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I am the guy who cares or cared! I will bring lost lady back to care home. I will help a kid to find his lost key in the playground. I will start fixing technical debt in a product at work. While two first cases were naturally the right thing to do I didn’t expect anything. With technical debt I was stopped because I was wasting company’s resources. I observe in my diary, that I am turning into do not care type person. One can’t cary about every pothole in the world.

Please never give up the fight against entropy. We can keep the flame alive a little longer.

Resist the cold churn toward pride-fueled apathy that this rant exhausts.

After reading this, if this is supposed to demonstrate the psyche of the sort of person who “cares”, I really hope he keeps indoors and spends a little bit more time on his self before stepping out on others.


The thing is that I might be another psycho. But there is a city center, winter and an old women with blueish hands. Wearing no proper shoes and having only a sweater. There are hundred other caring and loving persons and missionaries around, heavy car traffic too. But somehow I am the one bringing her to the care facility a mile away. How can it happen!? Why do you think, that only a Good Samaritan can care and a psycho can’t?

Well, pardon me. It doesn’t seem to me like you’ve gone mad, but if you are a psycho indeed, I don’t want to do you further harm.

If you really are “all right” and just an honestly styled man trying to cultivate good in a barren city with crushed soil and souls, then I reckon there’s some care in you of some kind much to be desired from others and you know it.

And I suspect that it’s the psychos who believe that they’re “Good Samaritans” and if your word is true then we can tell that apparently they’re unwilling to provide actions that confirm their claims. Crazy.

So, my guess is maybe the world’s gone so mad that anyone trying to behave sane looks strange, and the ones who are mad pretend to be right until wrong shows up.


Sorry, but it’s in German: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/panorama/sterbenden... Society is that far, that some people just step over the corpse to reach ATM and get some cash. World is gone mad and numb to the pain of others. So don’t be shy if you sometimes help others.

My buddy senior engineer left recently. And you know what happened? Nothing! His salary was a nice saving for a company. And his work was divided on the shoulders of those who didn’t quit. Management showed the priorities.

Good advice. First step is to identify your enemies. I also would call it “understand dynamics”. Because somebody wanted promotion into your senior position. Somebody just does not like you or someone wants to do things differently. It’s fine. Just know the obstacles before planing the journey.

I get it, but this is just such a cynical take…devoting time & energy during your ramp up to identifying enemies seems to set the wrong tone from day 1. People will take notice no matter how hard you try to conceal it, and that will follow you around. First impressions matter, for you and those around you.

I suggest the opposite: assume good intent from everyone, listen a lot, don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions, identify people who can help your team and identify people who need your help. In leadership, the job is not about you, it’s about setting up your team for success.


> First step is to identify your enemies

The most difficult and political people I know think like this. They never see themselves as the problem. They just think they’re playing defense and playing the meta-game better than others.

If you go into a workplace thinking that your first step is to identify your enemies so you can be on constant high alert to defend yourself, there’s a high risk that you’re going to become the political problem you claim to want to avoid.

What if there are no enemies? What if nobody was denied this role, because it was added headcount to expand the team? Imagine the OP going in on the defense because HN told them to “identify your enemies” as the first step, but really their team just wants to add another person to the group? This type of advice causes more problems than it solves.


What I’m saying is not criticism, I think the word enemies is quite isolating and too negative. It’s definitely true that every place with more than one human has inter-personal motivations and constraints, but I think they often can be fluid and non personal, someone contested the position you got but after the position was granted they realized they’re very much ok with not spending extra work time in the new job for example, or the employee that contested you to the promotion just wanted the raise or the ability to influence more in the company and you didn’t take their dream job. In some of those cases I found I can plaster my coworker name in large font on any work we did together or delegate to them tasks that they really wanted to, and I could win their trust and cooperation even though I got the promotion or something of that sort. It’s super subjective and my own personal experience

Or possibly find your friends and build relationships. Understand the motivations of the people you work with and identify ways to align your goals with theirs. By focusing your energy this way you'll help craft a healthy dynamic rather than be subjected to existing dynamics.

It's probably also worth figuring out who holds power and authority. It's not always based on org or chart.


This! Especially 2nd! Most of the normal jobs do not cover the cost of living in the cities. The salaries are not high enough for positions like clerks, kindergarten staff, teachers, medical staff, firefighters, cops, cashiers. You name it. And for a couple with good jobs and without kids taxes bite really hard, purchasing power is not the one expected from top earners. Add rising mandatory medical and retirement insurance costs. This is just not good.

> And for a couple with good jobs and without kids taxes bite really hard, purchasing power is not the one expected from top earners. Add rising mandatory medical and retirement insurance costs. This is just not good.

About this, as I try to hire employees, I absolutely hate our tax code. DCAP is painfully low (5k). I really wish we could find a way to allow employers to offer pretax benefits and directly provide childcare as a fringe benefit.

But you're 100% right, mandatory take a maximum chunk and workers should have lower taxes.


Here you go for Germany: https://www.manager-magazin.de/karriere/umfrage-nur-48-proze...

Do I give my best? No I don’t. I want to be well rested and healthy. However I do my hours without slacking and really work from home when I do home office. I have tons of crap from previous employees to clean up for years. Rudimentary stuff nobody cares of. Why should I overwork when nobody did this for decades before me in this chair.


I grew in poverty. This looks to me crazy expensive. Sustainability comes second. These things are probably made overseas, shipped in a container and distributed in a small package. Then used few weeks, paper will wear out and then thrown away. But that’s how quick fashion industry works anyway.

Edit: Asus laptop had foldable stand included in the paper packaging.


The last LinkedIn recruiter saved me from very bad job. Now I have a reasonable boss, private office, no commute time and same salary. Of course, the 20 recruiters before were bad joke.

Another book about survival there: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_of_the_Gods When I have a bad day I think about this book and intellectuals in hell.

As director or VP one should be able to retire at 45 in USA. Then you don’t care anymore about next job.

Most people making it to VP or Director by age 45 haven't been in that position long enough to retire. Not to mention that getting there by that early point generally requires a certain amount of drive that's difficult to just shut off and retire.

Exactly. It’s mating dance. Nobody cares about one’s family. One must talk about good products, nice working culture, positive vibes, professional development on topic X, suitable experience in topic Y, similar finished project Z, interesting personalities of the interviewers. Motherload of well crafted lies. I learned a lot to lie during interviews. As a graduate I was absolute truth teller and every interview changed me a bit. After hundreds of them during a decade I am comfortable with any lie. So sad when I think about it.

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