Written in 1977. I stumbled across it at a half-price books. It's one of the most significant books to my happiness and success. I made my daughter read it twice (she uses techniques from it and occasionally calls me about how one of the techniques worked).
It's very lightweight. There's a 4th technique that I think I use but always forget the title of (Smile, Say Yes, Remember Names).
I remembered he was very successful in business and then wrote the books.
He shows up on some of the quote sites: If you're not using your smile, you're like a man with a million dollars in the bank and no checkbook.
As long as you live, never forget that any fool can disagree with people and that it takes a wise man, a shrewd man, a big man to agree - particularly when the other person is wrong.
---
The way I see it, his philosophy is about winning the war by losing selected battles. I see references to "winning without intimidation". That would fit. You can win and they can hate you- or better, you can win and they like you and want you to win again. I get a lot of the second in my life these days.
It's layered with a firm realization that while I like "BOB" the guy in the manager slot, he is still in the manager slot and is going to be choosing who gets the good work, who gets fired, and who may already know that all of us are being let go next month. "Bob" may be friendly- but he is never my friend.
I am glad things worked out for you. I wish we had universal health care here (tho limited) because I think it would make us a little bit less of a cost. I get the impression that things are nicer in canada in general.
Well my perspective is skewed to america in general and texas in particular. Things are more ruthless here. The social contract we had during the 50's has been broken so many times that there is nothing left. Our executives make 400 times what the average worker does and then complain about worker wages.
In Texas if you are not a minority, female, or a medically protected class they can walk in and fire you without notice without any consequences. Similarly, there were no grants for me so I had to work full-time through school. My school was partially like that because of some kind of accredidation issue. One professor reportedly told his class, "I am sorry but I've been told only 30% of you can pass." Something about too many people graduating the program so it must not be rigorous enough. Since they were not smart enough to provide real rigor (it was just a state school) (or maybe we students were too bright-- who knows) they just made them harder with insane amounts of homework.
My experience with corporations is that they talk nice/touchy-feely until the monday you show up and you are laid off. I'm a little brighter than average and so far I've read them correctly before it happens each time so I'm still in the IT field but I have a lot of friends over the years who bought the line and got smushed.
It gets worse than just being replaced. I've had a few friends who were told to train their replacements. Because they were living hand to mouth- they typically had to.
Don't get me wrong- I think capitalism like democracy has a lot of power in it. But just as democracy and devolve into tyranny of the majority- raw capitalism can get extremely ugly. I think the US is about to swing to the left and beat up on the rich for 4 to 12 years. It hasn't before because of the abortion and gay rights issues.
My job is a way to get them to get me money. If I was brilliant or had a passion about something that made money, I'd do that.
But my passions is playing boardgames and roleplaying, crafting doo-dads, massage, and downhill skiing. None of those pay but I enjoy the heck out of them. I work so I can afford to do those things.
In a big corporation like mine, they even make it clear they specifically do not want you to care. It even comes up on all internal interviews. Something like "what would you do if you had a big project about 75% complete and another project was slotted ahead of it". The "correct" answer is "I'd document where i was so I could resume later and sit it aside and start on the new project." And then we both smile because we know that was the checkbox answer. You care about what management wants you to care about. If you care too much about your projects you *will* be written up and maybe even counseled (and maybe even be let go).
I cared about my first job- had it 15 years. All that work spent a few years in a box in a Dallas safe after that company was bought and has probably been thrown out. Now I don't care about programs or business any more. I put in a good days work for a good days pay and I'm pleasant. When I walk out the door- I forget everything about my job until I walk in again.
Net results are promotions and good choice of assignements and training.
I might "retire" to a board game company or something like that tho. The house is almost paid off and I really won't have to work except for medical coverage in three years.
Something else occured to me during lunch. I was caught a bit flat footed by your "yes man to the boss" comment but I'm a yes man to *everyone*.
Every person I have a relationship with, I get one no for every nine yes's.
A co-worker offers to do the project but they want to use a methodology I don't think is best... I let them do it they way they want to- they are doing the work.
A girlfriend offers to help me with something but is going to do it in a way I don't think is best... same thing.
I only say "no" if it is critical.
But how do you decide if it is critical? Humans left to our own judgement would promote everything to critical.
By making a hard budget that I have to say "yes" most the time, it forces me to save my "no"s with two effects. 1) People like me since I'm not arguing with them and saying their opinion, approach, etc. was as good as mine. 2) When I DO say no, they tend to pay attention since I do it so rarely. Since I respected their opinion so many times, they tend to respect mine.
You are not respected for being right until after you are dead. If you are brilliant and driven- go for it. But if you want a happy life with real respect and appreciation today, then you need to let other people be right (even if you know they are not) on a lot of non-critical stuff.
1) Absolutely KILL yourself in college with 35 hours a week of homework for ONE Database class while your friends are spending about 12 hours a week for all homework in all classes.
