This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Were you expecting it would be easy? Scaling from "do it yourself" to "get your team to do it" is a rare skill.
From their perspective, you are scope creeping. You're asking them to take on more work, and it's not the kind of visible high-impact work that leads to increased compensation or political power. You might solve this by figuring out how to reward the work more, or by increasing the amount of coercion applied to the sysadmins, but it's unlikely the problem is resolved without one or the other.
Yeah, intelligence is in short supply. You can try to find some magic pixie dust that lets you hire better, or you can figure out how to factor the work such that it can be productively resolved a few rungs down the IQ ladder. PM types tend to be responsive to systematization -- "I did the X process for Y client and now we're Z% of the way through the flowchart" sounds better than "I did some bespoke work for Y client", even if it's the same work. And IME once you set up the bare bones of a structure, they'll be quick to pick it up and fully develop the process.
If this harms productivity, then you have a politically cheap justification to ask him to change. If it doesn't harm productivity, then who cares? Let him be an asshole.
Yeah, can't help you there. The US government effectively mandates that you hire unqualified people. If it's any consolation, your competitors are required to do the same.
More options
Context Copy link