eXTREME Software Manipulation

A few years ago, we were called the Microsoft cowboys. It was the rebellion of the pc vs. the big iron. Some of us may have carried a prejudice into the battle, but it boiled down to very simple basic needs. The need to manipulate and interpret the business information drove the work force to find the answers inside of their own spreadsheets. Those of us who mastered the art of Lotus 123 or Q&A became the cowboys. Resident experts working inside cube farms drove Microsoft's business model. The software became more complex and the cowboys went to class. We read books by the acre. We learned about the fundamentals of information management (at least some of us did). Over the course of the years, some have become highly respected developers.

But there is more to the story than that. What drove the cowboys was the need to master the toolset. To own it. To make it dance. To push the boundary of the software beyond its limits.

I work for a highly charged software company. The environment is packed with a singular personality trait; eXTREME software manipulation. From all disciplines, there is a common thread, to make the software dance. Implementation and training staff look to bend the software to their whim, while developers push the development environment to go beyond the horizon. I love the idea that I am constantly learning and the team stimulates their peers with the rush of mastering the bits.

The wise man is the one who says, "Ask me not what I know, but ask me what I don't know and I shall tell you.