If you've got a LinkedIn profile, this post is for YOU!

Mr. T is an avid gamer- there's quite honestly no other word for it. He also dabbles a bit with designing accessories such as clothing and armor for games like Team Fortress. He uses GIMP, Blender and a few other nice pieces of freeware that are quite commonly employed in the world of game design. He also uses terms like "procedurally generated" as part of his normal speech.

And this has exactly "what" to do with this blog?

Well, procedurally generated is generally a gaming term, but more specifically its a coding or programming term. If you're a gamer you're probably familiar with this term, but if you're not, consider a normal search on Google or Amazon. Let's say you're looking for a certain kind of cheese. Google and Amazon will both display results based upon your previous browsing history, other surfers' previous history AND general popularity. When I typed "c" into my browser, "complex" was the 1st Google result, and Amazon returned nothing. "ch" in the browser gave me "chicagotribune" while Amazon returned "charcoal". To get "cheese" out of Google, I had to type "cheese" + space); Amazon only needed "chee" to get me to cheese.

I told you all of that to tell you this: I have two drafts that I want to publish, but both of them are once again on the backburner- this time because of an observation I had whilst surfing contact suggestions on LinkedIn. Hence, it is not uncommon for my blog's subject matter to be procedurally generated after a fashion.

As in a previous post from July of 2016, I'd like to talk a bit about professional deportment. Last time I addressed email addresses specifically, but also addressed data quality. Today I'd like to get more personal and address your LinkedIn profile with some brutal honesty which I hope will help your online presence look a bit (well, a metric ***ton) better: it's your mug.

*I'm not sure about other parts of the world, but in American English, your "mug" is a colloquialism that can mean your portrait (as in, your mugshot- the photo the police take of you when you are apprehended). And, once again, it does not imply in any way that you've ever run afoul of the law- it's just a casual way of saying "your picture"- or selfie.

Apologies- for once- to my American audience: this blog is read in over fifty countries, of which the vast majority do not speak English as their 1st language, and many have to be transliterated. Trust me, as someone who has been formally exposed to over half a dozen languages: idioms and colloquialisms do NOT translate gracefully or accurately!

So, there I was on LinkedIn. I had received an invitation to connect with someone in my field, and I accepted it. Once I did this, LinkedIn offered a slate of its own recommendations, procedurally generated by my existing network, career field, and who knows what else!

As I am IRL decidedly NOT a social butterfly, I welcome the LinkedIn suggestions and peruse them. Here's where it gets real and if you've skimmed down wondering when the wall of words would end, swallow your beverage and START READING NOW.

Gentle readers, I've had tons of sales training, and yet (for a number of unrelated reasons) I stink at sales. One thing I remember, though, that was common to all of this sales training, is this: we buy from folks like us, or ones that we like. I do not like generic silhouettes, nor will I connect with them. After all (and this is true) I am terrible with names. If I cannot connect a name with a face, I cannot make a connection. If Nikola Tesla, H.G.Wells, Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson had all sent me LinkedIn connection requests multiple times, and all they had for an avi was the default silhouette, I would decline them every time. Lesson 1 is: put up a real picture.

There's a caveat here, though: occasionally, a portrait may be TMI. There may be very good legal or safety reasons for omitting a portrait. In this case, you'll need to be creative if you desire a social media presence of any sort, but please... avoid the default silhouette!

Lesson 2: Your picture should be you. Unless you have some real issues as noted in the caveat following Lesson 1, put your picture here.

Lesson 3: Your picture should somehow communicate your personality, your passion, or your profession. For professional men, I don't think you can ever go wrong with a suit... or something that infers that you came to the office in a suit, but by 10 in the morning the jacket and tie were gone and the sleeves were rolled up. If you're C-level, you have license to go either way. For professional women, I'm sorry, I have little advice because the three-piece suit is not standard women's attire... I think. OTOH, if you're a working professional in a specialized field, wear the eye protection or hardhat or hearing protection or operate a specialized piece of equipment. My picture is a bit silly- but prized. Although its not a great picture, it was taken by a coworker with my camera, it really reflects my personality, and I like it.

