Stepping Up

by Crom

You know, I don’t claim to know everything. That would be a little presumptuous. Unless I had some super-electromagnectically-enhanced-cuz-i-lived-next-to-a-power-transformer brain or fell into toxic waste, but I digress. My point is that while I don’t know everything, I’d like to think I know a lot about my field of study. I work with computers, and computer networks. So when I’m sitting at work, and some dude who I’ve worked with for a few weeks, feels it necessary to tell me how the world of computing works, and that I’m lacking in my ability to function in it, because I don’t have a 100% grasp of an esoteric subject that will only ever come up once in a blue moon in my industry, it rubs me the wrong way.

And, it stems from the fact that he is older (so obviously knows more) and has been doing it longer. Now, you’d think that were that the case that yes he would know more, since his involvement has surpassed mine. However, when I ask question that should be easily understood and answered and I’m met with a blank look, it makes me feel that I’ve once again run into a familiar figure in my life.

The guy who needs to tell me shit to make himself look smart.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this person isn’t stupid and does in fact know many things about computers that I probably don’t. But, that doesn’t give him license to get in my face. This has been the case in almost any industry I’ve worked in. I once had a green horn try to explain why I should cook a different way when I was managing a restaurant. And, it’s no doubt happening all over the world. I can just imagine my friends being told by some new guy coder that his work isn’t efficient and he should brush up some section of his code. And, just like me, he’d want to smack him in the face. Why? Because invariably in their rush to look smart-like, these people don’t bother to consider the context your work has been taken in. They then alienate themselves to you, and you consider punching them in the nose.

It would be nice, once in awhile to have someone assume you actually know something, and that you weren’t hired on to do the job because you’d work for a tuna-salad sandwich everyday. This probably sounds like the bitching of a grad student who just got plunked into the market place “Waah no one appreciates me” and you’re thinking , hey numbnuts, you need to put in your time before they respect you. Well, I can only think of one response to that. Fuck you.

The amount of people I know who listen to the established way of things and realize that it’s retarded is staggering. However, you assume that we should insert ourselves into the system and conform to it, in order to gain ground in the pecking order. Well, perhaps stagnation is your idea of fun and excitement, but it’s not mine. The new people have the fresh ideas, the fresh perspective and most of the times aren’t inhibited by the attitudes of the industry. This should be a more valued commodity to employers then someone whose concepts are already twisted by the machination of the corporate mega-plex.

Perhaps I should just build a compound for misanthropes in the mountains and run everything off solar cells and Mountain Rivers. Starting my own company strikes me as an endeavor that would drive me to a “dime bag a day” habit that I don’t need, nor can I afford. This rant has been filled with disjointed sentences, nonsensical concepts and is now going to end without any resolution of the problems I’ve been talking about. If you have a problem with that, buy a tie, because there isn’t shit you can do about it.

Crom