Steppin’

Chill Regular-ass Post

Something I always try to impress on junior team members is to not skip steps in troubleshooting. Even when you “know” it couldn’t be something, check it any-damn-way. Especially since if you’re troubleshooting correctly the first few things you try should be the simplest, most obvious and the quickest. To wit:

1) Is it plugged in?

2) Is it powered on/started?

3) Is there a DNS entry?

About half the time when my juniors can’t solve something, I come behind them and try the easy initial things it definitely “couldn’t” be and fix the issue.

Most people just do not have minds suited for troubleshooting I guess.

WWT

Chill Killin' It

Have you ever truly thought you were living the wrong life.

I felt that way when I was growing up in rural North Florida with everyone — including much of my own family — telling me how worthless, weak and terrible I was.

I thought, there must have been some mistake. And there was. I was born in the wrong place, among ignorant losers who hated anything intellectual and anyone with more than half a brain. Luckily, I had a big ego and am more stubborn than a herd of rhinoceroses.

So I escaped, made my own life, and prospered. But those were rough years. I’m frankly glad nearly all of those people are dead now.

Attent

Chill Annoying, Clowns

The primary unfairness in dating — and one thing incels are completely right about — is that mediocre women get 100x as much attention and interest as even above average men. To receive the attention that a totally average woman gets, you need to be a top 0.1% man.

And that’s actually a pretty huge and psychologically-damaging inequity. It doesn’t make how incels deal with it likely to work or morally correct, but they are not wrong at all with their diagnosis.

Enemies

Chill Evil

Huge self-own that made China and Russia stronger while weakening both Canada and the US. Fucking moronic.

Our enemies are now in control of the country. And I don’t mean conservatives. I mean (obviously) China and Russia.

Chill Links

The Mysterious Flow of Fluid in the Brain.

Unveiling the mysterious ‘red sprite’ lightning strikes over the Himalayas.

Has the Decline of Knowledge Work Begun? It absolutely has.

How Did Silicon Valley Break Bad?

The Housing Market Needs More Condos. Why Are So Few Being Built?

After 50 million miles, Waymos crash a lot less than human drivers.

Low- and middle-income Americans say they are sacrificing their happiness in the face of stubborn inflation and more tariffs ahead.

Canada races to secure its Arctic frontier.

The U.S. now suffers from these 5 dead giveaways of an emerging-market economy in trouble, former IMF official says — ‘It pains me to say it.’

Volution

Chill Annoying, Tech

Why is everything so convoluted these days?

In the tech world, everything has become difficult and convoluted because all is now becoming aimed at experienced developers instead of any users or sysadmins.

And it’s just become more complex in general. When I started you could do the job with a 110 IQ. Now you need 130 at least — more like 140+ to do it well. At some point we’ll reach an upper limit to being able to find humans to do the work as those with 140 IQ and above are only 0.48% of the population.

Will AI help with this? Maybe. But the base knowledge has to be generated by humans first. In tech and in many other areas, we’ve created a civilization too complex for most of the people who live and work in it to begin to understand.

RTO Joke

Chill Clowns, Evil

Corporate said anyone within 50 miles of an office needs to return to office by May.

I told you all years ago WFH would not last. That’s because MBAs love control more than productivity or anything else; it is why they became MBAs in the first place. They’d demand RTO if it tanked productivity and profits by 90% (which in some companies it probably will, as you lose your best people immediately).

Without butts in seats and a kingdom of visible and compliant slaves to lord over, why even have a company?

Work Tel

Chill Annoying, Clowns

After the State Of Minnesota told State employees for years that Telework full time would remain permanent, Tim Walz has ordered all State workers within 75 miles of an office to return by June 1st for 50% of all work days. Why? To bring money to St Paul.

RTO of course has absolutely nothing to do with productivity. In fact, it almost certainly decreases it as who can get any work done with all the noise and clamor in an average office?

But it is being done to prop up other business interests, such as commerical real estate and downtown business owners who want to force people into an office so their businesses can make money peddling overpriced, shitty sandwiches and drinks.

I will never work in an office again. I will start my own business before that happens. I am, depending on the task, 2-100x more productive working from home.