h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Ha! Kind of like Groucho not wanting to belong to any sort of club that would have someone like him as a member.

At least you know that your boss is sympathetic to your health issues, so if at any time the travelling becomes too much she will probably also understand. But the fact that you are showing you are willing to try and give it your best effort proves that you are a valuable employee.

Not sure if I should congratulate you or not on being accepted . . . time will tell, eh?

az

It's my wife who's going to carry most of the burden, left at home with the weans!

Pronounced 'waynes'. Oh, wait...that was another thead.

Sounds like you are also very fortunate to have your wife's support.

Hey, you're really quite a fortunate guy, aren't you?


az

I'm not sure if I owe you congrats or not, either, but if it sounds like interesting work, that's a plus!

As for needing reminding as to how good you are, sometimes I need that, too. Mitigating circumstances aside, I don't think it's all that f*cked up to feel that way sometimes. Although thinking that people who are impressed with you must have poor judgement isn't fair to you or them- I think you're pretty awesome, and I have no idea how well you do your work.

Anyway, good luck to both yourself and your wife, and to the little ones, too, since you're starting up next week already!!

The three days away from home- you'll be staying away from home, as opposed to commuting, I'm assuming?

I daresay the reality won't turn out as bad as your worst expectations, anyway. Once you get into the swing of it it'll lose a lot of its gloominess. That's usually the case anyhow.

But what the hell, congratulations! You must be good to pass interviews you don't even want to!

Yeah...commuting by plane isn't really an option!

Awesome? Shucks! .

But it's true...I am, on the whole, a negative thinking kind of guy and I'm sure I could do better if only I could get over that. A chronic underachiever and not proud of it.

Mind you...I'm also as lazy as f--k and totally disorganised. If only I'd been born into money. Then I could pass myself off as a gadfly maverick.

>But it's true...I am, on the whole, a negative thinking kind of guy and I'm sure I could do better if only I could get over that. A chronic underachiever and not proud of it.<

I think I have the same problem, really. My gut reaction when I've applied for a position or something of that nature is to assume someone "better" will, of course, outdo me. So I have a tendency to set my expectations pretty low.

While I'm not what I'd call lazy, and certainly not disorganized, I get bored to the point of distraction quite easily, and I'm perfectionistic to a fault. Which means that sometimes, if I don't think I can do something "perfectly", I won't bother doing it at all.

I've heard these kinds of tendencies attributed to frustrated perfectionism- not saying that's true in your case, but you certainly seem to have high standards for yourself, judging by your aesthetic interests, intelligence, and articulation- I wonder how to "get over" that, without going in the opposite direction and becoming totally arrogant and narcissistic, like other people with self-image problems I've known...

Sorry for the ramble... and I sure hope your boss and client(s) appreciate your sacrifice!!

*note to self: compliment a few people today*

Hear hear. [to Trillian, saying compliment someone today]

Edward and Gnomon, both: you are two of the most intelligent, entertaining, scrupulously attentive and all-round good eggs that I have had the pleasure of meeting for a long time. I mean that.

Congratulations on failing to flunk your interview, Ed. You are learning How Not to Sell Yourself Short. I hope you continue to demand exactly what you want, and to get it, too.

And you're a most excellent fellow yourself, Mr Lying Down Man! Very much appreciated.

Yes...I was told years ago by a colleague that I sell myself short. Actually - I do know some of my strengths. I'm definitely good at 'The Vision Thing'. This is in contrast to many of my peers, who are not so good at seeing the big picture or being creative. On the other hand...I'm lousy on detail. Hell...you've all seen my typing.

I was thinking about this earlier. When I started my career (if that's what you call the process whereby I've continued to pay my mortgage), companies used to offer what they called 'Twin Track Career Paths'. Everyone would start doing something specialist. Then, at some point career paths would diverge between Technical and Managerial. In role descriptions, the top of the technical tree might read something like 'Acknowledged as a world authority in XYZ'. At the top of the Managerial ladder would be Company Director.

This idea seems to have long fallen by the wayside. Nowadays, only managers are appreciated. Skills can be subcontracted to the lowest bidder. Problem is...I'm not really someone who I would trust to manage a social event in brewery. On a personal level, I have no problem with that. But I wish I could find a convenient way of making money that plays to my strengths. (Not that money is a motivator. But lack of money is awful)

One thing I am good at is complimenting colleagues. Everyone deserves Well dones and Supers and Thank yous. And thank you all for cheering me up

They used to talk in my company about the two streams, the managerial and the technical. If you don't like management, you can become a specialist. But I soon found that the specialists were considered to be just oddballs that the company was embarassed at having hired but couldn't get rid of.

Yup! We've got a fair share of oddballs round my ay too...the sort of people who, once you get to know them, stare at *your* shoes instead of their own.

Glad it all went swimmingly.

Time away is always a wee bit stressful for all concerned, but things will tick along, and it will be fabulous to get back..coming home is always the best!

NB this is not a post 21. It is a post 22, in reply to post 21.

"Ha! Kind of like Groucho not wanting to belong to any sort of club that would have someone like him as a member." [post 21]

Groucho's point was quite subtle and . . . pointed. Being Jewish meant he was barred from all the exclusive clubs, where as a person of exceptional wealth, ambition and talent, you might say he naturally belonged. Only all-inclusive, or ghettoised, clubs were open to him.

There is an excruciating description in Harpo's autobigraphy, "Harpo Speaks!" I think it's called, of an occasion when the Marxes booked a table in a restaurant under a different name for some public holiday. Having taken their booking the restaurant couldn't refuse them admission, but finding out who had booked, they took no more bookings and presumably alerted all other customers, who then cancelled their own bookings; so when the Marxes showed up in their kilts and Scottish accents, they found they were the only diners.

This was the USA, in the forties.

Yes, it's a line that's been popularised by Woody Allen. I know the history of it and of course didn't mean to make light of the original subtle and pointed statement.

It was more to do with the idea of mistrusting people who seem to like and value us as we often cannot understand why they do and so wonder about ulterior motives . . .


az

Sorry Az, I wasn't criticising your use of the quote, I just meant to introduce a possibly interesting aside, if the main business of this thread is done . . .

Ah, a fellow Marxist speaks!

Anyway...I had an appointment with my trick cyclist yesterday. I explained the situation to her and she admonished me to make sure that I monitor my state of mind, don't get forced into hideous early-morning flights and generally look after myself. With her connivance, I've arranged a few appointments with her and my CPN so that I have cast-iron reasons for not being away Mondays (or travelling Sunday evenings), with the understanding that I might well cancel them. Plus she's prescribed sleeping pills, just to have as a backup in case I can't sleep in hotels (sleep loss is a common trigger).

So...I've also got an excuse for laying down some ground rules to my boss: 'My psychiatrist says...' It's what my brother calls 'playing the mental health card.' Lunacy is trumps.

You have to love the irony of a thread in which several people declare their lack of confidence at flatterers, while flattering each other outrageously. As for myself, I think one of the reasons I have that contradictory set of quotes on my homepage is to show how totally unreliable people's opinions are. That, and I think it's funny to have those all jumbled together like that, even if nobody else is laughing.

I figure the truth about me is somewhere in the middle. The ones who say mean things about me are jerks, or just don't know anything about me. The ones who say super-nice things either have diminished expectations, or I've got them fooled. Or they like me because, accurately or not, they see something like themselves in me, and they like themselves.

I think we were just reminding each other not to be so stupid!

Truly. And I thought my flattery was perfectly inrageous.