I admit it, I have a problem with authority.
Look, I'm happy as hell to follow when things are working. To offer my best efforts and considerations for bettering what is already a good situation. But when you start to realize you're smarter than your leaders (talking jobs, not government, which can be worse and has so much to do with knowing how to play a dysfunctional game, making others smarter than politicians look dumber), it quickly gets hard to keep things under control. Not speaking out, not losing faith can become impossible.
You should and I do speak when I can. But so often you get cut off at the knees, because of the "bigger picture", or money, or just, "reasons". Typically valid much of the time, it is also typically not valid much of the time. Mostly just excuses for not bucking the system by the higher ups.
It's just how it is much of the time.
I learned two things early on in a sizable corporation. Don't talk to much in meetings. You open yourself up to look stupid. A prime motivator for Republicans in Congress. Except they can't take that advice. They speak up anyway and come up with the dumbest crap believable far too often. Well, not so believable actually.
Whenever asked a question, especially in a meeting in front of others, when you do not have the answer to respond with, just say, "I can't speak to that just now but I'll get back to you after the meeting." Then do that. Never let what you promise to not happen. And always come back with a well researched and viable answer. It will give you a reputation and one you definitely want.
I learned right off, in the beginning to just say yes. no matter what, whenever someone tries to give you work. Take on all you can... produce. Then turn it in before expected and do a job better than anyone else.
I took that to another level as a technical writer. I would turn in before the deadline, do an excellent job on the documentation I wrote and frequently would turn in three versions, giving them a choice. The first version was the one they asked for. Then another I thought they really wanted, and finally one that pushed the boundaries and perhaps was the one I thought they most needed (and frequently they never wanted, until they read it).
Frequently, they did not choose the one they asked for and on occasion, would even choose the one that would have been considered too far "out there" when I was initially given the assignment. Things change and you have to be ready for that, prepared ahead of time.
That led to my acquiring a reputation. And a good one. The other thing I did and this was not intentional, but just how I worked. I would turn in typically three drafts but write more. They never saw the first one. As a professor at my university told me...
"We do not show anyone a first draft. That is like showing someone your shit. We just do not do that!"
My first draft then was not my first I would show them, but was meant to be sure that I was in the ballpark for what they wanted. Because managers were not always clear and did not always know what they really wanted. Even when they thought they did. They would typically be concerned in reading that "first" draft that I didn't know what they wanted. Again, typically they thought they were being clear, when they clearly (to me) weren't.
I would then turn in the second draft, usually days later depending on the schedule. I remember one manager who read it, looked at me and said he was very worried I wasn't getting it at all. I told him not to worry, it's just my process.
When I then later turned in my third and final draft, I got an amazed look nearly every time.
They would be stunned I had nailed it so spot on, especially in considering the previous two drafts. Then I would hand them the other two (third) drafts, usually quite a bit different from the initial one I had just handed over. Frequently they would choose the first, sometimes the second but not all that often the third.
This all led to my gaining an interesting reputation for doing way more work than needed, in far less time than they had expected, for merely a single finished product. And this was in keeping up with any and all of my other work.
First and foremost you have to produce and you have to produce quality. But if you can produce quality and volume, if you can also keep quiet enough to at least appear smarter than you are, never letting them gauge just exactly how "brilliant" you may (or may not) be, you will be far ahead of the game. A game that is generally stacked well against us all.
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Monday, September 11, 2017
Monday, September 28, 2015
Robots, AI's, Immigrants...could a Future with no jobs be a good thing?
I really don't see a nearby future with no jobs at all. Immigrants surely aren't our biggest concen. Those who complain that they are, are a far bigger concern. Because they are detached from reality.
What I do see is a not to distant future with fewer jobs, with jobs taken by robots and AI's and a few people. Times are changing and we can either get on the bus to the future, or we get run over by it. As things are now most of us are about to get run over by it because of the (allowed) greed of corporations, and an inability to change quickly by government and the electorate.
Foolishness in politics and a lack of proper priorities is major a part of our problem. Politicians trying to point everyone in one wrong direction for their own benefit is another problem.
I have said repeatedly before that we need to pay workers more. Why? Because they have been kept back from receiving the increases they have earned and deserved now for decades. And those in charge merely argue reasons why it is okay, rather than reasons why it is not.
Worker need to be working less days per week, less hours per day. Not more. That then would not only give us more workers in the workforce , but would prepare us for when robots do more and more take over our jobs.
