This really has nothing to do with writing threaded programs, so if you're in a hurry, skip it. It has everything to do with the people who *write* those programs and the business side of computer science.
I have always considered teaching the highest achievement of mankind. It's pretty damn cool to invent new things, but they're useless to others until you can explain them. Running the world is pretty neat too, but there's still more value in teaching others how to run the world than to run it yourself. At least that's how I think. I taught HS in Kenya (Peace Corps '74. Ninaweza kusema Kiswahili!), AI at Stanford, and various other classes now and then.
Now to our story...
As background, I should explain that I returned from Sun Sweden to Sun USA in '94 to take a (somewhat lowly) position in technical "assistance" -- helping ISVs writing to Solaris. As part of my job, I became involved in the threads effort. I joined the "Threads Deployment Council". Unfortunately, the TDC didn't actually get anything done. I mean we talked a lot, but nothing resulted from it. So I did what any red-blooded American fool would do. I took over. In the next year, we published a bunch, put out information to help customers, set up a web site, did public classes to ~3,000 developers, set some internal standards and fixed documention. (And started a newsgroup.)
And we wrote a book. Seems that in '94 there were precisely zero books on MT. Some other guys at Sun were working on a *big* book due out in '92, but it was slightly delayed. Dan and I wrote the Threads Primer in four months (outside work hours, of course).
Around the same time, I scored a "double" of major proportions... I got an award for "Employee of the Month" (and $500 cash!) for my creative and independent threads work. And I got put on "academic probation", because of my independent threads work(?!). I fought it, got the book out, cleared my name, and... resigned.
ANYWAY... that's why, in late 1995, I was free to do whatever my fancy pleased (and my meger bank account could support).
Why not teach what I knew best? (Because there's no money in Lisp. So *second* best was threads.) I bought the mailing list from UNIX Review and wrote fliers ($20,000, bang!). "Bil (the amazing flying threads teacher) has consented to teach *you* this two-day course. Please send money." (It was a little bit more politic.) My partners were going to send them out...
I had bumped into Jim in the Sun parking lot. On the way to SPARCY's, he explained how he really needed a big draw for this tour of India he was doing for the tools group. Why not a famous author!
Thus, Jan, '96 found me on a plane (cattle class) to New Delhi. I was to be the guest speaker (day one) AND teacher (days two and three). I thought I had everything covered. Ho, ho, ho! I had two days to get the software and the PCs all networked and running. The guys from TCS were great. However, the daily power outages did prove a challenge.
Day One. Lots of high mucky-mucks. Everyone does a nice job. I play my part and deliver what I hope is both a moving and sincere talk about the value of devotion, hard work, quality, and the SPARCworks/Teamware toolset. All is well.
Day Two. My ride to the class is a little bit delayed. Like 45 minutes. I'm trying hard to be calm (yeah, right). (I *hate* being late. I show up for talks the day before, just in case. I carry three redundant copies of my materials.) No biggie. The power's been off since 6am. We have room for 20 people. There's 90. I do my schtick in the dark (dim), waving my arms, swaying to the music. At 10:00 the power comes up, and off we go. (The power proceeds to go down eight more times over the following seven days.)
Day Three. I finish off with some nice class projects which they do very well on. Extoll the glories of Solaris and multithreading, cleverly explaining about Sun's "MT" promises. (They get the joke. Actually, they get most of my jokes.)
Evening. We dash down to the airport, spend two hours trying to get onto my flight. The TCS guys have to "tip" customs to allow free passage of the PCs to Bombay. (Customs between states??!)
Day Four. Repeat day one. Ditto two & three.
Sunday I sleep in. I wake up to find myself alone. The others have taken off for some sightseeing. So I wander down to the "gettos" where I feel more at home. (Don't know why. Just do.) Chase the kids a bit, get some breakfast, have my hair cut. (Never knew how interesting cutting a blond's hair could be! The kids were everywhere.) Wonder what it's like to have your neighbor exactly one cardboard box away.
