I work with some highly intelligent people — researchers, professors, doctors, psychologists — but sometimes they’re completely illogical. Indeed, sometimes I’m really surprised by their stupidity. I guess we all have our own unique skills and expertise, as well as complete ignorance. To each their own.
What a turn of events, that I should be having a frank discussion with a young man about honourable behaviour. That it should be me explaining that crude misogynistic language should have no place in his vocabulary. That whatever their differences — whatever argument or dispute should come between them — there’s never an excuse …
Can’t say I’m sold on the AI they’ve got me piloting at work. Every email it’s offered to draft for me has been a pile of pants. Where I would write a nice succinct reply, cutting to the chase, it offers a verbose splurge, which mostly amounts to rephrasing back to the sender what they …
Even stock images can now send me into a melancholy spin. Yes, of course I know that those images of happy, smiley people in posh offices are completely contrived, set up by professional photographers trying to make a living selling content to corporate marketing teams. Still, it had its effect, a few moments spent looking …
Collect a minimum dataset, I urged. Final spec: a form with 135 data fields. And you ask why I’ve lost my mind. But fear not: here I am at 10pm on Friday evening, still plugging away. Indeed, I will be doing so all weekend to make up for the brain freeze in working hours. Even …
Still staring at that wall of code, egging it on to arrange itself. I gather some people call this a wall of awful. Sounds apt, for it towers above me. Every time I tell myself I’m going to focus now, it lasts about five minutes, and then I’m googling explanations for the state of my …
I think part of my problem is that I fall into a hole, forced to silently focus on tasks that are much beneath me. Every now and then, I’m consulted by others on what is my expertise, and suddenly I remember my worth. Listening to myself, I realise, actually, I do know my stuff, and …
Does kindness beget kindness? Not necessarily. Indeed, rarely so. I once thought that if I treated people with kindness, they would respond in kind. But life has taught me otherwise. Why persist in kindness then? A reasonable question. My view: because it’s the right thing to do. Because kindness beautifies an action. How others choose to …
Today, I set my status to Do not disturb. I set up an automatic reply to explain I am focusing on a delivery this week. I even announced my intentions on the team chat. But it didn’t make any difference. All day long, my colleagues still pinged me and flooded my inbox, seeking guidance on …
Somebody should talk to HR to see if “competence” can be made a mandatory prerequisite for employment.
I read back to myself some of what I’ve written and think to myself, “Actually, this is pretty good.” Then I turn a page and read another passage, and I’m shaking my head. “This is just crap.” On balance, the bad outweighs the good — but I no longer have the inclination to polish a …
Whenever I’m given a specification that ignores every piece of advice once offered, I find myself with a psychological block, which prevents me from delivering the work. The job in hand is probably quite simple. In normal circumstances, certainly not beyond me. But because it has been specified with no real consideration of the access …
It occurs to me: if I had been more complete in myself, I would have been a much better dad. But I wasn’t. Most of my peers knew exactly where they were going aged eighteen, if not earlier. University was just a means of getting there. Me? I hadn’t a clue. And nor for years …
I regret ever touching this thing. I regret responding when they said this will just be an interim solution. I should have said, “Look, if externals quoted you £80K for the job, how on earth do you think I’m going to be able to help you?” Of course, the external agency wanted you to pay …
In their handover on their last day, my now former manager finally clearly explained what our team does. And that turns out to have very little to do with what I do. Indeed, their handover made no mention of my work whatsoever. No great surprise. I don’t really fit anywhere. I’m an island in the …
