I appreciated that the article touched on the fact that burnout not only comes from working too many hours, but also lacking in reward (and not just $$$). I work in GIS for a State government office. Our role in the State is basically coordinating GIS activities in the State. We get very little buy-in from the executive office and none from the legislature. Even worse, where we see real potential in using GIS for some good (law enforcement, homeland security), we get very little traction. So, after years of this going on in my state, and watching other states succeed where we've met resistance or apathy, I've decided to pack it in. It's depressing to know what's possible and to one day realize it ain't gonna happen!
I found a scorpion hanging around the spoon rest on my stove (I live in Arizona), so I popped it in a disposable plastic container, popped container into microwave, and nuked for 10 seconds. Three seconds later, the scorpion's innards exploded through its anus leaving the exoskeleton intact. Looked neat, but the smell of cooked scorpion is not appetizing.
I have found that a chair that is neither too comfortable nor too uncomfortable helps out a lot.
Also, proper lighting helps. I hate working under fluorescents. My office has a south facing window and in the winter I get lots of sunshine coming in and I can work without my office lights. If I bring my laptop home, I like to sit at the kitchen table because the lighting is nice and bright. The family computer is in a dark corner and it's impossible to do any real work on that machine.
Also also, if you have a boss it helps if he/she is out of the office a lot so you can actually do the work you've been assigned without having him/her dump more on you!
I used to have a job where I had to stand all day. I was a construction materials tester. I also listed heavy buckets of dirt and concrete cores, so I was definitely worn out at the end of the day. BUT, I was only worn out physically. I could go home, relax and have enough brain power left to still do something with my evenings. Now that I have a desk job and sit around all day, I'm exhausted by the time I get home. And now look what's happened: I have a spare tire and standing for long periods makes my lower back hurt, and when I sit for long periods my hemorrhoids hurt. Maybe I can rig up a laptop harness that will act as a counter-balance to my gut until all this calorie burning "standing up" business kicks in.
In my profession (GIS), people with masters typically get paid more. I don't have a graduate degree.
When I started a Masters program I thought I wanted to teach. I discovered that was not the case, I didn't like grad school, I didn't like the department, and the guy I wanted to study under (the whole reason I chose the program that I did) went on sabbatical the first year, then ended up moving to a different university altogether. I ended up picking a research topic that was really not my cup-o-tea (yeah, had to do a thesis). As my program stands, I am all but thesis and that's just fine. I got the educational background I wanted and made some connections, and now I'm in a pretty good place in my career. I am now thinking of a professional degree, mainly because the focus is on things I really want to learn and because the program is aimed at improving the skills of the student, and has little if anything to do with advancing knowledge within the profession.
Lessons learned:
1. Don't pick a program based on a single personality. As I mentioned, I foolishly placed all my eggs in one basket in the hopes of studying under one particular prof, only to see those hopes dashed. And if you absolutely have to study some crazy esoteric topic under the only person in the known universe who also studies that topic, establish a relationship before you commit time and money to a program. I made some cursory contact with the prof before going to school--enough that he at least remembered speaking with me on the phone the first time we met face-to-face.
2. Not everyone has a thesis in them. I don't think I do. I can write reports and proposals fine, but coming up with 50 pages of background and 25 pages of actual research and discussion... nope. If you abhor the thought of researching and writing a thesis, think of getting into a professional program. Even some academic programs don't require a thesis. But, if there's a chance you want to continue into a doctoral program, be aware that non-thesis programs are considered terminal programs.
3. If you are in a program that requires a thesis, don't listen to the profs when they tell you that you need to pick a thesis topic in your first year. Yeah, that's a good idea, but don't sweat it if don't. I know a number of people in my program that changed topics every year. If you have a thesis in you, and a good set of advisors, then it will come to you in time.
4. If you attend a program that also offers doctorates, then you are a middle-sized fish in a very big pond. Yes, you have the ear of the profs more often than the undergrads, but the profs are going to put a lot more energy into their doctoral students.
5. Most important lesson: I can't stand the social sciences.
In my profession (GIS) online degrees have been cropping up in places as reputable as Penn State. While the university itself is reputable, the degree is more or less made up. Master of GIS? WTF? Is that even anything? Traditionally the GIS field has lived with geography departments on college campuses and to get a degree in GIS, one basically gets a degree in geography with an emphasis in GIS. So, relative to the topic and IMHO, a degree is a degree regardless of whether you sat in class for 3-5 years, or did the distance learning thing. I see the issue as whether or not the degree itself means anything to the larger community of employers and academics. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my underwater basket weaving class.
