My wonderful wife got me a membership to the California Academy of Sciences for my birthday, which is officially reopening this weekend after being under construction for the last several years. It’s one of the ten largest natural history museums in the world and houses the Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, a four-story rainforest exhibit, penguin exhibit, and more. I absolutely love aquariums, and we didn’t have a great one here in the city until now, so I’m really excited. We went to a member’s preview today, and I was very impressed. The building design is phenomenal, with lots of open space and natural lighting. And the aquarium is sweet, with catwalks over the water so you can view from above, below-waterline viewing areas, and even a tunnel that cuts through a sunken rainforest freshwater exhibit. Very cool.

I was also very excited to learn that they’re looking for volunteers to help with all aspects of the museum, including hands-on stuff with at the aquarium. If you’re rescue diver certified, you can even be a volunteer diver to help feed the animals, clean the glass, etc. I’m not rescue certified yet, but I definitely will look into it.

I didn’t bring my camera, but here’s a Flickr group that has some good photos…enjoy!

http://flickr.com/groups/calacademy/pool/

The “War on Terror” is a farce. It’s a marketing ploy, designed to get people fired up and inspired. But when you really evaluate it, it means nothing.

Let me be clear. Terrorism is evil, and should not be tolerated. We shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists and we shouldn’t hesitate to hunt them down and bring them to justice.

That being said, we’re not fighting a “war on terror” any more than we’re fighting a war on drugs or a war on poverty. A war is something that can be won or lost, but we can never truly defeat terrorism. That’s sad, and hardly hopeful or inspiring, but the reality is that terrorism will always be a part of an information-driven society. The only way to stop terrorism is to abolish information technology, because terrorism is fueled by fear, and specifically the magnification of fear that mass media enables. We can work hard to make sure that terrorism isn’t tolerated and we can work on our intelligence efforts to make sure that we know about it and stop it before it happens. But we’ll never truly eradicate terrorism, just like we’ll never eradicate poverty or drug use.

The sad thing about this truth is that the lie that these efforts are “wars” will undermine the very progress that we make. We’ll pour trillions of dollars into them and while we will see results, because we’ve launched them under the pretense of fighting a war that can be won or lost, people will eventually lose heart and demand more progress. They don’t want to be mired in a “war” forever with no victory in sight. They want to see that the war is won.

But it can’t be.

Note: there are many types of consultants, but I’m talking specifically about management consultants

When I was younger, I thought that a career in management consulting would be really cool. You get to work with different types of companies, you get to travel, you get to fix problems, etc. Sure, the hours are crappy, but like investment banking, the payoff in the end can be huge.

Over the last couple years, though, I’ve started to wonder whether consulting is really something that adds value, or is it used more as a stopgap and excuse by managers who are unable or reluctant to solve their own problems. I’ve had the displeasure of working with processes that were devised by consultants and the end result is just….off, somehow.

I suspect that management consulting is often indicative of some deeper organizational problems, primarily managers who lack the courage and/or competency to run their business unit and make hard decisions, and must therefore waste thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars bringing in an outsider that they can blame when things go wrong. I also suspect that it’s difficult to track the effectiveness of management consulting on the bottom line, which is good, because I doubt the results would be good, especially in the long run. It seems highly unlikely that a company lacking whatever core competencies they’re looking for in a consultant will be able to extract, grow, and maintain value from that brief relationship for very far into the future.

Management consulting almost seems to be an expensive extension of committees, those time-honored organizational purgatories where good ideas go to die.

Am I way off here? Are management consultants valuable players in the business world? Sound off in the comments.

When you freelance for awhile, you start to hear the same lines over and over from people trying to hire you. These are some of my favorites, and I’ve learned to just take them with a grain of salt. They’re not always untrue, but they’re cliche enough that I raise my eyebrow a bit when I hear them. Please note that clients are great people with solid ideas and we work together to create things that are special. I’m just poking a bit of fun at potential clients in general. If you can’t handle it, perhaps we wouldn’t be a good fit

“We’ve got a lot more work if you can just do this one at a discount.”
Great. So if I let you take advantage of me now, you’ve got a lot more chances to do it again in the future? Sign me up!

