Thursday, February 11, 2010
The Morality Issues of a Clusterfuck
First of call, I'm using "clusterfuck" to denote something gone massively wrong at work; no perversion here.
I'm working on a project now and it's for this custom piece of software that was built for us by a small software company. It's intended to be used by the sales force out in the field as a way to give presentations. The main problem with this software is that, like most pieces of software, it's loathed by the sales force. As a whole, sales people have their set way of doing things; it's one of the benefits of not having to work in an office, of being your own boss (to a certain extent).
This is a technical problem because the software is designed to pull down semi-regular updates, but if people don't use the software, it doesn't update (I'm paraphrasing). So now that they're pushing down a big new update, suddenly all these people who haven't used it for months are coming out of the woodwork saying that the software won't update because it's too old...
OK, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm getting too bogged down in the detail. The point is that the software isn't that good, and it's making my life difficult. The people who built it are used to working for smaller companies, and their stuff can't take the rigors of being run over a large system by apathetic users.
I just had a call with one of the developers and he made me feel stupid because he pointed out how things weren't all that bad, that these issues we're seeing are impacting just about 30% of the salesforce. But from my perspective, if we're having to uninstall and reinstall the software because it won't update, that's a big fucking problem regardless of whether or not that update problem is caused by someone not using the software.
It makes me angry because I didn't hold my ground and just say, "It's a problem. It won't update." My problem is that I sympathize with these guys because yeah, I know that people don't use the software so that makes it hard to gauge how things will be functioning technically down the line.
OK, this is it - my problem is that I can understand both sides of the equation but that I'm getting fucked over and falling behind in my other work because I've got 100 people who need to have the software uninstalled and reinstalled and that is a logic unto itself. I have to stop feeling so much sympathy and just think, "It's their fault. They built the software and it doesn't work. Period." It's the wrong thing to do, but it's the only way to approach the problem without being overwhelmed by stress. I have so much other work to do, and so many other different pieces of software to support that I just can't handle it. I'm just stretched to the breaking point and the last thing I need is someone making me feel bad about myself because the software they built doesn't work the way it's supposed to, regardless of whose at fault.
I'm working on a project now and it's for this custom piece of software that was built for us by a small software company. It's intended to be used by the sales force out in the field as a way to give presentations. The main problem with this software is that, like most pieces of software, it's loathed by the sales force. As a whole, sales people have their set way of doing things; it's one of the benefits of not having to work in an office, of being your own boss (to a certain extent).
This is a technical problem because the software is designed to pull down semi-regular updates, but if people don't use the software, it doesn't update (I'm paraphrasing). So now that they're pushing down a big new update, suddenly all these people who haven't used it for months are coming out of the woodwork saying that the software won't update because it's too old...
OK, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm getting too bogged down in the detail. The point is that the software isn't that good, and it's making my life difficult. The people who built it are used to working for smaller companies, and their stuff can't take the rigors of being run over a large system by apathetic users.
I just had a call with one of the developers and he made me feel stupid because he pointed out how things weren't all that bad, that these issues we're seeing are impacting just about 30% of the salesforce. But from my perspective, if we're having to uninstall and reinstall the software because it won't update, that's a big fucking problem regardless of whether or not that update problem is caused by someone not using the software.
It makes me angry because I didn't hold my ground and just say, "It's a problem. It won't update." My problem is that I sympathize with these guys because yeah, I know that people don't use the software so that makes it hard to gauge how things will be functioning technically down the line.
