🚀 go-pugleaf

Charles Richmond <nume...@aquaporin4.com> writes:

> On 7/19/2018 9:33 AM, Dan Espen wrote:
>> Charles Richmond <nume...@aquaporin4.com> writes:
>>
>>> On 7/18/2018 2:27 PM, Stephen M. Jones wrote:
>>>> The past couple of weeks I've been thinking about MRC a lot.  He was a
>>>> fixture on alt.sys.pdp10 and I'm sure people thought of him as a pretty
>>>> difficult person.  I knew him in person and I know the MRC face to face was
>>>> different than what you might come across on alt.sys.pdp10.  I recently came
>>>> across a memo authored by BAH regarding 3M and the shortage of DECTAPES,
>>>> et cetera and I also came across boxes carefully arranged by MRC from
>>>> Stanford that had not been opened until now.
>>>>
>>>> MRC was a private person and if he was a friend you could get to him.
>>>> For instance, he once gave me a DTMF code that would bypass his anti-
>>>> telemarketer setup on his phone when I need to all him on Bainbridge.  But
>>>> MRC could also turn on you and if he thought you had nothing to say, he'd
>>>> write an SMTP response that you'd get that would say something like:
>>>>
>>>> 451: STOP TALKING ABOUT IT ALREADY
>>>>
>>>> I think I still have that response somewhere.
>>>>
>>>
>>> ISTM that MRC did *not* "suffer fools lightly"... nor should he have
>>> done that IMO.  If you asked a question on <alt.sys.pdp10> ... a
>>> question that showed the asker had *not* worked much on his problem
>>> ... MRC would deride you and *not* offer any answers (other than to
>>> suggest you go away).  If a person's question indicated that the asker
>>> had done a lot of work on the problem, MRC was willing to offer help.
>>>
>>> MRC was *not* a baby sitter ... if you understood that, you'd get
>>> along fine with him.  IMHO
>>>
>>> I miss his presence on <alt.sys.pdp10> .
>>
>> This MRC fellow doesn't sound like a nice person.
>>
>> I've met more than a few people that acted like that and
>> never found it to be an endearing trait.
>>
>> I know I'm smarter than average but don't see any point in
>> lording over the less gifted.
>
> Mr. Espen, even you can get tired of people with stupid
> questions... people who waste your time and talents because they are
> too lazy (or not really interested enough) to do a *little* work and
> look things up themselves.

I suppose, but I remember one co-worker that could not be made to
understand MVS JCL's "not cataloged 2" message.  Tried every way
I could think of to explain it.  Eventually left her with working
JCL and never yelled at her.  Perhaps because I spent years as
a consultant I learned to treat co-workers as customers and
adopted the attitude that the customer is always right.

Honestly can't remember losing patience for those with less
ability.  If I spent a lot of time with someone and thought
they might be learning, I'd try to broach the subject of how
valuable reading manuals is.  Something like:

Gee, you know so much, thanks for your help.
You're welcome.  You can learn even more by reading manual X.

(Yeah, I'm perfect.)

:)

-- 
Dan Espen