35 hours a week of homework for one class? Assuming you had at least 25 hours of class a week, plus 15 hours in homework, you're doing almost 80 hours of school a week? Sounds like someone hadn't caught up to the rest of the class, or your just extremely exaggerating.
I averaged a 3.87 in my gpa. The database class- I got a C in. We had 20 SQL forms and 20 SQLPlus lisenses for 80 students. 35 students failed the class. Part of the reason I got a C was that I only got a total of 40 minutes of SQL plus time. We wrote a complete functioning database just as part of the class in pascal. I worked 40 hours a week. I took 12 hours that semester since I knew DB was a 'weedout' course. I did 35 hours a week for that class and had about 10 hours homework in the other classes as well. For that class, I was up 40 hours straight at least once- and took a 15 minute nap before the final on a concrete bench (please wake me up guys- I was out the second I was horizontal). I slept in my car and showered on campus more than once. Doing the math- I averaged under 28 hours a week for sleep after travel time.
No exageration- it was that hard. We had two other weedout courses that hard in our degree. Typically about 50% would drop (fairly leniant drop policies- I think you had 6 weeks to drop with an "I"). Of those who didn't drop, 25% would fail and 25% would get a "D".
I put one WEEK of less than that level of effort (27 hours of studying) into calculus 3 and I was able to finish the mid term test in 15 minutes and made a 97/100. For DB, I put in an entire semester at those levels and I pulled a C.
3) Graduate into a low-status job when it comes to dating.
I'm sorry, but what kind of idiot takes a CS degree (or any degree) assuming it will get him a woman? That low-status job is a lot better than a lot of other work you tend to ignore (janitors, etc.).
It's something to be aware of. There are plenty of jobs with pay similar to CS where you won't lead a monk like existance. Going out with women is a lot of fun in a way the guys just don't provide and women in IT are rare. If you can get a good job, good pay, and 50/50 women instead of 80/20-- why not take it?
4) Start with a reasonably high salary-- but after a few years, it becomes clear you need to leave the field and project lead or manage (that's me these days) if you ever want to make "real" money.
There's money to be made for managers and developers (assuming that's what you are) alike. Both can have high salaries.
Speaking from the back end- given similar intelligence and drive, you are sacrificing hundreds of thousands of dollars in income going the IT route- or you are sacrificing much of your healthy young life when you could be playing working your ass off.
5) Be managed by people who absolutely HATE that they have to have you- they view you as a COST.
You're probably not a good employee, then.
As I said in another post here- they absolutely love me- great ratings, promotions- raises. They would let me go in 2 seconds. Just 2 years ago they laid off a bunch of great people and hired a bunch of indians under Infosys to replace them. I'm pleasant and like them on one level but at another level, I know 5) to be true. These people may like me but they are NOT my friends and will not take care of me.
6) Never ever be understood by management (either overworked when you are stupid or underworked once you smarten up). They'll replace you in a heartbeat with crappy but cheaper labor.
See last comment.
---
But really, I think that you just wanted to argue and launch a few random attacks at a stranger.
fact is: IT SUCKS compared to many other fields where you get a lot more respect for a lot less work. The degrees for IT are much harder to get when you consid
Answering your question: I'm being a "yes" man to the boss because (as I said above), they do what I want most if I say yes. If I say, "yes" nine times but dig in my heals and say "no" when they ask for something, they are much more likely to listen and consider my position because they like me because I've built up good will. Even better, when then is a plum special training class, a chance at promotion, or a sweet conference, I get told about it earlier because they like me and talk casually with me. They are irritated with mp3phish who is always straight with them and they don't tell him out of pure petulance.
When they do my reviews, they let my numbers slide and I routinely get excellent marks for reasonable effort while surly mp3phish gets "meets expectations" and maybe a "exceeds" if he kills himself on a project.
If you are happy and successful with your approach, then go for it. It works for you. For me, using the "people smart" things greatly improved my life. I recommend it highly.
Until I read it, I was right more but got what I wanted a lot less.
The other tips were:
Before you say anything - smile. (if male or a female with authority- dicey for females without authority). Feel it and mean it and they will often do the same. If nothing else, you feel good for a couple seconds going into the meeting.
Learn and use people's names. It is the most important word in the world to them. You validate and recognize their existance.
This is one of the most insightful comment I've seen on slashdot in ages.
I'm not as smart as you are but i was smart enough to realize what you are saying in my 30's and it improved things dramatically. I often get my work down in a third of the time and then quietly wait for everyone else to catch up. I no longer correct my bosses when they are hideously wrong but try to find ways to highlight facts so they can realize and come to the conclusion themselves. But if they never get it, that's okay too- they are happy and not irritated with me for correcting them.
I read a wonderful book called people smart and it said, "You get one "no" for every nine "yes"'s". I save my "no"'s for truly critical situations now and otherwise say yes. Counter-intuitively, you get more done because when people like you, everythng is easier. It's better in business to be liked than to be right.
1) Absolutely KILL yourself in college with 35 hours a week of homework for ONE Database class while your friends are spending about 12 hours a week for all homework in all classes.
