Microsoft Office 2010 Home And Business blog raymo

The geek in question: Raymond Chen

The occupation title: Principal Software Design Engineer, and well-known Microsoft blogger.

What have you been functioning on now?
I've been with Microsoft for 17 years, and I'm presently within the Windows Encounter Group. We're the persons who do the stuff that finish users see and interact with. Fundamentally, something that goes incorrect, it seems like we did it.

What have you discovered in the course of your time at Microsoft?
One can find a few "key learnings" — and yes, I have to use air quotes around that phrase. First, you have to understand what you may do, what you’re able to influence, and what you'll be able to only observe. If there's not anything you are able to actively do on a project, if it's some thing you’re able to only influence and observe, then you have to learn to provide your feedback, and then let go and allow other men and women to fail. This is another 1 of these weird lessons … you think it could be done better, but it's their responsibility, their puppy.

People don't learn if they never make any mistakes. You have to let consumers screw up so they can learn and grow. When many people hear this advice, they may interpret it as, like,Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, "Everybody is just screwing up all the time, and Raymond's perfectly fine with it." But it's more nuanced than that.

I sent out a tweet on Twitter looking for questions to ask you, and a single guy said, "All I can think of are questions you'd ask Chuck Norris, such as 'How are you currently such a bad ass?'" So, how does it feel to be the Chuck Norris of Microsoft?
It's in fact frustrating — Chuck Norris can't basically do all the things folks say he can do! When individuals go around saying, "Raymond can do this!" or "Go ask Raymond!" it's like, no, I can't essentially do all that. Sometimes my reputation precedes me and has elevated me to a level at which I don't basically exist.

So do you feel like the Santa Claus of Microsoft?
Yeah, some sort of mythical creature. And eventually somebody's going to peel back the curtain and realize it's just some guy with a microphone.

Oh, so you're the Wizard of Oz of Microsoft?
I'm a big fan of totally scrambled metaphors.

I understand you're a company folk historian. What's your favorite old school story?
This story was told to me by another old-timer, so it's second-hand, but I like it. So, remember that photo -- the Bill Gates Tiger-Beat-style photo? Within the background of that photo is a hotel sign. Bill was working late, preparing for an important presentation the following day.

He finally wraps it up at some ridiculous hour, and he doesn't want to drive all the way home just to come back. So he heads on over to the hotel next door and asks for a room. They ask him for a credit card, but he doesn't have one. He's, like, "I work right over there, okay?" And they're, like, "I'm sorry, sir, that's our policy." Bill's like, "okay, fine" and goes back to the office to sleep on the couch within the lobby or a thing.

Next morning, does his presentation, yay, it's all good. But of course this is Bill Gates in his irascible, highly temperamental era, so he writes an angry letter to the owner of the hotel lambasting them for mistreating a very valuable member of the community. The owner of the hotel, the story goes, calls an emergency all-hands meeting of all of his staff. Calls them in and says, "This is a picture of Bill Gates, he works next door. If he comes in,Office Pro 2007, asks for a room, he gets one particular. Any questions?"

Selections from your super popular blog were published as a book a couple decades back. How's that going?
It's a strange feeling, seeing the numbers coming back from the publisher … I think the first half of 2008, I sold a net of two copies! It's like, "Oh yeah, I can get half a cup of tea." But, the book has been translated into Chinese and Japanese, which means that now my relatives can read it and know just how boring a person I am at work, too.

So,Office Pro 2007, the book might not be a huge success, but the blog still is.
A single of the things about functioning on Windows is that the things you're doing will be running on bazillions of computers around the world, which is a tremendous responsibility. You don't want to be the 1 to screw it up, because if you have a blog, you then get to post a blog entry saying, "Hi,microsoft Office 2010 License, yeah, that was me. I screwed up over here. Woo-hoo,Microsoft Office 2010 Home And Business! Sorry! Not gonna do that 1 again. I'll screw up a different way next time!"

Links, please: • Raymond's blog • Raymond’s book (who knows, maybe it’ll sell three copies this year) • Raymond’s column Windows Confidential in TechNet Magazine