Stress Tip No. 5 : Every day has a headline ‘story’

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment
“Everyday has a headline story”, is something used in reference to traditional newspapers, and infers that no matter how much or little news happens in a day, there will always be something that is put in the biggest font at the top of the page. In stress terms this is another way of saying it doesn’t matter how hard you work, you will never be able to clear down everything. You just can’t do it, particularly in a corporate environment. If you managed to clear down the things that are genuinely ultra important, then other things will have their visibility raised, and then you get chased for those. That’s not to say that you don’t work your very best and you try and do good quality work, doing that will make a difference 1, but know from a pure stress management point of view, that you will never be able to clear all the decks, there will always be something that is the most important thing that day. I’m explaining this badly, so let me relate it to my own way of working. I have found a level I know that if I deliver at, then no one can look at my day, and not think I have not busted a gut. but there is a difference between busting a gut while doing your best versus putting yourself in a hospital or giving yourself Burnout 2, this is a level I can keep running at indefinitely with a bit “left in the tank”, I use that for genuine “Headline” tasks, but its not for daily use, it would kill me. As I’ve mentioned on other posts if you’re running at 100% all the time, genuinely 100%, Then you will not have any surge left in you should your work have a genuine crisis. So hold on to that as a stress management marker. Hold on to it, realise that not everything that is claimed as important, actually needs you to stop the press!!.   ..Cough.. So this post is written with a certain target audience in mind, and that is normal corporate people that will work to a normal retirement age, However there is a sub set of people who it does not apply to, and that is the high burn jobs: Fighter pilots, Investment brokers, Surgeons etc. etc. . Such people have a far shorter working life and as such they are paid a lot more to make up for it, If you have a manager that is trying to get this level of performance out of you, then you should be paid at the performance level you are giving, as you are genuinely burning your self faster than you should.
  1. To your personal sense of worth and job satisfaction if nothing else[↩]
  2. And by Burnout I mean the real deal, not something that can be fixed with a 2 week holiday[↩]

Shared Service Vs software as a service: A quick guide for Managers

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The 3 minute guide for non technical managers on how to tell a shared service from software as a service.

This is a recent little wrinkle that managers face, and it’s because everyone thinks everything is ‘in the cloud’, as if that cures all ills, but as we all know, the cloud is just someone else’s computer.

There is a big difference in different types of ‘cloud’ offerings, most of you who have worked in IT for anytime in the last five decades, will know the concept of sharing a database server with other people, or sharing a Storage Area Network with other department. You have to be a good tenant and learn to share. If you savage the space on the SQL Server, the DBAs will get angry with you, if you behave badly on the SAN then you will be moved, to either a different SAN or your bandwidth will be throttled. This is something everybody understood.

Now with the advent of things like AWS, and Microsoft Azure, the full concept of software as a service has arisen, you cannot actually be a bad tenant on such systems. You can push them as hard as you can possibly manage, and they will just scale up 1, This has made things really very easy, We haven’t had to do capacity management or a lot of the normal historically planning. This has made some people’s jobs much easier and less questions are now ask, so when people want to introduce something that is web based, they will often call it software as a service, but it’s not. It’s just a different form of shared service. what is the top easy way of telling this?? 

Is there a bill when you use more??

That’s it!!, if people just let you use it without a itemised bill, then it’s a shared service. If people bill you more the more you use it, then it’s software as a service.

Why is this important? because you can BREAK shared services, you can overload them and impact the other tenants, You can get yourself thrown off. You can get yourself into all sorts of trouble over it. You have to be well behaved just like in the old days.

So don’t let anyone fool you, unless you’re getting an extra bill for your extra usage, It is a shared service, you can break it, simple as that. If there’s no money exchanged, then it’s not unlimited. Think back to when the internet suddenly got popular, and Internet Service providers advertised unlimited usage. Everybody that pounded the hell out of it suddenly got caught up by ‘fair usage’. They didn’t want to go back on the fact that they sold you unlimited, but it wasn’t. It had a usage limit. Same is true on these apparent cloud services.

