Welcome to episode 18b of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two VMware Solution Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode, we have Part 2 of a two-part interview with Joseph Griffiths, Staff Solution Architect with VMware. Part 1 was last week’s episode.

Original recording date: 2018-11-12

Topic – Joseph Griffiths Interview

Joseph goes back to the eye-opening VMworld story

• People have a fear that they cannot change.
• Have we become so driven by reactionary behavior that we can’t close our e-mail client and know what we should be doing?
• Automation often starts with reactionary tasks. Joseph gives the example of a 17 nanosecond Google outage which was remediated automatically.

John digs into the logistics of automation and “choke points” (or constraints)

• There is only one constraint in any flow or optimization. Once you remove that constraint, there is still only one constraint.
• Consider the value stream (i.e. what is valuable to the company) and their mapping to capabilities.
• Recommended reading – The Goal, The Phoenix Project

How can people iterate faster when it comes to career?

• Social skills and emotional intelligence are important to work well with others, which disconnects us from defending technology.
• Read some psychology books on why people think / behave the way they do. By trying to understand other people’s motivations, you will better be able understand your own motivations.
• Listen for John’s book recommendation.

Recommendations

• Joseph recommended Toastmasters and learning about the people who attend to get past introversion.
• John’s book recommendation – The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss
  • Warning – the book discusses a subculture which some may find offensive but does well in describing human behavior and reactions.
• Don’t do anything fake. The process of learning and getting better over time is an iterative process and takes time.
• Not everything is about winning. The best way to get things accomplished is about compromises.
• Drop the Highlander mentality.
• Joseph cites parental advice that there is always someone better than you.
• Joseph cited pursuit of certifications as a way to make himself attractive to a potential employer.
• Joseph has a mic drop moment about company culture. Do you agree?
• Joseph’s Contacts
  • Joseph’s blog is https://blog.jgriffiths.org
  • Find him on Twitter @Gortees
    • Don’t get discouraged.
    • Take one step to grow (i.e. giving a presentation) that makes you uncomfortable, even if it isn’t career related.
    • Don’t tackle too many at once.
  • Joseph is more than happy to help or mentor people. Twitter is the best way to reach him. He only responds every 3 days.

• John made up a book part of the way through the episode, but something like what he described does exist: Unwritten Rules Of Social Relationships – Decoding Social Mysteries through the Unique Perspectives by Temple and Sean Barron. The two authors write from the perspective of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder for people with ASD. He hasn’t read it but heard it’s an interesting read.