2) Pay $50,000 over 4 years just like they do.
3) Graduate into a low-status job when it comes to dating (I get a LOT more action from my $500 massage therapy training than I ever did from my CS degree-- MT is a female dominated field- you can't turn around without finding three or four who want to hang out and do tradeoffs and go to conferances- and MT work is like working out 8 hours a day so they tend to be fit and they tend to also be very nice people because they deal with the public a lot-- the pay is crap of course).
4) Start with a reasonably high salary-- but after a few years, it becomes clear you need to leave the field and project lead or manage (that's me these days) if you ever want to make "real" money.
5) Be managed by people who absolutely HATE that they have to have you- they view you as a COST.
6) Never ever be understood by management (either overworked when you are stupid or underworked once you smarten up). They'll replace you in a heartbeat with crappy but cheaper labor. I.e. NO JOB SECURITY. How can you buy a bloody house when you might be unemployeed for 7 months without notice.
7) And then-- at 55-- no more work. I've known so many who were just pushed out of the field. And you need the insurance you see. (Hence also my shift into manager+tech skills).
Corporations spent the 90's and the early 00's repeatedly teaching us that they have no loyalty to us and that they are going to hire people making $10,000 to replace us.
Okay-- WE GET IT. We are leaving the field. Young pups are not entering the field in the first place. And now they complain? Screw them. I hope they have severe problems and end up having to pay $150 an hour for 5 or 6 years to get people to enter the field again.
If it really did work this way, a college degree would also drop in price from $50,000 for four years to $12,000 for four years. Your cars would drop from $25,000 to $19,000. Your DVD's would drop from $22 to $19.
In that kind of environment, I'd be happy to take a pay cut. The problem is corporations are making a lot of money (record profits for Exxon, a multi BILLION dollar cash chest that Microsoft can't even find ways to spend) and getting artificial laws passed to restrain trade (TV shows months behind in Australia, DVD's for $2.49 in China but $19.99 here that are illegal to re-import, etc.).
With America's relative safety and fair legal system, people with money from all over the world are bidding up our property so we are having more trouble affording to live here. (Galveston- the average house is now 500,000 dollars- their schools are closing because no one with kids can afford to live their and all the real residents of Galveston are being forced to move to the mainland, Any ski area- same problem. Any pretty area- same problem).
The question is how many hours do you have to work to get housing and a hamburger. It's been increasing for the last 9 or 10 years.
You get a circuit box that shuts off the power if the grid power goes off (so you don't electrocute people) I think it is called a "switchback" circuit breaker.
Her: "But they didn't PROVE he was innocent so he's guilty"
Us: "Mam, in the U.S. they have to prove he's guilty."
Her: "But they didn't PROVE he was innocent so he's guilty"
(repeat several times before i think really she was more browbeat than educated).
We found him innocent. The guy testifying against him admitted to a felony as part of his testimony! (Convicted felon- he supposedly threatend the other guy with a gun to scare him off-- er sir, you are not allowed to have fire arms). In addition his testimony was clearly impossible so it was clear he was lying or seriously deluded.
Afterwards the attorney said they all knew the guy was probably innocent and that he has been in jail 11 months because he was too poor to make bail and that the witness was known to have it in for the defendent from some prior dispute.
WE: Son why did you copy all these songs we didn't buy? Son: I wanted them dad. WE: Well son, you need to apologize and get rid of them and we'll call things square even tho we are suing dead people, people that don't own computers, and computer novices every day. It's an important lesson son- the rules don't apply to you because your in a "better" class of people. Son: Ah dad, I get it! (Goes off to secretly download songs but now nows to do it more discretely).
C:\WINNT\system32>strings *.exe | grep -i university
C:\WINNT\system32>strings *.exe | grep -i california C:\WINNT\system32\finger.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1980 The Regents of the University of California. C:\WINNT\system32\FTP.EXE: @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California. C:\WINNT\system32\NSLOOKUP.EXE: @(#) Copyright (c) 1985,1989 Regents of the University of California. C:\WINNT\system32\rcp.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California. C:\WINNT\system32\rsh.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
C:\WINNT\system32>
on XP :
C:\WINDOWS\system32>strings *.exe | grep -i university
C:\WINDOWS\system32\finger.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1980 The Regents of the University of California.
I wouldn't say SCO was messed up at all. I think it played out exactly as MS legal brains expected, start to finish.
They only needed someone with the plausible appearence of IP to seriously restrain Linux for 3 years at a cost of maybe $50 million dollars in "licensing fees".
It occurs to me that any linux expert who inspected the microsoft code or infringement on linux or other patents would then be "polluted" with regard to further linux work.
I would expect any effort to sue Linux will result in exposure of Microsoft source in discovery to confirm there is not massive patent infringement there which could be used for a countersuit to balance Microsoft's claim.
I'm certain that there are massive patent infringements present- possibly entire blocks of barely disquised code copied from other sources and that Microsoft isn't even aware how bad their exposure on this issue is.