We also need to start preparing now for a future of people living longer while there are fewer jobs available.
If we don't make that connection soon, not only will we have shirked our duty as a nation, to increase the quality of the lives of our citizens as we have been doing (or not doing) for years in pushing workers to work more days and longer hours for less money, but we will be unprepared when we find that we really do not need these workers either to to jobs having moved out of country, which isn't as bad as we make it if we had handled things in the ways I'm pointing out, or robotics having replaced our workers.
Having fewer jobs or some day, no jobs, is NOT really a bad thing, We have merely made it that seem that way due to a lack of vision, planning, and proactivity. At the very least we have allowed it to have been made that way.
If we had built our economy properly, if we had other things for people to do, if they had been oriented to consider that once freed from slaving at their jobs, they can move on to higher ideals, things such as the sciences, inventions, the Arts, of bettering humanity's existence both on this planet and off, then the quality of life in general for all would be increasing now and not following a path that is no where near that kind of a consideration.
Now, if you think none of this is possible then you are simply considering the wrong things, and looking at all this in old fashioned, anachronistic ways. You are taking the tact that it's not possible, rather than considering how it is possible. And we need to be considering how things like this ARE possible. If you like, we need to "think outside the box".
But I would argue, we are currently living an existence that is outside of that box already. We have merely be deluded for so long that we can no longer see it, beyond the status quo that has been sold to us as just, "how it is", when really we have all been "sold down the river" just so the rich could become richer, and powerful, more powerful. All at our expense.
I'm not even arguing a national or global conspiracy here. It's just how it is, has been, and those who can, have jumped on the bandwagon in order to further their own agendas, bettered their own lives. It has replaced the American Dream with the Dream of the Rich and Powerful.
And no one seems to have noticed! Though I suspect they are finally now beginning to.
Central to all of these things is not despondency among the masses so much as poor education. In cutting our benefits over the past decades, at letting our infrastructures go, to devolve, we have dumbed down our population and made it easier for some of the stupid beliefs that are going around and have been governing our nation. We need to change that.
We need to be thinking through a new paradigm shift in preparing for it to allow it to happen. We need to be living it and moving on into the future. We need to do it, ourselves. We need to vote for those who should be running things. Those who want to end big money in politics. Those who will oppose the ignorance and stupidity in politics and in the voting public.
As with others knowledgeable in the topic, I do not so much worry about the resiliency of people but in the inability of the lumbering giants of government, business and finance. We will have to kick them repeatedly in order to give them a consistent and hard myocardial thump to the near cadaver of those who have been handed over the charter to protect us. We need to push through to their central cores, to their hearts if you will. To restart it to once again beat for us and not just as they seem to do so well and so often, merely fend for themselves.
Robots, AI's, Immigrants? Could a Future with no jobs be a good thing?
What I do see is a not to distant future with fewer jobs, with jobs taken by robots and AI's and a few people. Times are changing and we can either get on the bus to the future, or we get run over by it. As things are now most of us are about to get run over by it because of the (allowed) greed of corporations, and an inability to change quickly by government and the electorate.
Foolishness in politics and a lack of proper priorities is major a part of our problem. Politicians trying to point everyone in one wrong direction for their own benefit is another problem.
I have said repeatedly before that we need to pay workers more. Why? Because they have been kept back from receiving the increases they have earned and deserved now for decades. And those in charge merely argue reasons why it is okay, rather than reasons why it is not.
Worker need to be working less days per week, less hours per day. Not more. That then would not only give us more workers in the workforce , but would prepare us for when robots do more and more take over our jobs.
We also need to start preparing now for a future of people living longer while there are fewer jobs available.
If we don't make that connection soon, not only will we have shirked our duty as a nation, to increase the quality of the lives of our citizens as we have been doing (or not doing) for years in pushing workers to work more days and longer hours for less money, but we will be unprepared when we find that we really do not need these workers either to to jobs having moved out of country, which isn't as bad as we make it if we had handled things in the ways I'm pointing out, or robotics having replaced our workers.
Having fewer jobs or some day, no jobs, is NOT really a bad thing, We have merely made it that seem that way due to a lack of vision, planning, and proactivity. At the very least we have allowed it to have been made that way.
