That’s Kasper Gutman from The Maltese Falcon.  I love that movie.  Lots of classic lines in it, and all socially acceptable….as opposed to one of my other favorites — The Big Lebowski. In Lebowski, the characters drop 292 F-Bombs (2.5 per minute) and nearly every line in the movie is quotable, at least for me.  My wife, on the other hand, is not fond of Lebowski because it’s a story about losers like The Honeymooners. Well yeah, and what’s your point? I digress.

Someone reading this blog a few days ago said to himself, “OK, let’s see if this stuff is real.” Apparently, he was worried that under the black enamel he would find lead instead of gold.  So he sent a comment to an old post in the blog. Since it was off topic, I decided to send him a personal email.

What ensued was a very pleasant exchange.  He said he enjoyed the blog, but from our initial exchange I think he assumed that someone in Pillar Marketing was writing it. So he came in expecting the blog to be mini-marketing stories or commercials for Pillar enhanced with a few personal links to make it look like a blog…like my interest in The Dude, Kasper Gutman, and pastrami from the delis in the “Greater Los Angeles Area”.

Well, I assured him that all the entries in this blog are written by me. Good or bad, the posts are reflections of my personal life and philosophies, intermixed with my zeal for the storage industry and what we’re trying to accomplish at Pillar. It’s no secret that I am trying to persuade readers that Pillar has good stuff worth their time and trouble to learn about, and hopefully purchase. I love writing this blog because I founded the company and am one of the principal architects of the product. When I worked at IBM I also believed in the products my teams built, but it was not possible to be as intricately entwined with so many aspects of the company as I am with Pillar. This is why start-ups are so much fun. Weenerdogs, Wine, and Wisecracks were not even remotely embraced in the executive suite at IBM. In fact, at one point a general manager told me that there was “no laughing” allowed in the executive floor of our headquarters division. This was where my office was located, and for those of you who don’t know me, “not laughing” presented quite a problem.

So why this blog post and title? Because I really do like debate and constructive argument. In a good debate you learn something. I love learning. Of course, I also hate to be wrong, but unfortunately it has happened enough that I am getting used to it ☺.  But what I hate more than being wrong is not having the conversation or debate in first place. In other words, not getting to test an idea with somebody who gives a damn.  So if you have a question or disagree with what I say, please let me know. The only posts I’ve screened-out so far are pure commercials for someone else’s business.