Re: [9fans] More 'Sam I am'

[Wes Kussmaul <wes@village.com>]

Dave Lukes wrote:
> Aharon Robbins wrote:

>  >     When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.
> 
> Bogus analogy.  Complete the following "saw":
>    When life hands you a bucket of stale pus, make ... ?

...a petri dish culture that you can study.

It's easy to dismiss Aharon's observation, as it comes from the 
Montaigne view of life:

"The thing of it is, we must live with the living."

The IT infrastructure has been designed and deployed by people with a 
median IQ of 121.4 (trust me, I have all the data) because of course 
it's developed by people smart enough to have a vague idea of what's 
needed. Not smart enough to do it well, not smart enough to keep it 
simple -- and not smart enough to understand that doing a job well 
delivers more satisfaction than does fudding your way into a few extra 
dollars or a bigger title.

Not making any claims about being smart myself, I can make the following 
observation: the people on this list are much smarter than those who are 
responsible for today's pervasive common IT infrastructure.

Smart people will usually be at the alienated right extreme of the bell 
curve, praised for being smart but not actually listened to.

But once in a while something happens that shows that it doesn't have to 
be that way. Read _Action This Day_ about how WWII was really won by the 
very smart folks at what is now Britain's GCHQ, including many from 
allied countries. The thing is, somewhere there has to be a Churchill 
directing people to be led by people who are smarter than themselves.

-- 
Wes Kussmaul
CIO
The Village Group
738 Main Street
Waltham, MA 02451

781-647-7178


My uncle likes to say that the world’s biggest troubles started when the 
serpent said, “Try this fruit, and by the way if a bunch of people 
collectively calling themselves Arthur Andersen signs something it’s the 
same as if a person named Arthur Andersen signed it.” I don’t get the 
serpent and fruit part. Must be some Swiss mythology thing. He can be a 
bit obscure.

                          P.K. Iggy
                          _How I Like Fixed The Internet_
                            (Tales from the Great Infodepression of 2009
                            and the prosperity that followed)