If we had built our economy properly, if we had other things for people to do, if they had been oriented to consider that once freed from slaving at their jobs, they can move on to higher ideals, things such as the sciences, inventions, the Arts, of bettering humanity's existence both on this planet and off, then the quality of life in general for all would be increasing now and not following a path that is no where near that kind of a consideration.
Now, if you think none of this is possible then you are simply considering the wrong things, and looking at all this in old fashioned, anachronistic ways. You are taking the tact that it's not possible, rather than considering how it is possible. And we need to be considering how things like this ARE possible. If you like, we need to "think outside the box".
But I would argue, we are currently living an existence that is outside of that box already. We have merely be deluded for so long that we can no longer see it, beyond the status quo that has been sold to us as just, "how it is", when really we have all been "sold down the river" just so the rich could become richer, and powerful, more powerful. All at our expense.
I'm not even arguing a national or global conspiracy here. It's just how it is, has been, and those who can, have jumped on the bandwagon in order to further their own agendas, bettered their own lives. It has replaced the American Dream with the Dream of the Rich and Powerful.
And no one seems to have noticed! Though I suspect they are finally now beginning to.
Central to all of these things is not despondency among the masses so much as poor education. In cutting our benefits over the past decades, at letting our infrastructures go, to devolve, we have dumbed down our population and made it easier for some of the stupid beliefs that are going around and have been governing our nation. We need to change that.
We need to be thinking through a new paradigm shift in preparing for it to allow it to happen. We need to be living it and moving on into the future. We need to do it, ourselves. We need to vote for those who should be running things. Those who want to end big money in politics. Those who will oppose the ignorance and stupidity in politics and in the voting public.
As with others knowledgeable in the topic, I do not so much worry about the resiliency of people but in the inability of the lumbering giants of government, business and finance. We will have to kick them repeatedly in order to give them a consistent and hard myocardial thump to the near cadaver of those who have been handed over the charter to protect us. We need to push through to their central cores, to their hearts if you will. To restart it to once again beat for us and not just as they seem to do so well and so often, merely fend for themselves.
Robots, AI's, Immigrants? Could a Future with no jobs be a good thing?
Monday, April 8, 2013
Three Goal Levels in Life and Three Important Elements of Success
Life is not the easiest thing to get through. But we need to do more than simply haphazardly make it through.
We need to think ahead. To look around. To be aware of more than we think we need to be aware, of. Or if we can't think ahead, to set goals for ourselves to keep check on our progress through life. Like when you are out in the wilderness, you need to pick a landmark ahead in order to avoid going in circles, or simply getting lost.
George Carlin said that if you are an artist you have a responsibility to always be going somewhere. "An artist has an obligation to be, 'on route'. To be going somewhere. There's a journey involved here. And you don't know where it is and that's the fun."
I think that is something in life that's important for everyone, really.
I've found that the best way to do this (for me) is in three levels:
Adjust these as fits your own life. The point isn't to do what I say here, but to do what best increases the quality of your own life and therefore, the lives of those near you.
Choose a lifetime goal, but I find that those seem to change too easily with trends in the country, society, your work situation, partner in life, and so on. It's good to have an overall lifetime goal to shoot for, but realistically, things just change on you.
When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. Then more realistically in Junior High I was leaning toward Jet Pilot. By the time I got out of High School, I was looking at some kind of behind the scenes work in government and so, I joined the military.
But things changed during that period, to make a long story short. I learned things I hadn't known. That I couldn't have known until I got into the situation. Reality set in. And so in my case, I ended up leaving the Military and going to a University. I got a degree in a vast lifestyle change, in Psychology. From there I got married, we had a child and life changed again. I remarried, suddenly found myself with a new life partner and another child. I thought that finally I had found my path and it would be like that till the end.
But then things unforeseen changed on me again and that situation too ended. Whether or not I remained married, the kids would eventually grow up and leave and maybe start their own families, or certainly, their own lives. There is no stopping change. And therefore there is no setting goals that will never change in life.
We have to update, learn, alter things, to find tune them. Make good and informed decisions in life and make the best of what Life throws at you. And one of the ways to doing that, is to have goals. But not just a single goal. Don't abandon your goals, don't give up on them, but do adjust them as is necessary and most productive for you and your life as it evolves through time.
If your goal is to marry someone and have a family, but you find major elements in your life have changed, maybe you find that you really hate kids, or you come out of the closet, or you find you're a serial killer, or a politician; these are cases in which you shouldn't stick to your original goal(s) but you should update things so that you are on the best path for you and your loved ones, and hopefully, society at large.
