It’s close to 1:00 am, my kid and pregnant wife are asleep, and I’m thinking about sourcing.
Something I’ve learned about myself is that I’ve got to keep the gears turning and write stuff down, so here it goes.
What a journey! The spotlight is dimming; I know it can’t last forever. However before I slip into the abyss of lost memories, I have something else I want to give to everyone who reads.
I’ve been holding this back, but I know how our industry is going to advance so much further than this spreadsheet of Boolean strings, but I hope it helps to set it forward.
This is the working document of how I built the Toolbox. It’s research, its raw, and it’s the inspiration that has helped me build presentations, webinars, and websites. I believe that anyone can do something amazing, they just need the right push. This is me, holding nothing back because I want to see our progress, our industry, our tools, us aging folks looking to millennials to teach us what DPS is and not to pull aggro when partying up as a mage. I can’t take full credit for this document; this is the collective wisdom of the Sourcing Guild.
Boolean ain’t dead, but it’s adapting into applications and AI, and it’s our place to help tool crafters see the syntax. That’s why you see more sourcing streams on several new channels. Open Source sourcing is how we are going to bridge the gap, and streaming how we do it is an authentic reality.
It’s time we move beyond strings and start building these tools out.
Somewhere down the path, these people have contributed to this whether they realize or not. Thank you each one of you for helping build this collective wisdom and fight the monsters in our way. We’ve all played a part in the #CircleOfSourcing, and spoiler alert: The Sourcing Community is strong AND smart. Without the Sourcing Guild, I’d still probably be trapped inside a cave, and indeed not streaming vids to the world.
It’s up to us to figure it out ya’ll. You, me, and all the nerds out there stuck behind some mental or cubical wall. I want you to know you have a voice; you can ask whatever question you may need. Someone will step up and help, they always do. When you get mobbed in a dungeon, you count on your party to bail you out, right?
Consider this a free Rez, Tank.
+3 to Crafting Builds
We’ve got the strings, now let’s work to give insight to those who are already building new tools (or build our own with tech out there).
I’ve also had the fantastic opportunity to talk to the founders, creators, and big thinkers of WebClipDrop, Seekout, Dataminer, Hiretual, PeopleCamp, Honeit, and many others. Not only are they just like us, wanting to improve the tools and industry, but they need our insights as well.
The freemium model works you guys, think about how many times you’ve bought something on Amazon because of free shipping on your one-month free trial. I bought Netflix years ago after two weeks into the trial. And well, a game demo usually shows me if one should pay more for the better content. Even World of Warcraft went freemium, and ya’ll that was kind of a big deal in the MMORPG world. Sourcing is the same deal, give us some free stuff, and we’ll keep coming back.
YouTube, in particular, has an abundance of free streaming tech (including features like live chat and screen sharing with a huge user base). It’s a sourcer’s playground, a perfect forum for us if I can just figure out how to integrate the chat field correctly. I knew nothing about key codes or widget configurations until I talked to my gaming writing brother Chris Hawkes and sourcer/streamer of Twitch Show Jess Roberts. You have no idea how deeply one can plunge into this stuff, but I’m glad I did. I can show so much more now, just look:
#SourcingIRL
https://www.youtube.com/c/GregHawkes-SourcingIRL
I’m sharing all this because you can build things too. I have a high expectation for tools because I’ve learned and taught myself how to build better aggregators for free:
Shannon Pritchett, thank you from the bottom of my heart and the deep synapses of my positronic brain. You and SourceCon took a chance on a goofy contributor that wrote about Sith Lords, sourcing, and a whole lot of nerdy stuff.
The Best Human Friends a Nerd Could Ask For
We can build apps, we can build bots, but the factor is separating us from the rest is our humanity. Even the if the algorithms are lit, an IRL call from a human still makes people smile every time. Tech only gets you so far, getting to know your network for realz gets you further. You’ve got to have the right formula of tools, tech, and human nature to put together a successful effort. It’s the combination that wins the race.
Above are just some of the people that have inspired me in some way. In turn, I hope they’ll inspire you, or even better, you’ll inspire them (like when Jonathan Tarrico blew my mind with his API mumbo jumbo). You are the best human friends this nerd can ask for, thanks for joining the party, our combined DPS is insurmountable.