I would actually put it more on the "insane devotion" than any skills.
A lot of good acting is really the director-- case in point George Lucas just delivered atrocious performances from some otherwise fine actors. You really see it when you watch the same actor in different movies back to back.
However what actors do have is insane devotion to the idea of being an actor. For every one that becomes successful, 999 (or maybe even 9,999) starve, never amount to anything, don't get their shot, etc.
I believe that there are plenty of actors who can deliver a tom cruise caliber performance. A star is more about being a random hit in a random movie and then feeding on the fans from that than it is about particularly outstanding acting talents.
I'd say it is a lot harder to be a good TV star than it is to be a movie actor. They memorize a huge amount of material, deliver a lot of it very well in a few takes, and then do it all over again.
Not sure about stage actors. One performance- but keeping it fresh after 180 times-- that requires talent to avoid phoning it in.
Jar Jar is actually the most dramatically significant character in the movies.
He made you care enough to hate him if nothing else.
He was the only character in the first movies that got any character interaction out of the other characters (who were otherwise basically line reading cyphers). The scene where he was spearing fruit with his tongue and irritated the mighty stoic Jedi master is a classic.
Yoda sort of had a scene in 2- but it was really more about his gymnastic skill than his character.
Palpatine had some good stuff in the 3rd movie. It is ashame that they went through a very good 50 to 60% of skywalker's corruption and then immediately cut to him killing innocent children which was just implausible at that point.
1) For the most part 99% of artists get nothing from copyright (trivial google search I've already linked a couple times but it's something like.03% who make big money)
2) Most artists are relentlessly and ruthlessly ripped off by large corporations. It's not uncommon to see a wildly popular creation deemed "unprofitable" after "promotional and accounting" expenses are accounted for. Even such stupid thinks as "breakage" from the vinyl area are still applied. Despite this outright fraud, they STILL outright LIE and state lower numbers of sales than they know occured-- they get caught at it all the time.
3) Copyright isn't about a lifelong income stream. It's explicit purpose is to induce artists to create work which will enter the public domain. The original period was 28 years. That's entirely reasonable. The author's life plus 70 years is completely rediculous. "Forever and one day" (Jack Valenti) is the ultimate goal.
4) I guess the "Star Wreck" movie didn't actually get made and I didn't laugh and enjoy it and I didn't spend 4 hours watching it (twice!) instead of consuming purchased products. Oh wait... it did and I did.
5) Entire swaths of music wouldn't exist now if copyright rules in effect now were enforced as they started. Blues for example reuses a lot of common riffs. As a result- the FIRST song would have locked up that sequence of notes and it would have been 100+ years before another song using that riff would be made- so no blues. (You see it in rock & roll now- very stifling).
6) "Happy Birthday" is still copyrighted and will be until 2030. The authors are LONG dead and don't receive a penny. Some corporation owns the "rights" (same thing with a lot of other dead people).
7) Every time micky mouse comes up for public domain they pay a lot of money and get the period extended. For who? Again- the creator is dead.
I hear what you are saying. We are circling around a common point that we are probably not going to agree on.
Let me try a different tack.
Everyone has a "hot button" safety issue.
A wants safety issues -1,-2,-3 and freedoms 4,5,6. B wants safety issues -4,-5,-6 and freedoms 1,2,3.
The resulting society can either be free (1,2,3,4,5,6) or completely safe (-1,-2,-3,-4,-5,-6) or some mixture (-1,2,3,4,5,-6).
Redlight cameras enforce the rules 24/7 even when they are unreasonable. So you just lost the freedom to run a stuck light at 3am in the morning when no one else is anywhere around. It's a minor freedom, but it's a death of a thousand cuts we are talking here. The "pro safety" and "anti freedom" crown is NEVER EVER happy with status quo. As soon as you agree to "-3", they start working on "-2". As soon as you agree smoking should be banned everywhere (even in voluntary establishments) then they start working to ban certain kinds of food.
That's the big picture instead of the small picture of just red light cameras. It's a web of a thousand weak threads. We've lost so much freedom since the 1970's that it is astounding. When you lay the corporate web and the ambulance lawyer thread over the top it is horrific.
You may not think 55 should be it, but it was enforced by a lot of people about 2 decades ago. It was completely absurde in the southwest and even the police didn't enforce it until congress threatened to keep *OUR* money and not give it back to us.
Slashdot Mirror
It's only available used. Under $10 bucks.
> How to Be People-Smart by Les Giblin
Written in 1977. I stumbled across it at a half-price books. It's one of the most significant books to my happiness and success. I made my daughter read it twice (she uses techniques from it and occasionally calls me about how one of the techniques worked).
It's very lightweight. There's a 4th technique that I think I use but always forget the title of (Smile, Say Yes, Remember Names).
I did a little googling and apparently he has a web site these days:
http://www.skillwithpeople.com/
I remembered he was very successful in business and then wrote the books.
He shows up on some of the quote sites:
If you're not using your smile, you're like a man with a million dollars in the bank and no checkbook.