Life is about living. But it is also about learning and thinking and choices. It never hurts to have a path to follow and to be able to handle whatever comes at you while you are upon that path.
I wish you all the best of luck on your own path. And luck is not always a random thing in life. We can cultivate it and it definitely plays a part in where we are headed and where we end up. Luck and random opportunities in life have a lot to do with who makes it and who does not.
But that is another topic altogether.
May you choose to steer yourself toward the best opportunities possible that can and will be available to you. Remember that when opportunity comes, you have to be ready to accept it. Accepting it means change and change can be scary and disruptive. Be ready for it and don't shy away when it is really the best choice for you. Too often people only see their opportunities in life much, much later, when it is far too late. Live your life to revel in your choices and not regret you indecisions.
Just remember to choose and adjust your goals in life. Position yourself to be "lucky". Grab opportunity as it presents itself to you.
In closing I'll just say, all the best to you my friends. May Luck smile on you. And may you smile back.
We need to think ahead. To look around. To be aware of more than we think we need to be aware, of. Or if we can't think ahead, to set goals for ourselves to keep check on our progress through life. Like when you are out in the wilderness, you need to pick a landmark ahead in order to avoid going in circles, or simply getting lost.
George Carlin said that if you are an artist you have a responsibility to always be going somewhere. "An artist has an obligation to be, 'on route'. To be going somewhere. There's a journey involved here. And you don't know where it is and that's the fun."
I think that is something in life that's important for everyone, really.
I've found that the best way to do this (for me) is in three levels:
- Choose a goal for the day, week or the month, depending on your life and lifestyle.
- Choose a goal for the year, a mid-range goal.
- And finally, choose a goal for the next five to ten years, or even a more long term goal.
Adjust these as fits your own life. The point isn't to do what I say here, but to do what best increases the quality of your own life and therefore, the lives of those near you.
Choose a lifetime goal, but I find that those seem to change too easily with trends in the country, society, your work situation, partner in life, and so on. It's good to have an overall lifetime goal to shoot for, but realistically, things just change on you.
When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. Then more realistically in Junior High I was leaning toward Jet Pilot. By the time I got out of High School, I was looking at some kind of behind the scenes work in government and so, I joined the military.
But things changed during that period, to make a long story short. I learned things I hadn't known. That I couldn't have known until I got into the situation. Reality set in. And so in my case, I ended up leaving the Military and going to a University. I got a degree in a vast lifestyle change, in Psychology. From there I got married, we had a child and life changed again. I remarried, suddenly found myself with a new life partner and another child. I thought that finally I had found my path and it would be like that till the end.
But then things unforeseen changed on me again and that situation too ended. Whether or not I remained married, the kids would eventually grow up and leave and maybe start their own families, or certainly, their own lives. There is no stopping change. And therefore there is no setting goals that will never change in life.
We have to update, learn, alter things, to find tune them. Make good and informed decisions in life and make the best of what Life throws at you. And one of the ways to doing that, is to have goals. But not just a single goal. Don't abandon your goals, don't give up on them, but do adjust them as is necessary and most productive for you and your life as it evolves through time.
If your goal is to marry someone and have a family, but you find major elements in your life have changed, maybe you find that you really hate kids, or you come out of the closet, or you find you're a serial killer, or a politician; these are cases in which you shouldn't stick to your original goal(s) but you should update things so that you are on the best path for you and your loved ones, and hopefully, society at large.
Life is about living. But it is also about learning and thinking and choices. It never hurts to have a path to follow and to be able to handle whatever comes at you while you are upon that path.
I wish you all the best of luck on your own path. And luck is not always a random thing in life. We can cultivate it and it definitely plays a part in where we are headed and where we end up. Luck and random opportunities in life have a lot to do with who makes it and who does not.
But that is another topic altogether.
May you choose to steer yourself toward the best opportunities possible that can and will be available to you. Remember that when opportunity comes, you have to be ready to accept it. Accepting it means change and change can be scary and disruptive. Be ready for it and don't shy away when it is really the best choice for you. Too often people only see their opportunities in life much, much later, when it is far too late. Live your life to revel in your choices and not regret you indecisions.
Just remember to choose and adjust your goals in life. Position yourself to be "lucky". Grab opportunity as it presents itself to you.
In closing I'll just say, all the best to you my friends. May Luck smile on you. And may you smile back.
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