“We’ve gotten a lot of interest from VCs and investors…funding is pretty much a done deal.”
Deals fall through. Funding is hard and rarely happens. This is not to say that it won’t, but it’s a bad reason to take a freelance gig, in my opinion.

“This has never been done.”
It almost certainly has. Probably many times. If it hasn’t, perhaps there’s a very good reason.

“Someone will steal my idea.”
They won’t. Ideas are next to worthless. Execution counts.

“Would you be willing to work for equity only?”
No.

“This shouldn’t be that difficult.”
And yet it is. Weird.

“I’ll get that check in the mail.”

If you have any to add, share them in the comments.

Warning: this post is personal in nature and relatively useless unless you like dogs. So if you’re looking for action-oriented info or something other than entertainment, this isn’t the post for you

About five weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed two new members to our family: two beagle puppies named Barkley and Bianca. They’ve been a lot of work, but we’re really enjoying them. They’re almost twelve weeks at this point, and we’re both really shocked at how good they are. They sleep in separate crates at night, they sleep through the whole night, they don’t cry when they’re left alone, they don’t really bark, they sleep a lot, and they have a pretty well-adjusted nature in general. Hopefully this isn’t just a phase, but we’re working hard with them on training and we’re taking them to puppy classes so they get plenty of early socialization with other people and dogs.

Though they’ve been great overall, it’s not all awesome. For example, it’s been pretty difficult to get into a routine with them. Before we got them, I would get up every morning at 4:15am and head to my office, but now Alexis and I trade off days getting up with them in the morning and taking care of them for the bulk of the day. As I can’t get a lot done while at home, this has impacted my productivity. However, we’re getting back into a routine and I’m hopeful that my productivity will end up close to pre-canine levels.

If you want to see more pictures, check them out here:
http://flickr.com/photos/ryanwaggoner/sets/72157606335459315/

If I can do it, anyone can. As most people who know me will attest, I’ve always had trouble getting up in the morning. I blame my family, which is packed with night owls.

In high school, I got suspended on more than one occasion for missing my first class of the day. You’d think that the Navy would have changed me, and it did, for awhile. I only got in trouble once or twice in the Navy for being late as a result of oversleeping. And in spite of my lack of discipline in this area, after I got out of the Navy, I managed to crank through three years of school in 18 months and maintain a 3.9 GPA. But I remember sitting in class on numerous occasions having been in bed sound asleep less than 20 minutes before that. After college, I managed to hold down a job in San Francisco for a year before I quit to start consulting and pursuing my own entrepreneurial pursuits.

You’d think that the unstructured life of a freelancer would be bad for someone who already has trouble getting up in the morning. Well, you’d be right. For a long time, I would work late, late into the night (like 2 - 4am) and then drag myself out of bed around noon. Super lame. The thing was, I hated doing it, but I always felt like I had more to do than I could afford to put off until the next day, so I had to do it before I went to bed.

For awhile, I was afraid I had some kind of sleeping disorder. But over the last four or five months, I’ve had a real breakthrough. The last few weeks notwithstanding (more on that later), I now get up regularly around 4:30am, and am often at my office by 5am. What’s more, I *love* this and don’t consider it to be much of a struggle. If you’re looking to make a similar change, here’s what I would recommend:

1. Practice getting up

Yes, you will feel stupid. But give Steve Pavlina’s awesome technique a try. It really helped me, especially in the beginning.

2. Consider your productivity curve

One of the biggest things I discovered is that I get 3-4x as much done between 5am and 9am as I do between 9pm and 1am. They’re both four hours, but my productivity is drastically different. For some people, it may make more sense to stay up late, as they’ll get more done. In that case, my recommendation would be to just embrace it. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reportedly sleeps from like 4am to 10am and he’s gotten quite a bit done over the last few years. Figure out what works for you.

