Nostalgia in Cincinnati
April 15th, 2008I am here in Cincinnati today for the Lotusphere Comes to You event, and it is like a blast from the past. In 2000, I worked with Rocky Oliver and Henry Newberry at Synergistics, working on the Prevail 4.0 release. So arriving into the Cincinnati airport brought me back to that year.
It started with having to fly the regional American jet between Chicago and here .. which I hate. Those planes are so small that any turbulence makes you feel like your on a roller coaster. Connected to the ground, fun. In an airplane, bad. Next, the drive from the airport in Kentucky to the north side of Cincinnati. The drive over the river, passing the Cincinnati Bengals and Red stadiums .. man I remember when they were building the baseball stadium and traffic was horrible.
I drove up past our old offices, almost as a release of old feelings. I can not say I left Synergistics in the best state of mind. That was a great year working with Rocky and Henry. I learned so much and had such a good time. Rocky and I would spend every other week in Cincinnati, flying in Monday evening and leaving Thursday evening. We totally got on each other's nerves, staying at the same hotel, sometimes sharing a rental car. The three of us would do Dave and Busters and movies and just geek out over code and Notes. The state of Synergistics was pretty bad. They decided that Notes/Domino was not the place to be, and started building a KM solution on another platform. I watched the company take a dive as Henry and the other founder left, then Rocky. I gave me 2 week notice just 3 days before a major RIF. Synergistics did not survive much past 2001 in the form I remember them. It was a year learning. How to work with a software product that went thru testing vs. customer solutions. Proper architecture and system design. A collaborative design process. How to be passionate in your opinions and be willing to accept the group decision. How to not manage and to sometimes just sit back and watch a person destroy a product. And most importantly, how to learn.
Not sure if I let go of some demons here, but it felt good to be in Cincinnati representing PSC. They say time heals, but maybe it is just me growing up.
On side note .. Rocky, our radio station is still on and playing our music. Was nice to have one thing still be there!
It started with having to fly the regional American jet between Chicago and here .. which I hate. Those planes are so small that any turbulence makes you feel like your on a roller coaster. Connected to the ground, fun. In an airplane, bad. Next, the drive from the airport in Kentucky to the north side of Cincinnati. The drive over the river, passing the Cincinnati Bengals and Red stadiums .. man I remember when they were building the baseball stadium and traffic was horrible.
I drove up past our old offices, almost as a release of old feelings. I can not say I left Synergistics in the best state of mind. That was a great year working with Rocky and Henry. I learned so much and had such a good time. Rocky and I would spend every other week in Cincinnati, flying in Monday evening and leaving Thursday evening. We totally got on each other's nerves, staying at the same hotel, sometimes sharing a rental car. The three of us would do Dave and Busters and movies and just geek out over code and Notes. The state of Synergistics was pretty bad. They decided that Notes/Domino was not the place to be, and started building a KM solution on another platform. I watched the company take a dive as Henry and the other founder left, then Rocky. I gave me 2 week notice just 3 days before a major RIF. Synergistics did not survive much past 2001 in the form I remember them. It was a year learning. How to work with a software product that went thru testing vs. customer solutions. Proper architecture and system design. A collaborative design process. How to be passionate in your opinions and be willing to accept the group decision. How to not manage and to sometimes just sit back and watch a person destroy a product. And most importantly, how to learn.
Not sure if I let go of some demons here, but it felt good to be in Cincinnati representing PSC. They say time heals, but maybe it is just me growing up.
On side note .. Rocky, our radio station is still on and playing our music. Was nice to have one thing still be there!
Posted in Cincinnati Synergistics | Babble (2)
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