Be Careful What you Wish For

[mtlawson]

Nine years ago, I abandoned my software development job for my current position as an IT security administrator.  While life as a code jockey was fun, it also meant long hours away from home; there was a stretch of some months in 1998 where I worked an average of 80 hours a week on a critical project that was behind schedule.  There were years

Comments

[tracy_d74]

Wow that is a CRAZY job story. You got me thinking (something I try to avoid as much as possible). I read just about everything. I tend to like protagonist who overcome odds or stand up against the man. I tend to be an encourager (I bet you hadn't noticed ;)). And I tend to push at the rules if the rules don't serve the best interest of many.

[mtlawson]

Yeah, when I was working those 80 hour weeks, there were two things that kept me going (besides coffee): personal pride at providing quality work and the promise of a big bonus for completing the project to all who volunteered to rescue the sinking ship. In the end, all I got out of it was my pride in knowing I got the job done. The bonus evaporated into the ether when poorer than expected earnings were reported.

The adrenaline rush of being on projects like that is very addictive, but doesn't help your marital relations one whit. Quite a few developers at my former employer were divorced, and looking back on it I can see why.

[tracy_d74]

Such jobs often make people define the word success. Is it being a loved employee or being loved/loving someone.

I tell people my biggest lesson in grad school was learning to keep myself and my relationships a priority.

I heard a great quote in church a few weeks ago: You should not fear failure. You should fear succeeding at something that is not important.

[mtlawson]

Such jobs often make people define the word success. Is it being a loved employee or being loved/loving someone.

That is very true. Many corporations pay lip service to wanting their employees to have a good work/life balance, but then they turn around and want you to work lots of extra hours if you want to get ahead. In IT that may also mean giving up your holidays to work because your customer only has downtime on those days. I was never idealistic about corporate life, but my experiences have brought my cynicism to a whole new level.

[amusingmuse]

wow. I have no desire nor would I ever work 80 hours a week. I'm one of those weird people who considers my salary at the rate per hour and if the hour to pay ratio is low, I say heck with it. I say this, because I came from minimum wage land where working two jobs was the only way to stay afloat.

But then I learned way early in life I was just a cog in a wheel and would just give a 'yeah right' the first time I went corporate and heard that BS corporate speal. ;)

But yes, this has affected my reading desires. I desire heroes who want MORE out of life. They don't want to be stuck in the birth role they were given. They'll abandon family if they have to to get what they want if family is holding back just because. (And heaven knows down in poverty some members of family want to keep you poor 'just because'.) I have a hard time relating to heroes who have limitless access to wealth and power and use such to obtain their goals. I prefer those who work against the odds.

and I've rambled.

[mtlawson]

I have no desire nor would I ever work 80 hours a week. I'm one of those weird people who considers my salary at the rate per hour and if the hour to pay ratio is low, I say heck with it.

Oh, I do that now. Back then, I saw it as a challenge. Can I do this? Am I capable of doing this? They came to me and asked me to help save the project, and I knew from prior critical projects that the company had opened up their wallets and even thrown extra vacation time at people who volunteered to swoop in like Mighty Mouse. Besides, I figured that the project would be done in a month. Three months later, and then the big ol' fat "sorry, we'd love to give you the bonus, but the company didn't do that well this past year" made me realize what a fool I'd been.

"Mongo don't know. Mongo pawn in game of life."

But yes, this has affected my reading desires. I desire heroes who want MORE out of life. They don't want to be stuck in the birth role they were given. They'll abandon family if they have to to get what they want if family is holding

[amusingmuse]

Ahh, so that might explain why corporations really want young workers. Gullable, versus jaded old folks.

What sort of hero? The Horatio Hornblower type who rises through the ranks, or the person who seizes the day because it is the path to riches/fame/whathaveyou?

A combination of both. Someone who knows when to jump at the risk, despite the odds or the real possibility of failure. And when they do fail, just pick themselves up and try again. Heh...I'm thinking more "Anne of Green Gables" than any sf piece.

[mtlawson]

Gullable, versus jaded old folks.

Also they're more apt to move around if the company wants them to. Once you get settled down, you're not that inclined to travel.

Someone who knows when to jump at the risk, despite the odds or the real possibility of failure. And when they do fail, just pick themselves up and try again. Heh...I'm thinking more "Anne of Green Gables" than any sf piece.