OK, this is it - my problem is that I can understand both sides of the equation but that I'm getting fucked over and falling behind in my other work because I've got 100 people who need to have the software uninstalled and reinstalled and that is a logic unto itself. I have to stop feeling so much sympathy and just think, "It's their fault. They built the software and it doesn't work. Period." It's the wrong thing to do, but it's the only way to approach the problem without being overwhelmed by stress. I have so much other work to do, and so many other different pieces of software to support that I just can't handle it. I'm just stretched to the breaking point and the last thing I need is someone making me feel bad about myself because the software they built doesn't work the way it's supposed to, regardless of whose at fault.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
A Question of Taste
I've noticed of late that I have a very difficult time finishing movies. It upsets me because, as someone who studied film in college, the act of watching good movies is part of my identity. By "good" I'm not talking about art films, though those are nice, too; I'm talking good basic movies that are generally agreed to be not shitty, movies that aren't extended beer commercials with special effects or extended jerk-off sessions by any given auteur.
I have a Netflix account and make a point of constantly adding more movies to it as I read or hear about the movies in my daily life. Let's work with some examples: "World's Greatest Dad" and "Chalk" are two movies I got recently through Netflix. Both are exactly the kind of movies that have appealed to me in the past (quirky and/or dark, good writing, good acting, etc) and I love the theory of them. But I can't finish them for one reason or another. In the case of "World's Greatest Dad," I had that in my apartment before finally sending it back after several failed attempts to make it all the way through.
Now you might say, "But Jack, maybe you just don't like the movies. Maybe they don't do it for you. What's the big deal in sending them back?" To which I say, "But WHY don't I like them?" I feel a need to make myself watch movies to understand why I don't like them. Is it because both of these movies revolve around socially maladjusted people who remind me of myself for one reason or another and so therefore I want to avoid watching them in difficult situations? That's what I think, and that's why I try to force myself to watch them because I feel that I have to identify all instances of avoidance in my life and try to force myself to confront them. So, in this case, it means making myself watch movies that I don't want to watch.
And therefore I find myself in ridiculous situations where I have movies further down my Netflix queue that I know I want to watch, but I have to put them on hold because I feel like I have to force myself to watch movies that I don't want to watch because I'm concerned about my motives for not wanting to watch.
And so it's fucking ridiculous. Just writing this post makes me feel ridiculous about the whole damn thing.
Another point is that I remember being in my 20's and listening to people older than me talk about how they just didn't have the energy after work to watch challenging films and I remember thinking to myself, "I'll never be that way. What losers. If your job makes you so tired that all you want to watch are comfort movies, then you lose at life." And now I'm in that same position. It's not a big deal, it just bugs the shit out of me.
I have a Netflix account and make a point of constantly adding more movies to it as I read or hear about the movies in my daily life. Let's work with some examples: "World's Greatest Dad" and "Chalk" are two movies I got recently through Netflix. Both are exactly the kind of movies that have appealed to me in the past (quirky and/or dark, good writing, good acting, etc) and I love the theory of them. But I can't finish them for one reason or another. In the case of "World's Greatest Dad," I had that in my apartment before finally sending it back after several failed attempts to make it all the way through.
Now you might say, "But Jack, maybe you just don't like the movies. Maybe they don't do it for you. What's the big deal in sending them back?" To which I say, "But WHY don't I like them?" I feel a need to make myself watch movies to understand why I don't like them. Is it because both of these movies revolve around socially maladjusted people who remind me of myself for one reason or another and so therefore I want to avoid watching them in difficult situations? That's what I think, and that's why I try to force myself to watch them because I feel that I have to identify all instances of avoidance in my life and try to force myself to confront them. So, in this case, it means making myself watch movies that I don't want to watch.
And therefore I find myself in ridiculous situations where I have movies further down my Netflix queue that I know I want to watch, but I have to put them on hold because I feel like I have to force myself to watch movies that I don't want to watch because I'm concerned about my motives for not wanting to watch.
And so it's fucking ridiculous. Just writing this post makes me feel ridiculous about the whole damn thing.
Another point is that I remember being in my 20's and listening to people older than me talk about how they just didn't have the energy after work to watch challenging films and I remember thinking to myself, "I'll never be that way. What losers. If your job makes you so tired that all you want to watch are comfort movies, then you lose at life." And now I'm in that same position. It's not a big deal, it just bugs the shit out of me.
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