“More Women Oriented” (Or: Ignorance creates a talentless environment)
December 28, 2007
Sometimes, I’m moved to blog because I am reminded of how unfair the world is. I suppose it’s something that most people are already aware of, but I usually forget that most of the world isn’t as enlightened as most of the people who I’m lucky to associate with on a daily basis.
This morning, my friend Jason twittered about Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk getting fired from Yahoo. Now, that in itself isn’t that big a deal. People lose jobs all the time. It was when I read the entry that I found this wonderful quote:
Here’s what my boss’s boss’s boss said: “You should write for Lifestyles. That is more women oriented.â€
This is a senior manager at a major public company. And I know that this happens. A friend of mine was once fired from a similarly major corporation because she reported sexual harassment.
But this is 2007, and it’s ridiculous that we still have to put up with this ignorance and stupidity in the world. The thing about it is, it’s Yahoo’s loss. Penelope is brilliant, funny and a wonderful thinker when it comes to careers. And she’s going to land on her feet, because she’s so talented.
But if companies like Yahoo continue to treat their talent like this, soon enough, they won’t have any talent. Their short-term ignorance will cost them the talent.
This is why these companies are having such trouble attracting the young “GenNext” employees. More and more, the people who are under-30s today are looking for places that respect the talent around them. This often appears to be a “sense of entitlement” to the old fogeys (yes, I just called everybody older than 35 a fogey). But it isn’t… it’s about respect for skill and talent.
And the understanding that disrespecting someone’s talent because of what they look like, how they dress, or their gender is stupid and shouldn’t be rewarded.
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A Cool New Conference
December 17, 2007
So, I spent the weekend in Boston helping to organize Source Boston, a new security conference that is taking place in March.
And, while I’m a bit biased because I’m helping organize, I have no doubt that this one’s going to be amazing. We’ve got an amazing group of advisors – I spent the weekend hanging around with Raffy, Adam, Oliver, the 3 Chris’s from Veracode, and our fearless and effervescent leader Stacy (who really, really needs to get a blog I can link to). It’s always fun to be the dumbest person in the room by a pretty wide margin.
But here’s what’s cool about the conference – our goal is to put on the kind of speaker list that you’d only get at Blackhat or RSA, but do it in a really intimate venue. We agreed that the conference should have the same sort of vibe as you get when a huge rock-band (that usually sells out an arena) comes and plays a small local club.
There’s a disadvantage to having such an intimate setting, though – you have to get your tickets soon – we’re capping attendance at 450, and they’re going to move quickly.
To me, it’s all about access to the speakers – you can really get the chance to ask questions, meet people, and be part of the discussion. Which is rare with the speakers we have (more announcements on the speaker list in the coming days – it’s amazing, and I can’t wait to be able to talk about it more).
Oh, and I’m pretty excited about an activity on the final day of the conference – we’re going to have a reunion of the L0pht – having a large number of the members in one place to talk about their experiences and their thoughts on the industry that, in many minds, they were a large part of starting.
Aside: we’re doing some super-secret registration mojo that I think is pretty cool. Email me and I’ll tell you about it.
Don’t hassle the Hoff…
December 14, 2007
Okay, so I’ve been seriously remiss in posting for, oh, say the last six months, but I couldn’t resist mentioning this one.
Recently, Mogull posted an article on Dark Reading decrying the nature of security predictions. Shortly after writing the article, and while out of the country, Rich’s house automation went crazy.
Well, Hoff took umbrage to the article, and decided to make one of his own predictions come true… and owned Mogull’s house.
Hats off to the Hoff… and to Mogull for showing us all that even the most security aware of us can get owned.
(Of course, it’s always easier to get pwned by somebody who can drop you an email and ask you to collaborate on something, but that’s a topic for another post…)