A letter I probably will not send to my Program Manager
Product Manager,
A week or so ago I watched the 2024 Mustang reveal and it got me thinking about my “appreciation” of sports cars and motorcycles that you and I had discussed in my one-on-one a short time back.
The short introduction featuring the history of Mustang triggered a memory of when I was ten years old my godfather gave me a high quality die-cast model of a 1993 Ford Mustang Mach III for Christmas(my younger brother received a similar Lamborghini). I became a Mustang fan, even though my family where GM people, fueled by my grandfather having worked the line at Cadillac for his entire adult life. Many of my aunts following in his footsteps by joining the UAW and working for GM. Being GM folks probably was also influenced by my father, as a teenager, wanting to be different, worked the line at Ford, where he had a much worse experience than his GM kin, influencing his choice to first drop out of high-school and later leave Michigan to become a dirty hippie. For several years after I received that Christmas gift I remember doing school projects about the Mustang. I listed it as one of my dreams or signs of achievement. I did projects on how much I'd have to save to buy one, using rates of interest to compare time/effort for saving to pay cash up front vs. taking a loan, and attempting to justify the environmental impact of V8 engines. As I got older I actually understood life more. I realized that I was raised in poverty. I had to make it on my own after high school graduation. I made many poor financial decisions in my young adulthood (like joining the US Coast Guard Reserve and choosing to go to college at an out-of-state university, not to mention marrying a girl who did the same only for her not to purse a professional career path instead becoming a full-time homemaker). I finally becoming “successful” then went bankrupt and recovered again by following the Dave Ramsey plan for Finical Peace. By that time it had become clear to me that cars are simply tools for going from point a to point b, tools that easily can become a money pit, and it makes zero financial sense to buy any new car, let alone one that is anything but practical. Like most people I knew, whether fellow “computer guys” from work or members of my church, had similar views, praying that in our lifetime technology would advance such that cars would no longer be necessary for humankind.
My “appreciation” for motorcycles progressed upon a similar trajectory, though much more accelerated pace. My father was a biker. My mother fell in love with a happy hippie in California, then after a time of separation, they got married, and when he took her to his new home in Las Vegas she learned that her happy hippie had become an outlaw biker during their time apart. When my mom was 9 months pregnant my dad told her that he intended to spend the weekend at some biker rally in the mountains. She told him no way this baby could come while he was out there. My dad said I was an obedient child, as I was born 2 days before the rally, and then he left for 3 days. Mom was furious with him having been gone for more than half of my life. But I was a daddies boy. I wanted to be just like him. I loved the Harley-Davidson branded Big Wheel he got me. Instead of cops and robbers, I played cops and bikers, and the cops where the bad guys. But as I got older I got to see how his obsession was adversely effecting our family. There certainly was the time apart from us, and what little money we had being spent on constantly repairing and improving the Harley (and his various other bikes that he always thought he'd make money repairing and selling but rarely did) to say nothing of lifestyle around his biker gang with drinking, drugs, abuse of women, and more. Before I even received that Christmas gift from my godfather, also in the biker gang, I had turned from a boy who wanted to be just like his dad, to one whose goal in life was to be as different from him as possible.
So often I forget that not everyone has had the same life experiences that I have. Having different experiences could lead to them not having the same opinions as me. This could be true regardless of my belief that if there was any opinion better than mine, I would have that one instead. My wife says it is a sign of me being narcissistic. I have a history of being judgmental towards those who I believe make poor decisions; people who chose to spend their discretionary income on things for themselves like boats, cabins, motorcycles and sports cars, rather than making choices like I have in my later adult life of using such to fund our church, give to ministries that help the poor, and off-set the time necessary to be actively involved in the community bettering the world for all humankind: peddling radical political ideas, being a 4-H leader and contributing to Free Software projects.
While it may come across that way, I assure you I'm not trying to make excuses for answering your question honestly in our stand-up of my opinion on seeing the car in Dearborn a month or so ago as it being a-piece-of-crap forasmuch I would say of any sports car. I'm attempting to admit my character defects and set goals to better myself. I want to be less judgmental and more empathetic of those who have come to very different conclusion. Perhaps some of our colleagues, and customers, became car guys because their parents where strict religious bigots and it was a way to escape from that and no longer be hurt, or maybe their childhood was just awesome, and they're car guys because their parents where car guys and driving a brand new sports car gives them a feeling that they are bettering the world by being connected to a memory of their lost loved one, and sharing it with their kids.
I don't expect this letter to have any great impact on our work together nor our project as a whole. Whilst cars exist, I believe the same now as I did as a teenager. The most important part is that the radio works, and being awesome, which meant having a CD player back then, is even better. I will continue to strive to make the products we work on, not only the best in class, but in a class of their own, regardless of what the car guys say.
In all sincerity,
fuat2mb