Chubby Nickel Audio Vlog

This article will only cover the workplace from the software developers point of view.

Jeans

If your company does not allow jeans to be worn during normal work days then they have a fear that they will lose control of their employees. Because Jeans are a gateway drug; they lead to t-shirts, which leads to spending a few minutes browsing the web, which leads to project dates being pushed back, which leads to tribal uprisings, which leads to Armageddon. It is true, if you let developers wear jeans they will be comfortable, happy, work better and the entire fabric of space and time will collapse in on itself. It has been proven statistically.

Overtime

It is almost impossible to find a place to work for where they do not expect you to put in overtime every single week. Companies are always afraid of not reaching deadlines, so they try to get 25% more developers without paying for more developers. Think about being paid for 40 hours of work a week, but working 50 hours of work a week. That is the same as one full time week every 4 weeks, so developers should get a 25% raise to make up for the difference.

Maintaining a Presence

It is a fact that just because you can do the same work from home at any time of the day, it is required that other people see you doing that work. Companies are worried that if you are not at your desk where they can see you browsing the internet and slacking off, you might slack off at home… unwatched. If a developer programs and no is there to see it, does the code get written? Of course not, developers can’t get anything done if no one is watching them.

No Positive Reinforcement

It is a proven fact that managers can only give negative reinforcement and punishment. Companies are afraid that if they give positive reinforcement, then the employees will think they did something extra and will do less in the future. Statistically speaking, it is much better for a company to never tell any one that they are doing a good job, because if they did, then that would make the employee think they are worth something to the company.

If your company follows these proven methods and restrictions, then you should be very certain that they have very little control over anything and are very scared that their employees will know about it.

The war in Iraq according to when i last checked has cost America around $503,000,000,000.00. And according to my calculations of about $6,200 per semester at a public college, the government could have put ten million plus people through to get their bachelors degrees on full scholarships. Instead we’re learning how stupidity can cost lives and opportunity.  But hey, who cares about school we can just join the army and fight and die in a war that shouldn’t have ever been started.

Okay, Let’s say that we live in a perfect world. Now that it’s out of your system, GET BACK TO REALITY! Now I can talk to you rationally, stop being stupid. there’s no room for complacency in todays world, the minute you start saying it’s okay to take away my freedoms is a minute after it happens. Ever since this country was split down the middle like a huge butt crack (which smells like politics) by Demo’s and Repub’s we’ve been fighting over red and blue, not real matters mind you on stuff that we really care about but we let people rate who’s a good republican or democrat and we vote for who best represents our butt cheek (independents are the hairy line in the middle).  We’ve been stuck to our brand loyalty, “I only buy chevy’s because their the best”, or “Ford makes the only trucks worth drivin’” the truth is that once you’re loyal to just one brand you’re blinded to the real truth and the whole world doesn’t matter because you’ve made your decision before you even ask the question. Right now if you’re a Republican you are more than likely gonna vote for John McCain (Assuming he lives ’till December) whether or not you would really like Obama or Clinton better just because their out of the question. Because the question changed from “who’d make the best president” to “Who’s the best republican”. Let me clear something else up, we live in a democratic republic. Not a straight democracy but the underlying democratic functionalities are there (like if Americans got together and signed petitions to get out of Iraq in big enough a number the government would have to comply). Ever since presidents have been sized up by who’s tallest when standing on their wallet we lost the dream that the founders of the country thought America would be. Could you imagine the face of George Washington (our first president for the historically challenged) if someone told him that 43 presidents later people would be campaigning (wasting) with billions of dollars to become the next President. He’d probably have thought you were smoking backyard grass. The point is keep your eye on the ball, the important issues aren’t going to be discussed in campaign commercial slanders. So let’s cut the BS and get to the real issues and get some promises that are going to have to be kept, why not have a clear plan from potential presidents? Would it be too hard to say we’ll be out of Iraq before the first term? Or we’ll enact a REAL economic stimulus, like alternative energy development to pull us out of our recession.

I often hear people saying that we should “pull out” of Iraq, and I often have the image of America screwing Iraq (and verse visa). Which calls the thought that we should pull out of Iraq so that we don’t have an illegitimate love child through our heated affair with Iraq. Though if we do end up creating a spawn of our endeavors in Iraq we all know what we’ll call it, baby world war III.

Ok, so I was talking to some one about why I like a certain application over another. My preference for the application I like appeared to upset this person who obviously new the one he liked is better. He kept saying things like: “You just don’t know how to use it,” “You’re using the cheap ripoff,” “Mine costs more than yours,” “These guys did this thing first” and “Maybe if you used it more you would like it as much as I do.”

“You just don’t know how to use it” If I did not know how to use his favourite application (lets call it Sux0rz), I would not have been able to develop my reasons for liking the one I do (lets call it N00b). I did not like Sux0rz because most of the work that I do in N00b, I would have to go through menus and sub-menus in Sux0rz. So I like N00b more because I use the menus and sub-menus less (also N00b is faster and has a little bit more functionality).

“You’re using the cheap ripoff” Everything humans make is a ripoff of something else. Think of anything man has created and try to find one original idea that did not come from something some one did before them. Not a thing. I am sure the very first things people started copying from other people were just accidents that worked out better than what they were doing. I am not knocking the human race, I am stating what our greatest quality is: the ability to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes.

“This one costs more than yours” Firstly, it is not my application, some one else programmed it. Secondly, Just because something costs less money, does not mean it is not better. Sometimes people sell things for more than their worth just to make more money. E.I.: If some one painted a face on a rock and sold it to you for $10 bucks, is that rock really so much better than one you can get for free from the ground? Only if there is $10 worth of paint on the $10 rock.

“These guys did this thing first” The very fact that some one did something first does not make the original idea better. I hope I would not have to give an example but I will just in case: Wagons. Ok, I will elaborate: Wagons (though not the first form of transporting things on a thing with wheels), came before steam engine cars which came before internal combustion engine cars. Which is better? This point is pretty much the same as my last point: Humans take other people’s ideas and make them better.

“Maybe if you used it more you would like it as much as I do” No, if I used it more I would most likely hate it more. Part of the reason humans can take things and make things better is because they are a different person with a different view. People are different, the sooner people understand that the sooner people can stop getting all butt hurt every time some one says something they don’t like.

My main point is probably: I like the things I do for my own reasons, every one else should also like the things they do for their own reasons. If you are comfortable with your choice in the things you use and like then express those reasons, not some BS like the previous statements. Secondary point might be: Like what you like and if some one else does not like what you like, then be a grown up, don’t get upset about it and appreciate the fact other peoples differences are what make this world go around.