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What do computer viruses and science fiction have in common?

Answer: my recent columns on these two topics both generated lively Forum discussions on InfoWorld Electric. So here’s Round 2 on these subjects, based on the Forum discussions.
My column asking whether the risk of computer viruses was overstated created something of a stir in the Forums. Most participants fell into two camps: those who had dealt with viral infections (I’m wrong) and those who hadn’t (I’m right).

Among the anecdotes, two insights stood out:

Insight #1: Distributed object technologies will create a mess. Traditional computing platforms separate data and executable code, so viruses can only hide in a few, easy-to-detect locations. For the most part you’re safe if you never boot off floppies and avoid downloading executables.

Now we have objects and Objects. (The former are object-like but don’t satisfy the purist’s definition.) The MS Word macro viruses are a pernicious form of object virus, and you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. From a security perspective the startup macro is an awful feature to build into a word processor or spreadsheet. Every reader of this column should send a letter to Microsoft asking for an installation option on Microsoft Office that disables startup macros for Word and Excel.

True Objects – downloadable Java applets, ActiveX controls, CORBA-compliant code – are worse. It’s as if we had invented metabolism but not antibodies. This is a messy subject. It’s going to take a lot of exploration to fully understand. Right now, all I know for sure is that the situation has the potential to become big-time ugly.

Insight #2: Viruses aren’t that serious a threat because we view them as a serious threat. Translation: virus hype is a self-preventing prophesy.

The whole idea of self-preventing prophesies is an important one. How often have we scoffed at a prophet of doom when doom didn’t come? In the case of viruses, one reason they don’t cause all that much data loss may be because most of us, listening to the hype, have implemented prudent precautions.

Good point. I stand corrected (I think).

David Brin, who writes really good science fiction, wrote an essay describing the idea of self-preventing prophesies. Nuclear war may be one of them. In the ’50s and ’60s, plenty of authors depicted nuclear devastation and post-apocalyptic societies. Their stories strongly influenced society’s perception of nuclear war, which in turn curbed the worst tendencies of those in a position to start one.

Which brings us to reader reaction to my column on science fiction as a better, cheaper alternative to hiring an expensive futurist.

The Forum discussion on the subject was simply huge. A disproportionate number of you, like me, read a lot of science fiction, and it had a powerful influence on our later career decisions.

InfoWorld’s readers are the greatest. D. W. Miller (I infer from the e-mail address), remembered the story describing wearable computers – “Delay in Transit,” by F. L. Wallace, originally published in Galaxy back in ’54, and reprinted in an anthology called Bodyguard in 1960. The computer was implanted, not worn. Not bad for 42 years ago. Miller points out that the computer’s name, “DiManche”, accurately predicted another future technology trend – the capitalization of internal letters in product names.

Michael Croft was the first of several readers to remind me that the series introducing the “replicator” concept was collected in an anthology called The Complete Venus Equilateral, by George O. Smith, published in the 1940s. Think about this: 50 years ago, a science fiction writer discussed the creation of a service economy out of the ruins of one based on manufacturing.

Charles Van Doren has pointed out that post-renaissance society is the first in the history to embrace the concept of progress – that the world can improve. Many of us, having grown up on science fiction, embrace that idea (which, of course, is why we always buy the next software release).

Every silver lining has a cloud inside it.

Now imagine you’re on the receiving end.

We’ve been talking (well, posting and commenting) about how to prepare for and conduct conversations, both those that are difficult and those that should be easy.

Easy or difficult, if you’re on the giving end you have one clear advantage: You get to prepare. If you’re on the receiving end your ability to prepare is limited, even if the deliverer has scheduled the conversation and stated the subject clearly.

Mostly, it’s as if the other person is doing stand-up while you’re performing involuntary improv. How can you prepare when you aren’t in a position to prepare?

Answer: Start preparing right now. No, you can’t prepare for the specifics. Yes, you can be prepared with broad strategies you’ve spent time mentally rehearsing.

Start with the broadest strategy of all. That’s your so-called “personal brand” — your image and how you project it.

My own personal brand (no secrets here!) is “relaxed and confident.” If I’m caught off-guard, that’s what I retreat to … not as well and reliably as I’d like, but it’s what I shoot for.

Your brand might very well be different: Young and brash, smooth and suave, quietly competent, bold and intimidating … the specifics matter less than making how you want to come across in all situations a conscious decision.

This means more than recognizing the advantages to be gained from those around you perceiving you this way. It also means accepting that the image you project might not always be advantageous, but that’s how you have to present yourself anyway.

Because you don’t get to be situational about this. Sure, you’re allowed moods. But being a completely different person depending on who you’re talking to and about what is more likely to make you come across as a complete phony (or victim of dissociative identity disorder) than anything else.

And in case you think planning at this level is the hallmark of a complete phony, I disagree. There’s no reason the image you project should be a one-to-one reflection of your self-image. But there’s every reason you should do everything you can to make your projected image real — for your self-image to become your projected one, so that you make yourself into who you want to be.

Know who you want to be. That’s how you should behave no matter the situation you’re faced with.

