A week in Montana did me some good

I find I’m agreeing with Shelley Powers and not with Guy Kawasaki. Resumes are so 1990s anyway. Just do a damn blog. And lest you think that only works for A listers, you’re nuts. I still remember interviewing at NEC. They had printed out a ream of my blogs and had highlighted a bunch of parts to ask me about. Far better than a resume.

The question is, how would I hire Shelley Powers? Now wouldn’t THAT be an interesting office?

Nancy Folsom (among others, including Shelley) took Maryam to task for saying that women can’t be geeks. Those of you who don’t know Nancy should know that she knows how to code and has been hanging out in various programming communities since the early 1990s. 

I think Maryam tapped into a source of emotionalism usually only held by Mac users.

I’m looking over my posts for the past six weeks, though, and I’ve turned into one of those lame bloggers who doesn’t say much. Sorry. Life is chaos right now.

But, it sure is good to be back at a job full time now and in a new house.

Oh, speaking of work. Finding a name and a URL is damn difficult. Everytime I find a name that Maryam and my coworkers like the URL is gone. Now I know why so many companies come up with lame names. Like, well, yelp.

Yes, Yelp. WTF? But, today, we used Yelp to find a place to eat lunch and a car wash to clean out my boss’ van. It’s a review site that’s popular with the 20-year-olds in the valley. Instead of a stupid name like “yourgeektv.com” (yes, I +did+ register that one, but it was killed last week when everyone at the Off-the-Grid camp said it was super lame) maybe I should just hold a contest. The problem is that any good name that comes up would be registered by the time I got around to it.

Maybe I should just tell you to stick it in your geektubes.com. Heheh.

Maryam’s tips on names? Has to be easy to say. Catchy. Represent what it’s about.

It’s a show for geeks. Help, find me a name that doesn’t suck.

Update: regarding resumes, Jonathan Jesse says that resumes are still valid in “the real world.” Oh, Jesse, of course they are! I’m just pulling your leg a little bit. But, Guy Kawasaki was talking about Silicon Valley and the jobs I’ll be hiring for require you to be a good videoblogger. Or, a good writer. Or a good developer. Or a good interviewer. Or a good blogger (not always the same thing as a good writer, by the way). Or a good podcaster. Now, how can I tell whether you have the skills to do ANY of those things from your resume? I can’t, expecially since I’ve learned from Guy that many people pull MY leg on their resumes.

So, I’ll stick to Googling you, thank you very much! Oh, and, yes, I did that just to get Google’s legal department mad at me. Heheh. Oh, don’t worry, I probably got Apple’s legal department mad at me too. Afterall, my new company’s name has the word “pod” in it.

If I keep pissing off legal departments I’ll never get an interview with Mark Lucovsky or Steve Jobs. Sigh.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Pat: I thought about something along those lines cause my son always called Dave Winer’s house the Internet Hut or something like that.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Pat: I thought about something along those lines cause my son always called Dave Winer’s house the Internet Hut or something like that.

  • http://www.briefingsdirect.com/ Dana Gardner
  • http://www.briefingsdirect.com Dana Gardner
  • LayZ

    @22. But you won’t be hiring or producing anything near the quality of Connery, so what’s your point?

  • LayZ

    @22. But you won’t be hiring or producing anything near the quality of Connery, so what’s your point?

  • http://www.nerdystuff.com/ Chris

    Hi Robert,

    You can buy NerdyStuff.com off me if you like!

    Chris

  • http://www.nerdystuff.com Chris

    Hi Robert,

    You can buy NerdyStuff.com off me if you like!

    Chris

  • http://nancyfolsom.wordpress.com/ Nancy

    Okay, so it’s a show for geeks. So is Star Trek…could you be a little more specific? :-) Maybe thinking about the theme will give you some ideas?

    I suck at thinking of creative, memorable names. The only one that comes to mind is Speegk.com. The G is silent, get it? And, hey, it’s available.

  • http://nancyfolsom.wordpress.com/ Nancy

    Okay, so it’s a show for geeks. So is Star Trek…could you be a little more specific? :-) Maybe thinking about the theme will give you some ideas?

    I suck at thinking of creative, memorable names. The only one that comes to mind is Speegk.com. The G is silent, get it? And, hey, it’s available.

  • http://makemarketinghistory.blogspot.com/ John Dodds

    “Or a good blogger (not always the same thing as a good writer, by the way).”

    I don’t disagree, but I’d be interested in an expansion of that thought as i’m sure would your prospective employees.

  • http://makemarketinghistory.blogspot.com/ John Dodds

    “Or a good blogger (not always the same thing as a good writer, by the way).”

    I don’t disagree, but I’d be interested in an expansion of that thought as i’m sure would your prospective employees.

  • http://writingforfilm.com/ Brooke A. Wharton

    “I used to work for Sean Connery (true story). He had an agent. Far better than a resume.”

