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I knew that place was in trouble the day I walked into the Dallas office and saw the huge 10-foot wide Ion Storm logo inlaid in the floor in Italian marble.

Here are some details from the real life of another "uniquely bright" INTP, now age 38:

I once got a job as an editor for a book publisher when he created the job for me. He liked the way I thought about books and marketing. On the job, he taught me some fantastically valuable stuff about getting people to do their best work and about managing uncertainty. I've quit every job after a maximum of four years because I thought I learned what it had to teach me, and I moved on to something else. Some people said I was crazy because I could have made more money by not starting over at something new, but I'm not in this for the money. I once wasted two years on a stupid software project where I got paid nothing, because I was too stupid to know that "death before dishonor" does not apply to software projects. Then I got a job as a writer. I've performed improv comedy on stage for money (a tiny amount, but even a little money changes everything). One time, I got inspired and spent two weeks writing poems followed by four weeks of math. That was the best, most profitable six weeks I ever spent. I've never had the urge to write poems again, but I put what I learned to use in marketing materials and other writing. I once worked alongside some Russian mathematicians at one of the weirdest software shops ever and got taught some advanced math--and was paid to do it. I quit college in my early 20's because I thought it was bullshit to sit in a class, copy down what the professor wrote on the board, and regurgitate it on exams. A few months later, I was getting paid to learn Unix and lots of other things. Now I'm back in college building on the math I picked up, aiming to become a college professor. I still think most college classes are bullshit, but I'm playing the college game way more intelligently and having way more fun than before, now that I'm there with a purpose. I've sometimes wondered if I should have stuck with college the first time, but it's hard to say. I know a lot of real-world stuff that many academics don't, and I don't think I could have learned it had my career followed a straighter path.

Here are two intelligent books on careers:

What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson. Not a book to tell you step-by-step what to do; instead, a collection of real stories from interviews with real people who found, or did not find, meaningful work. They give you a real sense of how varied and unpredictable real-world opportunities are. There is hardly any common denominator to the stories, but the author tried to distill some lessons in this article.

I Could Do Anything If Only I Knew What It Was by Barbara Sher. Despite the cute title, it's actually very practical advice about finding the kind of work that brings out your talents in a satisfying way. The author understands that people are very different from each other, and they work best in very different kinds of jobs. She also understands that you need to figure that out for yourself, through experience.

Want to know why they won't?

Read Want to tick off the CEO of Nokia?.

Some of the most innovative institutions in the history of American business have been colossal failures. Xerox Corp.'s famed Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) gave the world laser printing, ethernet, and even the beginnings of the graphical user interface--later developed by Apple--yet is notorious for never having made any money at all. Polaroid, which introduced us to instant images decades before digital photography, collapsed under mismanagement and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2001.

"Innovate," [Steve Jobs] bellowed from the stage. "That's what we do." He's right--and that's the trouble. For most of its existence, Apple has devoted itself single-mindedly, religiously, to innovation ... it's hard to look at Apple without wondering if innovation is really all it's cracked up to be. Nor is Apple's the only case that should give us pause. Truth is, some of the most innovative institutions in the history of American business have been colossal failures. Xerox Corp.'s famed Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) gave the world laser printing, ethernet, and even the beginnings of the graphical user interface--later developed by Apple--yet is notorious for never having made any money at all ... Apple's creative energy hasn't amounted to very much in financial terms. For its fiscal year ending September 27, 2003, Apple reported just $6.2 billion in revenues, three-quarters of it from the sale of personal computers. The father of the PC--and, remember, the industry's number-one vendor in 1980--has since sunk to a lowly ninth, behind competitors Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, just for starters. Sadly, Apple is also behind such no-namers as Acer (seventh) and Legend (eighth). So much for innovation and creativity ... Where Apple was once one of the most profitable companies in the category, its operating profit margins have declined precipitously from 20% in 1981 to a meager 0.4% today, just one-fifth the industry average of 2%. And it isn't just the hardware manufacturers that are devouring Apple. Its chief competitor in software, Microsoft, earned $2.6 billion in its most recent fiscal quarter (ending September 30). That's nearly 15 times the $177 million in software sold by Apple in its most recent fiscal quarter and roughly equal to the profits that Apple has earned from all of its businesses over the past 14 years. In just three months.

