Taken Out of Context

I had the good fortune to be interviewed for a Wall Street Journal article that was published yesterday (Feb. 3). The story discussed how recently unemployed individuals are filling their free time with Internet activities. Unfortunately, much of the piece was devoted to online gaming, in which I have not participated before or since the day I was laid off.

It would have been nice of the reporter to inform me at the beginning of our interview that Internet gaming and entertainment was the central focus of the article, but she did not. Part way through our conversation, she did ask me whether or not I played online games. The question seemed odd — out of place — given that I thought we were talking about how recently unemployed people were using blogs and Twitter to forge and maintain relationships, create and enhance personal branding, position as an expert in a particular subject matter area, and even land a job.

I’m writing this post because I felt a strong need to go on the record and state that the section of the article that references and quotes me (see below) only scratches the surface of what the reporter and I discussed during our 22+ minute conversation. We did talk about how I was staying in touch with former IBM colleagues via Twitter and how that was proving to be valuable. However, we also talked about how social media can connect unemployed individuals with work and new business opportunities. We discussed how blogging and Twittering can make an individual’s expertise known to a peer community, which is especially useful for someone whose previous job did not afford that kind of visibility outside of the company for which he worked. And we talked about how great it is that these social networking and media tools are free — an attractive proposition for someone who is unemployed (see my previous post, Social Software: The Unemployed Knowledge Worker’s Best Friend)

I am very pleased to have made the editor’s cut and been included in any article in such a respected and widely-read publication as The Wall Street Journal. I just wish that my story and remarks had been placed in an article that took a different, less frivolous, look at how recently unemployed folks are using the Internet.

“Larry Hawes, 47, was laid off from his job as a consultant at International Business Machines Corp. in November. But he has never lost touch with his former co-workers. The Ipswich, Mass., resident spends a lot more time building up his personal blog, which is dubbed “Together, We Can!” He also sends out more Twitters, a service for broadcasting short messages to a circle of friends and associates. He says he is on Twitter all day, sending out about 10 posts a day to a group of 137 people, including former IBM colleagues and other friends. In total, he adds, he’s sent out 652 “tweets” since October.

“I’m maintaining relationships with IBM-ers because I don’t work there anymore,” says Mr. Hawes.”

In Memorium John Updike: Work 2.0 Role Model

John Updike (1932-2009) in 2002.

As you most likely know, John Updike succumbed to lung cancer on January 27th, at age 76. His name registers instantly in the mind as one of the preeminent authors of our era; two of John’s novels were awarded the Pulitzer Prize and he wrote scores of widely-read essays, short stories, and poems for The New Yorker over a span of more than 50 years.

Why am I pausing to remember John Updike on this blog? Three reasons:

1. We share two towns in common
2. I was fortunate to have had several brief conversations with him
3. He is a great role model for the Work 2.0 movement.

John resided in Ipswich, MA, where I live now, from 1957-1979. He spent the remainder of his life in nearby Beverly Farms, MA, where I resided for two years prior to moving to Ipswich. John was an integral member of both communities. While living in Ipswich, he regularly attended town meetings and participated in numerous town committees. He frequently wrote for the local newspaper, The Ipswich Chronicle. He was a deacon of the Congregational Church and a member of the Lion’s Club. He played poker biweekly with a small group of townies and was often seen tanning and playing volleyball on Crane Beach. He was known by locals as “an everyday guy”, not a famous author.

I had the pleasure of meeting and conversing with John while we both lived in Beverly Farms. I was working part-time at the local package store, having lost my “real” job as a software industry analyst/consultant to the burst Internet bubble. John would patronize the store from time-to-time and was almost always smiling and pleasant. We briefly talked of small things: the economy, local happenings, the Red Sox, and wine. He was one of the friendliest and most genuine people I have met. However, John made his biggest impression on me after his death, while I’ve been reading his obituaries in various local newspapers and thinking about not only what he accomplished, but how he lived his life.

John was a freelancer. He was a staff writer at The New Yorker for two years after college, then left regular employment with the publication to be his own boss. Of course, much of his writing was published in The New Yorker throughout his life, but John refused to work for anyone but himself. He knew that he was very good at what he did and had the confidence to sell his work at a price that allowed his family to live comfortably. That’s the cornerstone of Work 2.0!

John had a work schedule that we would all do well to emulate. He wrote, uninterrupted in his office, from 9 am to 1 pm, Monday through Saturday. Essentially, he worked four hours a day and spent the rest of his time interacting with other people. Those relationships and the fruits of their interactions were the primary subject matter of his writing. He was able to pen an astonishing number of literary works (60 some novels alone) precisely because he worked only 24 hours a week — not in spite of that limited schedule. John’s working time was a highly-focused outpouring of everything he absorbed and did during the rest of his waking hours.

Shouldn’t we all strive for that kind of balance? Limit our working hours, but be 100% productive during that time? Take time to observe and know people? Make time to absorb as much learning as possible in our primary domain of interest? Sounds like a great lifestyle to me and John Updike’s legacy is proof of its merits. I just wanted to point that out, because it is a detail that might otherwise get easily lost as we remember the man and his accomplishments. Thank you, John, for showing us all a better way to live and work!

Photo Credit: © 2002 Rick Friedman/Corbis