I was watching a boy play a Nintendo game last night, and his playing style reminded me of the working style of some of the people I work with:



In the game, you can approach objects and people and interact with them. Frequently they give you information and clues. He would interact, but then only read the first line of what they had to say, and then zoom off, smashing everything in his way that he thought might contain some treasure. I tried to coach him to read the entire interaction carefully, but he kept telling me "oh, they don't have anything to say" or "oh, it's just something about [insert placename]."



He never did get the full gist of what anyone in the game was telling him, and couldn't see that there were obvious clues, hints and directions contained in what the people had to say because it was rarely contained within the first line of what they were saying.



I think he's spent weeks just flitting around the game smashing things, without any idea of the actual objective of the game.



You people at work probably have no idea who you are.

Conversational excerpt from IM:



NetAdmin: my god, I have much power

NetAdmin: unfortunately I no longer have to the ability to take the network down by making a phone call

NetAdmin: I have to do it the old fashioned way now....

WebDev: by asking a tech to do something really simple?

NetAdmin: welp, I spose that would do it too

Sooooooooooooo...



If you've ever had a lower back injury, specifically but not limited to a herniated disk, learning to snowboard is probably not a good idea for you either, even though you've been working out and you feel good and you think you are invincible and your back hasn't hurt you in a while. The first time you fall on your ass, you will go momentarily blind from the pain. Trust me.



I never want to hear the phrase "Can you get up, Ma'am?" being said to me ever EVER again.