312- Doug Van Beek on IT Unions, Pottery, and Work-Life Balance

Dissecting Popular IT Nerds

Technology

5 • 49 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2024

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Doug Van Beek With a background spanning archaeology and technology, Doug Van Beek now serves as IT Director for AFSCME Council 5 in Minnesota. His diverse experiences inform a unique perspective on work-life balance, unions in tech, and the impact of emerging technologies. Outside of work, Doug teaches pottery classes and previously participated in medieval armored combat. Doug Van Beek on IT Unions, Pottery, and Work-Life Balance Is there a way to achieve true work-life balance in IT? Doug Van Beek, Director of IT at AFSCME MN Council 5, shares insights from his journey from archaeology to technology leadership. He discusses the potential for unions in IT, the importance of hobbies like pottery and combat sports for mental health, and how AI could reshape the workplace.

Transcript

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0:00.0	anyone everyone out there listening to dissecting popular IT nerds we're talking with
0:06.3	Doug you have Van Beek in parentheses vuxen van Bique am I pronouncing this correct
0:12.8	go with the van Bik part the Vuxen part is going away soon I was a sensitive new age
0:19.3	guy when I got married and now it has to go back to
0:23.5	just my name. Now I'm no longer sensitive. And I'm hardened. And far beyond new age.
0:34.1	Love it. Hey, you know, that's your life.
0:38.5	That's our life.
0:43.6	But, you know, we got connected when I asked you what your first computer was.
0:49.8	And it's a fond memory, you know, that there's a lot of fond memories that come from Radio Shack.
0:50.9	There is.
1:02.2	And the idea of getting a Tandy 1,000 with a four-color screen. Oh, my God, four colors. I went with the upgrade to get dual floppies.
1:06.0	Who could ever use more storage space than that?
1:15.2	The e-machine used to have a sticker on the back of it that was like,
1:21.2	it said like, you'll never need a computer again or like never upgradeable again. Or what did it say?
1:22.6	It was so funny.
1:24.1	I don't remember the exact phrase, but yeah, that idea that we never have to upgrade.
1:29.7	Oh, well, that's gone. Yeah. I'm looking this up because we have to have it. So tell me a story.
1:35.6	Let's go back in time. I want to hear about, I want to hear, let's tell a Radio Shack story for,
1:41.0	I don't know. The majority of the people that listen to this show
1:46.2	are going to um oh here it is here's the sticker this computer dot dot dot never never never
1:55.4	obsolete could i could i could on the front of it? Unlimited internet access for 1995 per month.
2:10.3	E-Machines Network, fast, reliable, internet access powered by MCI. They're gone.
	...

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