Start with the easiest: Your manager compliments you publicly for a job well done. Hey, it could happen! It happens all the time.

How do you handle public compliments? No, don’t tell me. Ask yourself the best way to handle them. Pay attention to how other people handle them, both those who are awkward and those who are graceful. If you know in advance how you’d like to behave in this situation you’ll be graceful about it.

How about the other extreme. Say your manager sits you down for a corrective action talk when you’ve been thinking your performance has been just fine and dandy.

It’s out of the blue and entirely unexpected. You say … what, and in what tone of voice?

A primal scream is out of the question. So is bursting into tears, as neither one is likely to fit your personal brand.

What’s the right answer? Quick — you have no more than three seconds before your silence will be your response.

The right answer is to buy time. As Relaxed-and-Confident Guy, I might ask, calmly, for some of the specifics that have created my manager’s perception.

Young-and-Brash woman might, with a level of animation that doesn’t cross over into hostility, say something like, “I’m not entirely surprised this has become an issue, but I am surprised they (whoever they are) decided to involve you. Tell me what you heard.”

Beyond this I’ll give you one guideline that will stand you in good stead no matter what difficult conversation you’re on the receiving end of. That’s to choose phrasing that makes you and the other person “we,” in a situation the two of you will have to collaborate to resolve.

It can make the difference between you being perceived as argumentative and defensive and the other person wondering why this conversation needed to happen.

Even better, it will invalidate the other person’s plan, which puts you on a more even footing.

Now, you’re both doing improv.

Entirely Irrelevant but I Just Can’t Stand It department: “High-paying jobs are available for people who learn how to run a key software program used by retail companies, several executives told Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday. And they’d like to see the state establish a training program.” (“IT execs tout Oracle software, ask state to help train workers,” Adam Belz, StarTribune, 10/26/2012).

Want to bet that next week the same characters will be complaining about too-high tax rates and the need to shrink government? And here’s a surprise: One of the companies making the pitch provides exactly this sort of training.

Speaking of retailers …

Not Entirely Irrelevant, but Close and I Can’t Stand It Either department: Just last summer Best Buy’s board of directors paid four of its top executives millions of dollars in “retention bonuses” (“Do retention bribes make sense?Keep the Joint Running, 7/2/2012).

Here we are, less than four months later, and Hubert Joly, Best Buy’s new CEO, has provided an exit-door instruction manual (“Don’t let it hit you in the glutes on your way out of it”) to three of the four executives bribed by the board to stay.

I don’t know whether Joly made the decision for the right reasons, the wrong reasons, or no reasons at all. It does seem likely the executives whose names are all over Best Buy’s current mess aren’t likely to be the right ones to guide it out of its current mess.

I’m skeptical, though, that Joly is the right person to guide it, either. He comes out of the hospitality industry, and is emphasizing improved hospitality (read “customer service”) at Best Buy as its path to success. And like it or not, (I don’t), customer service seems to have fallen by the wayside as a business strategy.

Consider air travel. Do you choose the carrier that provides the best flying experience? Pay for the first-class upgrade? Or buy the cheapest ticket? Since industry deregulation began, ticket prices have fallen more than 40% according to the Air Transport Association, while the air travel experience has become 247% more unpleasant, according to everyone I know who travels a lot.

Want something more provably quantitative? Economy-class seats are 17″ to 18″ wide. The average male human is 21.7″ wide. Do the math.

More math: Women are 15″ wide on average, so the airlines are causing men to victimize women by overlapping into their seat space, whether we want to or not.

Next consider Pricegrabber.com. It’s quite successful; all it does is let you comparison shop so you can buy from the lowest-price provider that isn’t likely to swindle you.

But this is all business-to-consumer … B2C for we acronym-besotted denizens of the 21st century. How about B2B? My one-word answer: China.

Before the advent of the world wide web, business supply chain theory focused on forming stable, long-term, trust-based relationships with suppliers. Now it focuses on shopping for the low-cost provider.

Some high-service exceptions remain. The Apple Store, for example, is legendary for its superb customer support. Bose has a similar reputation; I experienced its reality personally some years back. Apple and Bose can afford great support through a simple expedient: They don’t have to discount, or at least, they don’t have to discount so much that their margins are squeezed.

Quite the opposite: Apple and Bose products are perceived to be unique. For plenty of consumers they have no direct competitors.

Where is this taking most companies? Into a world where price and convenience are what matter most. The customer experience, no matter how phenomenal, will be the tie-breaker, nothing more. It won’t support much in the way of higher prices or better margins.

Which loops us back to Best Buy and Hubert Joly. If price and convenience are what companies win on, shouldn’t Joly be focusing on making Best Buy the best buy again, like it used to be?

Here’s why this all matters to you as an IT leader: Like it or not, our primary job in most companies is going to continue to be what it  has been for decades — helping to keep incremental costs as low as possible in every part of the business.

All that other stuff — business intelligence, improved decision-making, participation in strategy and so on? That still matters. It still matters a lot.

But it’s the surround, not the core, or at least, that’s how it is and will be everywhere IT supports businesses that win on price and convenience.

Sadly, that appears to be a growing fraction of the total.