As long as you live, never forget that any fool can disagree with people and that it takes a wise man, a shrewd man, a big man to agree - particularly when the other person is wrong.
---
The way I see it, his philosophy is about winning the war by losing selected battles. I see references to "winning without intimidation". That would fit. You can win and they can hate you- or better, you can win and they like you and want you to win again. I get a lot of the second in my life these days.
It's layered with a firm realization that while I like "BOB" the guy in the manager slot, he is still in the manager slot and is going to be choosing who gets the good work, who gets fired, and who may already know that all of us are being let go next month. "Bob" may be friendly- but he is never my friend.
I am glad things worked out for you. I wish we had universal health care here (tho limited) because I think it would make us a little bit less of a cost. I get the impression that things are nicer in canada in general.
Well my perspective is skewed to america in general and texas in particular. Things are more ruthless here. The social contract we had during the 50's has been broken so many times that there is nothing left. Our executives make 400 times what the average worker does and then complain about worker wages.
In Texas if you are not a minority, female, or a medically protected class they can walk in and fire you without notice without any consequences. Similarly, there were no grants for me so I had to work full-time through school. My school was partially like that because of some kind of accredidation issue. One professor reportedly told his class, "I am sorry but I've been told only 30% of you can pass." Something about too many people graduating the program so it must not be rigorous enough. Since they were not smart enough to provide real rigor (it was just a state school) (or maybe we students were too bright-- who knows) they just made them harder with insane amounts of homework.
My experience with corporations is that they talk nice/touchy-feely until the monday you show up and you are laid off. I'm a little brighter than average and so far I've read them correctly before it happens each time so I'm still in the IT field but I have a lot of friends over the years who bought the line and got smushed.
It gets worse than just being replaced. I've had a few friends who were told to train their replacements. Because they were living hand to mouth- they typically had to.
Don't get me wrong- I think capitalism like democracy has a lot of power in it. But just as democracy and devolve into tyranny of the majority- raw capitalism can get extremely ugly. I think the US is about to swing to the left and beat up on the rich for 4 to 12 years. It hasn't before because of the abortion and gay rights issues.
Yes.
My job is a way to get them to get me money.
If I was brilliant or had a passion about something that made money, I'd do that.
But my passions is playing boardgames and roleplaying, crafting doo-dads, massage, and downhill skiing. None of those pay but I enjoy the heck out of them. I work so I can afford to do those things.
In a big corporation like mine, they even make it clear they specifically do not want you to care. It even comes up on all internal interviews. Something like "what would you do if you had a big project about 75% complete and another project was slotted ahead of it". The "correct" answer is "I'd document where i was so I could resume later and sit it aside and start on the new project." And then we both smile because we know that was the checkbox answer. You care about what management wants you to care about. If you care too much about your projects you *will* be written up and maybe even counseled (and maybe even be let go).
I cared about my first job- had it 15 years. All that work spent a few years in a box in a Dallas safe after that company was bought and has probably been thrown out. Now I don't care about programs or business any more.
I put in a good days work for a good days pay and I'm pleasant. When I walk out the door- I forget everything about my job until I walk in again.
Net results are promotions and good choice of assignements and training.
I might "retire" to a board game company or something like that tho. The house is almost paid off and I really won't have to work except for medical coverage in three years.
Something else occured to me during lunch. I was caught a bit flat footed by your "yes man to the boss" comment but I'm a yes man to *everyone*.
Every person I have a relationship with, I get one no for every nine yes's.
A co-worker offers to do the project but they want to use a methodology I don't think is best... I let them do it they way they want to- they are doing the work.
A girlfriend offers to help me with something but is going to do it in a way I don't think is best... same thing.
I only say "no" if it is critical.
But how do you decide if it is critical? Humans left to our own judgement would promote everything to critical.
By making a hard budget that I have to say "yes" most the time, it forces me to save my "no"s with two effects.
1) People like me since I'm not arguing with them and saying their opinion, approach, etc. was as good as mine.
2) When I DO say no, they tend to pay attention since I do it so rarely. Since I respected their opinion so many times, they tend to respect mine.
You are not respected for being right until after you are dead. If you are brilliant and driven- go for it. But if you want a happy life with real respect and appreciation today, then you need to let other people be right (even if you know they are not) on a lot of non-critical stuff.
1) Absolutely KILL yourself in college with 35 hours a week of homework for ONE Database class while your friends are spending about 12 hours a week for all homework in all classes.
35 hours a week of homework for one class? Assuming you had at least 25 hours of class a week, plus 15 hours in homework, you're doing almost 80 hours of school a week? Sounds like someone hadn't caught up to the rest of the class, or your just extremely exaggerating.
I averaged a 3.87 in my gpa. The database class- I got a C in. We had 20 SQL forms and 20 SQLPlus lisenses for 80 students. 35 students failed the class. Part of the reason I got a C was that I only got a total of 40 minutes of SQL plus time. We wrote a complete functioning database just as part of the class in pascal.
