So long, Google Reader

In case you haven’t been paying attention in the past 24 hours, the Pope has killed Google Reader.

What? Oh! Okay, Google is killing Google Reader. On July 1, the best RSS client I’ve ever used will be no more. One of the more interesting aspects of the reaction is seeing how people have used it. I never really got into the sharing feature of Reader, so it didn’t bother me when it was discontinued in favor of Google Plus. For some people, that was apparently the main selling point.

My own use was generally selfish. I just wanted to know when something new was posted to a site. This is especially important for sites that don’t update regularly, as I’m not likely to keep checking a site every day on the off chance it’s been updated. I also don’t want to rely on social media to get updates. If I’ve been offline for a few days, I’m not going to catch up on all of the Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ posts I’ve missed. I will scroll through the entire collection of articles in Google Reader, reading those that seem interesting.

I can buy that RSS has seen a decline in usage (not in utility, but that’s a separate matter). I can understand that Google doesn’t find it worthwhile to keep Reader going. Like Casey Johnston, I suspect that it won’t go away entirely (as you may recall, the real-time editing technology in Google Wave made an excellent addition to Google Docs). But here’s the thing: I don’t really care.

Yes, I use Google Reader on a daily basis. I’m not tied to it, though. Reader doesn’t integrate with any other Google products in a way that’s meaningful for me. So while I have probably spent more time watching this woman’s face than my wife is comfortable with, I’ll make do without Google Reader. I don’t know what I’ll migrate to yet. NewsBlur has been brought up several times, although they currently aren’t allowing new free accounts (presumably due to being crushed by new users in the wake of yesterday’s announcement). I may also go the self-hosting route and set up tt-rss (which may also present an opportunity to run it as a paid service for those who can’t/won’t run it themselves). I still have a few months to figure it out.

Eight reasons to become a project manager?

I happened upon an article over the weekend titled “8 reasons to consider moving into project management“. The site happens to be a SaaS vendor for project management tools, so it makes sense that they’d encourage people to enter the profession. Even so, the case for some of these seems pretty slim. I’m hardly a leading expert on project management, but I have some experience and education in the field, so I do have some opinions on the matter. Since I’m in a particularly saucy mood, I thought I’d reply to their reasons.

Learn New Skills

This applies to any new job. Sure, project managers have to converse in a variety of technical domains as well as to business leaders, but that doesn’t mean you’re learning much more than a new vocabulary. Frankly, if you’re not learning new skills in your current job, what are you even doing?

Make Contacts

Get yelled at by people all over the org chart! Protip for aspiring project managers: make contacts and then move into project management. Nothing helps you get tasks accomplished like having friends all over the organization.

Get Some Variety

You never know what will blow up in your face today! Maybe your star analyst will win the lottery. Maybe the CEO will change the project requirements 75% of the way through. Maybe your developers forgot to tell you about this problem they had that’s about to set your schedule back three months.

Open Up Your Career Horizons

Okay, this one’s harder to snark. It’s really hard to know what’s available until you know what’s available. This ties into the “make contacts” argument, though, so I’ll deduct half a point for that.

See an End Product

“…seeing your ideas become reality.” More like seeing someone else’s ideas become a reality. If the organizational culture is such that everyone feels a sense of ownership in whatever widget goes out the door, this point is irrelevant. If the organizational culture is not this way, it should be.

Lead a Team

Leading a team is awesome, unless it isn’t. People who are not well-suited for leadership roles (or who otherwise are, but have no desire to be in such a role), are less happy when in leadership positions, and the team probably suffers for that as well.

Work Flexibly

Get home at a different time every night! I’ll give credit to the author for pointing out that you will probably work more hours. But you can sometimes spend time driving, so yay? Plenty of organizations are warming to the idea of allowing employees of many positions to work flexible hours.

Become More Confident

Only a minority of projects come in under budget, on time, and fully-featured. The success rate can be as low as 11% (Tichy and Bascom, 2008). If failure builds your confidence, swing away. Otherwise, you’d better be really good at finding the moral victories.

Project management is not for everyone. It can be a very demanding field, especially in organizations where the project manager is not given the resources to lead the project appropriately. I’m all for people pursuing whatever career they want, but this article paints a far-too-rosy picture. All of the points listed are potential benefits, but they only work out that way if you’re interested in project management to begin with. Otherwise, there are much less stressful ways to get what you want.