What follows is a take on what I learned as Salesforce moved to require all of its customers to use MFA. There’s plenty more left on the cutting room floor but it will definitely give you a flavor for the experience. If you don’t want to read all this you can check out the version I delivered at Identiverse 2022.

i

Thank you.

It is an honor and a privilege to be here on the first day of Identiverse. I want to thank Andi and the entire program team for allowing me to speak to you today.

Reification. I learned that word from Kim. In the immediate next breath he said from the stage that he was told not everyone knew what reify meant and that he would use a more approachable word: “thingify.” And therein I learned another lesson from Kim about how to present to an audience.

My memories of Kim come in three phases: Kim as Legend, Kim as Colleague, and Kim as Human, and with each phase came new things to learn.

I meant to write a post describing how I build presentations, but I realized that I can’t do that without writing this one first. I had the honor of working with Drue Reeves when I was at Burton and Gartner. Drue was my chief of research and as an agenda manager we worked closely in shaping what and how our teams would research. More importantly we got to define the kind of analysts we hired. We talked about all the kinds of skills an analyst should have. We’d list out all sorts of technical certifications, evidence of experience, and the like. But in the end, that list always reduced down to two things. If you have them, you can be successful in all your endeavors. The two most important skills someone needs to be successful in what they do are:

Our modern era split into two parts on September 11th. In the last ten years, like the World Trade Center, some of our shared concepts about our world have fallen. Collapsed is the notion that the world “over there” has no impact on our own soil. In sad heap is the idea that we can apply kinetic force again ideological force. Fallen is the naïveté that we know how to manage the institutions that have fueled America’s growth, whose complexity and interconnectedness have increased geometrically. There is an idea that has not fallen and has grown in strength and in implication - the idea that we can be completely safe. This farcical idea is literally destroying our country. This myth bankrupting our nation. This myth is breeding ideologues. The fantasy of complete safety has robbed us our dignity. It has decreased our operational efficiency. This country is behaving like a child, afraid of the dark, insisting to turn on every light in the house. There isn’t a boogeyman under every bed, in every closet. The dark isn’t inherently dangerous. The dark contains the unknown and the undiscovered; it is in the dark that our future rests. It is only through bravery of admitting that we cannot be completely safe, through the decision to not be scared of the dark, that we can progress economically and emotionally.

I have been avoiding watching the TV these last few days. I’ve been avoiding reading the op eds and the wrenching retelling of what happen that day ten years ago tomorrow. I have been avoiding these things, not because I do not want to remember, but because I do not want to relive that day. This modern era has been split into pre-9/11 and post. Consider what I wrote on September 10, 2001:

As someone of you have already heard, the spiritual home of Tuesdaynight, Toledo Lounge, has been sold. After nearly 20 years Abbajay sisters have sold Toledo to the owners of the Black Squirrel. From reading this article, it sounds like things are going to pretty much stay the same at Toledo which is great news. BTW - some of us will be at Toledo tonight to reminisce. Come join us!

Two friends of mine have finally decided to get blogging. Yes, I know that blogging seems passé to some of you out there, but it still has it purpose. First up - Tuesdaynight’s very own Josh Nanberg has launched his eponymous blog. Josh is one of the few people I know who can

• breakdown political messaging techniques in to something I can understand
• cook a four course meal in a 1 course kitchen
• reference deeply obscure music lyrics

all at the same time. Next up - my friend and mentor, Rob Ciampa has decided to divert his seemingly boundless energies into a bit of blogging. Besides having an encyclopedic knowledge French wine, a photographic memory for menus, and a typical Boston potty-mouth, Rob is one of the best corporate marketers and channel managers I have ever met. Admittedly neither blog has much content but I know these guys, and I know what’s to come. You’ll want to know it to.

Pat and Jeff have run their blogs through Typealyzer, an interesting little site that applies a Myers-Briggs personality test to a URL you give it. (The cynic in me thinks it picks four letters at random.) So aiming it at Tuesday Night we discover that it is an ESTP - The Doers. As Typealyzer says:

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities. The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Follow me on Twitter for my color commentary on the conference. So far - this is one of the most interesting conferences I have ever been to.

I saw the attached poster today in Union Station. I stood and stared at it wondering whether I read it correctly. Then I took a picture of it and stared at that for a while. Using Adams bank gives Abigail Adams the vapors? And that’s supposed to be a good thing? Having the vapors was a medical term used roughly around the time of the Civil War, which was fifty years after Abby Adams was dead. It was used to refer to nervous disorders like depression or hysteria. There’s a misconception that it was also used to refer to flatulence, though I cannot find hard evidence of that. Either way an ATM that gives me gas with a bought of depression seems like a place I want to bank. I wonder if the bank gives away a combination of Gas-X and Zoloft with every checking account? Someone paid for this ad? I think Creative got a little too creative.