Notices by Don Romano (alt) (thor@noagendasocial.com), page 29

@ratamacue The boss in question started the company well over 20 years ago. The main focus has never been to maximise profit (shareholder dividends are prohibited in the bylaws) but to keep geeks with a job. The only task you absolutely have to perform with regularity at this company is to keep your logs up to date.

@ratamacue The company predates the spread of Agile methodologies and the majority of the employees aren't developers. Logging hours worked on customer contracts is necessary for billing purposes.

@ratamacue How is my boss wasteful?

@ratamacue His answer, by the way, was that they have previously lost a lot of money on employees who either don't work on anything, or work on the wrong thing, and neglect to log it, and then it becomes hard for management to detect the problem without constantly hovering over every employee.

@ratamacue Example: My boss wanted time logs submitted every day. He only bills customers once a month and doesn't seem to notice it when they go missing for a few days, so why? He was bothered when he replied, because I didn't actually need to know the answer to that in order to do my job.

Basically, I question instructions a lot and can't take things on authority, and many managers don't like this, because answering "why" questions takes up their time.

@ratamacue Example: My boss wanted time logs submitted every day. He only bills customers once a month and doesn't seem to notice it when they go missing for a few days, so why? He was bothered when he replied, because I didn't actually need to know the answer to that in follow his instructions.

Basically, I question authority a lot, and may managers don't like this, because answering "why" questions takes up their time.

@ratamacue The specific terms are mine.

"Be yourself" and "Work on yourself" are contradictory pieces of advice. Which one is right?

Answer: The one that's convenient at the moment.

@byllgrim I'm glad someone's getting something out of my ranting.

Efficient team work requires that team members follow instructions on authority without asking too many questions, but this unsatisfying to me.

I have attempted to move into management and independent contracting, where you learn the "why," but that also involves activities I don't like, such as lying and kissing ass. Also, the "why" is often money, and that's also unsatisfying.

The main reason I'm not a "team player" is that, if I don't know why I'm performing a task, I drop everything in order to figure that out, and if the reason isn't good, I abandon the task.

I've always had a huge problem with things that just are that way, with no explanation given. Needless to say, I have tested the patience of every manager I have ever had.

You know you're a programmer when you want traffic signs to use boolean notation because you (and no one else) would be able to read that faster than cryptic semaphore symbols.

So far, 100% of the respondents to my quiz are teapots.

@mhjohnson #ThatsTheJoke

Parking signs could really benefit from some boolean notation...

The sign below basically means:

parkingAllowed =
(t < 8 && t >= 16) || hours <= 3

But it reads like:

parkingAllowed =
t < 8 && t >= 16 &
d >= 'mon' && d <= 'fri' &&
hours <= 3

Why the day range interpretation? Because black text without parentheses indicates ordinary weekdays exclusively on parking signs that include time ranges for Saturdays and Sundays or holidays.

Parking signs could really benefit from some boolean notation...

The sign below basically means:

parkingAllowed =
(t < 8 && t >= 16) || hours <= 3

But it reads like:

parkingAllowed =
t < 8 && t >= 16 &
d >= 'mon' && d <= 'fri' &&
hours < 3

Why the day range interpretation? Because black text without parentheses indicates ordinary weekdays exclusively on parking signs that include time ranges for Saturdays and Sundays or holidays.

So...

If a parking sign lists 3 time ranges, one plain, one in parenthesis and one in red, it means you can only park during those times on weekdays, Saturdays and red days respectively.

...but if it lists only one time range in black, and states a maximum duration, the meaning of "non-parenthesis black" magically changes from "you may only park here during these hours on ordinary weekdays" to "during these hours, you can only park here for 3 hours"?

That's not logically consistent at all!

So...

If the parking sign lists three time ranges, one plain, one in parenthesis and one in red, it means you can only park during those times.

...but if it lists only one time range in black, and states a maximum duration, the meaning of "time range in black" magically changes from "you may only park here during these hours on ordinary weekdays" to "you can park any time you want, but during these hours, you can only park for 3 hours"?

That's not logically consistent at all!