Have you read The Name of the Wind? I think you've described the protagonist Kvothe very well.

Ugh. I have to admit I'm biased against L.M. Montgomery's works -not because of anything she did or wrote- but because my mother swoons over her stuff. And me, being the contrarian that I am, refuse to pick up any of her works. (It's part of the same reason why I don't play golf other than putt-putt: my dad is a huge-huge-HUGE golf nut.)

[out_totheblack]

Wow, dude. And I thought surviving budget cuts at a university could be tricky. Glad you and your family made it through. I have had way to much pain and reality in my life so I like to stay as far way from the real world that I can in my reading.

I really like survivor stories especially end the world, pick up the pieces sort of things. I guess that is sort of reflective.

[mtlawson]

Yeah, it sounds worse now that I put it down in writing, but there were some years where it wasn't fun. Of course, people forget all about the Cincinnati Riots because they happened in April of 2001; they got overshadowed by what happened on five months later.

We were just watching AC360 and had to turn it off. The heartbreak and scope of the disaster down there in Haiti easily eclipses anything I've ever been through.

I really like survivor stories especially end the world, pick up the pieces sort of things. I guess that is sort of reflective.

Kind of like A Canticle for Leibowitz? Or are you also attracted to stories where the end of the world is nigh and people are struggling to prevent it?

[out_totheblack]

I read A Canticle for Leibowitz so long ago, I can't remember it. I like post-apocolyptic stories. Rebuilding society, what happens to different groups of people and how they put things back together. My current favorite is the Change series (also called Emberverse)by SM Stirling.

http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451459792

[mtlawson]

I listened to an interview with him a while ago on a podcast -it might have been The Dragon Page- and I admit the premise was interesting. I ought to go give that series a try, maybe when my queue is down to ten books.

[bogwitch64]

I tend to relate to characters who buck the system/society. The underdog. And I'm a sucker for redemption. :)

Harrowing tale, my friend. Proof that the old saying about those things that don't kill us making us stronger is right!

[mtlawson]

I tend to relate to characters who buck the system/society. The underdog. And I'm a sucker for redemption. :)

Do you think that your life has impacted what you like to read? I freely admit that I gravitate to the underdog when I watch sports, and that comes from years of being the nerd/geek. It may have changed now, but when I grew up nerds and geeks were at the bottom of the pecking order, below the kids who smelled funny. God forbid that you went to a school where sports reined supreme and you were a nerd.

[bogwitch64]

Does it impact what I read? No, not really. But it does impact how I respond to what I read.

[mtlawson]

Okay, what sort of book would you not find interesting? You've got me curious.

[karen_w_newton]

I always like stories about what the character does for a living, especially when it's not being a detective. There are some mystery books by two women who published under the pseudonym Emma Lathen in which the hero/detective John Putnam Thatcher is the vice president of a bank. The motive for the crimes always related to money in a clever way I rarely figured out, but it was the scenes of life at a big, prestigious bank that really made the books fun.

[mtlawson]

You know, I can't say I've heard of a series spawned from a banker's life; it's not your typical occupation to write about. Of course, everytime I think of a banker, my mind now goes to the subprime mortgage disaster. That, or George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life.

Have there been any other unusual protagonist occupations that you've come across?

[karen_w_newton]

I think mysteries offer several. The Brother Cadfael books give the reader a picture of life in a medieval monastery; Cadfel doesn't just heal people as an early apothecary, he has to pray on schedule like the other monks. Dick Francis' books always deal with some aspect of horse racing, and Ellen Byerrum has a "Crimes of Fashion" series about a fashion reporter who keeps tripping over bodies while she tries to meet her story deadlines.

In mainstream, look at Moby Dick (whaling) and Bonfire of the Vanities (there's a Wall Street book for you!).

[mtlawson]

I guess that since there was The Name of the Rose, I hadn't thought of Cadfael. Other than the BBC conversions to television, that is.

My wife being a Louisville native, I guess I don't think of horse racing as that unusual an occupation for a protagonist to have. (Derby Day is a big deal; you don't realize just how big until you marry into a Louisvillian family.)

Now a fashion based series, that is unusual.

On an aside, does Moby Dick qualify as mainstream? Or can you have literature and mainstream intersect?