...the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is responsible for investigating most online-auction scams...

Higgins, 45, has worked for the U.S. Postal Service since he was in college, when he took a job as a letter carrier in the town of Andover, Massachusetts, north of Boston. He had always wanted to be a federal agent -- maybe in the Secret Service or the FBI -- but the path to becoming a postal inspector seemed a little clearer. Despite the dweeby title, postal inspectors are indeed feds: Higgins packs a 9-millimeter Beretta Centurion whenever he leaves the office. "We're not as well-known as the FBI," shrugs Higgins. "That doesn't bother me." He has a low-key personality, a spiky gray brush cut with a shock of white in front, and a reputation around the office as a tenacious investigator.

> there are plenty of new opportunities for aspiring programmers within the food service sector.

...until those jobs are replaced by automation.

I personally go to Walmart once a year and buy regular commodity crap like toiletries, household supplies, etc.

I am not sure the general public has a grasp of just how big Walmart is, and how they wield that power. In February of 2000, Wal-Mart opted to eliminate their meat cutting departments rather than engage in union negotiations. Wal-Mart is the focus of 25 pending lawsuits charging overtime violations. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Wal-Mart pays men 34 cents more an hour than women in identical positions. Nationwide, Walmart has 2,864 stores. In 2002, they had $244.5 billion in sales. That's more than 5 times the sales of Target Corporation and combined, exceeds Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger! In the last half of the 1990s, Wal-Mart was responsible for almost 12% of the productivity gains seen in the US economy. 2.3% of the US gross national product belongs to Wal-Mart. In 2002, except for auto parts stores, 7.5 cents of every dollar spent in retail stores in the US was in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart employs 1.3 million people. In almost half of the states in the US, they are the largest employer. Wal-Mart buys nearly 10% of chinese imported products. Figures taken from Fast Company and The City Pages

To address the second part of zerocool's comment, I offer the the following as some of the societal results of 'people as consumers -- not customers'. This has created a desparate, adversarial environment in which commerce and 'consumers' meet in an inevitable clusterfsck....

Wal-Mart, their business practices and its consequenses.

Wal-Mart is at least as bad as Microsft. I remember reading about this, it took me a while to dig up this link, but it is very telling: http://fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

That is pretty cool that Walmart is selling this setup, but before you go off and give them your money, you might read this article first. I know I don't support this company, and even though I wouldn't mind this product, I won't give any money to Walmart if I can help it. Click Here

Maybe the fact that Wal-Mart has a COUPLE BILLION DOLLARS!

If you think that you can get anywhere near as good a deal as Wal-Mart when negotiating for a product you are sadly mistaken. Just ask Vlasic

I don't get all this hatred of Wal-Mart.

Check out this article on how they compete.

So, in closing. Downloading software is illegal. Fucking consumers is immoral.


Correction: Downloading illegally available software is illegal.

Case in point: I have a free, free-to-download test program available at my site (see sig) that checks if the PC you run it on is capable of running my retail program that is available for purchase there.

zerocool complains about high-priced (overpriced) software as is his/her right in the USA under the First Amendment to the Constitution Of America.

The reality: Software development costs MONEY and should be compensated for if desired by the creators of said software.

The facts....

The computer(s) the software is developed on costs money (unless said computer(s) were donated for free).

The electricity powering the computer costs money (unless it is being generated from a free and/or donated source).

The programmer(s) who programmed the software cost money (unless they are donating their time and skills for free).

The advertising for the software costs money (unless it is being done for free somehow).

The distribution expenses to distribute the software to the recipients cost money (unless it is being done for free somehow).

Companies and individuals have invested lots of time and money in the software they create and sell. They found needs/markets for certain kinds of software and wrote the software to fill those needs/markets. Big companies have to sell software for big bucks to recoup the expenses in creating, maintaining, and distributing said software. They also are entitled to profit from their software which should be reinvested back into the company--not wasted.

For example, look at the 'gross profit margin' on a retail CD copy of Windows: $179.00 or so for a round thin sandwich of plastics and metal that has an intrinsic value of maybe $1.00. That $179.00 Windows CD allowed everybody, from the end user/customer up to Microsoft itself, to profit and benefit from the manpower and technology invested in it to create it and to benefit from its power as a computer operating system.

Ok, let's cut to the chase....

