• 7 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Reviewing large PR’s is hard. Breaking apart large PR’s that are all related changes into smaller PR’s is also hard.

    If I submit a big one, I usually leave notes in the description explaining where the “core” changes are and what they are trying to accomplish. The goal being to give the reviewers a good starting point.

    I also like to unit test the shit out of my code which helps a lot. The main issue there is getting management to embrace unit tests. Unit tests often double the effort up front but save tons of time in the long run. We’re going to spend the time one way or the other. Better to do it up front when it’s “cheaper” because charging it to the tech debt credit card racks up lots of expensive interest.











  • During WWII the United States government rounded up tens of thousands of people, including many US citizens, and put them in internment camps because they looked sort of similar to the people who bombed pearl harbor. Why? Because fear is a powerful drug and when people are afraid, logic tends to go out the window, if there was any logic to begin with. If you pay attention to conservative rhetoric, you’ll notice that much of it is intended to stoke fear, while inserting themselves as the solution. They do it because it works.

    Way out in the Arkansas Delta, in a soybean field 50 miles from anywhere, there is a memorial where one of these internment camps stood. If you aren’t looking for it, you’d probably drive right by it unnoticed. All around the camp there are these little voice boxes that you push a button on and it explains what you’re looking at. The voice providing the narration is none other than George Takei who was held there with his family as a child. Spend a little time at a place like this and it will quickly disabuse you of the notion that America has always rejected fanaticism.






  • My personal experience essentially echoes what you’ve said. I’ve usually found that when I actually ask Trump supporters, which is probably most of the people I know, what they think and why, they are pretty candid about it. They will also voice frustrations, many of which I can understand or even agree with them on. There is a lot more common ground there than you might think.

    The problem is that most of the issues are complex and nuanced. Not that surprising. Issues that impact the population of an entire country, or even a sizeable chunk of it, are bound to be pretty complex. Here’s where things go off the rails.

    Kind of like you said, Joe Blow from Louisiana is often uneducated at best or a complete moron at worst. Joe Blow does not understand all the complexity surrounding the issues he’s upset about and figures that if he doesn’t understand it, neither does anyone else. He’s also a little too proud to admit he doesn’t understand it.

    This is why Republican party completely abandoned an issues bases platform, aside from completely fabricated pearl clutching social issues like those scary tRaNs PeOpLe or AboRtIoN. They know full well that they have nothing when it comes to meaningful solutions to actual problems and if they did, the few supporters they have with functioning brain cells would start to ask to many pesky questions. A divide and conquer strategy is much simpler and more effective; albeit incredibly destructive.



  • My first “real” job was in retail. One of the assistant store managers was an old Vietnam vet named John. John spent his whole [civilian] career, 40 something years, working there at a job he absolutely hated. He was notoriously grumpy, rough around the edges, and smoked like a freight train. But, John did two things for me that I will never forget.

    First thing: One day a customer was looking for something in a department that I wasn’t familiar with. I tried (and failed) to help him find what he was looking for. There wasn’t anyone staffing that area so I called John for help. The customer was an asshole. He was being a complete jerk from the start and when John showed up, he proceeded to tell John just exactly how incompetent he thought I was, while I was standing there.

    John just glared at him and very politely but sternly said, “Sir, I’m going to have to stop you right there. jubilationtcornpone is one of our finest employees and I’m sure he tried to help you as best he could. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about him like that.” The guy wasn’t happy but that did shut him up.

    Second thing: John and I are talking one evening and he just kind of puts his hand on my shoulder and says, “JubilationTCornpone, You need to get the hell out of here and go make something of yourself. You don’t want to be here when you’re my age. Don’t waste your life.”

    16 year old me didn’t particularly like John. He was a hard boss. Also, did I mention he was perpetually grumpy? But, he earned my respect. He stood up for me and wasn’t going to just stand by and let someone else treat me badly. Even if that meant losing a customer. If you’re an executive or manager and you force your people to just sit there and take it while they’re being bullied or harassed, then you’re an enabler.

    Nobody deserves to be treated like that. People get upset. Sometimes for legitimate reasons. i get that. That doesn’t give them the right to treat others like they’re less than human. Even if it’s someone that they’ll never meet face to face.