Jaa

What's "Funny" with Software Synergies?

  • Artikkeli

I am starting to see some parallels in my personal life and my work life.  I have always tried to find the humor in life's rich pageant.  After almost ten years of marriage, my wife has often said that I do it a bit too much; I'm always joking - but that's another story.  When I was in high school, I remember a friend of mine, Chris Bouchard, defined humor for me as when a connection is made between two previously unrelated things.  Sometimes when that connection is made for us, we laugh because it's funny.

Throughout my career, I have has the most fun in developing synergies, combining software - that's why I titled my blog Synergist.  For me it started when I was at architecture school, working with first-generation Tablet Computers (then called Pen Computing) for architects 14 years ago.  I then combined MFC and OpenGL for my Master's thesis.  As a first job, I designed and built CAD systems by assembling many software libraries, many of which had never worked together before.  That brought me to Mindjet where I combined MindManager with everything at the Mindjet Labs.  Of course now I'm at Microsoft, combining Silverlight with anything I can get my hands on!

In my role as a developer evangelist at Microsoft, I build demonstrations to spark people's interest.  When I show them how I've combined two software systems in an interesting way, I get a similar reaction to hearing the punch-line of a joke - a smirk, a laugh, an emotion.  I need to win the hearts and minds of software developers and seeing that a-ha moment in a presentation or a discussion is always a great sign.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 07, 2007
    PingBack from http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2007/08/07/

  • Anonymous
    August 18, 2007
    Michael, I relate to your work. I have been developing collaborative workplaces since 1997 and before that was developing computer based training programs. I think you will find the architectural concepts in my virtual workplace  - very interesting. I am most interested in keeping in synergy with you ... I added my blog as the URL in my comment.

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2008
    I am starting to see some parallels in my personal life and my work life. I have always tried to find the humor in life's rich pageant . After almost ten years of marriage, my wife has often said that I do it a bit too much; I'm always joking - but that'