Lesson 4: Your picture should not be an afterthought. You've invested time into creating your LinkedIn profile- why use cheap wallpaper? See lesson 3 regarding my picture. But... the idea here is about pictures that probably should not be used in a LinkedIn profile. So, don't reuse badly cropped photos of ANYTHING. Don't use prom photos (yes, I've seen 'em), wedding photos (ditto), graduation/seminar photos (uh-huh), photos with bad flash, poorly lit studio shots that obviously show you're seated in front of a pretty backdrop, obvious bad selfies, photos with your complexion/skin tone unfavorably illuminated. Ladies especially: attire or photo angle that emphasizes a particular feature (noses, etc) or sexualizes your portrait. When in doubt, have a disinterested (honest) third party check it out.

"But," you might say, "it's only LinkedIn."

According to a recent report, LinkedIn has 467 million members. Only China and India are more "populous". The whole world is looking at your mug, my friend.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Data Science, pt 1

I'm calling this "Data Science, pt 1" because it's the beginning, and to be honest, I'm not sure where it end.

To be honest, if you're not interested in Twitter or data, you probably won't be interested in this post. One of my coworkers and I often have discussions about Twitter, partly because I'm a regular poster there and partly because he does not post there. Our inside joke about Twitter, though, is about my posting.

If you follow my twitter posts (hochspeyer@CJoelHarrison), you'll see an account that is focused primarily on Big Data, IoT and programming. We have some good-natured interplay about this-

"You're a fraud," he says.

"I tell the truth," I reply.

This can, and sometimes does- go on all night. I'm not mentioning his name because of my personal blogging rules: if I don't have permission, then I don't have permission.

In the end, we agree to disagree. So, why the Big Preface?

Well, mostly because this blog is about data. And, although data seems to be the furthest thing from a theme, I try to keep data as the unifying theme.

Believe it or not, Twitter is a two-way street. As with all other social media, marketing is important. In the world of social media, I have this blog. I have a Facebook account with many friends. I have a LinkedIn account with many connections. I have Google+ and a Pinterest account. I used to be active on a few forums. I even had a mySpace account. Of all of these, I regard Twitter as my primary and most premium e-presence.

Why? Chicago's own Ides of March really expressed it well: it's my vehicle. More precisely, it's my e-vehicle: it puts my name where I want it to be on the internet. I don't remember exactly how the old truism about publicity went, but it was something like this: "Any publicity is better than no publicity." This is largely (but not entirely) true for someone who is trying to find a job or build a reputation on the internet: almost 100% of the time, any internet presence is better than none. If you're looking for  job, you should have an established social media presence, and probably on at least LinkedIn and Twitter- and it had better damn well be squeaky clean. Please make no mistake: I very seldom (that is, exceedingly rarely) use a word such as "damn" online- and this is HIGHLY intentional. Any reputable firm will probably be have at least a concern about online vulgarity or profanity.

But I digress... back to me and Twitter. I have more than one Twitter account- I don't think this is unusual: one is fairly general, and the other is pretty tightly subject focused. I really don't do too much on my "general" account, and I have no special reason for the lack of activity there. My primary account, though, currently has a few hundred followers, and I follow a few more. What's interesting about this account, though, is my relative level of education to that of my followers. Here's where the ride gets interesting, so buckle up, kiddos!

The subject matter that I generally tweet about is Big Data, Internet of Things, Programming and, to a lesser extent, Technology (Computer, Electronic and Otherwise). I researched this a bit- probably at least thirty minutes on Google (this is the equivalent of 1.21 eternities in Internet time) and could not come up with a definitive answer. However, I know that I have no fewer than five PhD's and one PhD candidate in a population of ~225 followers, which means that ~2% of my FOLLOWERS have doctoral degrees. As best as I could tell through my "extensive" research, approximately 1% of ALL college students in the United States of America complete a doctorate. So as far as my followers are concerned, I think I'm pretty top-heavy in the academic department, even though I'm a card-carrying member of the unwashed masses that check the "some college completed" box.

In fact, in some circles I may even be classified as a "savant".

In any event, I'm going to leave "this" alone for now. When (and/or if) I gain further insights, I will continue this train of thought.

Until then, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.