Retirement

Statement to friends on retirement from IBM:

Dear Friends,

Team work, that is what I remember.

• At IBM we build effective, productive, fun teams quickly. Then we rip them down and start over. We were pretty good at it, and we make and keep friends along the way.
• GE Information Services – Even decades after acquisition we have a Town Crier (of the email variety) who sends out updates every time there is news from the clan. There are reunions and news letters out of Italy.  
• Tymshare/McAuto Medical Systems – Was a company of no more then 100 people.  After closing the doors in 1986 we still have well attended reunions. PS the owner usually picks up the dinner bill, because he said the team made him what he is today.
• Karate Family – Unfortunately I moved away from the tightest knit group of people I have ever worked with.

I did not just leave IBM, but left a profession, and relationships.

As someone who tried to be a student of team dynamics I have taken stock of how the right chemistry makes powerful cohesive teams.  Teams for which it was a privilege of be a part of.

It has been fun, but time to push on. Like the Farmers Insurance Commercial Says – We Know A Thing Or Two Because We‘ve Seen A Thing Or Two..

The first machine I worked on was the size of my kitchen with 12K of memory. The average cellphone in 2020 has 21 Million TIMES more.  Started by moving almost individual bites and machine registers around in machine language code called assembler and wound up working on an AI project with Watson.  Worked the gambit of positions computer operator, programmer, consultant, PM, a manager in the big city then traveled a lot; a lot. Now living in a home off the beaten track. What a ride.