I’ve worked for a dozen years in IT at a very large, very stupid corporation which has gotten larger and stupider every year. I’ve been phoning it in almost my entire career, and despite that I get ridiculous raises and promotions all the time. Most of my projects I consider to be failures in one way or another. Either came in late and over-budget, undelivered on features, was poorly designed and difficult to use etc. The only successes were the small projects early in my career where I wore all the hats and did everything myself. So that is really all I am good for but instead I manage teams working on projects worth as much as 12 million a year.
I recently tried to take a step sideways and get a different job in the company where I’d be more hands on and six months later they had me take over the group. Despite the fact that I mostly wasted my time here. My only real useful survival skill here is sounding smart on the phone and winning lots of the status meetings, and that seems to be the key success criteria.
So I just sort of look at it as one big joke and tell myself I’m just here for the lulz and the fat paychecks as long as they are dumb enough to keep writing them but...that’s not exactly true. Sometimes I do get stressed out and angry about how lame we are. Usually this happens when I work with a very small software vendor and can compare their productivity to ours.
I’m going to spend the better part of my life doing this work, and its meaningless. And I tell myself I do this so...my kid can have the same great opportunities that I passed up. He will probably do the same.
Sometimes I’ll resolve to try harder and make a difference but I probably have similar akrasia and ennui issues as Rain. I had the same problems in school. I’d score in the 98-99th percentile on all standardized tests and average Cs in most classes since I would never do homework.
So I just sort of look at it as one big joke and tell myself I’m just here for the lulz and the fat paychecks as long as they are dumb enough to keep writing them
The sad truth is, it doesn’t take much to excel in IT. I’d put it down to the terrible state of education in that field everywhere I’ve looked or heard from.
To the extent that I think of myself as having something to protect, this is it. I’m not “clicking” as far as the Singularity yet, but it’s clear to me that people in the IT professions, and in particular programmers, represent, at the same time, a huge potential to improve the lot of humanity, and a huge waste of that potential at this moment.
The sad truth is, it doesn’t take much to excel in IT. I’d put it down to the terrible state of education in that field everywhere I’ve looked or heard from.
Can you elaborate on this? I went to school for electrical/computer engineering, and would occasionally hear about people who couldn’t hack it in those programs changing to IT-related ones. I figured it was an OK choice (maybe they hit their limits when it comes to math), but could still learn to good things.
I’ve now worked in small, medium, and large organizations, and have (in most cases) found that whatever best resembles an “IT” department is something you do your best to avoid working with. I’ve seen rigid adherence to obviously bad policies and protocols, failure to complete things on-time or correctly, and a near-religious pursuit of maintaining the status quo in nearly every interaction.
What is it about the education of IT students that encourages this? From looking at my school’s degree requirements, it seems like there’s too much of a focus on “business” skills and middle management, and too little focus on using and applying technology. Is that a fair summary?
it seems like there’s too much of a focus on “business” skills and middle management, and too little focus on using and applying technology.
We’d have to draw some distinctions, as “IT” is a big field. My main beef with the curricula is that, in a nutshell, they fail to teach people to think, to reason conceptually about the tools in their toolbox; and to a lesser extent that they fail to teach the craft, the technology-independent tips and tricks that experienced pros have picked up.
Sometimes that manifests as an excessive focus on technology: specifically curricula that teach people how to use tools X, Y and Z but not why these tools are useful or when to use them. Sometime that manifests as an excessive focus on this or that fad of management or scheduling; for instance, curricula heavy in “estimation models” such as COCOMO.
I’m an autodidact but I later went back to university to pick up a degree with very light course requirements in view of my experience. The one class I sat on was about distributed systems. I was told practically nothing about distributed systems, save for a brief reference to Lamport clocks, the rest of the course was spent on the details of writing “Hello world” equivalents in CORBA and Java RMI: basically running programs on the command line and learning bits of syntax. I distinguished myself by being the only student who was using unit tests to demonstrate properties of my programs.
In other words, this was a Master’s degree at one of the top scientific universities in Paris, and to this autodidact the course looked like vocational training.
Is it worse to know what should be done, and then decide not to do it? Or worse to not know in the first place?
I’m angry; I shouldn’t hit my friend because it’s wrong and will only make the situation worse for me and for everyone else, providing no benefits whatsoever; I hit my friend. I have committed malice aforethought. I’m sociopathic. I have no concern for the wellbeing of others.
I’m angry; I hit my friend. Oops. Sorry.
The former case is a half-step in the right direction (“I didn’t hit my friend”), in that I’m capable of identifying the correct action to take. However, it may produce a greater emotional burden should I then fail to take the correct action. In this way, perhaps those who fail to make a full transition are hurting more than those who have not even started on the path.
