Book details

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Book details

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Book details

Availability: Usually emailed within 48 hours of receipt of electronic payment.

Format: 3 PDF EBooks

Another Recession!

It doesn't seem fair, does it? We were just starting to make money again after the 2001-2003 recession. You remember, the economy that featured computer professionals flipping burgers. Jobless streaks long enough to exhaust unemployment insurance. You'd just put all that behind you, and now it's back!

Outrun and out maneuver the competition with Rapid Learning and Troubleshooting. Rapid Learning means that no matter what new technologies management decides to institute, within days you can be conversant in that technology. At the first meeting, you'll be perceived as a leader, not as dead wood. When training cutbacks cause coworkers to fall behind, you'll be the guy who's always ready. With any luck at all, the axe will miss your cubicle.

Effective Troubleshooters also tend to avoid the axe. If you're the guy who quickly solves problems, the go-to guy when things break, the guy the boss calls when his boss wants it fixed yesterday, you'll be too valuable to let go. Someone else will take the axe.

But What If It Happens Anyway?

Sometimes even the best get the axe. Your company goes belly up. Some guy three positions up the chain of command decides to outsource your whole department. A merger results in redundancy, and you were in the wrong group. Your company emails IT off to India, retaining just one guy to push the power switch. It happens.

And when it does, you're in a whole different race. Instead of having to outrun the dead wood in your own organization, you need to outrun a good percentage of the hungry and motivated people in the unemployment line. They're competing with you for the few openings that come available. It's not easy.

Most of your unemployed competitors have read the same books as you. They know how to write a good resume. They know how to network in order to hear of jobs before the hordes come knocking. They know how to dress to impress.

But many of your competitors haven't read about Rapid Learning. So as the weeks and months go by, their skills obsolete. New technologies bring new buzzwords of which they're unaware. Their interview effectiveness declines.

How different it is for you. Armed with the Rapid Learning techniques you learned in "Rapid Learning for the 21st Century", you stay sharp. You hear of a job requiring Jifty. You do a little Rapid Learning, and within 2 hours you know enough to sound somewhat knowledgeable. You call for an interview, speak intelligently about Jifty, and get the interview three days from now. The next three days are spent doing Rapid Learning. By the time you go to the interview, you have Jifty running on your home computer, you've implemented a small web app in Jifty, and you're a member of the Jifty mailing list. You pass the verbal interview with flying colors, meet with the lead developer, and a couple days later you hear you're on the candidate short list. You might not get this one, but do it a few times and you'll be employed again. Meanwhile, your competition in the unemployment line is getting more stale with every passing day, and wondering what they'll do when their unemployment insurance lapses.

Troubleshooting is essential your first week on the job. That first week, you won't know what's going on, but you'll be under intense scrutiny. If you can fix a few technical problems, your new co-workers and bosses will think of you as being "smart", having "common sense", and possessing "motivation". You'll have marked your territory.

The Three Ebooks

• Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
• Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
• Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting

Rapid Learning for the 21st Century

In its first 100 pages, this book teachest the essence of Rapid Learning: What it is, how to do it, what to watch out for. The next 40 pages are a detailed Rapid Learning session involving SSH keys. You'll see exactly how Rapid Learning happens in real life.

By the time you finish this book, you'll have the knowledge and mindset to hear about an opportunity using a new technology, immediately learn enough to discuss the technology literately, and then a few days later to actually work with the technology. When opportunities present themselves, you'll sprint to the head of the pack, and stay ahead of the pack. You'll be nimble enough to avoid most layoffs, and prepared to persue new opportunities if you do get laid off.

Troubleshooting: Just the Facts

The first couple weeks of a new job, assignment or project are worrisome in a recession. Will your boss think you bit off more than you can chew?

Troubleshooting is the most important and impressive skill you possess during the first two weeks. Every "new guy" gets assigned at least one problem to fix before being set loose to redesign the entire system. Your results solving that problem can do one of two things:

Be sure your results accomplish #1.

Troubleshooting productivity depends on much more than knowledge of the system and the underlying technology. By far the greatest predictor of troubleshooting success is knowledge of the process of troubleshooting. This book teaches that process.

"Troubleshooting: Just the Facts" is exactly what its title says; a very concise and organized description of the ten step process you must use to achieve maximum troubleshooting performance. This book is short enough to be read in one night, but complete enough to materially improve your troubleshooting the next morning. This book is a must for every employee, especially the new employee.

Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting

"Troubleshooting: Just the Facts" is the head of troubleshooting, "Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting" is troubleshooting's heart and soul. Each story is crafted not only to help you learn troubleshooting, but to understand it and even feel it.

Feeling it is what makes the difference between being able to ace a test on a subject, and being able to productively put that subject to use. This book has generated voluminous positive feedback in the two years since its publication. Reading "Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting is your next step toward excellence on the job.

Strategy for Using These Books

If you are currently, or expect to be faced with the need to quickly learn a technology, read "Rapid Learning for the 21st Century" first. The 100 page instructional text should take about 8 hours to read and understand, and then the 40 page example appendix should take another 6 to 8 hours. In other words, you can begin this book on a Friday night, and begin Rapid Learning a new technology on Sunday afternoon.

On the other hand, if you're doing OK on your technology, but you want to improve your overall job performance, read "Troubleshooting: Just the Facts" first. This all-facts, no-fluff 82 page book is designed to be readable in a single night (maybe 6pm to 11pm). The knowledge gained from this book will improve your troubleshooting productivity, and therefore your job performance.

Either way, save "Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting" for last. At 229 pages, it's a longer read. Also, it's more valuable if you've been thinking about Troubleshooting for awhile.

Just Do It!

Recessions can be ugly career killers. They're nothing to fool around with. At $27.50, this three book package is easily affordable, and the books themselves are designed to be quickly readable for quick results. The ability to learn rapidly and troubleshoot quickly and accurately are two very powerful ways to outrun your competitors, and thereby stay out of the unemployment line.

Buy these three books right now!