Hoarders Make Me Sick

[timeshifter]

I do believe luck plays a large part in how successful you become. There's a book called Outliers that goes into this. It's a very good read.

I read that book a while back. What stands out to me as the most relevant lesson from the book is that anyone who performs at a high level in their chosen field does so because they've put in 10,000 hours of practice and experience honing their craft.

 

[britechguy]

I read that book a while back. What stands out to me as the most relevant lesson from the book is that anyone who performs at a high level in their chosen field does so because they've put in 10,000 hours of practice and experience honing their craft.

Absolutely no snark intended: This is surprising in what way?

It goes without saying that those who perform at the very top of their chosen fields have had to hone their crafts, some of which take longer than others, but none of which are "quick and easy."

I don't expect rank beginners (even incredibly talented ones) to have anywhere near the skill set of a seasoned pro (and, even just good to very good ones).

One of the things most lacking in American management is an accurate understanding of this. The tendency (and in IT in particular, but certainly not exclusively) of looking for the cheapest a** to fill the seat, rather than the one who can get the most jobs done quickly and effectively, runs rampant, and has for a long time. The idea that that bright, shiny college grad is every bit as good as someone who has decades of experience in the field is laughable. Seasoning is really important. So is institutional memory. Dumping employees who've "been there, done that, got the T-shirt," in organizations, often multiple times, tosses away tons of information about what did, and did not, work and why something should, or should not, be tried. What might work perfectly swimmingly in setting X may not in setting Y because of factors that the "new guy/gal" has absolutely no awareness of.

You bet that honing your craft over the long term is a huge contributor to being able to perform at a high level with ease, and to be able to see a lot of "the more things change, the more they stay the same" and deal with what's important this time around.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Hah it's really funny in our industry specifically, because we do something, and it either works or it doesn't. If it doesn't bad enough, we're fired.

But those catastrophic moments, after the best we could bring blew up in our faces... are the precise moments when our skills go through a quantum leap in development. And our reward for this skill growth? Is termination... meaning the benefits we attain for those skills never get used for the company that was injured in their acquisition.

Which is only compounded by the fact that it's easier to get a pay raise by getting a new job, than it is to ask for a raise in this market. Usually employers won't bother to fork over the green until you have a solid offer for more from someone else. Then they grasp, often too late, to maintain the talent they have.

I see this everywhere, it's systemic... and these same employers whine that employees have no loyalty... Loyalty is earned, which in the case of an employment contract translates directly into BOUGHT. If an employer doesn't pay for it, they won't get it. If you consider employees disposable, you get disposable employees. And that churn is horribly expensive, and utterly destructive.

 

[pcpete]

I do believe luck plays a large part in how successful you become. There's a book called Outliers that goes into this. It's a very good read.

Malcom Gladwell, he is a great author. I remember one part of the book mentioned Bill gates as an example, as he got access to a mainframe at a pivotal time in his life which gave him a huge advantage to everyone else.

People with a good mindset and belief they can succeed find more opportunities and create luck. People with a bad mindset often don't see a good thing when it is in front of them

 

[phaZed]

People with a good mindset and belief they can succeed find more opportunities and create luck. People with a bad mindset often don't see a good thing when it is in front of them

No doubt about that... on the other side of the Bill Gates story though... mainframes were like fairy dust for 99.9% of people - no access to that kind of stuff at all.... therefor 99.99% of people didn't get that opportunity. It really swings both ways.

 

[timeshifter]

Absolutely no snark intended: This is surprising in what way?

I didn’t say surprising. By stands out I meant that I took that as the main thesis of the book.

 

[britechguy]

. . . I see this everywhere, it's systemic... and these same employers whine that employees have no loyalty... Loyalty is earned, which in the case of an employment contract translates directly into BOUGHT. If an employer doesn't pay for it, they won't get it. If you consider employees disposable, you get disposable employees. And that churn is horribly expensive, and utterly destructive.

Don't get me started on this. My only argument with you is that "translates directly into BOUGHT," if by bought you mean strictly in terms of salary and/or benefits.

There was a time, and when I started my career in the mid-1980s I was of the generation that experienced the tail end of this, where employers were loyal to their employees. This meant that when things like economic downturns occurred, contracts fell through [I started with a defense contractor - hated the industry, though], or similar you were not RIFfed (Reduction In Force) mere moments after the event. You would be kept on payroll, often for months, because there was a realization of two things:

1. This, too, shall pass. The next contract will come. The slump due to a competitor getting a jump on {product X} is not likely permanent. Etc.

2. Having people who not only know what they're doing, but who also know "the company way" of doing things (regardless of the company), and who have what I've previously called institutional memory which allows them to ramp up much more quickly and avoid mistakes was considered a major business asset.

I remember quitting my job at AT&T in the late 1990s mostly because even those of us who had over a decade of experience with the company began to be treated as interchangeable parts. I remember having a heated argument with one of the supervisors on my project, and adamantly refusing to give estimates in "man hours" because there is no such thing as a generic "man hour." You have to know the staff you'll have working a project in order to have any hope of putting together anything vaguely close to an actual timeline that can be met.

I never regretted walking away from the programmer-analyst and database administrator worlds.

I learned, over time and too late, that no amount of money is worth becoming so soul sick about a job that you question, every morning, whether you have the strength to go in to the office today. I've quit several jobs secondary to that becoming the case, and have never regretted having done so.

 

[britechguy]

People with a good mindset and belief they can succeed find more opportunities and create luck. People with a bad mindset often don't see a good thing when it is in front of them

I've got to disagree with the "create luck" part. No one can create luck. But finding more opportunities often seems like luck, until you think about it more. For it to be luck, you cannot have had a hand in directly bringing it to pass.

In all other aspects, I agree entirely.