Welcome to John Foster’s corner of the net. All content is editorial opinion and should not be considered fact.
I work in the Information Security field. I started out doing tech support and programming, but eventually worked my way into management. Today I am in a “technical hands-off” position where Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are my tools instead of Visual Studio. Convergence of Enterprise Security Organizations is an older publication but can provide useful insight for those who are looking to make the career transition out of technical into management. Modern security professionals are transitioning into a corporate risk role and handling firewalls and other traditional tools less and less on a daily basis. Under ISO 27001 the Information Security function cannot report to IT, which is a conflict of interest. Where would security professionals report to if not in IT? Internal Audit, Finance, Compliance, and Legal are all logical options depending on the organization and the professional in question.
I also enjoy the music industry and have been working part time as a Promoter for over 10 years. A promoter is the person that bridges the gap between the musician and the club/venue. Promoters don’t necessarily work for the venue and can be independent. My approach is to maintain a portfolio of DJs that have a following and find clubs that are looking for a regular theme night. This is more of a hybrid between Promoter, and Agent since it involves representing the musicians and the advertising part as well. I work primarily with indie or retro musicians. It’s a small niche market and I’m not interested in competing with the big guys that do pop, country, or hip hop.
Investing is another passion of mine. I trade stocks and options quite a bit and I’m always looking for something to invest in. I end up day trading more now. My strategy is to setup a limit order to buy and a very tight trailing stop order. This usually means I can buy and sell without being at the computer and with a tight stop order it usually means I’m not holding on to a particular stock for more than a day.
I also do some private investing in addition to stocks. I started out by helping some friends and relatives get started in forming their companies. I may evaluate and critique their business plans, or provide managerial accounting services. In exchange for helping launch the company I take a small equity stake and make myself available for advice and virtually attend quarterly owners meetings. I purchased a larger share in some of the moderately or very successful businesses that I helped launch.
Politically I’m a civil libertarian and believe morality regulations should be minimized, and government should be kept to a minimum size. I believe in the free market economy and that contract law and business governance should be overriding factors in our society, not government regulation. I am an environmental capitalist and believe that we all want clean air and clean water. As such the people (as in individual owners/investors and not “The People” of communism) can dictate to the corporations how to operate in a responsible manner. Don’t sell your property to a corporation. Lease it with restrictions. Buy 1 share of Ford motor company for less than $10 and vote in board members that will do responsible things for our planet. The Nature Conservancy is a good example of private ownership of land with restrictions. I do not blindly follow the teachings of Ayn Rand or other libertarians. Much like Mao Zedong modified Marxism to be Communism with Chinese Elements, I believe that the ultimate society is a fusion of western capitalism with the influence of Asian philosophy and governance. I prefer to call it Libertarianism with Asian Elements.
I particularly don’t like waste from my government and I despise the abuse of police power of the state. In a truly libertarian society there are no district attorneys who arrest people for “crimes against the people”. Prison may cost upwards of $50,000/yr per inmate and there is limited prison space. Georgia’s constitution allows jurors to determine fact and to determine law. If you disagree with the law you are allowed to vote not guilty, even if the person did the crime. In keeping with libertarian ideals I vote not guilty for all victimless crimes, especially those that are morally based. I also weigh the economic benefits of incarceration as well. If there is little economic public utility from incarcerating someone then I will vote not guilty as well. This keeps both the government and the corporations from wielding police state power over the citizenry. If you are wronged then there are economic formulas available that can calculate your damages, even if a loved one is killed through negligence or malice. That is called statistical value of life. In true libertarian philosophy your individual problems and injustices are not my problem and you are free to tackle them in civil court at your own expense and risk. The only use of the criminal justice system I approve of is the Chinese death penalty where it is relatively quick to convict and execute, which saves the taxpayers money. Otherwise all injustices should be handled in civil court.
