Just 3 months after the bombings of September 11 I was enlisted into the army.  I didn’t join because of the terrorist attacks (my paperwork was lodged months before) but the gravity of the occasion wasn’t lost on me.

When a fresh recruit first lands at Basic Training the camp staff seem to have nothing better to do than make the lives of recruits hell.  Aside from the yelling and abuse there’s also a raft of practical jokes going around every day.  The first time my platoon went to learn rifle shooting I remember all the rifles had little paper tags stuck to them with a message that read “point end towards enemy.” Suffering under the abuse of the instructors, I’m pretty sure the recruits would have to think pretty carefully before deciding who that enemy was.  But the point is this: your most potent weapon always needs to be pointed towards the enemy.

But this story can be related to the workplace.  Internal politics and sniping just isn’t productive; it’s kind of like shooting your own platoon.  Decided what your weapon is and get your team to create a protective harbor and then defend.  And attack when possible.  Of course internal squabbling isn’ the only thing reducing your company’s productivity.  Think about what you’re doing, what you’re selling, who the enemy is.  Most internet companies are selling something, and more often that not they have some competitor.  Sit down and set yourself some goals.  Are we taking chunks out of our competitors armor?  If not, why not?  Come up with a plan and then re-evaluate after a month.

If you have a good product or service there’s really no excuse for not beating your enemy.  Pointy end towards enemy, fire, check, adjust.

Cover letters - why do companies bother with them? I know at least a dozen people who have admitted to nicking a perfectly written cover letter off the Internet and just changing the names and the work experience to their own. (Well, one of those people actually forgot to change the name from “John Smith” to her own - needless to say, she never heard back.)

When I’m in the position to hire people, I don’t give a hoot about where they used to work, what their bosses said about how they worked, what happened to that job, whether they live with their parents or with their ex girlfriend and her cat. In fact, I’d be a lot more likely to hire someone who can sum up their motives and motivations in a paragraph or two. What they’ve got to offer, why they think they’re good enough, and how we can contact them.

Sharp, smart, and simple.

Thinking of it like that, cover letters and softwares have a lot in common. We don’t want to have to go through tediously long “how-to-use” guides just so we can decide whether or not we want to pay for it. We want to see it and intuitively know what goes where and how it works. Now that’s efficiency, and that’s what we want to strive towards.