Front
Back (apologies for my handwriting!)
The text of the postcard is
Dear Ellen,
You take the over/under … My number is 100.
That number is how many restaurant owners in the U.S. gave serious thought to the idea of a Thanksgiving meal deal that comes with a free pair of sweatpants for each customer.
Let me know about your decision via Twitter!
Sincerely,
@DumbFunnery
I work with a group of very intelligent people. It’s nice. My co-workers also have long memories of who wrote what code and they are quick to give credit to people who no longer work here.
Unfortunately, people can also be quick to be frustrated with and blame co-workers who are no longer working here for code that they originally wrote which appears to be bad. (Sometimes people speak too soon, sometimes people don’t speak up soon enough … How very Zen and noncommittal of me to make this comment.)
What I would like to do is this …
I am going to bring in a stuffed animal to work and name it Brad (my name). Also possibly a few others for co-workers who have left and there is a lot of code that is in use that is still seen as “theirs” more than anyone else’s (like the current maintainers).
I will get people in the habit of addressing these stuffed animals by name so that the names will be instilled in everyone’s brains.
Then, sometime down the line, a new person will arrive.
The new person will be learning about this and that and will eventually hear a co-worker say, “oh that’s Brad’s code … No, he has a mistake in that area with threads. You have to watch out. You have to make sure YOU’RE thread safe because Brad’s not thread safe.” (Some coders I have worked with also have the habit of using someone’s name in place of the name of the function/class/whatever code thing you are looking at.)
The new person will wonder, “who is Brad?”
Then, a few days later perhaps the co-worker will ask the keeper of the stuffed animals, “mind if I ask … what’s up with the stuffed animals?”
And hopefully, from wherever I am at that moment, I will magically sense that I should be laughing, because the new guy now thinks the co-workers who are prone to blaming are abso-freaking-lutely nuts.
It’s all about the little joys in life. And plush stuffed animals named Brad. Who are bad about threading issues.
What’d you do this time, BRAD?
Recently I read A Fine Balance (a recommendation from the fiance and many a ‘going to India’ reading list). The book is very good! I would definitely recommend it. A few quotes from the book won’t mean as much out of context, but I think a number of them are pretty even by themselves.
A lifetime had to be crafted, just like anything else, she thought, it had to be moulded and beaten and burnished in order to get the most out of it.
Their first day with Dina Dilal was over. Borne along by the homeward-bound flock, exhausted from ten hours of sewing, they shared the sanctity of the hour with the crowd, this time of transition from weariness to hope. Soon it would be night; they would borrow Rajaram’s stove, cook something, eat. They would weave their plans and dream the future into favourable patterns, till it was time to take the train tomorrow morning.
“You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.” He paused, considering what he had just said. “Yes,” he repeated. “In the end, it’s all a question of balance.”
“In those days,” continued Ishvar, “it seemed to me that that was all one could expect in life. A harsh road strewn with sharp stones and, if you were lucky, a little grain.”
“And later?”
“Later I discovered there were different types of roads. And a different way of walking on each.”
DumbFunnery 