I bet a lot of people already know Technology Connections, but I like to bring up the first video of his that I ever watched at a time like this - that's right, the one about heat pumps!
He goes on this rant towards the end about Midwestern Values and I had been living in Indiana for about 5 years at this point, and nobody ever explained it to me so concisely and bitingly accurate what that perspective was. The short version in a picture of the story is the old man going up two flights on a rickety old ladder to check the roof, because he's been using that ladder for 30 years and it's "perfectly fine." You should get a new ladder, or you'll probably kill yourself!
The ladder is not perfectly fine, and each year he goes on using it the risk gets bigger. But we don't strive for perfection because we're used to "making do" with "good enough" tools. I could never make these my core values. As a professional, I need the freedom to bring my own tools, and as a full-time employee I'm going to need the right tools provided on the job site (because it's not in my contract to provide my own tools!)
As an app dev for non-profit corp whose primary business is not app development, I couldn't hack it here. I still live here, but I work for a foreign company now, on the open source project that I wish we could have adopted to make my life as an app dev a bit easier, or at least a bit more livable.
Your perspective on this classic document (that gets reposted at least once every year) reminds me of this struggle of my own.
He goes on this rant towards the end about Midwestern Values and I had been living in Indiana for about 5 years at this point, and nobody ever explained it to me so concisely and bitingly accurate what that perspective was. The short version in a picture of the story is the old man going up two flights on a rickety old ladder to check the roof, because he's been using that ladder for 30 years and it's "perfectly fine." You should get a new ladder, or you'll probably kill yourself!
The ladder is not perfectly fine, and each year he goes on using it the risk gets bigger. But we don't strive for perfection because we're used to "making do" with "good enough" tools. I could never make these my core values. As a professional, I need the freedom to bring my own tools, and as a full-time employee I'm going to need the right tools provided on the job site (because it's not in my contract to provide my own tools!)
As an app dev for non-profit corp whose primary business is not app development, I couldn't hack it here. I still live here, but I work for a foreign company now, on the open source project that I wish we could have adopted to make my life as an app dev a bit easier, or at least a bit more livable.
Your perspective on this classic document (that gets reposted at least once every year) reminds me of this struggle of my own.