    Ahh Robert,

    Getting an agent in the entertainment industry is much more difficult than getting paid work within the entertainment industry. You only get an agent when you have some produced credits to your name and when you–as an actor, writer, director etc– are a predictable revenue stream, as an agent makes her/his living by receiving 10% of the gross revenue that the represented talent receives. Obviously, no one, especially an agent, wants to make 10% of nothing.

    Needless to say, to get an agent, you need a list of produced work (resume) and a sample of your work.

    BTW, if you ever chat with Sean again, I’m sure he’ll tell you some variation of this re: how he got an agent.

  • http://writingforfilm.com Brooke A. Wharton

    “I used to work for Sean Connery (true story). He had an agent. Far better than a resume.”

    Ahh Robert,

    Getting an agent in the entertainment industry is much more difficult than getting paid work within the entertainment industry. You only get an agent when you have some produced credits to your name and when you–as an actor, writer, director etc– are a predictable revenue stream, as an agent makes her/his living by receiving 10% of the gross revenue that the represented talent receives. Obviously, no one, especially an agent, wants to make 10% of nothing.

    Needless to say, to get an agent, you need a list of produced work (resume) and a sample of your work.

    BTW, if you ever chat with Sean again, I’m sure he’ll tell you some variation of this re: how he got an agent.

  • http://writingforfilm.com/ Brooke A. Wharton

    BTW, in my April 12, May 3, May 4, May 11, May 19, May 25, July 7, August 5, Sept. 14, Sept. 19 posts in 2005 at writingforfilm.com, I discussed the difficulty/strategies of finding any agent (lit.) within the entertainment industry (that’s how difficult it is!!)

  • http://writingforfilm.com Brooke A. Wharton

    BTW, in my April 12, May 3, May 4, May 11, May 19, May 25, July 7, August 5, Sept. 14, Sept. 19 posts in 2005 at writingforfilm.com, I discussed the difficulty/strategies of finding any agent (lit.) within the entertainment industry (that’s how difficult it is!!)

  • http://www.tweblog.com/ Toby Getsch

    Wanna hire me? I’m available. Search for more info any way that works for you. I think I’m listed. ;)

  • http://www.tweblog.com/ Toby Getsch

    Wanna hire me? I’m available. Search for more info any way that works for you. I think I’m listed. ;)

  • PRB

    http://www.boobtube.com

    Appears to be available…

    Is easily identifiable, but does not convey geek content. I suppose you want something more geeky such
    as.

    http://www.nerdvideo.com

    Naturally as with passwords, once published someone will squat on/crack it.

    Good Luck…

  • PRB

    http://www.boobtube.com

    Appears to be available…

    Is easily identifiable, but does not convey geek content. I suppose you want something more geeky such
    as.

    http://www.nerdvideo.com

    Naturally as with passwords, once published someone will squat on/crack it.

    Good Luck…

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    PRB: I like boobtube.com, but, yeah, doesn’t seem to fit the kind of show I’m gonna do. Nerdvideo does, but Robert Cringley’s show is NerdTV and I don’t wanna be accused of copying or stealing.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    PRB: I like boobtube.com, but, yeah, doesn’t seem to fit the kind of show I’m gonna do. Nerdvideo does, but Robert Cringley’s show is NerdTV and I don’t wanna be accused of copying or stealing.

  • Dave Cohen
  • Dave Cohen
  • LayZ

    Brooke, I guess by Scoble’s logic all one now has to do is blog about their writing or acting and they can get hired. CAA will be crapping their pants if the industry gets ahold of this new strategy ;-)

  • LayZ

    Brooke, I guess by Scoble’s logic all one now has to do is blog about their writing or acting and they can get hired. CAA will be crapping their pants if the industry gets ahold of this new strategy ;-)

  • http://mianfahim.wordpress.com/ Mian Fahim ul Haq

    You can have http://www.geekrobes.com and I have more than one reasons to justify this.

    1. Geekrobes sounds similar to Microbes

    2. It all about a Geek known as Robert Scoble. Hence GEEKROBE(rt)S(coble).

    3. Traditional movies show curtains in front of cinema screens. They remove curtain to start the show.
    ROBES can be taken as gowns that professors/students wear on convocations etc. So geek movies should be hidden with a robe instead of a traditional curtain. Remove the robe and below is a geek :P

    Just some random thoughts ;) .

  • http://mianfahim.wordpress.com/ Mian Fahim ul Haq

    You can have http://www.geekrobes.com and I have more than one reasons to justify this.

    1. Geekrobes sounds similar to Microbes

    2. It all about a Geek known as Robert Scoble. Hence GEEKROBE(rt)S(coble).

    3. Traditional movies show curtains in front of cinema screens. They remove curtain to start the show.
    ROBES can be taken as gowns that professors/students wear on convocations etc. So geek movies should be hidden with a robe instead of a traditional curtain. Remove the robe and below is a geek :P

    Just some random thoughts ;) .