According to an apparently unnamed US Official, it could have been a forest fire. A really, really big forest fire caused by a thermonuclear device. And I suppose that's not a crater, it's just a trick of the way the light reflects off the ground? Article at http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/09/12/nkorea.blast/index.html/.
My wife is a librarian of the human persuasion. Taking books off the shelf is an insignificant part of working the public service side of the library. Does the robot librarian deal with patrons that urinate/crap in the elevators, lay down in the aisles to look up women's skirts, kick twelve year old boys off the Internet terminals for looking at porn, kick fifty year old men off the Internet terminals for looking at porn...? More importantly, how does a robot librarian deal with a patron that wants a book but can't articulate what it is they're looking for? Or believes that the book with green binding they checked out two years ago is enough of a description--OK, the robot may excel in that area.
Do what my agency does:
Hire people with very little IT experience into IT support jobs. They may not know a whole lot, but they sure are nice people to work with.
I can have a really lousy day at work, and come home and get on Slashdot and read something-- usually someone's comments-- and laugh my ass off more than I would if I sat in front of the TV. Remember, laughter is therapeutic.
Re:How bothersome is spam for most slashdotters?
on
The Life of a Spammer
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· Score: 4, Funny
At my work, the IT section recently changed our domain, so all new e-mails coming into the old address, including spam, were both forwarded to the new address and sent an auto-reply informing them of the address change!
I am in a profession that uses remote sensing imagery, mainly from aerial photographs, but also from satellites (QuickBird, IKONOS). This type of data is invaluable, but it becomes dated very quickly in fast growing urban areas and this type of data are pricey (an unnamed seller of satellite imagery quoted us $3 million for statewide coverage, and could not guarantee less than 20% cloud cover). UAVs could potentially reduce the cost of imagery by cutting the cost of flying. If it's cheaper to fly new imagery, we could potentially get "spot" updates on areas of high growth or concern (as in the US-Mexico border). Of course, this technology wouldn't do any favors for pilots and camera operators!
I don't think technology can make a person any dumber or smarter than they already are. People conveyed complex concepts through slideshows, overheads, and chalk n' talk for a long time before Power Point came along. It's up to the presenter to make the message understandable. As a professor of mine once said on presentations, "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell it to them. Then tell them what you just told them." I try to follow that "model" in any presentations I give.
Slashdot Mirror
I appreciated that the article touched on the fact that burnout not only comes from working too many hours, but also lacking in reward (and not just $$$). I work in GIS for a State government office. Our role in the State is basically coordinating GIS activities in the State. We get very little buy-in from the executive office and none from the legislature. Even worse, where we see real potential in using GIS for some good (law enforcement, homeland security), we get very little traction. So, after years of this going on in my state, and watching other states succeed where we've met resistance or apathy, I've decided to pack it in. It's depressing to know what's possible and to one day realize it ain't gonna happen!
I found a scorpion hanging around the spoon rest on my stove (I live in Arizona), so I popped it in a disposable plastic container, popped container into microwave, and nuked for 10 seconds. Three seconds later, the scorpion's innards exploded through its anus leaving the exoskeleton intact. Looked neat, but the smell of cooked scorpion is not appetizing.
I have found that a chair that is neither too comfortable nor too uncomfortable helps out a lot.
Also, proper lighting helps. I hate working under fluorescents. My office has a south facing window and in the winter I get lots of sunshine coming in and I can work without my office lights. If I bring my laptop home, I like to sit at the kitchen table because the lighting is nice and bright. The family computer is in a dark corner and it's impossible to do any real work on that machine.
Also also, if you have a boss it helps if he/she is out of the office a lot so you can actually do the work you've been assigned without having him/her dump more on you!
I used to have a job where I had to stand all day. I was a construction materials tester. I also listed heavy buckets of dirt and concrete cores, so I was definitely worn out at the end of the day. BUT, I was only worn out physically. I could go home, relax and have enough brain power left to still do something with my evenings. Now that I have a desk job and sit around all day, I'm exhausted by the time I get home. And now look what's happened: I have a spare tire and standing for long periods makes my lower back hurt, and when I sit for long periods my hemorrhoids hurt. Maybe I can rig up a laptop harness that will act as a counter-balance to my gut until all this calorie burning "standing up" business kicks in.
In my profession (GIS), people with masters typically get paid more. I don't have a graduate degree.
