The week before last, I was on my way back from a vacation in Switzerland. I was fortunate enough to have United business class for the nearly 12-hour flight. I’ve done plenty of long flights in coach, many for Cisco, including several 15-hour trips to Singapore and Australia. I can’t stand sitting still on a […]
Category: Reflections
Writer’s block
Speaking of quarterly thinking, the title of my last blog post, it’s been a quarter since I posted anything! Partly this is because I went from a period of non-busyness to a period of extreme busyness at work; partly it is because of a host of nasty personal issues that cropped up at once; partly […]
What’s with the cosmic rays?
I was reading a Reddit thread bashing Cisco today. It’s a few months old. Some of the commentary is fair enough. Some of it might be a bit unfair. But I do think all vendor execs should spend time reading customer Reddit threads to understand how they’re perceived and what they can do better. […]
Legacy language
The spambots who regularly read my blog know that I have a fascination with language, and have a background in linguistics. So, I’m always fascinated by language and how we use it. This post is a bit pointless, but amusing (perhaps only to me). In my last post I mentioned I might file a bug […]
My years in management: Looking forward
As of December, my role at Cisco has transitioned from a leadership role back to an individual contributor. Gone are the constant approval emails; gone is the stack ranking of employees; gone are the performance reviews and the one-on-ones. It’s both relieving and eerily quiet. As I make this transition back, after nearly eight […]
Why I am not an FBI Agent
Some years back I wrote a post poking fun at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, based on an experience I had at a briefing in their office. The funny thing is–and this did not color my article– there was a point in my life when I badly wanted to be an FBI agent. Back in […]
HPE Buys Juniper
In 2007, I left Cisco after two brutal years in high-touch TAC. I honestly hated the job, but it was an amazing learning experience. I draw on my TAC experience every single day. A buddy of mine got a job at a Gold Partner, offered to bring me in, and I jumped on the opportunity. […]
Goodbye, Building K
I haven’t written anything for a while, because of the simple fact that I had nothing to say. The problem with being a writer is that sometimes you have nothing to write. I also have a day job, and sometimes it can keep me quite busy. Finally, an afternoon drive provided some inspiration. There’s a […]
The War on Expertise
Like many network engineers, I quickly fell in love with my field and worked hard to master it. I got into networking when I was working in desktop support. The behind-the-scenes stuff was way more interesting to me than the front lines. Back in the late nineties, I bought a library of books to learn […]
Cleared for nothing
I wrote this post on Feb 20, 2020, and I always thought it was an entertaining episode. FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan, who features prominently in the post, has been in the news lately as he played a major role in the Twitter Files. I will stay out of politics, except to note that Elvis […]