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2007-04-20 Home Front: Culture Wars

The Art of Showing Pure Incompetence at an Unwanted Task

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Posted by BrerRabbit 2007-04-20 08:43|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Huh. I always thought of that as "the art of unemployment". In my biz, we're expected to learn stuff, as in this paraphrased conversation:

Boss: Here's a long C program. Make it do more stuff.
Me: I don't know C.
Boss: Learn.
Me: Hokay.

And this was without benefit of classes. There was one guy in the department who knew C, and I asked him about the tricky bits. Everything else I looked up in books (Google being kind of green at that point).

Once a technician marveled at how we were expected to show up at a location and teach ourselves to use a complicated, expensive piece of equipment -- and did. I could have kissed him. All my colleagues thought this was SOP (and it was, but it was nice to hear someone acknowledge how difficult it was).

Posted by Angie Schultz 2007-04-20 12:34|| 2007-04-20 12:34|| Front Page Top

#2 But to refrain from learning something requires years of practice and refinement.
I knew that already because I follow Wally's antics in the 'Dilbert' strip.

Posted by GK 2007-04-20 12:52|| 2007-04-20 12:52|| Front Page Top

#3 "The inability to grasp selective things can be very helpful in keeping your desk clear of unwanted clutter," says the executive in HR, or what he calls "the dumping ground" of all unwanted office tasks.

The correlation from my military experience was that work gravitated to competency. If you were able to get the job done, you kept getting the jobs. If you were less than competent, your workload diminished. The art to work was to be good enough, but leave a bit of doubt in the bosses mind to avoid getting buried by assignments and to train and empower your subordinates as quickly as possible.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-04-20 13:42|| 2007-04-20 13:42|| Front Page Top

#4 This was a profound lesson from my grandfather's time:

"Never learn how to clean or dress a chicken."

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-04-20 16:14|| 2007-04-20 16:14|| Front Page Top

#5 You beat me to the Wally reference, GK. It instantly sprang to mind.

The correlation from my military experience was that work gravitated to competency.

Work flows towards the competent person until that person submerges.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-04-20 16:46|| 2007-04-20 16:46|| Front Page Top

#6 Wally is my hero!

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2007-04-20 19:05|| 2007-04-20 19:05|| Front Page Top

23:50 JosephMendiola
23:45 RD
23:34 trailing wife
23:33 Zenster
23:30 Zenster
23:30 RWV
23:28 RD
23:22 RWV
23:19 JosephMendiola
23:10 Frank G
23:03 RD
22:57 USN, ret.
22:55 Frank G
22:52 JosephMendiola
22:50 Ho Chi Snusoper4439
22:49 RD
22:44 Grunter
22:39 JosephMendiola
22:36 Anonymoose
22:27 JosephMendiola
22:24 RD
22:20 Zenster
22:20 KBK
22:18 Zenster