3. Go to bed

You’d think this would be basic, right? Took me 25 years to figure it out, though. The thing is, when I started going to bed at 9pm or 10pm, I had to really force myself, because I had *so much* that needed to get done. But I knew that I would get more done the next morning than I would if I stayed up late working. And I did. And over time, I gradually managed to catch up, until I wasn’t so far behind and going to bed was a lot easier.

4. Have something to do with your time in the morning

Exercise, read, write, work, email, whatever. But don’t get up and sit around wondering why you’re up. It’ll just be harder to get up next time.

5. Stick with it

That first week or two was kind of rough, but as I kept getting up, it got easier and easier. Once you get into the routine and your body adjusts, you’ll find getting up much easier to do. Just don’t give up.

Where I am today

My wife and I got two puppies about a month ago, and they’ve completely ruined my routine I can only imagine what an infant would be like…kudos to you parents out there. Anyway, we’ve started to get back into a routine, and we’re trading off days so that I can get up early a few days a week and head into the office. It’s not quite the same level of productivity that I had before, but it’ll continue to get better.

For more on this topic, here’s a few posts from other blogs:

Steve Pavlina - How to Become an Early Riser

Steve Pavlina - How to Become an Early Riser - Part II

Zen Habits - How I Became an Early Riser

I saw this great story today about how a North Texas school district may start allowing teachers and staff to carry concealed weapons in the school when classes start later this month. The policy was devised to help prevent school shootings, and those who wish to carry will need to meet the following requirements:

• have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun,
• be authorized to carry by the district,
• receive training in crisis management and hostile situations, and
• use ammunition designed to minimize the risk of ricochet.

I think this is a fantastic idea, and it sounds as if the school district is giving it the careful thought and consideration that it deserves. Logically, anytime you tell law-abiding citizens that they can’t carry guns in a certain area, you increase the risk of an unchecked shooting spree in that area by someone who obviously has no regard for the law. As David Thweatt, the school district superintendent says:

“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ‘em’ to a dog,”

I wish that more schools would allow law-abiding, well-trained, responsible teachers and staff to carry concealed weapons if they choose to. And on college campuses, those same rights should extend to students who meet the same criteria. I grew up in a family that uses firearms for hunting, self-defense, and recreational shooting. I also carried a gun daily while I was in the US Navy. If I could carry a concealed weapon legally here in San Francisco, I would. I’m 99% sure that I would never have to use it, but if I did, it would be because I was protecting my life or someone else’s. Alas, I am prevented by law from doing so, which makes no sense to me. Now the only people carrying concealed weapons in San Francisco are criminals. Excellent.

Am I crazy? Should we find another solution to mass shootings at schools and elsewhere? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Yesterday, I blogged about how I’m having trouble aligning my goal plan with my overall values in life. In particular, I’m having trouble determining how to write specific, measurable, actionable goals for more nebulous and ongoing journeys, like my faith, my relationship with my wife, contentment, peace, etc. When I wrote the post yesterday, I had some thoughts already in mind, but I wanted to see what people said in the comments. Dave posted a great thought that is in line with what I’m thinking:

I think that it is possible to create SMART goals for things that affect the “intangibles.” For example, I can’t really make a goal to love my wife 10X more, but I can make a goal to spend an extra evening each week doing something with her. Or to leave a little “love note” for her every morning on the bathroom mirror or something. Spirituality can be the same. While it may not be possible to say “I want to be 35% closer to God.” you can say things like “I want to spend X amount of time each week serving others.” or “I will spend 15 minutes each morning meditating/in prayer”

Here’s what I think about creating SMART goals for the things that matter most: you can’t. However, as David points out, you can create goals that align your resources (time, money, energy, etc) with your values, in ways that are most likely to result in growth in those areas. Just because I spend time each morning in prayer or reading Scripture doesn’t necessarily mean that my relationship with God will be strengthened, but it certainly improves the odds To that end, I’ve started looking for ways to write goals that encourage the alignment of my resources with my values. It’s the best I can do.