Not all services are created equal.

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

  1. and you will get a bill[↩]

“Acid Sam” Run No. 5

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

Welcome to Episode 5, as I continue trying to get a really good “Acid Sam” time 1, An “Acid Sam” 2 is 100 Kettle bell Snatches followed immediately by a standard “Acid Bath” fitness test.

The details and timings are:

100 Kettle Bell snatches

Sam is prepping me so I can match the “Russian Kettlebell challenge certification Requirements” , so I use a session kettlebell of 24kg which is a basic standard for someone of my size 3

Time: between 5 – 10 mins, with under 5 mins without the the Kettle bell touching the floor as the strict challenge (see details).

Details: The proper details of the challenge ( taken from) + the no set down rule:

Begin by getting into position, Hike-pass the kettlebell back and snatch it overhead in one movement, ending with a straight-arm lockout.
    • You may swing and change hands as much as needed
    • You may set the kettlebell down and rest as needed
Acceptable hand-coverings for the test include: tape, socks, Dragon Skins™, and minimalist gloves (i.e. cotton gardening gloves). You may use chalk and reapply it during the test, if needed. You may not use belts, thick or padded-gloves, wrist wraps or any other equipment designed to support your body.
No Count Criteria
    • Not locking out the elbows.
    • Rebending the knees on the way up.
    • Failure to stop all movement at the lockout.
    • Pressing out the kettlebell to finish your lockout.
    • Touching the chest with the working arm or passing through the rack position on the way down.
    • Placing a hand on the knee or thigh.
Failure (strict challenge)
Failure on the strict challenge will occur if:
    • You Touch the kettlebell with the non-working arm, unless you are switching hands.
    • You drop the kettlebell rather than setting it down with control (at the end).
    • You run out of time before completing the required number of reps.
    • You Set down the kettlebell on the floor before the end.
Snatch Test Requirements:
For the snatch test, the sum of both arms is scored. There are different requirements based on gender and age group (Only the Open ones are listed here). They are as follows:

Men’s Open Class:

  • Up to 135 pounds     18kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 136-150 pounds       20kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 151-165 pounds       22kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 166-250 pounds       24kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 251 pounds     24kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 251 pounds (mad option) 28kg 100reps / 5 min

Women’s Open Class:

  • Up to 100 pounds     10kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 101-120 pounds       12kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 121-135 pounds       14kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 136-200 pounds       16kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 200 pounds      16g 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 200 pounds  (mad option) 18kg 100reps / 5 min

Acid bath

Details: The “Acid bath” is a standard fitness set which consists of the following:

For standards these all have to be done on the concept2 range of equipment.

Time: Men are supposed to do this under 6 minutes and Ladies under 7.

Progress and attempt times

Todays try was another bit of a failure, timing and technique wise I just have not got it right, I can do the individual parts, just not chaining the 2 challenges together properly, so its time to alter the timings a little bit, based off some items I have read online and a bit of experimentation, its seems the best way to do the 100 Snatches is

  • 20 Snatches Off hand
  • 20 Snatches On hand
  • 15 Snatches Off hand
  • 15 Snatches On hand
  • 10 Snatches Off hand
  • 10 Snatches On hand
  • 5 Snatches Off hand
  • 5 Snatches On hand

So the new split times for the various parts were.

  1. 20 Snatches Off hand (0:56)
  2. 20 Snatches On hand (0:56)
  3. 15 Snatches Off hand (0:42)
  4. 15 Snatches On hand (0:42)
  5. 10 Snatches Off hand (0:28)
  6. 10 Snatches On hand (0:28)
  7. 5 Snatches Off hand (0:14)
  8. 5 Snatches On hand (0:14)
  9. Transfer Over to Acid Test (using the Kettle Bell time) (0.20)
  10. 500m Ski Erg (1:50)
  11. 500m Row (1:50)
  12. 1km Bike Erg (2:20)

This may seem a bit complex but I’m finding that Seconds Pro is the best app for handling it.

