I take the leap

This blog is about me and my leap from a safe, secure position with a large Fortune-50 (maybe Fortune-30) company into the unknown.

First, a little about me. I'm a geek. I'm a computer programmer working in the US. I've been interested in computers since I was, oh, eight years old and my father took me into his office for some week-end work. (He did the work, I occupied myself with an IBM 026 keypunch.)

My first "real" computer experience was in high school with a DEC PDP-8/e, a refrigerator-sized unit with an RK-8E removable disk and a TU-67 DECtape unit. It had four terminals: three Teletype ASR-33s and a DECwriter of some sort (perhaps an LA-36). It ran BASIC.

My second computer was a Heathkit H-89 computer with 16KB RAM and a 100KB floppy disk. It ran HDOS (and later after some upgrades, CP/M) and I used it for BASIC, 8080 assembly language, and C.

Next was the college computer, a DECsystem-10 with about seventy terminals. Each student had an account in DEC's project-programmer number format (mine was 3004,11427) and time limitations for use during the day. As a commuter to school and being absent in the non-peak hours, it was hard to get work done. I used it for FORTRAN, Pascal, and a brief attempt at ALGOL. We also used LINDO, SPSS, and CSMP.

Since then, I've been involved with microcomputers, PCs, and networks. I've taught myself COBOL, 8086 assembly, C++, Perl, C-sharp, and Ruby, as well as other language-wannabees like dBase II, Clarion, and R:Base 5000.

My post-college career consists of two employers: Morris County Savings Bank and UPS. The bank ('MCSB' in short-speak) was my employer directly out of college. (I started the Monday after graduation. Well, technically the Tuesday, since the Monday was a holiday.) I was with them for six years, helping them install and use the (at the time) new-fangled PCs. We used Zenith Z-100s, IBM PCs and XTs, no-name clones, and Compaq units, all running MS-DOS. The team I was on had several names over the six-year period ("Distributed Processing Services", "Mini/Micro Services", and "Micro/Mini Support") but basically did the same thing: install PCs, train people in their use, and help them when they had problems. After six years (and being acquired by First Fidelity Bank), the bank let a number of people go and I was one of them.

The second employer was UPS. Yes, *that* UPS, with the brown delivery vans. I worked in a number of locations and for a number of departments. Or maybe it was one department that changed its name, since the people were pretty much the same. I started with C programming in MS-DOS, taught myself C++, learned programming for Windows, and eventually moved on to C-sharp and .NET programming. At the end, I was a "buildmaster" and version control "sheriff" for a largish project. I was with UPS for 18 years, 7 months, and 25 days. (All together now: "no time off for good behavior".)

For the last several years, I have been hatching an idea about software analytics and visualization. I won't go into details of the idea here. The important thing for this blog is that I have this idea, and I want to make it happen. And I could not do that working at UPS. (Not through any fault of UPS. This idea is outside of their core business, and they shouldn't be working on projects such as this. They don't build their own compilers or word processors, which is as it should be.)

After enough hatching, I think I know enough about the idea to act.

So, perhaps impulsively, I left the employ of a steady company. I provided the standard (and required by my hiring agreement) two-week notice. In that two weeks, I shared my knowledge of the build and version control systems. I had long sessions with a number of people, and probably worked harder in the two-week period than I had for a while.

Today is my first day "free" of the company. Now I am on my own to pursue this idea. Will I succeed? That remains to be seen. But this is something that I must try.

The timing may seem a bit odd. Here in the beginning of 2009, starting a new venture is not considered the best idea. Companies are shedding jobs right and left. Some companies are shutting down. Lots of people are talking about the economy and a few are struggling with the name of this thing. (The "New Depression"? The "Big Crunch"? We won't know the name history picks for another ten years at least.)

I am prepared for such a change. I have money set aside, and with care I can fly for a year.

My first move will be to find some income. While I have savings, it is better to have *some* income. I am considering short-term contracting with breaks for working on my idea. Oddly, a contracting firm telephoned on the very day that I provided notice to UPS. Providence? Coincidence? One cannot say for sure. I have been e-mailing a recruiter at this firm for the past few weeks, and spoke with her today. We have an appointment on Wednesday.

I'm looking to delay contracting work for a few weeks. I want to organize some programs here at home (install MySQL and Ruby On Rails, for example) and also re-learn to breathe. The pressure at UPS was high, and I need some time to decompress.