- RT @capricecrane: "Twitter" was the most used word of 2009. Numbers two and three were "I'm" and "broke." #
- RT @Aimee_B_Loved: Sometimes I drive between lanes and pretend my car is Pacman gobbling up the dashed lines. #
- RT @FakeAPStylebook: Use "can of whup-ass" only, as whup-ass is not sold in jars, squeeze tubes or resealable bags. #
- RT @RogervonOech: Never state a problem to yourself in the same terms as it was brought to you. [More at:]
http://j.mp/cthirsh # - RT @HarvardBiz: Government Health Care: Like the Postal Service? http://bit.ly/4IzozI #
- RT @capricecrane: I don't know how your car got dented. Maybe it's God saying you shouldn't have cut me off for that parking space. Or me. #
- RT @diablocody: Eating a gingerbread house for breakfast. A new low. #
- RT @capricecrane: According to Billboard: "Nickelback: 'Band of the decade.'" That's all. Enjoy the apocalypse. #
- RT @TheOnion: "Why do all the girls I like think of me as just a friend? And why isn't there a term to describe that relationship?" -Plato #
I Am a Programmer
They were like spectators. You had a feeling they had just wandered in there themselves and somebody had handed them a wrench. There was no identification with the job. No saying, “I am a mechanic.” At 5 P.M. or whenever their eight hours were in, you knew they would cut it off and not have another thought about their work. They were already already trying not to have any thoughts about their work on the job.
We had a manager’s meeting today on the subject of employee recognition. The text we were given to read in preparation for the meeting was indistinguishable from a handbook on training your new puppy:
Behavior which is reinforced is usually repeated. . . . You risk extinguishing the positive behavior by not recognizing it. . . . Provide compliments in a timely fashion, as soon as possible after the event occurs.
That seems demeaning to me and it trivializes the work. I like to be recognized as a person who does good work but I also want to be recognized as someone who cares about his work. I know better than anyone when my work is good and when it isn’t. I’m not looking for pats on the head.
I said in the meeting that I’d rather try to motivate people by giving them the opportunity to do great work, to have some choices about what that work is, and to become the person they’ve always wanted to be.
I pointed out that we’re giving up our youth, our family — everything we hold dear — to come in to work every day, and if the work isn’t worth doing well for its own sake, then it’s a pretty poor exchange.
“We come to work to make money,” Manager A said, as though explaining something very obvious.
“We should sell off our lives one day at a time to the highest bidder?” I asked. “That seems like a good idea to you?”
“Do you really believe the things that come out of your mouth?” Manager B asked.
Manager C stated that in “the real world,” 99 percent of the people he knows are working their jobs for the money and, financial considerations aside, would rather be doing something else with their lives.
The highest-paying job I ever had — before or since — I quit after eight months. I didn’t have another job to go to; I just hated going in there in the morning and I couldn’t wait to go home in the afternoon. I never got a chance to do anything I enjoyed or anything I was good at.
I’m not doing this stuff to get rich. I am a programmer.
Thus spoke The Programmer.
Let Us Pray We Choose Wisely
President Obama told ABC News’ Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.”
He failed to mention that if Congress does pass ObamaCare, the country will also go bankrupt, only faster . . .
Girls Will Mess You Up
Tiger Woods and Chris Henry are just the latest examples.
“Your role model,” I say to my son, “should be that guy in the Miller Lite commercial who saves his beer and lets his girlfriend drop off a cliff.”
DogPoopBags.com
“What kind of work do you do?” someone asks you.
“I’m a web developer,” you reply.
“How interesting! What site do you work on?”
“It’s just a small site. You wouldn’t have heard of it.”
“Oh I’m on the web a lot. I may have seen it. What’s it called?”
In a barely audible voice, halfway between a mumbling cough and a coughing mumble, you say, “DogPoopBags.com.”
“Ha ha ha — for a second there I thought you said DogPoopBags.com. I . . . uh . . . oh, sorry.”
A Project Management Question
Which is better:
A. Telling a project stakeholder that his good idea is never going to happen?
B. Letting him think it is going to happen when it isn’t?
Dad Is Not Nuts
As part of a family discussion, my mom names the three members of our extended family whom she considers to be nuts.
My sister adds two more people to the list, including my dad.
“No, Dad is not nuts,” my mom says, “although he gets along well with the nuts.”
My dad says to me, “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever had from this family.”
“That you’re not nuts?” I ask.
“That’s right.”
My Dad’s Getting Old
My dad asks me, “You know what’s a good thing about getting old?”
“A lot of people you don’t like are dead?” I suggest.
“No, you can hide your own Easter eggs.”
“What?”
Twitter: 2009-12-14
- HarvardBusiness.org: Take Back 10 Minutes http://web.hbr.org/e/?e=mt&d=121409 #
Regarding My Behavior at Last Night’s Holiday Party
I was somewhat drunk and somewhat belligerent — although in my defense, I’m somewhat belligerent even when sober — but I did not get so drunk that I wound up vomiting on the host’s front lawn like some people I could mention because really — aren’t we all getting a little too old for that kind of thing?
Twitter: 2009-12-13
- The Content Strategist as Digital Curator: http://bit.ly/7haS0a #
Evolution of a Mission Statement
From TheCoreProtocols Yahoo group:
This one is pretty good:
IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF THOSE WE SERVE.
Compare that to the previous one:
Our mission is to make a significant, positive impact on the healthcare system by changing behaviors and improving outcomes.
And before that:
APS is dedicated to providing user-friendly, accessible, comprehensive and innovative behavioral healthcare systems that promote teamwork, relationships, and provider partnerships; add value to our client’s services; and improve upon members’ quality of care and outcomes. APS believes that quality is achieved by providing access to the most appropriate care and in the least restrictive setting.
And originally:
The mission is to be a premier care management company that can flexibly, yet cost effectively, deliver the full continuum of care management services needed to improve total health outcomes; and, more specifically, to assure quality care is provided in the most appropriate and cost-effective setting based on individual patient needs and within the guidelines of the particular insurance contract.
Anne Frank
Five years ago, I wrote a post about Anne Frank.
Today a young lady named Max added a comment:
In my 8th grade language class we just finished watching the Anne Frank movie, and we have also been studying Anne Frank and the Holocaust for about 2 weeks now. The story made about 3 girls cry. Me, my friend Jade, and my friend Kierra. There may have been more but i didn’t see.
There are now over 400 comments on this post, many of them very poignant, and I’ve enjoyed reading them. Thank you to everyone who’s contributed.
It has continued to amaze me how many people around the world have been touched by the life of this one girl.
R.I.P. Anne Frank
Mascots: Trojan vs. Bruin
USC’s mascot is a guy on horseback waving a sword. UCLA’s is a kid in a homemade bear suit.
Twitter: 2009-12-11
- RT @smithsonian: A city built from $32k of discarded lottery tickets? Artist Jean Shin did it. Watch her work: http://ow.ly/L0oN #
I Don’t Think Anybody Knows
One of the hardest things to convey to students is how often the answer to a question is, “I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody does know.”
The Three Requirements for Happiness
To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness; though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.
Mad World
Christmas in Capetown
Twitter: 2009-12-10
- RT @capricecrane: US Weekly: "Gosselin Kids Tell School There's No Santa." Really? Then who took your show off the air you little creeps? #