I remember this being discussed earlier, where aspiring rationalists lose the support of some irrational beliefs which had been propping them up, providing quality of life benefits.
I’ve worked for a dozen years in IT at a very large, very stupid corporation which has gotten larger and stupider every year. I’ve been phoning it in almost my entire career, and despite that I get ridiculous raises and promotions all the time. Most of my projects I consider to be failures in one way or another. Either came in late and over-budget, undelivered on features, was poorly designed and difficult to use etc. The only successes were the small projects early in my career where I wore all the hats and did everything myself. So that is really all I am good for but instead I manage teams working on projects worth as much as 12 million a year.
I recently tried to take a step sideways and get a different job in the company where I’d be more hands on and six months later they had me take over the group. Despite the fact that I mostly wasted my time here. My only real useful survival skill here is sounding smart on the phone and winning lots of the status meetings, and that seems to be the key success criteria.
So I just sort of look at it as one big joke and tell myself I’m just here for the lulz and the fat paychecks as long as they are dumb enough to keep writing them but...that’s not exactly true. Sometimes I do get stressed out and angry about how lame we are. Usually this happens when I work with a very small software vendor and can compare their productivity to ours.
I’m going to spend the better part of my life doing this work, and its meaningless. And I tell myself I do this so...my kid can have the same great opportunities that I passed up. He will probably do the same.
Sometimes I’ll resolve to try harder and make a difference but I probably have similar akrasia and ennui issues as Rain. I had the same problems in school. I’d score in the 98-99th percentile on all standardized tests and average Cs in most classes since I would never do homework.
Why can’t anyone tell you’re wearing that business suit ironically?
The Onion has got me through many an afternoon here. I don’t work here ironically though. I just don’t work very hard.
Treating it like a game or a joke helps with the cognitive dissonance.
The sad truth is, it doesn’t take much to excel in IT. I’d put it down to the terrible state of education in that field everywhere I’ve looked or heard from.
To the extent that I think of myself as having something to protect, this is it. I’m not “clicking” as far as the Singularity yet, but it’s clear to me that people in the IT professions, and in particular programmers, represent, at the same time, a huge potential to improve the lot of humanity, and a huge waste of that potential at this moment.
Can you elaborate on this? I went to school for electrical/computer engineering, and would occasionally hear about people who couldn’t hack it in those programs changing to IT-related ones. I figured it was an OK choice (maybe they hit their limits when it comes to math), but could still learn to good things.
I’ve now worked in small, medium, and large organizations, and have (in most cases) found that whatever best resembles an “IT” department is something you do your best to avoid working with. I’ve seen rigid adherence to obviously bad policies and protocols, failure to complete things on-time or correctly, and a near-religious pursuit of maintaining the status quo in nearly every interaction.
What is it about the education of IT students that encourages this? From looking at my school’s degree requirements, it seems like there’s too much of a focus on “business” skills and middle management, and too little focus on using and applying technology. Is that a fair summary?
We’d have to draw some distinctions, as “IT” is a big field. My main beef with the curricula is that, in a nutshell, they fail to teach people to think, to reason conceptually about the tools in their toolbox; and to a lesser extent that they fail to teach the craft, the technology-independent tips and tricks that experienced pros have picked up.
Sometimes that manifests as an excessive focus on technology: specifically curricula that teach people how to use tools X, Y and Z but not why these tools are useful or when to use them. Sometime that manifests as an excessive focus on this or that fad of management or scheduling; for instance, curricula heavy in “estimation models” such as COCOMO.
I’m an autodidact but I later went back to university to pick up a degree with very light course requirements in view of my experience. The one class I sat on was about distributed systems. I was told practically nothing about distributed systems, save for a brief reference to Lamport clocks, the rest of the course was spent on the details of writing “Hello world” equivalents in CORBA and Java RMI: basically running programs on the command line and learning bits of syntax. I distinguished myself by being the only student who was using unit tests to demonstrate properties of my programs.
In other words, this was a Master’s degree at one of the top scientific universities in Paris, and to this autodidact the course looked like vocational training.
Is it worse to know what should be done, and then decide not to do it? Or worse to not know in the first place?
I’m angry; I shouldn’t hit my friend because it’s wrong and will only make the situation worse for me and for everyone else, providing no benefits whatsoever; I hit my friend. I have committed malice aforethought. I’m sociopathic. I have no concern for the wellbeing of others.
I’m angry; I hit my friend. Oops. Sorry.
The former case is a half-step in the right direction (“I didn’t hit my friend”), in that I’m capable of identifying the correct action to take. However, it may produce a greater emotional burden should I then fail to take the correct action. In this way, perhaps those who fail to make a full transition are hurting more than those who have not even started on the path.
I remember this being discussed earlier, where aspiring rationalists lose the support of some irrational beliefs which had been propping them up, providing quality of life benefits.