From: orville%weyrich@tnet.com (Orville R. Weyrich)
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Reply-To: tnet.com!weyrich!orville
Organization: Weyrich Computer Consulting
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 08:59:28 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.155136.12187@Princeton.EDU> egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges) writes:
>
>In article <1992Aug29.040217.2456@weyrich.UUCP> tnet.com!weyrich!orville writes:
>>1) Some people enjoy their work. [I do, as long as it is in a smoke-free
>>environment].
>
>Orville, I used to "enjoy" cranking out assembler code and smoking
>Camels, and when forced to work in a smokeless environment my enjoyment
>was destroyed and my productivity went to zilch.  I chose to start a
>heavy workout program that has diminished my smoking down to one or two
>cigarettes a week at parties and to become less of a compulsive coder;
>but on your account of freedom the coworkers who complained back in '79
>about my smoke were interfering with my sacred liberty.  To say that a
>smoker's rights are inferior to those of the nonsmoker is, ON YOUR
>ACCOUNT, false, for it is to make a moral judgement on the smoker
>(involving mean old government in the case of smoke-free workplace
>laws.)

Most non-smokers subscribe to the theory that a person's right to swing
their arms about in the air ends at someone else's nose. Smoke is no
less of an assult than a fist up someone's snout.

>>6) If I am *GOOD* I can write my own ticket to get whatever vacation
>>I wish. If I am not that good yet, then the best thing that I can do is to
>>increase the diversity and frequency of my work experience 
>>("If you want to increase your success, then increase the rate at which
>>you experience your mistakes"). In other words, get another job.
>
>Ah yes, the bourgeois legend.  Fact is that GOOD engineers end up on the
>trashpile more often than not if they don't grow into managers.  If they
>are so dull and boring as to prefer creating things to lying and
>manipulating people, then words like "doesn't see the Big Picture" start
>appearing on their performance reviews.  And, of course, if your skills
>in unix are not associated with a penis, 90% of potential employers
>won't believe that you're "good."

Is that supposed to be some sort of pun? You forgot the smiley. I see no
reason to believe that Unix is any more or less sex-stereotyped than any
other technical activity. As such, concerns about my sexuality are
orthogonal to the present thread. Government mandated vacation is not
likely to affect any bias toward male/female programmers that may or
may not exist.

>>My ambition in life is to make enough money to be able to afford a 
>>mountain cottage and to get enough experience to be in sufficient demand that
>>I can telecommute from that cottage. 
>
>I wish you the best, I sincerely do.  However, one lesson I have learned
>from Outward Bound is that if Kant's test of the categorical imperative
>is applied to the countless men of my generation who want to work so
>that eventually they can telecommute from the mountains or the shores of
>some wild sea, their goals are seen to be destructive.  You see, the
>pristine wilderness you'd like to telecommute from is like Heisenberg's
>elementary particle or the old philosopher's wheeze about the unobserved
>tree falling in the wilderness; your telecommuting presence in the
>mountains changes and degrades the mountains.  If you're on the power
>grid (and you may need to be in order to power that fancy computer), then
>the power company is going to want you to have plenty of neighbors,
>polluting your water and disturbing your serenity, to justify its
>investment in adding your cabin to the grid.  If you're NOT on the grid,
>where are you going to dispose of your toxic byproducts from the large
>storage batteries that power your stuff?  
>

I guess Kant was a mathematician rather than an engineer. [Reference to
a bawdy joke about the differing response of mathematicians and 
engineers to a modification of Zeno's paradox deleted ... but the punch
line is that the engineer responds "... but I can get close ENOUGH".]



orville

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Orville R. Weyrich, Jr.                          Weyrich Computer Consulting
Certified Data Processor                       POB 5782, Scottsdale, AZ 85261
Certified Systems Professional                      Voice: (602) 391-0821
Certified Computer Programmer                Internet: orville%weyrich@tnet.com
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