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http://www.despair.com/meetings.html

The problem with using "peer review" in any non-technical field is that you end up with "group think". The most dominant personalities dominate the discussions.

With Linux, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. There's none of this "you wanted it to fail" bullshit.

In the social environments, everyone wants to lead the group. But no one wants to do the work.

There's an idea with some potential.

Don't despair!

Sounds reasonable.

Despair Inc has a few things to say about people working in groups...

Despair Inc has a few things to say about people working in groups...

Some of these filters remind me of this claymation video I saw a long time ago.

Of all my readings on managing employees, I still find The Art of Demotivation to be my favorite. It colors my every interaction with executives and employees. Each person is responsible for their own psychological validation. Don't let your underlings burden you with their insatiable neediness. Show employees their cost to the company, not just their worth. Every cog can be replaced.

Just because someone is smart, doesn't mean they won't vote for someone for the same stupid reason as a less intelligent person...Intelligence doesn't come with good judgment of people and their motivations, unfortunately.

Still, it is discouraging to think that the "average person" is choosing our leaders. "None of us is as dumb as all of us."

But, I just became legal again to use the frowny: http://www.despair.com/acompromise.html

(Yes, I'm a bastard)

all it takes to make a dream come true is one person that really believes in it and starts working toward its realization, then, sooner or later, that person would find a way.

Though the "way" usually involves a lot of other people's money or labor.

History is the best teacher

Cost us what? Cause /. pseudo-geeks to stop buying our stuff? You freaks don't know anything. If you were actually the target market, then maybe someone would care.

If you don't care, why are you here?

Anyone here own a f500 corporation?

Well, you don't either, so you had better quit while you are behind. You never know who's reading. When enough people report back to the boss or the boss reads enough of the wrong words, it's the other company's interest that rules the day and M$ is out the door like DEC and many other large computer companies. In the end, M$ is just another manila folder company and that's why people don't care. Contemplate this.

hone your forum debating skillz here, while Microsoft makes money.

Bill Gates pays you too much. PR is not my job but I can tell you that you should never make yourself look like such an ass.

Sounds like they subscribe to the Art of Demotivation.

There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots

Apathy
If we don't take care of the customers, maybe they will stop bugging us.

...and issuing a license agreement to use it. I think I'll prohibit the truncation of any leading 00s, or casting, or anything else via license agreement. Screw unicode etc, I'll teach you the meaning of "multibyte".

And also 0x0...3A2D28. Then I'm gonna sue Despair.com, along with every AOL user on the planet. Especially since Despair is selling these circumvention devices. Skylarov got off easy.

And you know, it seems to me that Metallica CDs might be trafficking my number, stegged in some of their music files (no doubt in an illegal 8 or 16 bit format). I'm gonna have to take them down.

(end of joke)
Back to reality, it makes me wonder... what if someone trademarked that AACS number? Heh.

...and issuing a license agreement to use it. I think I'll prohibit the truncation of any leading 00s, or casting, or anything else via license agreement. Screw unicode etc, I'll teach you the meaning of "multibyte".

And also 0x0...3A2D28. Then I'm gonna sue Despair.com, along with every AOL user on the planet. Especially since Despair is selling these circumvention devices. Skylarov got off easy.

And you know, it seems to me that Metallica CDs might be trafficking my number, stegged in some of their music files (no doubt in an illegal 8 or 16 bit format). I'm gonna have to take them down.

(end of joke)
Back to reality, it makes me wonder... what if someone trademarked that AACS number? Heh.

Reminds me of the demotivator Mistakes

Mistakes

"It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others."

What a compelling thought, Law Enforcement Staff having to live by the laws they have to enforce. Even more compelling is the explanation used by Law Enforcement Staff, "We know how to break the law without hurting people, or damaging property." Which would make a lot of sense, except for the fact that Law Enforcement Staff make mistakes; All the time. But compare the righteousness of Law Enforcement Staff rationalizations to a child listening; Because, when a child is listening, the child is learning. I would be very surprised if a child had a more worldly view of the universe, than an adult. The problem I see is that a child sees an adult giving an excuse for acceptability of doing something wrong, and not getting time out for it.

"Power Corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. But it Rocks Absolutely Too." - Power

I'll certainly agree so far as any study of such question is incomplete without some direct attempt to study the effects of nature versus nurture. While I admit such a study would be hard to design to remain within human subjects standards, having RTFA, I see no mention of any conceptual attempt at such. But then, how much can I expect from the NYTimes?

A more subtle possibility is that while the belief may not be genetic, it may be a trait (like sight in animals) that provides sufficient survival value to society to allow multiple societies (although not necessarily the members) to independently develop it; those that did, and were able to pass it on, had enough of a survival advantage to overcome any societies that didn't have it. If the society can pass on (via education/indoctrination/brainwashing/etc.) pass on the idea successfully to new members over time, the survival tendency does not need to be genetically encoded.

