Inaugural Post

Hello, everyone! I'm David van Sunder. Nice to meet you all.

I was going to jump right in and start posting articles, but I decided that it would be better to put together a post welcoming anyone that decides to stop in and read the blog. This post is not just to thank anyone that stops in for spending some time with me.  It is also an opportunity for me to define what this blog will be about. That way I can crystallize the blog’s purpose, which helps to focus future articles and lets you know what to expect. All too often, bloggers fail to do that and their blogs wander aimlessly because of it. Sometimes, that journey is enjoyable. Other times it is annoying or, worse yet, wastes the reader’s time. That is one thing I don’t want to do. Everyone’s time is valuable. If you aren’t reading this blog, you can be doing any of a number of things. So, I want to make sure that whenever you stop by, that you leave feeling like it was time well spent.

So, what’s the purpose of this blog already?
The purpose of this blog is to share knowledge that I have acquired, either through research or experience. I will often cover topics that you have seen covered elsewhere, but my goal is to cover those topics a little differently than you have seen in the past. That way you should take something away that you had not known before. That might be a fact, a different point of view, or an insight into how I or someone else thinks that sheds some light on a situation in your own life. Now that’s the point of the blog, but what is its focus?

What topics will I cover?
I will focus on my passions, which are technology, business and people. I can’t say which of those areas I’m most passionate about, but I do feel that technology and people often intersect in business, which is why I listed those topics in that order. I find it interesting to talk about all of those areas separately, but I don’t feel that doing that does justice to any of them. Those topics are enriched by exploring how they interact with each other and that is something I am deeply interested in: How people, businesses and technology interact. I pride myself on investigating how things fit. That’s probably the result of the combination of my curiosity, my education at Santa Clara University and my time as a Big 5 consultant when I worked at Accenture. Whatever the reason, I love to dissect situations and assess why those involved behave the way they do and how the situations could be improved if they are suboptimal. That interest in how things fit together helped me tremendously in my time as a consultant, as a business owner (when my wife and I opened her physical therapy clinic) and even now as I give my wife insights into the interpersonal dynamics and business process issues in her new position as the Director of Rehabilitation at a local skilled nursing facility.

Some situations scream out with solutions, others are more nuanced, but there is almost always a solution to every situation. The key is to dig in and find the fulcrum of the situation and apply the right leverage. Now, I don’t mean applying leverage in the definition of putting the screws to someone. That is rarely the right solution to a situation. I mean applying leverage in the sense of finding the way that requires the least amount of work to produce the greatest effect possible in the pursuit of improving the situation. Some situations can be fixed by working for days to compile necessary data, but could just as easily be solved with a $5 software application or a $300 piece of hardware. Finding the correct fulcrum and the best way to apply leverage to it with the available resources is the key.

I plan to cover different topics, not so that I can show you the fulcrum or leverage necessary for a specific situation you are in, but so that you can see how I look at situations and how technology, business and people interact. That way you can find the appropriate fulcrums and means of applying leverage in your own situations. And sometimes I will just tell you about something cool or interesting that might help you out in some way with respect to technology, business or people.

Oh, and before I forget, this isn’t meant to be a blog where I just send my words out into the void. I hope to hear from those of you who are reading. If something I say sparks a thought, begs a question or just seems off base, let me know. I would love to hear from you. One thing I have learned in life is that you can learn something from anyone you meet. I hope to meet a lot of you through this website and, as a result, learn a lot more. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again!

P.S. Don’t worry, most of my posts won’t be this long. At least I don’t think so…

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