The value of face to face contact is important. This from a guy that started a business with 6 other people, didn't meet my 2 longtime partners for over a year, and didn't meet 2 of the other ex-partners until they'd been bought out even later. One I never met!
I've always preferred face to face meetings for many things. There are quite a few things I don't buy over the Internet because I like the face to face contact and being able to ask questions or examine something in person. Shoes, cars, just things that I like to hold before I can decide whether or not to plunk down my hard earned money.
Don't get me wrong. I communicate with many of you in email, and I feel like I've gotten to know quite a few of you. I value those connections and they often feel like friends to me. That's important and you never know how often an email from some of you makes me smile.
However the measure of a person is hard to grasp sometimes in email. I find that I'm about as open as few people on the Internet. You read about my life, my experiences, and my thoughts, both here and on my blogs. Yet I send communications that are misinterpreted at times.
It's not that I mean to, but with words there is a set of emotions carried on our words, in an unwritten wavelength, but carried on by our prior contacts, the context, and the knowledge of the person. Someone once said "the pen is mightier than the sword" and I think it's true. We feel an impact from someone's words, and I'm honored to be able to share mine with so many people on a regular basis.
But that power comes with responsibility, and you have to be sure to send the emotions that you want t send. That's not always easy to do and I find myself considering it more and more the longer I write.
One of the things I've found over the years is that once I've met someone, shared a beer or a cup of coffee, a few jokes or comments on life, then I have a much better sense of the person. I've been a very good judge of character for most of my life, first as a bartender, and then in business, often getting a good measure of people from a short period of time. It's served me well in my career, and if you have that skill, treasure it. If you don't, find someone that does and get their opinion of people when you can.
So while I like being energy conscious, would like to see more telecommuting and less traveling for 1 or 2 day meetings (which my wife does regularly), I also greatly appreciate the value of face time. My group at Red Gate is dispersed around the world and we try to get together 2-3 times a year, but only when we can get 2 or 3 days of solid meetings. This means I’m likely heading out to the UK sometime next year for a little face time of my own.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.mevio.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
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Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
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