An evolutionary development need not be fully optimized to provide a limited form of advantage. Similarly, religion need not be "true" or "correct" to serve a useful function: keeping track of the seasons for planting and harvesting, providing a reason why killing other members of the tribe is bad ("big sky wizard says so!"), disapproval of eating certain animals (dogs, pigs, other humans — raising other omnivores for food is calorically inefficient compared to raising herbivores), and so on. Developing a rational, objective, universal system of ethics without resorting to "Because (mommy, God, the king, the FSM) sayeth so!" is a non-trivial problem. As well, conveying it to other members of society requires that the other members of society have enought cognitive ability and flexibility to assimilate the idea, and suffienct effort to spare from survival tasks to do so. Most religions, on the other hand, are simple enough that a high-grade moron can understand well enough to follow the creed in most cases. Or, in terms CS types ought to understand, a low cost O(n) algorithm that gives an answer within a small episilon all but a small fractional delta of probable cases may be a lot more useful for real-time work than a high cost O(e^n) one that is right every time.

You can accomplish a lot if you can line up enough brute force and massive ignorance pointed all in one direction... or something like that.

http://despair.com/meetings.html

"Meetings: None of us is as dumb as all of us"

http://despair.com/meetings.html

ObPlug: Despair, Inc. I don't work for 'em, I just buy their toys.

The one for Burnout is popular with the local BOFH crowd; the one for Arrogance seems to amuse most of the local managers.

ObPlug: Despair, Inc. I don't work for 'em, I just buy their toys.

The one for Burnout is popular with the local BOFH crowd; the one for Arrogance seems to amuse most of the local managers.

ObPlug: Despair, Inc. I don't work for 'em, I just buy their toys.

The one for Burnout is popular with the local BOFH crowd; the one for Arrogance seems to amuse most of the local managers.

Meetings.

Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people. -E.L. Kersten http://www.despair.com/demotivation.html

http://despair.com/individuality.html

How much does a human life cost, exactly?

Can you trade them on the stock market?

Does the value depreciate with time?

Sounds like the despair poster

I like this one better.

Here's one for all the procrastinators.... I still haven't got round to ordering one though...

Your views are honestly a little ridiculous. Simple economics dictate that $200K for anyone with a college degree is lunacy. Especially since a lot of people with college degrees actually suck.

I've got 12 years of experience- and still spent the last 5 contracting because I couldn't find a real job.

If you give me your address, I'll gladly purchase and send you one of these. It seems shockingly fitting.

http://despair.com/proc24x30pri.html

Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now.

...but laziness always pays off now. http://www.despair.com/proc24x30pri.html

They're going to have to fight Despair, Inc for the frowny-face emoticon.

Oh yeah and this one too: "Never understimate the power of stupid people in large groups" http://despair.com/idiocy.html

Obligatory demotivator reference: "None of us is as dumb as all of us" http://despair.com/meetings.html

If you haven't seen his management advice movie clips, do check them out. Hillarious! http://www.despair.com/spin.html

Manpower was not an issue.

Right, bitter marxist hacker. I'd almost forgotten.

Here's the thing. And any legitimate economist could have told you this. (i.e., if it was a lie, it was a lie you told yourself. If anything, economists said the opposite.) Hard work won't prevent your job from being outsourced. Anyone, anywhere can work hard. Hard work is not a scarce commodity. But not everyone is skillful. Especially not everyone in India. You may not be able to export janitorial jobs to India, but the tech industry's equivalent of menial labor you most certainly can. But you'll find that all of the really good jobs in the tech industry are still right here in the US. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are pretty much the only companies in India that have genuinely skilled employees, and only because they have the "prestige" that is required over there to hire the genuinely skilled people. In other words, don't suck, and you don't have to compete with foreigners for your job. (For the record, you can work hard and still suck.) Maybe it's just that I'm not bitter, but I don't find that situation terribly insulting. That's just sort of how the world works.

Also, I know I've said this before, probably even on Slashdot, but it bears repeating. Revolution is simply not a realistic weapon against a nuclear power. So long as there are nuclear weapons, the military has absolutely no choice but to prevent revolution by any means necessary, with any force necessary. The world cannot afford nuclear weapons in the hands of revolutionaries. You can only change the government of the United States from within, through the electoral process that already exists. Unfortunately for you guys, nobody elects people they don't like. And nobody likes Marxists. Except other Marxists. You've got at least two generations to go before the stigma of cold war communism wears off a bit, and if you guys can't manage to learn how to come off as nice guys instead of assholes by then, well, you have a long future of bitterness ahead of you.

It's entitled "Mistakes" and says:

It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

It's entitled "Mistakes" and says:

It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

...but I think it bears repeating :

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
-- Albert Einstein

or, if you need it in a handy reminder, there's a nice little poster that expresses approximately the same sentiment.

Here's why

Someone is bitter...

What is wrong with being selfish? Most of the people I know that were active outside of school did so because school wasn't enough to keep them entertained while young. They were able to get into better schools than most, and more than likely got their masters and now are doing quite well for themselves. Those that didn't do the extra work and strived for mediocrity got just that.

Not Everyone Gets To Be An Astronaut When They Grow Up

Reminds me of my favorite de-motivational poster on despair.com, entitled "Consensus":
"None of us is as dumb as all of us."