I've got a car. When it breaks down or needs servicing - do I find myself upto the armpits in the engine on the phone to some grease monkey who's saying things like right now unbolt the flux capacitor, carefully remove the nuclear fision module, then you can loosen the drain plug on the sump? No. I take it to a garage, tell them it's broken then they mend it then I pay them.
When my washing machine breaks, do I find myself up to the armpits in suds while an 'engineer' tells me over the phone how to fix it? No. A nice man comes to the house, sucks his teeth for a bit and then mends it, takes a few quid off me and let's me get on with my washing.
I know that if I flick the switch on the wall the light comes on. Sometimes it doesn't so I might change the lightbulb. I don't have some guy training me in 17th edition regs over the phone telling me how to rewire the circuit.
So why, when my employer decides it's a good idea for Billy to have a new laptop and it doesn't work right, do I find myself on the phone for 4 hours to some desk jockey who has the Haynes Manual for a Lenovo Thinkpad and Windows for Dummies open on the desk, talking me through how to fix it? Do I look like Bill Gates? Does it say Alpha Geek techie on my forehead? Pay me for what I'm good at - relationship management and project management - and send a bloke who knows what he's doing to meet me and fix the flipping thing! like you used to do when PCs and Laptops were mystical things. I'll even travel to his base and take the damn laptop to him, then I can do my job on the spare (oh! forgot, it's quarantined) How cost effective is it to have me spending 4 hours doing something I'm no damn good at?
those 4 hours actually cost 8 hours because I have to get someone else to do the stuff that I can't do 'cos I'm buggering about with a new laptop, while the old one sits on the floor, perfectly serviceable but quarantined off. and what happened to 'all your programmes will be pre loaded? Apart from the non portfolio ones that is, so i can look forward to another 4 hours of remote 'support' to load the stuff I need to do my job effectively. FFS!
grah! Least I'm sober.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
Wellllll....... I've been a computer geek since before I got sober. I've actually been a computer geek since before I started drinking. That was before there were ipod or iphones, before laptops, before thinkpads, before the internet, before email, before Windows, before Macs, before PCs, before DOS, before Apple, before Trash-80s, and yes... even before Bill Gates.
I saw all of this coming. Computers are unlike any of the other machines you describe because even though they can be complex, automobiles, washing mashines, TV sets, blenders, etc. all are designed to perform a very narrow range of functions. Computers are not just multi-purpose, they are of infinite purpose and even the first junky home computers with a billionth of the power of today's computers were still of infinite purpose. I realize you, and many people who own and use them daily, use your computers for very narrow purposes. But the analogy of your purpose is more related to software than hardware. Your computer isn't like your car; your Internet Explorer is like your car, the internet is like the highway system, and your computer itself is more like the laws of physics.
You don't have to be a physicist to drive your car on the highway, and you don't have to be a computer scientist to surf the web. But those things do come into play. If you wreck your car, chances are it's because a law of physics about two bodies occupying the same space at the same time were violated If your computer crashes, it's for the exact same reason - something ended up where it wasn't supposed to be, and it may not be your fault at all - just as the car accident may not have been your fault if your brakes failed.
Anyway, I know it isn't much help but it is an attempt to explain why your computer isn't like your car, and never will be. Although, there are trends now to create much simpler access points for people who don't need the full programming capability of a true standalone computer. You'll be giving up the geek factor, and gaining stability and reliability and I think that will be a good thing. And we geeks will still be able to do our thing, just like weekend warriors will always tinker and tune their cars and attempt to defy the laws of physics down at the drag strip.
Aloha Bill...been there and didn't like it either however I don't do that anymore cause after reading the black lettering on step two I discovered that the last word was "Sanity". Some times sober just isn't sane. My computer recently crashed I knew I would have to call in the techies and I also knew I had to manage the project starting with me...Mind, Body, Spirit, and Emotions. That's the best work I'll every have. Wish you success with it.
Well I guess the benefit of the programme is I know how to back down and admit when I'm wrong. The lassie on the help desk got the sharp side of my wit, but within seconds I'd realised I was lashing out at the wrong person. So it was a case of saying to her whoa, stop, I'm out of order and in the wrong. You're trying to help and I'm not wanting to let you. Can we start over?
Yep, it's fear based behaviour. Fear that I might have done something to this collection of electronics that has done irreperable damage to it, that this might somehow corrupt the biggest comms network in britain, causing it to crash out and losing me my job - nowt like projecting is there?
Plus re reading the post, do you see the arrogance in there? cus I do. So why the arrogance? See I'm not bothered post. I'm trying to do too much with too little and please everyone. (Progress? well I identified it (with help) so maybe.)
Talked to a sister in the fellowship tonight at WeightWatchers (Bugger, I've put weight ON) and while working out why I'd put weight on (eat too much, too often, move too little) found that I'd been working from 0700 to 0100 5 days a week for the past 3 weeks. Duh! Why - perfectionism, arrogance, low self esteem, people pleasing.
Also had a late call from my boss to do my quarterly review. Good news is that although I was levelled down from VG to DN (2 steps down) he went in to bat and got the original marking restored. Bad news is he had to instruct me that 'managers don't take meal breaks, managers habitually work extra hours.' This one don't sit well with me. I'll have to talk to people how I'm going to manage this. I don't mind doing the odd extra hour, but not week in week out. I don't mind eating on the run once in a while, but not all the time. You could double my wage and I still wouldn't want to play that game and I politely told my boss so. We'll see where this one leads.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
If your computer crashes, it's for the exact same reason - something ended up where it wasn't supposed to be, and it may not be your fault at all - just as the car accident may not have been your fault if your brakes failed.
