Against Big “L” Libertarianism

“Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Tommy Hobbes, Leviathan (1660)

Short Sliver

I don’t have any kids, but I do deal with young interns sometimes and yes:

Gen X (and older millennials) is the only gen that was reasonably competent with computers. Those above and below are and I guess now and always will be lost in the woods. It’s sad to see a 22-year-old intern arrive and not know how to turn on a laptop, type, or open Excel or do anything at all useful (that’s stuff that Gen X was taught in high school). What in the hell, man.

Fur Real

The first two times I read this WSJ headline, I read it as “Summons the Furries” and I was like, what the ever-livin’ hell is going down in Iowa:

I am glad the furries have not gone over to Trump.

Try Fail

Yes, this is for sure the most difficult part of management in a tech role.

You actually have to let your people try, and fail, and then try to train them.

The things I KNOW I could have done by end of day end up taking two weeks, and are still not right.

It’s so damn hard to watch people flail and fail and just…let them. Because it’s the only way they will learn. I’ve lately sat back and watched my team work on projects that if I stepped in and just done them, I would’ve been done in a few hours. But they took weeks. And my team is good! But they are pretty green (as most are compared to me in the industry), so they need that time to get pointed the right direction.

I’m lucky that I have management support and it is recognized that I simply cannot be the only one who knows how to do anything. But man it’s rough just sitting on the sidelines and doing management stuff only.

L’amour, la fantasia

I’ve read or seen too many people this week who believe the company they work for loves or cares about them and then are shocked when they are laid off or abused. Thought this insanity was confined to Boomers but I was wrong.

Dang, no company gives a single fuck about you at at all and will throw you in the dumpster the moment you start to malfunction or it benefits them. You’re a meat robot to any corporation. Yes — I must stress — any corporation. It’s fine to get along with your co-workers and it’s also fine to like your job. But when thinking about working, remember that Jay-Z said it best: “We can talk, but money talks so talk mo’ bucks.”

That and quality of life is what you should be optimizing for. Not love. No company will ever, ever love you. That’s absurd yet many people believe it. Well, for a little while. Then the illusion inevitably gets broken.

Big Nav

Any vehicle over 4,500 pounds or over a foot longer than a standard sedan should have not only a different class of license required, but should be taxed much more heavily — we’re talking 500% more than a normal vehicle or even more.

There is just no reason for some poser who doesn’t even know how to hitch up a trailer to have a truck that weighs 6,500 pounds and is a rolling death machine. I don’t give a fuck how it makes him (or her) feel. As the conservatives often say (and they are the ones who mostly drive those death trucks): Fuck your feelings.

We need to bring small trucks back. Though I still eagerly await those clowns in their F-250s getting chewed up by A-10s during their bullshit, doomed Civil War 2. That’ll be fun (for me, not them).

Medea

Some goofus was complaining on Reddit that King’s Pet Sematary was predictable in its denouement. Buddy, it’s a Greek tragedy in modern form. It’s supposed to be predictable. That’s how tragedies freakin’ work. The same person moaned a lot that the protagonist was arrogant. Well, yes. Because, see above…Greek tragedy, remember? Hubris is always involved.

Just because he’s likably arrogant/hubristic doesn’t mean fate ain’t gonna bring the hammer down. Because it did. The ending was assured once the protag decided to treat with the gods, and to act as one. That’s the whole goddamn point. Fuck.

Unfree Range

I think we should lock everyone in tiny cells for “security” and “for their own good.” Most people would probably be all for it if you propagandized it hard enough for a few years in advance. That’s just what the evidence has shown lately.

Why are y’all like this?