Windows is a kludge, based on code dating back to the dawn of the PC era.

Microsoft is a monopoly.

Even in this environment, the customer STILL has alternatives such as Apple and Linux -- SCO problems with commercial Linux use aside (which can be resolved.

If you want to avoid paying for high-priced software, use cheaper/free software or buy/legally get for free the necessary software tools to write your own custom programmed software solutions.

To address the second part of zerocool's comment, I offer the the following as some of the societal results of 'people as consumers -- not customers'. This has created a desparate, adversarial environment in which commerce and 'consumers' meet in an inevitable clusterfsck....

Wal-Mart, their business practices and its consequenses.

Ad creep. Even on the Internet. a technique coined and first implemented in 1996.

Email spam.

The price for jumping when Wal-Mart says jump can be very dear though -- http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.htm l : interesting article on what suppliers to Wal-Mart go through (let alone Wal-Mart competitors)

• For an interesting look at Walmart's pricing, look around on the web for the article on the 1 gallon jar of pickles from Vlassic.

I believe this is the article the parent is talking about.

The LA Times did an excellent series on Walmart's
negative effects on US manufacturers, overseas suppliers, its own workers, and the US economy last year. It was sparked by the impending entry of Walmart into the Southern California grocery market. Which also indirectly caused the painful, drawn out strike by workers at other grocery chains there.

But my favorite story on Walmart I've read so far (other than the lady who was nearly killed last year in the scramble for a cheap dvd player) is Fast Company's analysis of the company's effect on US manfacturers.

It starts, oddly, with a jar of pickles. And talks about how getting a distribution deal with Walmart eventually undermines and nearly destroys the Vlasic pickle company, due to savage cost cuts forced by Walmart, and undermining of the company's brand-image as they moved to selling big, cheap jars of pickles.

Along the way, the article shows how Walmart forces US manufacturers to move overseas, and even advises them on how to do it.

In this story from last month's issue, Fast Company talks about VOIP tech and specifically these communicators being used at a hospital.

In this story from last month's issue, Fast Company talks about VOIP tech and specifically these communicators being used at a hospital.

Having said that, it is also obvious that software that is to be used in mission critical systems, where failures would put people at risk; must be certified accordingly.

Take for instance the stringent testing and certification rules for software to be used in NASA's space shuttles. Write Stuff

There is, however, a steep price to be paid. Writing bug-free software is very expensive, and only those that cannot live with the possibility of failure, have to shell out the cash.

this page seems to be missing some important dates. Anyone know (yes, ITLTG*) when eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo! had their IPOs?

* I'm Too Lazy To Google

Interesting topic, though I would characterize Fast Company as the "Cosmo" of tech/business publications. I found some of the articles non-researched, ill-conceived and sophmoric. In one section Fast Company continues to propagate the myth that Al Gore claimed he 'invented the Internet'.

I was one of the folks who stood around scratching his head at the explosion of IPOs for "dot coms" that had no legs to stand on. Why the imposion occurred shouldn't have surprised anyone who was paying attention, but it played on many peoples' sense of greed at the expense of their common sense.

I was one of the people who was there in the early days with technology and services that were way ahead of their time. OTOH, I was one of those that didn't run out, sign up a bunch of pimply-faced MBAs for a management team and then rush to do an IPO. Today, my company is far from the largest, but we're very stable and have a solid client base. I don't have a personal helocopter, but I did get my small slice of the dot-com pie when I sold a domain I registered in 1994 for an insane amount of money. That was exciting and depressing at the same time. It wasn't what I ever imagined would be one of the big payoffs relative to what we were doing. I suspect there may have been at least a few other companies who really wanted to build an honest solid net-based business model, that were overshadowed by the parade of spineless, over-hyped dot-coms run by people who perhaps a month before were selling life insurance.

8. Al Gore, former vice president of the United States

Then: "Created the Internet."

I thought it was Tim Berners-Lee.

Here are a couple of resources which might be interesting. The first, a software crew They Write the Right Stuff. It's just over seven years old but it's a fascinating read about extraordinary expectations, even if it were to have appeared in a current inssue. It would be very interesting to see an updated version. Secondly, here's a site which some might be interested in (NASA's Software Engineering Laboratory).

The only good thing I can see out of this is that all the malls will close.

