I guess the biggest question here is - does OP even want to be a programmer? Maybe they'd rather do something else in life.. but e.g. for me, it's been my goal of the past two years (which I'm finally s/realizing/achieving/)
Finally fired after 6 years
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Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#22> doing Quality Assurance work So I am guessing if he was actually a developer to begin with his job would have been a bit harder to automate.
Speaking as a QA Engineer myself, QA is as rigorous and important to the software lifecycle as development. The continual disrespect for QA engineers is somewhat frustrating.
The point I was making is you don't become a tennis player by kicking a football.
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#23I find it hard to be sympathetic. Why is he sad? 6 years of playing video games on someone else's dollar is fantastic. Be glad it lasted more than 3 months. People who slog away for 50-60 hours a week on drudge work still find time for self-improvement. If you want to get kudos for automating your job away, tell your boss and their boss. That's how you get promoted.
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#24They fired the only guy who automated all his tasks, and did it so well nobody noticed for 6 years. They are idiots. They should have assigned him to automate the hell out of everybody else's tasks and gain tons of additional work-hours for free. This reminds me of that guy several years back who outsourced all his tasks to China and was employee of the month again and again. They also found out via IT dept, checking…
I've heard that factories will rotate lazy people around the factory floor because the method that requires the least amount of effort to achieve the needed result. Then the company can teach the lazy person's method to their less lazy/less creative employees. Perhaps the story is apocryphal, but I think there is a grain of truth in the story. Managed properly, laziness can benefit the company. The problem you run in…
I heard there are four types of people who work for you. In order (from most preferred to least preferred) are:
1) The smart and lazy---they'll find the easiest way to do the job (or automate it).
2) The dumb and hardworking---you an tell them what to do and they'll do it exactly how you tell them to.
3) The dumb and lazy---they won't help, but they won't necessarily hurt either (just the bottom line).
4) The smart and the hardworking---terrible combination.
I actually have experience with the fourth type of person. Twenty years ago I was doing some consulting work for a bank and had to convert a printed training manual into HTML (mid 90s). The person helping me was very smart and hardworking. I'm smart, but a bit lazy. I had to argue with the person not to dive into one process (linking each word in the text to an entry on the glossary page) because it would take hours to do by hand (around 100 files, perhaps 100 vocabulary words). We actually argued longer than I took for me to code up the solution (using lex---we were working on a Unix system).
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard that factories will rotate lazy people around the factory floor because the method that requires the least amount of effort to achieve the needed result. Then the company can teach the lazy person's method to their less lazy/less creative employees. Perhaps the story is apocryphal, but I think there is a grain of truth in the story. Managed properly, laziness can benefit the company. The problem you run in…
I heard there are four types of people who work for you. In order (from most preferred to least preferred) are: 1) The smart and lazy---they'll find the easiest way to do the job (or automate it). 2) The dumb and hardworking---you an tell them what to do and they'll do it exactly how you tell them to. 3) The dumb and lazy---they won't help, but they won't necessarily hurt either (just the bottom line). 4) The smart a…
This is attributed to Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, a German general in WW1 and WW2.
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#26Why the hell didn't he freelance or try to start a small business on the side. He could have made double or triple the money!
Also, I wonder how IT eventually found out.
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#27Why the hell didn't he freelance or try to start a small business on the side. He could have made double or triple the money! Also, I wonder how IT eventually found out.
You may have missed the part about him being lazy.
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#28if he did nothing but play league of legends for 6 years how good is he at it? https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-ways-to-earn-money-p...
Does he play, or does he just write bots to play for him?
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#29I'm not sure if I should ask this - but any guesses on which company OP was working for?
"I got a job at a company in the Bay Area, CA that was completely unknown 7 years ago but is now incredibly well known. It is actually quite hard to get a job here now, from what I hear."
I'm not from the Bay Area, so I can't think of a company (other than Facebook) that fits that profile.
Re: Finally fired after 6 years
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I heard there are four types of people who work for you. In order (from most preferred to least preferred) are: 1) The smart and lazy---they'll find the easiest way to do the job (or automate it). 2) The dumb and hardworking---you an tell them what to do and they'll do it exactly how you tell them to. 3) The dumb and lazy---they won't help, but they won't necessarily hurt either (just the bottom line). 4) The smart a…
This is attributed to Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, a German general in WW1 and WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein-Equord
Heh. Funny that it's a different order, but the smart and lazy are still at the top.