Considering how important it is to me that I’m not some piece of shit manager, yeah, it was a little personal. I take that kind of thing seriously. It kinda doesn’t work as a meme reference without the meme.

Not everyone in my position is a sniveling little shit, as much as you may think. I do get paid more than my team, but not by some ridiculous margin. The lowest paid person gets 70% what I do and the highest paid person is at 95%. When I took over it was no shit closer to 40% for the lowest paid member. I fought for that to be fixed and burned up a lot if political capital doing it too.

When COVID came along and pay cuts and layoffs were a real threat, I told my boss to cut my salary before anyone else’s. We never had to, thankfully, but I literally told him I would quit if they cut one of my subordinates pay or laid them off without first taking out of my pocket.

I had a direct report who, for three years wanted to be in a leadership role. I fought for a new position for him and put my own ass on the line recommending him for promotion every chance I got. He’s been promoted past me and I hope (since I can’t see his salary anymore) he is getting paid more than me because he’s earned it.

I’m not some superstar manager, but I do feel like I keep my team out of the political battles and turf wars so they can focus on doing what they do best without dealing with all that crap. That’s my job. When something goes wrong, I’m accountable. So when the people doing the work get it wrong and take a critical system offline by fat fingering a command, I’m the one answering the phones and taking all the shit for it and smoothing things over with stake holders. And unless it was a result of gross negligence, I’m not going to give them hell for it either because I’ve fucking been there before.

I didn’t even want this damn job. I was perfectly happy being the technical lead and not having job recruiting and performance reviews to do, but I took it because I knew at the very least I would do my best to advocate for the people I care about, and that’s not something I could say about everyone who applied.

So you can make snap judgements and assume because I manage a team that I’m just collecting a paycheck while everyone else does all the hard work, but I don’t and I won’t because it’s unethical and shitty and despite your own insecurities, I actually give a fuck about other people.

Absolutely. As someone who manages a small team, my duties are advocating for the people who work for me, listening to the people closest to the problem, mediating disputes between people with different solutions, and ensuring we are all working towards the same overall goals. Most of the success of the team is directly attributed to their work. My biggest contribution is making sure they have what they need to do their job.

The same idiot that thinks an omniscient, omnipotent being created you and gets mad about your sexuality.

My brother in Christ, you are conflating free speech with the freedom from consequences. You are free to express your opinions. You will not be arrested for that. You can use the internet however you wish to express whatever opinions you have, no matter how stupid or hateful they are.

However, if your opinion sucks, the community will “deal with it” by down voting your dumb ass, and if you piss enough people off, you’ll get banned. Your rights have not been infringed. You’re just an asshole and people don’t want to listen to you anymore. You can freely go complain about it somewhere else.

I’m sure there is a community on the Internet that would welcome your shitty opinions into their little echo chamber. Go there if you don’t like it here. Or, as you say: “deal with it”.

I’m aware of the existence and superiority of maple syrup. I only use Aunt Jemima in this example because that’s what oversweetened tea tastes like to me: shit.

The trick is to order half sweet/half unsweet. Otherwise you get Aunt Jemima on ice.

Yeah, I’m not in a hurry to die. I love my life, and I’m very fortunate to be in that position. But “living” forever sounds like hell to me. Especially if I would have to spend it with those idiots.

This might sound like throw away advice, but really it’s simple: find people who are better at it than you are, hang out with them, and practice as often as you can. Then practice more. And when you feel like you have practiced enough, do it again.

Not bouldering, but on my bike I went from “yeah, I can sort of do jumps” to sending the biggest shit I can find in just under 2 years and all I did was exactly what I just said. The people I know who keep levelling up are the ones who do three times as many reps as anyone else.

At the trails, there are the people who sit around, chit chat, and occasionally send a lap, and then there are the people who just go non stop. For every lap everyone else is doing, they knock out 3. It’s true for every sport. There is no shortcut to greatness. It’s a grind. A rewarding grind, but a grind nonetheless.

Right? There are artists who still care about the album format. King Gizz was one of those gems I discovered that I wouldn’t have otherwise. They’re constantly dropping new thematic albums worth listening to. And you can buy vinyl from many artists these days if you want a physical copy.

I’ve wanted this for years. A car with modern engine and safety features, but none of the other bullshit.