Yeah, but much like cockroaches, Walmart will still refuse to die.

well the best thing you could do is to not buy items made in china.
of course thats just a good idea anyways

Yup, you're supporting virtual slave labour when you buy Chinese.FYI: WalMart single-handedly accounts for nearly 10% of China's exports to the U.S. Read the labels..

Try reading for a change rather than listening to republican tripe. WalMart treats its suppliers like shit.

....Not to mention forcing their customers to listen to Fox News Lies in their stores and censoring music (but not movies or violent video games.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.htm l

If you are not familiar with the way of Wal-Mart, you really need to read the above article. It goes into detail how Wal-Mart continually pressures its suppliers to drop their prices. Eventually, some of these suppliers decide to off-shore or have to go out of business.

And you know what this leads to? Lost jobs. So, basically US consumers are shopping themselves out of their own jobs. The sad thing is, the average consumer either cannot understand this or simply does not care about it. We live in sad times, where most people have no social conscience (although I suspect this has been a problem throughout the ages).

The really interesting thing to me is that Wal-Mart seems to be a lot more "evil" (acting like a monopoly) than anything I've read from Microsoft. The problem is that Wal-Mart isn't bullying consumers, they are bullying suppliers. But it's only a matter of time before these negative ripples reach consumers...

The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?

....here's your thin slice of pie.

Perhaps Jobs has been reading FastCompany.

Current issue has an article on Apple and how they've screwed up in the past by trying to do everything themselves instead of licensing to others.

One of the solutions is for IT to start developing ISO 9000 type protocols for installing, managing, staffing IT in small and medium companies. The biggest liability right now is the "wild west" factor...which management loves when it's bull, but runs from when it's bear.

This would be a great opportunity for some open source efforts!!!! What's needed is a 3 prong approach: IT staff, executives, and users. For executives, there's no common standard for why then need IT, and what to expect...written so THEY CAN UNDERSTAND IT. They understand that they need to have computers, and to connect them, but not even the basics of how or why....and what their IT guy should be doing FOR them! Same to a lesser extent with users. There needs to be more and better online education aimed squarely at users. As simple as "this is what a user's job is" type stuff. A reasonable, well indexed and documented list of what a user should be able to do...and who they should turn to for help.

ISO type systems are what created the Japenese auto monster in the 80's. not just working harder, but smarter, with more attention to the end results. Now's the time to get the same push going for IT.

This is what we should be striving for now: Onboard Shuttle Group! because nobody without decades of experience and ingenuity in management and quality control of information can pull such stuff off...yet. That is our US advantage!

Here is also an interesting article about Wal-Mart and its influence on its suppliers... Globalization seems to be pushed forward by a few, for the benefits of a few....

FastCompany, who I generaly refuse to read, had this eye-opening article on the hidden costs of shopping at WalMart.

You should probably read this article if you haven't already.

No, it's not always a good thing. Just ask Vlasik why not.

Someone just read Fast Company's latest Apple article.

Going to be? It is. Check out this article about Wal-Mart's ruthless business practices.

For more information on #2, there's an article called The Wal-Mart You Don't Know over at fastcompany.com. Interesting stuff.

And, for a detailed analysis of why Oracle will be unable to sustain its results see this book:


Good to Great

And, this excerpt here:

Excerpt

Maybe you should read this article. You'll come to understand that lower prices isn't all that.

I wonder how Sun will handle production of these desktops if they take off. Given the demand that Wal-Mart can generate, it has often reshaped the product lines of it suppliers - frequently in ways that are not profitable to that supplier. People have noted Sun's declining sales of server hardware. However, I'm not sure that pouring resources into commodity desktops will make Sun more profitable.

Whoever owns Best Buy probably has a "fat wallet" or two. What we need is a Walmart that wants to go after Best Buy. You pay $$ extra to have your stuff in a nice brick and mortar, for instant purchase.

You may want to read the following article to get a more clear picture of how wal-mart operates. I read the article this morning, and it happens to be very timely.

Fast Company just published an article about how Wal-Mart affects the suppliers it works with. Might be a useful read as context. (Full disclosure: I work as Web editor for Fast Company.)

Heres an example of damn near perfect coding, the code used in the space shuttle. http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.ht ml

Actually Tom Neff has a good reputation, but most of us aren't ready for the kinds of positions he fills.