  1. , A Base goal of 11 minutes and a perfect goal of 10:30 seconds.[↩]
  2. Named after my fab PT Sam Bradley. [↩]
  3. The weight you would take into a class.[↩]

Snowflake Cloud World Tour 2022 London

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

Snowflake Cloud World Tour 2022 London was my first proper conference in well.. Years. and it was lovely to get back to them.

This one was at the Excel centre London and with the new Elizabeth line, that meant that getting from the finance district (Liverpool Street) to the conference was truly 20 minutes door to door, making it absolutely perfect for me and a lot of the attendees, particularly as this was only a one day conference mid week, which meant that I could actually drop into work, get some stuff done, then nip over to the conference in plenty of time for coffee and keynote.

The external directions weren’t anything to speak of, but once you found the hall it was situated in 1, everything was nice and easy. Registration was very smooth and catering was a professional affair. As a previous booth babe and stallholder myself, the layout of the stalls was just right. Everyone had sufficient space. Wi Fi was solid, plus all other kinds of facilities you would hope for in a conference were there.

This was early in the morning, so it filled up later

The event its self was much smaller than I was expecting 2. But nonetheless it had a good and well balanced opening Keynote which had all you would want in it, from demos to new reveals, to company history, all that kind of stuff.

I particularly liked that each of the major industries got a little shout out and an acknowledgment of how they are being addressed

“I remember early on, the CEO of a very large insurance company in the US really didn’t want to talk about architecture and computing, because they’re insurance people right. They said we may have very different insurance claims between Northern Ireland and Ireland itself. How do you explain that? And how can you do that fast and how can you do it accurately, as we may have to change policy or we have to change pricing. This is the type of stuff that preoccupies insurance executives because that’s the difference between winning and losing, and being profitable and being unprofitable”

The Image above was in every session I went to and is obviously the main push.

In fact the only part that made me roll my eyes a tiny bit was the inevitable push into applications, as it seems that every company that has a good product always seems to have half an eye on the huge fortune Apple made on phone apps, and are just waiting for a chance to shoe horn applications into their offering, well we will see if snowflake is any different,

On the individual sessions, all the ones I went to were excellent, following the tried and tested method of having “tracks” so you did not get many conflicts on what you wanted to go to, most of them were driven by actual snowflake people. It wasn’t the same diversity and partner driven sessions that I am used to with some of the vendors like IBM or Salesforce, but I learned a lot so have no complaints

Presentation equipment was again excellent, I am seeing this as a previous speaker myself with uber bright projectors, everyone had nice clear mics you could hear from everywhere in the room. 

Top feature of the whole day I have to say was my snowflake contact “Ben”, who identified me as I passed the main stall with a frown on my face, he must have had a list of about 1000 people to keep an eye out for, and to identify one of us who he has only met once, in a crowd to say hello, wins huge brownie points.

Time wise. Other than the sessions I managed to rip the heart out of everything I needed in about three hours, and went away very satisfied and determined to go back to the next one, I’m not a snowflake evangelist, so I’m not going to get over excited about anything, however I went there with a list of questions from my colleagues, a list of questions myself, and a set of future plans I needed to cater to.

I went away with everything I wanted answered, and with a plan of action, so everything you could want in a day conference 3.

Food catered for every dietary need and quibble, particularly for me, as no one seemed to want the vegan burritos so I was able to eat so many that I waddled and filled up on good coffee, Nice.