I worked 40 hours a week. I took 12 hours that semester since I knew DB was a 'weedout' course. I did 35 hours a week for that class and had about 10 hours homework in the other classes as well. For that class, I was up 40 hours straight at least once- and took a 15 minute nap before the final on a concrete bench (please wake me up guys- I was out the second I was horizontal). I slept in my car and showered on campus more than once. Doing the math- I averaged under 28 hours a week for sleep after travel time.
No exageration- it was that hard. We had two other weedout courses that hard in our degree. Typically about 50% would drop (fairly leniant drop policies- I think you had 6 weeks to drop with an "I"). Of those who didn't drop, 25% would fail and 25% would get a "D".
I put one WEEK of less than that level of effort (27 hours of studying) into calculus 3 and I was able to finish the mid term test in 15 minutes and made a 97/100. For DB, I put in an entire semester at those levels and I pulled a C.
3) Graduate into a low-status job when it comes to dating.
I'm sorry, but what kind of idiot takes a CS degree (or any degree) assuming it will get him a woman? That low-status job is a lot better than a lot of other work you tend to ignore (janitors, etc.).
It's something to be aware of. There are plenty of jobs with pay similar to CS where you won't lead a monk like existance. Going out with women is a lot of fun in a way the guys just don't provide and women in IT are rare. If you can get a good job, good pay, and 50/50 women instead of 80/20-- why not take it?
4) Start with a reasonably high salary-- but after a few years, it becomes clear you need to leave the field and project lead or manage (that's me these days) if you ever want to make "real" money.
There's money to be made for managers and developers (assuming that's what you are) alike. Both can have high salaries.
Speaking from the back end- given similar intelligence and drive, you are sacrificing hundreds of thousands of dollars in income going the IT route- or you are sacrificing much of your healthy young life when you could be playing working your ass off.
5) Be managed by people who absolutely HATE that they have to have you- they view you as a COST.
You're probably not a good employee, then.
As I said in another post here- they absolutely love me- great ratings, promotions- raises. They would let me go in 2 seconds. Just 2 years ago they laid off a bunch of great people and hired a bunch of indians under Infosys to replace them. I'm pleasant and like them on one level but at another level, I know 5) to be true. These people may like me but they are NOT my friends and will not take care of me.
6) Never ever be understood by management (either overworked when you are stupid or underworked once you smarten up). They'll replace you in a heartbeat with crappy but cheaper labor.
See last comment.
---
But really, I think that you just wanted to argue and launch a few random attacks at a stranger.
fact is:
IT SUCKS compared to many other fields where you get a lot more respect for a lot less work.
The degrees for IT are much harder to get when you consid
Answering your question: I'm being a "yes" man to the boss because (as I said above), they do what I want most if I say yes. If I say, "yes" nine times but dig in my heals and say "no" when they ask for something, they are much more likely to listen and consider my position because they like me because I've built up good will. Even better, when then is a plum special training class, a chance at promotion, or a sweet conference, I get told about it earlier because they like me and talk casually with me. They are irritated with mp3phish who is always straight with them and they don't tell him out of pure petulance.
When they do my reviews, they let my numbers slide and I routinely get excellent marks for reasonable effort while surly mp3phish gets "meets expectations" and maybe a "exceeds" if he kills himself on a project.
If you are happy and successful with your approach, then go for it. It works for you. For me, using the "people smart" things greatly improved my life. I recommend it highly.
Until I read it, I was right more but got what I wanted a lot less.
The other tips were:
Before you say anything - smile. (if male or a female with authority- dicey for females without authority). Feel it and mean it and they will often do the same. If nothing else, you feel good for a couple seconds going into the meeting.
Learn and use people's names. It is the most important word in the world to them. You validate and recognize their existance.
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This is one of the most insightful comment I've seen on slashdot in ages.
I'm not as smart as you are but i was smart enough to realize what you are saying in my 30's and it improved things dramatically. I often get my work down in a third of the time and then quietly wait for everyone else to catch up. I no longer correct my bosses when they are hideously wrong but try to find ways to highlight facts so they can realize and come to the conclusion themselves. But if they never get it, that's okay too- they are happy and not irritated with me for correcting them.
I read a wonderful book called people smart and it said, "You get one "no" for every nine "yes"'s". I save my "no"'s for truly critical situations now and otherwise say yes. Counter-intuitively, you get more done because when people like you, everythng is easier. It's better in business to be liked than to be right.
Let's see..
1) Absolutely KILL yourself in college with 35 hours a week of homework for ONE Database class while your friends are spending about 12 hours a week for all homework in all classes.
2) Pay $50,000 over 4 years just like they do.
3) Graduate into a low-status job when it comes to dating (I get a LOT more action from my $500 massage therapy training than I ever did from my CS degree-- MT is a female dominated field- you can't turn around without finding three or four who want to hang out and do tradeoffs and go to conferances- and MT work is like working out 8 hours a day so they tend to be fit and they tend to also be very nice people because they deal with the public a lot-- the pay is crap of course).
