Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 23:30:41 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "ML Duke" <mlduke@concentric.net> Cc: "rayhicks" <rayhicks@UU.NET>, <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Unix skills at work Message-ID: <000e01c11e41$503f0760$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10108041311500.6926-100000@mlduke.concentric.net>
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Ah Duke, Reread what I said. I never said he was incompetent. I said that based on what he told you that I saw someone who is representative of how depressing it can be made to be if your goal is to make it depressing. Your the one that is all hung up about competence. Let me be as blunt as it appears you need me to be. People like your friend have attitudes that stink. They may be competent, and most of the type with that attitude are very competent. But what they don't understand is that their attitude makes it miserable for everyone around them that they have to work with. As a result their superiors do as much as possible to isolate them from everyone else. Naturally this ruins what ability they would _normally_ have to affect their environment. This just makes them more and more bitter and they blame the organization for it, and eventually they quit and go elsewhere and the cycle starts all over again. Of course from their point of view it's never their fault, it's always someone else's. Go ahead and use your friend as a role model - for the technical knowledge part of it. But allow anything he says about the political/business/social part of it to go in one ear and out the other without stopping. He is a very, very poor role model for the attitude part unless your goal in your career is to become a bitter old crank that is only kept around because you have experience up the wazoo and this comes in handly to solve certain problems from time to time. Sorry you feel I'm attacking your friend. But people like that derive no joy from their jobs and I just pity them. While the rest of us are getting a kick out of this wonderful business called Unix administration, people like him are making up excuses like "I'm too old" and "I can't change" and "everything I do is futile because the Sun is going to explode in 10 billion years and the Earth is going to vaporize, what's the point of doing anything" One of these days you need to ask your friend the following questions: "If someone paid you 4 times the amount of money your making now to do a Unix administration job you hate, would you do it?" "Is the goal of a career to get a job that you love doing or to make a piss pot of money?" "If someone died and left you enough money to live off of for the rest of your life, would you quit your job?" Then, you answer the following question yourself: "In the average day, I spend half of my conscious life working and the other half running errands, commuting, eating, family time, hobby, vacation, watching TV, etc.. Is my job worth it if it makes 1/2 of my waking hours miserable? Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com >-----Original Message----- >From: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG >[mailto:owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of ML Duke >Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 12:27 PM >To: Ted Mittelstaedt >Cc: rayhicks; freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: RE: Unix skills at work > > >On Sat, 4 Aug 2001, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > >The below is true. Forgot to mention my guy could >have acquired perfectly good hardware for about 2.5 >mill, and saved many thousands on software as well, >but all was there upon his arrival. He's good, pal. >Real good. Not much you can do about that. > >your: you're (you are) > >Duke > >> There is absolutely no coorelation between competence and the >> dollar value of the equipment that your responsible for. > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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