When I started a Masters program I thought I wanted to teach. I discovered that was not the case, I didn't like grad school, I didn't like the department, and the guy I wanted to study under (the whole reason I chose the program that I did) went on sabbatical the first year, then ended up moving to a different university altogether. I ended up picking a research topic that was really not my cup-o-tea (yeah, had to do a thesis). As my program stands, I am all but thesis and that's just fine. I got the educational background I wanted and made some connections, and now I'm in a pretty good place in my career. I am now thinking of a professional degree, mainly because the focus is on things I really want to learn and because the program is aimed at improving the skills of the student, and has little if anything to do with advancing knowledge within the profession.
Lessons learned:
1. Don't pick a program based on a single personality. As I mentioned, I foolishly placed all my eggs in one basket in the hopes of studying under one particular prof, only to see those hopes dashed. And if you absolutely have to study some crazy esoteric topic under the only person in the known universe who also studies that topic, establish a relationship before you commit time and money to a program. I made some cursory contact with the prof before going to school--enough that he at least remembered speaking with me on the phone the first time we met face-to-face.
2. Not everyone has a thesis in them. I don't think I do. I can write reports and proposals fine, but coming up with 50 pages of background and 25 pages of actual research and discussion... nope. If you abhor the thought of researching and writing a thesis, think of getting into a professional program. Even some academic programs don't require a thesis. But, if there's a chance you want to continue into a doctoral program, be aware that non-thesis programs are considered terminal programs.
3. If you are in a program that requires a thesis, don't listen to the profs when they tell you that you need to pick a thesis topic in your first year. Yeah, that's a good idea, but don't sweat it if don't. I know a number of people in my program that changed topics every year. If you have a thesis in you, and a good set of advisors, then it will come to you in time.
4. If you attend a program that also offers doctorates, then you are a middle-sized fish in a very big pond. Yes, you have the ear of the profs more often than the undergrads, but the profs are going to put a lot more energy into their doctoral students.
5. Most important lesson: I can't stand the social sciences.
In my profession (GIS) online degrees have been cropping up in places as reputable as Penn State. While the university itself is reputable, the degree is more or less made up. Master of GIS? WTF? Is that even anything? Traditionally the GIS field has lived with geography departments on college campuses and to get a degree in GIS, one basically gets a degree in geography with an emphasis in GIS. So, relative to the topic and IMHO, a degree is a degree regardless of whether you sat in class for 3-5 years, or did the distance learning thing. I see the issue as whether or not the degree itself means anything to the larger community of employers and academics. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my underwater basket weaving class.
"Tea, Earl Grey, hot".
According to an apparently unnamed US Official, it could have been a forest fire. A really, really big forest fire caused by a thermonuclear device. And I suppose that's not a crater, it's just a trick of the way the light reflects off the ground? Article at http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/09/12/nkorea .blast/index.html/.
My wife is a librarian of the human persuasion. Taking books off the shelf is an insignificant part of working the public service side of the library. Does the robot librarian deal with patrons that urinate/crap in the elevators, lay down in the aisles to look up women's skirts, kick twelve year old boys off the Internet terminals for looking at porn, kick fifty year old men off the Internet terminals for looking at porn...? More importantly, how does a robot librarian deal with a patron that wants a book but can't articulate what it is they're looking for? Or believes that the book with green binding they checked out two years ago is enough of a description--OK, the robot may excel in that area.
Do what my agency does:
Hire people with very little IT experience into IT support jobs. They may not know a whole lot, but they sure are nice people to work with.
I can have a really lousy day at work, and come home and get on Slashdot and read something-- usually someone's comments-- and laugh my ass off more than I would if I sat in front of the TV. Remember, laughter is therapeutic.
At my work, the IT section recently changed our domain, so all new e-mails coming into the old address, including spam, were both forwarded to the new address and sent an auto-reply informing them of the address change!
I love Flo's t-shirt! WWJD? Ask if you need a bigger rod and staff, and yea, only He can granteth THAT miracle!
I am in a profession that uses remote sensing imagery, mainly from aerial photographs, but also from satellites (QuickBird, IKONOS). This type of data is invaluable, but it becomes dated very quickly in fast growing urban areas and this type of data are pricey (an unnamed seller of satellite imagery quoted us $3 million for statewide coverage, and could not guarantee less than 20% cloud cover). UAVs could potentially reduce the cost of imagery by cutting the cost of flying. If it's cheaper to fly new imagery, we could potentially get "spot" updates on areas of high growth or concern (as in the US-Mexico border). Of course, this technology wouldn't do any favors for pilots and camera operators!
I don't think technology can make a person any dumber or smarter than they already are. People conveyed complex concepts through slideshows, overheads, and chalk n' talk for a long time before Power Point came along. It's up to the presenter to make the message understandable. As a professor of mine once said on presentations, "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell it to them. Then tell them what you just told them." I try to follow that "model" in any presentations I give.