Understanding the desktop computer

[Walter Mitty]

Gorn,

I just wanted to express to you how impressed I have been, over the years, with both the depth and the breadth of your technical expertise regarding desktop computers.  I was gratified by your comments about me and databases,  but this interchange has definitely been a two way street.

It doesn't matter whether the subject is hardware repair, or operating system internals,  or how Delphi works, or Wordpad and doc files, or the essentials of OOP,  you've been right there with the requisite knowledge to make sense of it all, for me or other people on the various forums where we interact.

I don't mean to limit you to desktop stuff.  I imagine you've dealt with servers, the web, the cloud, and like that.  But desktop expertise is where your background is strongest compared to mine.  I briefly tried to learn assembler for the 8086 after buying my first computer.  But it was a struggle, and it was boring after having done the same thing for the early machines.  It wasn't until I got Turbo Pascal that I could actually program my own machine.

And, in almost every way,  I've been "just a user" ever since I bought into windows.  Not so you.  Kudos.

[The Gorn]

Well, thanks.

Note the value that I have placed on the extrinsic (specifically career) value of this knowledge and insight: hardly anything. Almost nothing, in fact.

And now in the present day the desktop is almost on the way out (pads, smart phones.)

Even in the salad days of the desktop - late 1980s through early 2000s - it got me a barely middle class income, with constant struggle and incredibly unsatisfying work roles. Not that the server would have been better.

Even when a lot of people cared about that skill set it netted me little and the resistance in the workplace against my efforts to use my knowledge effectively was huge.

I have found that understanding itself is a hugely overrated life skill. I'd rather have assets and respect from people and I would be willing to exchange my knowledge and insight of this topic for a VCR whose clock was flashing 00:00.

In other words I would much rather be technically clueless but have things that matter. People with those attributes are probably much happier with their lives.

[Walter Mitty]

And now in the present day the desktop is almost on the way out (pads, smart phones.)

In my long career, I've had to make the transition from "wise sage" back to "poor dumb jerk" more times than I can count.  The most painful one for me, by far, was the PDP-10 to the VAX.  Just about everything that could be different was different, except for the name of the vendor.  And the people who were migrating form PDP-11 to VAX had an easy migration path.  DEC lost a lot of PDP-10 customers to IBM in that time frame. 

I reinvented myself as a "database expert" partly because I could see the handwriting on the wall when I approached my 40th birthday as a programmer.  And partly because some of the people who attach almost no value to their business software value their business data in the millions. 

Still, I was only able to scratch out a middle class income in the time frame 1986-2001.  The one place I count myself fortunate was that the majority of my clients were not the worst kind.  It sounds like you had a long run of bad luck. 

Do I have any regrets?  Yes, I do.  I wish I had learned to sell in 1986.  I wish I had dropped back to junior status and entered the world of Oracle in 1991.  There are a few clients I wish I had never met.  But, all in all, it wasn't a bad life.

[The Gorn]

Walter, here is the reality as I see it:

In a gold rush, IE, a time of great popular interest in one area of opportunity, people who are not attuned for maximum cut throat aggressiveness and winner-take-all behavior get trampled.

"Logic" says that abundance of opportunity should float all boats and there is plenty for everyone. In real life, this does not happen.

What really happens is that entrepreneurs glom onto most opportunity, leave mere scraps for the less aggressive, and make temps or low level employees out of those who are genuinely interested in the subject matter.

It's a paradox of life.

[Richardk]

"Logic" says that abundance of opportunity should float all boats and there is plenty for everyone. In real life, this does not happen.

What really happens is that entrepreneurs glom onto most opportunity, leave mere scraps for the less aggressive, and make temps or low level employees out of those who are genuinely interested in the subject matter.

Wow, that sounds like today's economy. Isn't that what all the protests are about?

[The Gorn]

Wow, that sounds like today's economy. Isn't that what all the protests are about?

In many ways I am shedding crocodile tears for today's aggrieved. Nobody gave a crap when it was just me.

Now everyone is facing essential economic challenges that I faced 15+ years ago.

[Richardk]

In many ways I am shedding crocodile tears for today's aggrieved. Nobody gave a crap when it was just me.

Now everyone is facing essential economic challenges that I faced 15+ years ago.

I'm right behind you. I see all kinds of complaining yet from my point of view, it seems that they still got it pretty damn good.

Times suck but I see people driving some pretty darn nice cars, "oh, are those ipads?" or new laptops or new smart phones, huge LED/LCD TV's, etc., etc. Yet they got it so bad.

It would be nice to update my 'toys' too but after taking a hard look at what I really "need", I realized it's not that much. The "toys" are nice to have but I don't "need" them. Now if only my income was more steady and at the dot com levels, I'd be happy.