I saw a post on Craigslist today that I’ve seen a few times for the last week or so on my feeds from around the country. Here’s the link:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cpg/646621213.html

Anyway, there are numerous red flags in the post, such as:

• looking for a “webmaster” (it’s 2008, not 1998)
• focusing on cheap work
• client has been “burned” (which MAY mean they are a bad client)
• capitalization of “PhP” (could be a fluke, but still)
• no explanation of what “inexpensive” means to them
• general tone is a bit amateurish and naive

I went ahead and sent a quick response where I basically said that it was unreasonable to expect people to respond if they don’t know what your idea of “inexpensive” is, and that you can expect to pay $50 - 60 / hr at a minimum for someone really good.

This lady emails me back and berates me for my “rude” response, tells me that she was considering me for these other projects until now, tells me that she has lots of work and is always being asked to recommend people, etc. Basically that I have blown a huge opportunity by being honest with her. We went back and forth via email a few times, but in general, her position was that my email wasn’t polite enough, which is true. My email was abrupt and not at all polite, but I didn’t go out of my way to be rude to her either. I was simply stating the facts and trying to help out someone who, by her own admission, had been burned multiple times before. I explained to her that my clients pay very fair rates and expect (and get) great work in return. In return I’m very honest with them, rather than telling them what they want to hear. So far, the only jobs this behavior has cost me are the ones I don’t want in the first place. I’m a professional and I want to be hired by professionals, not amateurs who expect to hire a brilliant PHP developer with 5 years experience for $25 / hr.

This individual was also peddling the classic “do this one job for cheap and then there’s lots more high-paying work down the road” scam, for which I have trouble expressing my opinion without resorting to profanity. The bottom line is that this bridge is obviously burned, but I have trouble imagining a situation in which I’d want to cross that river anyway, so I won’t lose any sleep over it.

But it did get me to thinking about her general assertion that I should be more polite or it will cost me business. Now obviously, as professionals, we are required to act professionally and conduct ourselves in an ethical manner, maintain integrity, etc. But the question I have is: does building a strong personal brand mean that you’re not going to anger people, make enemies, etc? Or even more extreme, does it mean that you MUST make people angry, make enemies, etc?

I’m not entirely sure, but I see a lot of people that I admire who have no shortage of detractors and enemies and who are constantly stirring up storms of controversy. However, these people have very strong personal brands, very strong networks, and have experienced a great deal of success. Most importantly, they’ve actually gone out and accomplished something worthwhile. They’re not unprofessional, to the contrary: they’re ultra-professional. They’re not afraid to tell it how it is, regardless of whose feathers they ruffle, who gets upset, who finds it offensive. I think part of this is just the basic reality that disruptive technology, business models, and trends tend to upset those too attached to the status quo or those that feel they’re owed something by the system. When things change faster than they can adapt, they often point the finger of blame at those driving the change, rather than learning to thrive in a dynamic environment.

I think the bottom line for me is that making sure you don’t ruffle anyone’s feathers, make enemies, anger people, or stir up controversy is a good way to build a bland and boring personal brand, and you’re not likely to have a significant impact in your space. Yes, there’s always room for professionalism, integrity, and even a little tact, but the bottom line is that if you want to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs.

Inspired by my buddy Ben Rasmusen’s attempt, I thought I would also google myself and check out the results. Fortunately, the first result was ryanwaggoner.com. There was one or two other results for profiles of mine around the web, but nothing substantial. I tried “waggoner” but stopped caring after 20 pages. It doesn’t really matter if you’re on page 21 or page 57,567; no one will find you. Guess it’s time to ratchet up my SEO efforts.