich strangers in this country to give other total strangers enough money to have "dignity" at the end of their lives?
• How much should "dignity" cost, anyway?
• If you're so protective of your theoretical million dollars, why are "the rich" or "big businesses" greedy and evil for being the same way?
• Has it occurred to you that religion--which is increasingly being driven out of the public sphere--once drove the rich and poor alike to engage in private charitable giving before the government started taking more and more for the welfare and doing the giving for them?

I did ask her this: "If people get more satisfaction from earning and earning comes mostly from (private-sector) jobs, why shouldn't entrepreneurs and businesses be allowed to keep more of their money so they can hire more people?"

"They need to pay more taxes to pay for the social safety net."

I said, "They are, and so am I. The president thinks the way you do, and is raising taxes. As a result, businesses don't have as much money to hire more people. That's why unemployment is nearly 10 percent."

She shook her head in disbelief. "I don't think so. They're just cutting jobs to raise profits."

Great googily moogily! How do you argue with someone who has swallowed anti-economic thinking whole? Does she not understand that money that could have been spent on creating more goods and services (and thus jobs) is now diverted to unproductive activities like taxes and lawyers to cover their butts in the face of new regulations? Obviously not.

This is not just a gap in philosophy, it's a gap in fundamental knowledge, possibly willful, possibly not, but it illustrates dramatically why the political classes and the people they purport to represent are increasingly talking past each other. Wow. There's some real food for thought.