One of the most popular freebees on the partner floor was the free crane.
  1. The same I visited for the Pokémon World championships last month[↩]
  2. but i did hear that a lot of conferences are like this as they are feeling there way back after the Pandemic[↩]
  3. Longer ones have a whole social thing going for them but that is a whole separate game[↩]

“Acid Sam” Run No. 4

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

Welcome to Episode 4, as I continue trying to get a really good “Acid Sam” time 1, An “Acid Sam” 2 is 100 Kettle bell Snatches followed immediately by a standard “Acid Bath” fitness test.

The details and timings are:

100 Kettle Bell snatches (Updated)

Sam is prepping me so I can match the “Russian Kettlebell challenge certification Requirements” , so I use a session kettlebell of 24kg which is a basic standard for someone of my size 3

Time: between 5 – 10 mins, with under 5 mins without the the Kettle bell touching the floor as the strict challenge (see details).

Details: The proper details of the challenge ( taken from) + the no set down rule:

Begin by getting into position, Hike-pass the kettlebell back and snatch it overhead in one movement, ending with a straight-arm lockout.
    • You may swing and change hands as much as needed
    • You may set the kettlebell down and rest as needed
Acceptable hand-coverings for the test include: tape, socks, Dragon Skins™, and minimalist gloves (i.e. cotton gardening gloves). You may use chalk and reapply it during the test, if needed. You may not use belts, thick or padded-gloves, wrist wraps or any other equipment designed to support your body.
No Count Criteria
    • Not locking out the elbows.
    • Rebending the knees on the way up.
    • Failure to stop all movement at the lockout.
    • Pressing out the kettlebell to finish your lockout.
    • Touching the chest with the working arm or passing through the rack position on the way down.
    • Placing a hand on the knee or thigh.
Failure (strict challenge)
Failure on the strict challenge will occur if:
    • You Touch the kettlebell with the non-working arm, unless you are switching hands.
    • You drop the kettlebell rather than setting it down with control (at the end).
    • You run out of time before completing the required number of reps.
    • You Set down the kettlebell on the floor before the end.
Snatch Test Requirements:
For the snatch test, the sum of both arms is scored. There are different requirements based on gender and age group (Only the Open ones are listed here). They are as follows:

Men’s Open Class:

  • Up to 135 pounds     18kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 136-150 pounds       20kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 151-165 pounds       22kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 166-250 pounds       24kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 251 pounds     24kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 251 pounds (mad option) 28kg 100reps / 5 min

Women’s Open Class:

  • Up to 100 pounds     10kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 101-120 pounds       12kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 121-135 pounds       14kg 100reps / 5 min
  • 136-200 pounds       16kg 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 200 pounds      16g 100reps / 5 min
  • Over 200 pounds  (mad option) 18kg 100reps / 5 min

Acid bath

Details: The “Acid bath” is a standard fitness set which consists of the following:

For standards these all have to be done on the concept2 range of equipment.

Time: Men are supposed to do this under 6 minutes and Ladies under 7.

Progress and attempt times

Todays try I did in 12:25, which is worse than last time, the snatches were far too scrappy and I did not control them as I should have done (and I have been shown to do), but the death grip seems sorted, but as I still have not got this pace sorted I will leave times the same.

The split times for the various parts were.

  1. 20 kettlebell snatches (1:10)
  2. 20 kettlebell snatches (1:10)
  3. 20 kettlebell snatches (1:10)
  4. 20 kettlebell snatches (1:10)
  5. 20 kettlebell snatches (1:10)
  6. 500m Ski Erg (1:50)
  7. 500m Row (1:50)
  8. 1km Bike Erg (2:10)

 

BONUS VIDEO

I also do 2 spin sets a week with Louise Ripley-Duggan who has kept me on despite moving onwards an upwards with her work, we are running at an FTP rating of 330, she simply does the best Spin class, however she is just as evil as Sam and good at pushing me to the dropping point, this was from this week.

  1. , A Base goal of 11 minutes and a perfect goal of 10:30 seconds.[↩]
  2. Named after my fab PT Sam Bradley. [↩]
  3. The weight you would take into a class.[↩]