Just a quick, personal post this time: I was recently interviewed by CIO Magazine on the topic of “How CIOs Can Stay Tech-Savvy“. Since (as is normal) only a portion of my conversation with the reporter actually made it into the article, I thought I’d expand briefly on the topic here.
My remarks were two-fold, consistent with what I’ve written before on this all-important topic:
- It’s critical for the IT executive to “keep his or her hand in” by doing some hands-on work and experimentation with new technologies
- Your purpose in doing this hands-on work is not to become a viable technical resource in the area, but rather to get some deeper understanding than you’d obtain by just reading an article or two.
As mentioned in the article, I estimate that I spend 5-10 hours a month doing this kind of hands-on dabbling, sometimes with more success than others. Let’s look at the kinds of things I do, large and small:
