What is a window?

When my son was about to attend kindergarten he attended a screening of incoming students.  They were assessed for a few health things and then asked three questions of which I've forgotten two.  He was a bright, nerdy little kid who has successfully turned into a bright, nerdy adult.  He may have failed two questions but I do remember one.  "What are windows made of?"  Looking back I'm not sure if the answer was supposed to be 'wood,' 'aluminum,' 'vinyl,' 'high-impact polycarbonate,' or 'glass.'  He stared at the interviewer and responded 'I don't know.'

I suspect there were a lot of neurons firing, he may have thought 'Windows are transparent.  You see what is on the other side.  The image is made of what's there or not or what you choose to see.'  Regardless, he was accepted into a normal class.

How this relates to work...
My pursuit of work has been distracted because of other life activities.  As a former CIO (Chief Information Officer) I do know a bit about the IT (Information Technology) world.  Unfortunately I also know a bit about home repairs and am currently working on the house my daughter moved into (house #2) and the one she moved out of (house #1).  This has involved many trips to the local Home Depot, Menard's and Ace Hardware.  Two days ago I stopped at Home Depot to purchase window glazing.  There were a couple of windows in the upstairs that were wood frame and glass, the way windows used to all be and they were in need of re-glazing (A.K.A. window putty).

During my visit to Home Depot I spoke to three people and asked for 'window glazing.'  None of them knew what that was.  Even with the description 'the putty stuff that holds glass in windows' it was a complete blank.  The outside 'hiring sign' was in English and Spanish and I even looked around around for a Hispanic person who probably actually knew how to fix things but I think Hispanic people all shop at Menard's.

IT has been deeply influenced by the 'consumerization of IT,' cloud storage and applications and mobile devices.  Everyone is an IT expert and it's decoupling the IT departments of many companies, sometimes appropriately and sometimes not.  I'm not sure it's a good turn that every Tom, Dick, Harry and Mary is an IT expert but now one knows what window glazing is.

Home Depot