Tonight is a great example of what I expected to hit eventually. I don't want to think about writing. It's not like writer's block where I can't think of what to write. It's more like I don't want to sit down and organize all the thoughts ping-ponging through my brain. And that is what the goal of this exercise is. To get better at organizing my thoughts.

Tonight was the end of Hack Nashville. My company was a sponsor and we had four employees committed to being a part of it. Essentially a 48 hour programming party over a weekend, teams were formed around business ideas and given 48 hours to produce a working demo of that idea.

What surprised me when I visited this afternoon was a conversation I had with one of the organizers. He said there is a divide in Nashville between developers and "business" people. Coming from the Silicon Valley, this strikes me as very odd. I've never sensed this type of divide in the valley, and part of that may be because my technical background helps me relate to the developers (I programmed back in the dark ages to work my way through undergrad). 

From what I understand, the developers feel undervalued by the biz folks and the biz folks think the developers are prima donnas. I think one of the roots of this issue is the old-time salary structures that I see here in Nashville where developers are typically paid less than business-side folks such as marketing, operations, or finance. I'm used to being a VP yet knowing that some developers are paid more than me. And I love it, as I know from experience that a great developer is always worth it. I'm just not sure that is a prevalent attitude here in Nashville. Anyone reading this care to comment?

And I apologize for readers that weren't expecting a business related blog entry. My committment is to getting my thoughts out, so you'll have to bear with me as my subjects broaden to include all (well, most) of the thoughts going through my head.

Note: Was doing my industry reading this morning and found this nugget that echoes my thoughts:

"Pay market rates for good talent, and pay a premium for the rock stars. Simply going from $100K/year in Silicon Valley to $120K/year will increase the potential talent pool that you have to hunt from. Move up to $150K/year, and the world is your oyster.

Important: The CEO should rarely be the highest-paid person at a company."

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/15/why-your-tech-startup-cant-hire-engineers-and-how-to-fix-it/#63GVcIfl4rLaXpBV.99