This is actually a post by Seth Godin, which I will link to from my in Projections of life series: The marine iguana.

Blogging for me is not simply writing, but writing in English. So I seek every possibility to improve my English writing.

During recent times I twice came across 50 Tools that can Improve your Writing Skills from different sources (here and here). Still going through that list and trying to make use of these tools.

English punctuation rules is something I never could get right. Hopefully, I'll fix that with How to Use English Punctuation Correctly.

And last but not least take a look at Improving your technical writing skills.

The point is how you decide what is better for you. Good list of items to consider is given in a post on Jeitosa Group's blog:

• Workforce Quality/Skill
• Workforce Availability
• Workforce Costs
• Workforce Flexibility
• Government Support
• Tax Considerations
• Communications Costs
• Communications Infrastructure
• Real Estate Costs
• Statutory/Legal Requirements
• External Infrastructure
• Travel Accessibility
• Political/Economic Stability
• Multi-Language Abilities

As usual with list of comparison items like this you need to clearly understand relative importance of different items for your case. Sometimes workforce qualification and availability will be more important than cost. Sometimes travel accessibility will not be an issue. You want to know what matters to you and what does not.

When you will be looking for an offshore partner you should be aware that a company can address some general deficiencies found in peculiar to the country or region. For example, at SoftServe we have communications infrastructure much better than throughout the country which makes nearly any means of communication available to our clients and employees. Also we run a language school to make sure that "language barrier" is not an issue for our people.

Probably, you have heard about Google shares drop on July 20 shortly after they announced Y2007 Q2.

One of the reasons for such "poor" quarter results was aggressive hiring (read "investment in human capital"). This affected the bottom line and the bottom line in turn raised concerns among investors and analysts.

You agree that for hi-tech company like Google humans are most valuable capital. Not technologies, not patents, not buildings or computers.

And to me it is a good sign that a company is investing in its most valuable asset. Or may be I do not get this "Wall Street" thing with shares and stuff?

There will be two conferences in October that have almost identical name but are hardly the same by nature and content:

• Software Business 2007
• Business of Software 2007

Given that the first conference is for "owners, chief executives, presidents, vice presidents and division or department directors of leading and fast-growing software companies" and has this list of speakers. And the second is for "managers, CXOs, directors or founders of software companies" and has such speakers on the list. Which one would you attend?

I wish our president (president of Ukraine) and other folks in the government have read this wonderful piece by Paul Graham: Why Startups Condense in America. I wish they got the message and understood what is in there for Ukraine. I wish they run the country as business that must be effective and profitable to survive in the world marketplace.

One of the advantages that we should make use of is unique number and quality of hi-tech professionals we have in Ukraine. We must build on and develop this and other our strengths to be competitive in the world marketplace.

Recently my colleague and I were going from Kyiv to Dnipropetrovs'k by train. During the journey we had more or less comfortable seats and almost 6 hours of free time. When battery of my laptop ran off after watching the Planet of the Apes we started reading articles opened in many tabs on my colleague's FireFox. Here goes the list (not complete though):

• In Defense of Not-Invented-Here Syndrome by Joel Spolsky;
• Five things I hate about Emacs and Vim;
• Editor: vi or emacs?;
• How to Make Wealth by Paul Graham.

Do you think this list is random? I think not.

PS Check out the headline picture of Emacs and Vi. Wouldn't it with symmetrical picture fully describe the situation around Vi and Emacs?

Recently the food superstore I usually visit to buy food for my family introduced new size of parcels that they sell at the check out. Generally it is a good idea to offer smaller (and thus cheaper) parcels for those who do not need large ones. But let's look at this new offer from another point of view. Earlier the dialog at the check out started with

— Do you need a parcel? — Yes, thank you. (or No, thank you.)

And now it goes as

— Do you need a parcel? — Yes. (or No, thank you. And that is ok.) — Large or small one? — Hm... Well... I guess, large one.

You see, now selling a parcel takes at least twice as much time as it did before. And the new offer that was aimed at increasing customer satisfaction those on the line are really irritated by the process of parcel selection.

In fact, the process is more than two times slower. The reason is that first question does not really require a decision from you. You kind of know beforehand whether you need the parcel. But the second question gives you choice and asks to decide. And that is where one really needs to take his time and think.

Generally speaking, choice is good when it adds real alternatives. And in that case the choice should be supported by effective decision making process so that overall efficiency is not affected.

"Ukraine IT outsourcing tops in Eastern Europe" article by BPOUkraine elaborates a little bit on recent Goal Europe report by giving some additional information. It is interesting that according to the data from Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative Ukrainian outsourcing market was about $600 million in Y2006, which is more than two times greater then the number reported by Goal Europe - $246 million. I tend to think that the truth is somewhere in between.

Also there is a typo in the article: it says that SoftServe has more that 200 employees, but in fact SoftServe employs more than 700 professionals in 6 development centers in different regions of Ukraine.

Just worth reading article about a man who had courage to bet on changing the world and win.