4) Start with a reasonably high salary-- but after a few years, it becomes clear you need to leave the field and project lead or manage (that's me these days) if you ever want to make "real" money.
5) Be managed by people who absolutely HATE that they have to have you- they view you as a COST.
6) Never ever be understood by management (either overworked when you are stupid or underworked once you smarten up). They'll replace you in a heartbeat with crappy but cheaper labor. I.e. NO JOB SECURITY. How can you buy a bloody house when you might be unemployeed for 7 months without notice.
7) And then-- at 55-- no more work. I've known so many who were just pushed out of the field. And you need the insurance you see. (Hence also my shift into manager+tech skills).
Corporations spent the 90's and the early 00's repeatedly teaching us that they have no loyalty to us and that they are going to hire people making $10,000 to replace us.
Okay-- WE GET IT. We are leaving the field. Young pups are not entering the field in the first place. And now they complain? Screw them. I hope they have severe problems and end up having to pay $150 an hour for 5 or 6 years to get people to enter the field again.
If it really did work this way, a college degree would also drop in price from $50,000 for four years to $12,000 for four years. Your cars would drop from $25,000 to $19,000. Your DVD's would drop from $22 to $19.
In that kind of environment, I'd be happy to take a pay cut. The problem is corporations are making a lot of money (record profits for Exxon, a multi BILLION dollar cash chest that Microsoft can't even find ways to spend) and getting artificial laws passed to restrain trade (TV shows months behind in Australia, DVD's for $2.49 in China but $19.99 here that are illegal to re-import, etc.).
With America's relative safety and fair legal system, people with money from all over the world are bidding up our property so we are having more trouble affording to live here. (Galveston- the average house is now 500,000 dollars- their schools are closing because no one with kids can afford to live their and all the real residents of Galveston are being forced to move to the mainland, Any ski area- same problem. Any pretty area- same problem).
The question is how many hours do you have to work to get housing and a hamburger. It's been increasing for the last 9 or 10 years.
Stand Alone Complex very good.
In some cases worse than the Cartoon translation- but in some cases better (censorship? or cultural gap?)
You get a circuit box that shuts off the power if the grid power goes off (so you don't electrocute people)
I think it is called a "switchback" circuit breaker.
And then there is the lady on my last jury.
Her: "But they didn't PROVE he was innocent so he's guilty"
Us: "Mam, in the U.S. they have to prove he's guilty."
Her: "But they didn't PROVE he was innocent so he's guilty"
(repeat several times before i think really she was more browbeat than educated).
We found him innocent. The guy testifying against him admitted to a felony as part of his testimony! (Convicted felon- he supposedly threatend the other guy with a gun to scare him off-- er sir, you are not allowed to have fire arms). In addition his testimony was clearly impossible so it was clear he was lying or seriously deluded.
Afterwards the attorney said they all knew the guy was probably innocent and that he has been in jail 11 months because he was too poor to make bail and that the witness was known to have it in for the defendent from some prior dispute.
However you spell it, all your bases are belong to us.. us.
Go Zig, For Justice!
No no no. You mean "Warner Executive".
WE: Son why did you copy all these songs we didn't buy?
Son: I wanted them dad.
WE: Well son, you need to apologize and get rid of them and we'll call things square even tho we are suing dead people, people that don't own computers, and computer novices every day. It's an important lesson son- the rules don't apply to you because your in a "better" class of people.
Son: Ah dad, I get it! (Goes off to secretly download songs but now nows to do it more discretely).
This was posted as Anonymous coward so highlighting it.
h tml
I googled it to check before I highlighted it. Appears to be true.
"ftp.exe copyright california"
http://seclists.org/bugtraq/1999/Aug/0234.html
The most interesting post was here:
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2005/Mar/0880.
Where they showed how to check it yourself.
>>> post quote
I was curious about this.
on win2k :
C:\WINNT\system32>strings *.exe | grep -i university
C:\WINNT\system32>strings *.exe | grep -i california
C:\WINNT\system32\finger.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1980 The Regents of the
University of California.
C:\WINNT\system32\FTP.EXE: @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the
University of California.
C:\WINNT\system32\NSLOOKUP.EXE: @(#) Copyright (c) 1985,1989 Regents of
the University of California.
C:\WINNT\system32\rcp.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the
University of California.
C:\WINNT\system32\rsh.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the
University of California.
C:\WINNT\system32>
on XP :
C:\WINDOWS\system32>strings *.exe | grep -i university
C:\WINDOWS\system32\finger.exe: @(#) Copyright (c) 1980 The Regents of
the University of California.
end quote.
Wow! That's some of the most suspicious, coordinated and aggressive downmodding I've seen in a few months.
You were too slow tho- enough other people repliedto the thread that folks will see it.
I wouldn't say SCO was messed up at all.
I think it played out exactly as MS legal brains expected, start to finish.
They only needed someone with the plausible appearence of IP to seriously restrain Linux for 3 years at a cost of maybe $50 million dollars in "licensing fees".
