“Why do you remain here even now?” She asked, sobbing. “Because, here is where you are,” the Lamb said softly, “And I long to be with you.”

A lyric from Showbread (@rawrock) from “The Beginning” on their album Nervosa.

I don’t like to be all poetic and such here, and therefore generally try to avoid posting lyrics and the like, but this stood out at the moment and I wanted to capture it right here.

On a side note, if you aren’t familiar with Showbread, I suggest you become that way. Their albums span a decent range of style, so I’m sure there’s something in their library for you.

Having the [legacy product] code to refer to is crucial to the database design work we’ll be doing on the new project.

It’s a bit like saying “Hey guys, obviously the old software isn’t meeting our needs, but let’s base our new, replacement idea on the old code”. That’s not going to be easy to do. In fact, I’d venture to say that the smarter, clearer way to go would be to take a good look at your current requirements, go over your use cases, and “user stories”, and start from scratch.

I’m willing to be 90% wrong here, in general cases, except for where my vagueness and ambiguity hides the real-life project to which I have direct knowledge.

Moving away from the technological view, and into your life -

Are you trying to compare your past to the present, in order to build the future?

Forgetting the past and taking a good inventory of the resources you currently have available is going to be the most stress-free way to move forward.

Of course you need to examine history to learn from your mistakes, and observe the way others have done things correctly. But when it’s time to move on to something new, it’s hardly ever good to use old material to build something new.

Old wine-skins, new patches, and all that.

[concerning the use of the internet, and social applications] … your users are already doing this, in your pews.

If they’re online, why aren’t they talking about you?

And one that ties it together, and prompts you to take this seriously:

The internet is a ‘web’ of links. With nothing to link to, even their mentions (of you) aren’t “sticky”.

Think about that.

I think I jotted those down while listening to an episode of Geeks and God.

And I remember, for some odd reason, the sound of someone stumbling to the bathroom in the middle of the night, fiddling around to find some noisy container, shaking something out of it, and heading back to whatever bed they crawled out of. (It was mostly the adults or grandparents – “the old people” – doing this).

Tonight, I found myself trying to quietly enter the bathroom, dig through the cupboard to find the headache medicine amongst the basket of once-used “pink stuff”, bug spray, allergy relief, etc; and to shake out just one of a crowd of those little pills, and quietly make my way back to the room.

Somehow, I found myself listening to all of these sounds from outside my own perspective and I realized what was happening: I now fully qualify for the “old person” award, given out by my 10-year-old self. Thanks, self.

I’ve never read any of his books, and very little of his blog, so I’m not here to vouch for anything he says. What I’d like to point out is the full title of this book:

Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc.

The title alone is worth thinking about.

I don’t use Perl for any personal or work projects, but stumbled upon a Perl Buzz post that contains a great quote:

If someone asks you about your project, can you explain its awesomeness, and why he should use it? If not, why are you bothering? And if you can, are telling everyone you can about it? If not, why are you bothering?

Obviously, this applies to not only a “project”, but almost any context you can think of. Essentially, if you’re not doing something worth talking about, is it worth doing at all?

I am not a professional-grade graphic designer, by any means, but I think I can hold my own in certain design-related situations and projects. My primary skills (and therefore “what I do”) are more related to the idea, the layout, and actually developing (telling the computer what to do) the ‘product’ or ‘web-app’, or what have you.

All that to say that the subject of “Spec Work” (working “on speculation”, with no promise or guarantee of payment) doesn’t really hit close to home for me, so perhaps I’m not an expert opinion on the subject.

Today, I stumbled on a Wired.com article that mentions that Twitter may have paid less than $10 for some of the graphic design on their website. Reading this led, of course, to a related article titled “Is Crowdsourcing Evil?“.

If you’re not following the terms, here’s a quote from that last article that should do a decent job explaining what “spec” work is, and why it’s so controversial:

Customers post creative briefs directly to the community, which then competes to create a design that best fits the clients’ needs. A typical “assignment” will draw dozens of submissions. The winner receives a nominal fee (as little as $200), and the client receives a logo or website design at a fraction of what a professional agency might charge. The losers get zip, which goes a long way to explaining why working on spec (“on speculation,” or without guarantee of payment) has always been considered the work of last resort for writers, designers and other creative professionals.

As you might be able to imagine, many professional graphic designers believe that “Spec Work” devalues graphic design – to the extent that there is an actual campaign against such work. It’s called NO!SPEC, and here’s what they say about themselves:

The NO!SPEC campaign: Serves as a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.

Taking all of this in, somehow Jesus jumped on the bandwagon and I was reminded about the “Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard” (found in Matthew, Chapter 20) and I began to wonder if it could be related or applied in any way to the argument of rather or not “Spec Work” is “evil”, or even inherently bad.

Here’s just a snippet of the related scripture, that stands out most to me:

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want
with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

Now, for certain, I may be taking this way out of context. And perhaps this mostly just applies to the consumer, and what exactly “fair” might be. Perhaps there are much greater examples to draw from, but this one came to mind and stuck in my brain long enough for me to post about it.

I’m opening up the comments on this post, and I encourage anyone to post their thoughts on how they think this, or any other scripture applies to “spec work”, and what Jesus might think about it. Feel free to post from either perspective, as I hope I came across as neutral as possible.

(Please don’t comment on “spec work” in general, as that has already been argued about everywhere else on the web. Stay on subject.)

I will come back with an update soon to give some of my official opinion on “spec work” and what I personally think about it.

Here’s some related links and sources:

• Twitter Paid $6 or Less for Crowdsourced ‘Birdie’ Graphic
• Is Crowdsourcing Evil? The Design Community Weighs In
• crowdSPRING
• 99designs
• NO!SPEC
• The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard – Matthew 20:1-16 (NIV, via BibleGateway)
• Is Spec Work Evil? The Online Creative Community Speaks
• Designers: Why Spec Work Is Not Going Away – How You Should Respond
• Spec Work Analysis: Here To Stay – But Not For Everyone
• The Spec Work Design Debate at SXSW: Is Spec Work Evil?
• YOUTUBE: Is Spec Work Evil? The Online Creative Community – SXSWi 2009

A recent post by Robert Scoble, especially this phrase:

We’ve gotten so far ahead with our social media toys that we’ve forgotten about the many many businesses that still have web sites that look like they were designed in 1994-2000. Even the Toyota site doesn’t really have much on it that wasn’t possible before 2005 (with the exception of some high resolution video).

The world has changed in the last four years and businesses, I’m convinced, will need to react to this new “2010″ world. It might take them until 2015 to really get on board, but I want to help now.

(link)

Second is a post over at Church Marketing Sucks, which does a good job of summing up some of the things I’ve been screaming about for a few years now (It’s good to know I’m not alone):

People who live outside of the Christian bubble roll their eyes. You lose them forever. They see you as demeaning something they value, and they think less of you for it. You trade the entire mission of God for the comfort of a walled garden, and you chose your Christian social network over actually networking with non-Christians. It doesn’t go unnoticed.

Your marketing is screaming, “I don’t care about you or your things. I mock them.”

(link)

I strongly encourage you to read both, even if you’re not as “technically-minded” as you might think I am.

PS: I’ve decided to take writing and my presence here a bit more seriously. In the mean time, be sure that you’re keeping up with me via @tommygeorge on Twitter.