Am I the Oldest Man in SharePoint?
At the SharePoint Saturday speaker get-together last Friday night in New York City I was approached by a young man asking if I was Mark Miller from EndUserSharePoint.com. Because of the visibility of the site in the past year, this is pretty common at events like this. People want to stop and tell me they are a fan of the site and how one of the articles saved them a ton of time… stuff like that.
This time, it was a little differerent.
“Man, you’re OLD!” he said. When I looked at him kind of dumbfounded, he didn’t notice the expression and just kept on talking. “I had no idea you were so OLD! Wait until I tell the guys back at the shop. I guess if YOU can do it, pretty much ANYONE can do it. Now they have no excuse.”
Anything that came out of his mouth after that sounded pretty much like an adult voice from a Charlie Brown movie… “Wha wha wha whaaaa”.
What could have provoked this guy to think it was ok to come up and call me an old geezer to my face? Something’s just off here because I think he meant it as a compliment.
Sorry guy, but that’s not the way I get my strokes. I appreciate compliments, but that one left me speachless.
on
Ah but you didn’t tell us your actual age! The question might be rhetorical, but now I really want to know!
regards
Paul
Well, I’m 46, and I’m still here, better than ever. I don’t know how old “old” is. Sometimes I want to wring a 20-something neck :)
Close but no cigar – A well known Best Practices conference speaker trumps you, but I won’t say who it is – they may not want to admit it! :-)
You’re NEVER too old!! :)
Yeah, that’s a little bizarre. Maybe he’s having end user adoption issues? People not wanting to try something new and set in their ways? I’ve had a few of those and they occasionally cite age as a reason not to learn (made no sense to me).
It doesn’t justify the behavior but he might be alluding to how open minded you are for doing so much with a new tool. Just a thought. In any event you run an awesome site and are a key member of the community.
Best,
Jeff
Mark — compared to you I’m downright ANCIENT — and no, I won’t tell you my age. But sometimes young whipper-snappers just need a right good paddling. It’s like the 2×4 and the mule. The 2×4 didn’t teach the mule anything — but it did get the mule’s attention.
I doubt this guy ‘larned’ a thing. See — he already knew it all.
[BTW, he would be able to understand this response. The Grade level on it was 3.8.] :-)
It’s good that you saw it as a sort of compliment (which I agree he probably meant and was thinking out loud). I don’t think too many people think of you as old, but I bet many think of you as more experienced and knowledgeable. :)
Just a thought on top of what you said:
On the other side of it all I often get a surprised expression of being called too young, have been called a baby (this one wasn’t a compliment), and often experience challenges with being young and in a role of leadership/management. It’s hard for many people to guess that a young individual might have a large amount of experience or knowledge.
Sometimes I wish I was older to avoid some of the issues listed above (though they are uncommon and relatively rare). Interesting to see how age perception effects some people.
Thank you for sharing your story,
Richard Harbridge
Amazing how uncouth some folks can be!
But then, our society trains folks to only associate with people their own age. For 13-17 years of institutional schooling, we’re only with folks within a year of our own age.
It’s a shame we don’t respect people that aren’t close to the same number of years as ourselves. We miss out on so much by prejudging and dismissing the opinions, experiences, expertise, learning, talents, gifts, and insights of others. That’s true whether we do it because of age, gender, nationality, personality, religion, skin color, accent, grammar, marital status, number of children, crooked teeth, bad breath, the car we drive, the sports team we prefer, the color of our socks, etc. EVERYone has SOMEthing to offer.
And EndUserSharePoint is a great proof of that. Here, we enjoy the insight of folks who dare to share what they’ve learned: regardless of any other factor except that they’re willing to share and we’re stuck making SharePoint do something we’ve been asked to make it do.
The Apostle Paul told his young protege Timothy: “Let no one despise your youth.” King Solomon said, “The silver-haired head is a crown of glory.”
Of course, the man in your graphic was young, though dead.
So, don’t cry, Mark. You aren’t dead yet! ;) (And Richard, don’t wish to be older. Your young age means you will be able to be of service to this community even longer!)
Mark, you have tons to offer this community, and you serve it up everyday. And despite this young man’s poor judgment, SharePoint isn’t so easy that ANYONE is “without excuse,” just because someone else is able to do XYZ with it!
Keep on keepin’ on!
Blessings,
Jim Bob
You should’ve asked him if he intended surviving to your age…
How rude!!! Pay no attention and keep doing what you’re doing – all of you rock at endusersharepoint – make no mistake…
Nicola
Hope that he’s good at what he does because his people skills are going to negatively affect his career.
What a jerk!
I can understand your anger/confusion around this situation. The young man obviously is lacking in social graces and is quite oblivious.
Since you posted it, I guess you too see the humor in it to others. So thanks for sharing.
As a 49 year old SharePoint BA/Designer/Trainer, it never fails to amaze me how many young technos don’t differentiate between a tool and the real needs/work of their organization.
Keep the faith, one of my favorite sites.
I have a few years on you and I have to stay on the cutting edge as a contractor. I think he meant he was having trouble getting older users to try SP and the newer technologies. I took it to mean he was giving you a compliment as his experience with us baby boomers learning new stuff has been negative.