I was talking to a very good friend over New Year’s about why so many I.T. Professionals get over stressed and often want to leave the industry all together, and he highlighted some very interesting points.

In many cases your average I.T. Professional is relied upon to be “Handy”, like a Swiss Army Knife that has a solution for every situation.  For some jobs, in order to apply the correct solution you need to find a Specialist, and in many cases one is unavailable or nowhere to be found.  This, in turn, requires the I.T. Professional to quickly learn and fill the role of the “Specialist” in order to complete the Job.

And therein exists the problem, the strain of having to constantly learn and re-train, an I.T. Professional becomes overloaded, confused, overburdened, burnt out.  The amount of working memory a person has is finite; and long-term memory requires months and often years of rote in order for it to develop properly.  The unfortunate I.T. Professional often has to learn a new speciality in a matter of days, sometimes hours in order to apply the solution.

So, if you are an I.T. Professional, my only advice is to take it easy and just remember that the hourly rate you charge needs to reflect the fact that your cognitive light is shining bright!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, there used to be a late-night (or was it early morning, I just know that these days I can’t stay up that late) show on Community Radio 3CR (855 on your AM dial) called “Mental Popcorn”…

The good news is that all that sarcasm, wit, charm, intelligent conversation, cool interviews, wrestling news and the number cruch quiz can now be enjoyed exclusively on-line, right now, in the comfort of your own home! Alright, maybe there will be no wrestling news… or number crunch quiz… BUT we’ll try (sorry Yoda) to put heaps of stuff here for your enjoyment (and if not, just for the hell of it).

“Why now?”, I hear you asking ever so politely, so as not to offend a bunch of thirty-somethings that probably should have better things to do than play with their X Boxes and keep adding to ridiculously large collections of DVD Movies, purchasing expensive gadgets and electronic equipment to whittle away the hours… and the answer to that is somewhere in here… we think… just keep reading! And Enjoy!