It occurs to me that any linux expert who inspected the microsoft code or infringement on linux or other patents would then be "polluted" with regard to further linux work.
I would expect any effort to sue Linux will result in exposure of Microsoft source in discovery to confirm there is not massive patent infringement there which could be used for a countersuit to balance Microsoft's claim.
I'm certain that there are massive patent infringements present- possibly entire blocks of barely disquised code copied from other sources and that Microsoft isn't even aware how bad their exposure on this issue is.
I would actually put it more on the "insane devotion" than any skills.
A lot of good acting is really the director-- case in point George Lucas just delivered atrocious performances from some otherwise fine actors. You really see it when you watch the same actor in different movies back to back.
However what actors do have is insane devotion to the idea of being an actor. For every one that becomes successful, 999 (or maybe even 9,999) starve, never amount to anything, don't get their shot, etc.
I believe that there are plenty of actors who can deliver a tom cruise caliber performance. A star is more about being a random hit in a random movie and then feeding on the fans from that than it is about particularly outstanding acting talents.
I'd say it is a lot harder to be a good TV star than it is to be a movie actor. They memorize a huge amount of material, deliver a lot of it very well in a few takes, and then do it all over again.
Not sure about stage actors. One performance- but keeping it fresh after 180 times-- that requires talent to avoid phoning it in.
Jar Jar is actually the most dramatically significant character in the movies.
He made you care enough to hate him if nothing else.
He was the only character in the first movies that got any character interaction out of the other characters (who were otherwise basically line reading cyphers). The scene where he was spearing fruit with his tongue and irritated the mighty stoic Jedi master is a classic.
Yoda sort of had a scene in 2- but it was really more about his gymnastic skill than his character.
Palpatine had some good stuff in the 3rd movie. It is ashame that they went through a very good 50 to 60% of skywalker's corruption and then immediately cut to him killing innocent children which was just implausible at that point.
But by following the rules of the Film Actor's Guild, the world can become a better place; that handles dangerous people with talk, and reasoning;...
Give or take a lie or two.
(james garner). B)
1) For the most part 99% of artists get nothing from copyright (trivial google search I've already linked a couple times but it's something like .03% who make big money)
2) Most artists are relentlessly and ruthlessly ripped off by large corporations. It's not uncommon to see a wildly popular creation deemed "unprofitable" after "promotional and accounting" expenses are accounted for. Even such stupid thinks as "breakage" from the vinyl area are still applied. Despite this outright fraud, they STILL outright LIE and state lower numbers of sales than they know occured-- they get caught at it all the time.
3) Copyright isn't about a lifelong income stream. It's explicit purpose is to induce artists to create work which will enter the public domain. The original period was 28 years. That's entirely reasonable. The author's life plus 70 years is completely rediculous. "Forever and one day" (Jack Valenti) is the ultimate goal.
4) I guess the "Star Wreck" movie didn't actually get made and I didn't laugh and enjoy it and I didn't spend 4 hours watching it (twice!) instead of consuming purchased products. Oh wait... it did and I did.
5) Entire swaths of music wouldn't exist now if copyright rules in effect now were enforced as they started. Blues for example reuses a lot of common riffs. As a result- the FIRST song would have locked up that sequence of notes and it would have been 100+ years before another song using that riff would be made- so no blues. (You see it in rock & roll now- very stifling).
6) "Happy Birthday" is still copyrighted and will be until 2030. The authors are LONG dead and don't receive a penny. Some corporation owns the "rights" (same thing with a lot of other dead people).
7) Every time micky mouse comes up for public domain they pay a lot of money and get the period extended. For who? Again- the creator is dead.
I hear what you are saying. We are circling around a common point that we are probably not going to agree on.
Let me try a different tack.
Everyone has a "hot button" safety issue.
A wants safety issues -1,-2,-3 and freedoms 4,5,6.
B wants safety issues -4,-5,-6 and freedoms 1,2,3.
The resulting society can either be free (1,2,3,4,5,6) or completely safe (-1,-2,-3,-4,-5,-6) or some mixture (-1,2,3,4,5,-6).
Redlight cameras enforce the rules 24/7 even when they are unreasonable. So you just lost the freedom to run a stuck light at 3am in the morning when no one else is anywhere around. It's a minor freedom, but it's a death of a thousand cuts we are talking here. The "pro safety" and "anti freedom" crown is NEVER EVER happy with status quo. As soon as you agree to "-3", they start working on "-2". As soon as you agree smoking should be banned everywhere (even in voluntary establishments) then they start working to ban certain kinds of food.
That's the big picture instead of the small picture of just red light cameras. It's a web of a thousand weak threads. We've lost so much freedom since the 1970's that it is astounding. When you lay the corporate web and the ambulance lawyer thread over the top it is horrific.
You may not think 55 should be it, but it was enforced by a lot of people about 2 decades ago. It was completely absurde in the southwest and even the police didn't enforce it until congress threatened to keep *OUR* money and not give it back to us.