Bangalore. The class is to the folks at the institute (the big "Parim" MP project). Once again, the "students" knew more about almost everything than I did. Heck, one of the students could recite more Shakespere that I could!
Day Ten. As I wind up the last day, heading for the grand finale, my voice goes. Boom. Gone. ("i'm going to have to skip the q/a...") We head back to Delhi and I come down with something. Sick as a dog. Almost do something unfortunate on the person sitting in front of me during the Republic day parade. Then four hours to Hong Kong. Eight hours in the (smokey!) HK airport (no exit), and another six or so on the flight home. (Yuk!)
Once home, I discover that my partners have skipped town. They don't want to work with me, and all those invitations remain in a pile. Panic sets in. Mailed 'em out ASAP and waited nervously. Four weeks later in Dallas, 18 people showed (a profit!!). The usual disasters (the hotel refused my Am Ex card, Mastercard read $35.00 instead of $3500 on a cheque and also refused me -- almost got kicked out). The actual class went perfectly. I felt good and everyone was most satisfied. Staggered home with pockets full of $$.
Boston attracted five. Chicago, four. I lost one person who couldn't find the venue. San Jose got 13, but LA and SD were below ten. Two months of extensive effort for $40k in revenue. And $42k in expenses. This did not look good...
I told a friend in Sweden I was doing this. The next day she said "Can you teach a class for us in May? $2000/day." (Yes! Actual profits!) My mode of operation promptly changed. I expanded the class to three days, created a bunch of hands-on exersizes (you know how hard it is to write good exersizes?!) I started calling companies... "Yes, you too can learn all about the glories of MT! Your employees can gain valuable skills, write complex programs, blah, blah, JavaScript, blah, blah, blah."
Sun Education, USA didn't bite :-(
Nokia, Finland, called *me*. (As long as I was in Finland, I could stop by friends in Estonia, and spend another three weeks in Norway, dancing. And travel's paid for!)
Sun University (internal education) did bite. I had by spiel all ready (I'm going to say this, then that, then close 'em with...) -- to no avail. I called, said "MT," and they said "August?" (Hey! I didn't get to give you my sales pitch!!)
The class ran in August. The students loved it, and I got two more classes with them. That part was great. But I got nowhere with anyone else. I ended the year up about $20k. (Beats the hell out of down $20k!)
January I do a BOF at USENIX. Pitch USENIX for a class. Maybe... Uniforum, SUG, Sun Developers Conference, nope. Then LLNL called for a class (no, make it two!). Shashi is doing MT work with a company, so I come in for the training part. Hoping for more... not so far...
Feb, Mar, April, I work on book edition #2. Reading everything anyone else has written. Hunting for more teaching contracts. Book #1 has now sold about 15,000 copies and is in 2nd printing. I have about $8k in my pocket to show for it. (Writing computer science books is no way to get rich!) After working with a Japanese translator, I discover that I get a vast 10 cents per Japanese copy.
May is another SunU class. One in Sweden, one for ICL in Finland. Zilch for my efforts wrt the rest of Europe. (Why am I so popular in Nordic?) Mina puhuan vahan Suomi, ja lite Svenska. A bit of dancing, a few friends to visit, plant potatoes in Estonia...
Reviews of draft 1 start to come in. Mike proposes we do a book on optimization (in our spare time!). There are now six other books on threads out. Edition 2 is going to be *a lot* of work for no profit at all! (Oh, goody.) But I really want to do it. My Opus Magnus.
I keep calling my top ten leads, trying to land another gig. Two "no," eight "I'm still checking..." With just my current contracts, I should double my income. (In '98, it'll be $80k; '99, $160k...)
I *really* love to teach. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than help other people understand stuff (well, maybe something, but I can't discuss that here). So I'm happy. But I wouldn't recommend this to anyone else.
"Do what you love, forget the money."
-Bil