Die Pienk Zuit

Ateïste reg oor die wêreld jubel en juig, want Moeder Teresa was ‘n ateïs.  Of dit is die afleiding wat baie maak as hulle lees van haar twyfel en geloofskrisisse.  Vir my is dit eerder ‘n bemoediging; dis oraait om te twyfel, om te dink, te wonder.  Dis deel van ‘n pad wat mens stap wat jou geloof versterk, nie ontken nie.

Die eerste 2 CDs wat ek gekoop het was in 1988:

1. Midnight Oil – Beds are Burning

2. La Bamba Soundtrack

Die gunsteling CD in my versameling is waarskynlik nog steeds Sting se Ten Summoner’s Tales.

Die blyste wat ek nog was na ‘n CD gesteel is, was toe iemand Lam se No Mercy single Where do you go verduister het.

Soos Carien en Hugo kan ek myself soms net nie keer om met mense aan die stry te raak oor wat hulle glo nie. Ek raak gefrustreerd dat mense kan glo dinosaurusse het ‘n paar duisend jaar terug nog saam met mense geleef, en dat die aarde net ‘n paar duisend jaar oud is. Ek moet myself inhou as mense goed sê soos “maar daar staan tog swart op wit in die Bybel dat dit sonde is om gay te wees, waaroor is die debat dan?” Ek begin egter al hoe meer agterkom dat ek maar net so min besig is om christen te wees as die mense met wie ek dan stry. Dat dit rerig nie daaroor gaan nie. Real Live Preacher stel dit in woorde soos ek nie kan nie, so sy woorde moet maar vir my praat.

The SABC are actually giving us value for our TV license money by showing more than half of the RWC games live (on SABC 2). Their communication skills are still lacking in some respects however, and I couldn’t find the schedule of what games they are broadcasting anywhere on any of their websites (the SABC sport website is the worst of all, and seems to be mostly cricket related as a leftover from the cricket world cup).  A few emails later I now have the schedule, and here it is:

Dankie aan Minter vir hierdie een:

One day a group of engineers got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. They picked one engineer to go and tell Him that they were done with Him. The engineer walked up to God and said, “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you. We’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don’t you just go on and get lost.”

God listened patiently to the man and after the engineer was done talking, God said, “Very well! How about this? Let’s have a man-making contest.”

The man replied, “Okay, great!”

But God added, “Now we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam.”

The engineer said, “Sure, no problem.” He bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.

God just looked at him and said, “No, no, no. Go get your own dirt!”

How to demoralize an engineer.  All references to the male imply the female as well.

Make him a coder / technician
The reason someone becomes an engineer is to feel that rush of solving a problem.  The implementation of the solution is the less interesting part.  A secondary rush comes from observing that the final product works, after the boring implementation work.  A surefire way to demoralize an engineer is therefore to give him a detailed solution to a problem and tell him to implement it.  Don’t let him contribute to finding the solution.  First prize is to not even give him details of the problem (that way he can’t even attempt to suggest a better solution than the one you told him to implement).

Ignore his input
If you can completely ignore any suggestions or input the engineer has, the frustration will ultimately lead to the engineer not giving any input any more, and just doing what he is told.  The best way to do this is to initially create the illusion that you are serious about using the input, but actually discarding and ignoring the input as soon as it is given.

Never finish the project
As mentioned above, the rush of seeing the end product of all the hard work function as it should can sometimes make up for the lack of creativity needed for the project.  Take this away and you are sure to demoralize the engineer for the next project.  The best way to achieve this is to complete the project up to the point where it is ready for operation, but to then delay the final launch indefinitely.

Make him use tools that frustrate him
Making progress is part of the day to day motivation of working on a project.  If you can slow down or stop that progress by forcing the use of tools that don’t work as needed, you can make a big hit in that motivation.  Software that randomly crashes, libraries that are unnecessarily complex and have little or no documentation, or procedures and systems that seem to add no value to the end product are excellent examples.

Make him do admin
Documentation is already seen as a necessary evil in the job of an engineer.  Why pay someone a human resources related salary if you can pay someone an engineer’s salary to do the same work, and have the added benefit of sapping morale?  This has the additional benefit of wasting the company’s money.

Apply Mushroom Management
Keep him in the dark and feed him bullshit.  Don’t give him updates on the progress of the project.  Don’t give him feedback on the company’s financial situation.  Make communication and co-operation between teams difficult or impossible.   Answer questions about these topics with answers like “We don’t want to trouble you with things that don’t really concern you, or that you wouldn’t understand”.

Office politics
Penalize him for not participating in office politics.  Give raises and promotions based on how much a person sucks up to the right people, not technical contribution.

Give him nothing to do
Stop him from doing any work wihtout authorization, and then don’t give him authorization to do anything.  Use excuses like : “We realize that it’s critical work, but that project currently doesn’t have the cash flow available to do that work.”

Soms as ek in my motor ry tussen 18:00 en 19:00, op pad terug van die werk, of op pad na die gimnasium, soek ek so deur die stasies op die radio op soek na iets om te luister.  Meestal is Fresh op 5 FM is net nie snaaks nie, en KFM daai tyd van die dag net een te veel, so dan eindig ek maar op Radio 2000 se Moneyweb Power Hour.  Een of ander mark analiseerder gee dan redes hoekom die sekere aandele daardie dag op of af gegaan het.  Soms klink dit vir my of die rede nie regtig kan verband hou met die maatskappy waarvan hy praat nie, en soms sê die persoon sommer reguit hy kan nie aan ‘n werklike rede dink hoekom dit gebeur het nie.  Dan wonder ek weer hoekom ek nie die aandelemark verstaan nie, en hoekom dit vir my maar lyk soos ‘n klomp mense wat dobbel op die man op die straat se sentiment en onsekerhede.  My antwoord is gewoonlik dat ek dit maar net nie reg verstaan nie.

Tot vandag.  Na ek Ben Stein se verduideliking gelees het maak dit net vir my baie meer sin, en sien ek dat ek redelik naby aan reg is as ek dink die mark is ‘n casino in die korttermyn.  Dis hoekom die mense wat weet mens aanraai om aandele as ‘n langtermyn belegging te sien.  Koop ‘n paar blue chip aandele, en kyk eers weer oor 10 jaar na die finansiële bladsye in die koerant, wanneer jy wil verkoop.

Mense is naïef, of dom, of lui om te dink. Daarom glo mense goed soos:

- Bill Gates gaan vir jou geld gee as jy ‘n email aanstuur

- die nag van die lang messe

- dat Sylvia Browne die waarheid praat

- die Aarde is plat

- die Apollo maan landings het in ‘n ateljee plaasgevind

Linda Degh sê dit mooi: “”The mass media catapult these half-truths into a kind of twilight zone where people can make their guesses sound as truths. Mass media have a terrible impact on people who lack guidance.”

Die Golf Digest het my effe verbaas deur toe wel my brief oor magnetiese bandjies te plaas.  Ek was egter nie verbaas dat die redakteur dit verdedig het met ‘n swak antwoord nie.  “Magnotherapy has been around long enough for people to make up their own minds about it”.  Presies my punt, It’s all in the mind!