this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2025
131 points (97.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27368 readers
2431 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Tell a fish success is measured by climbing a tree, and he will spend his whole life thinking he's a failure.

What skills, attitudes, personality traits have you seen mismatched to a certain job that later made the individual an awesome worker in another job?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 106 points 5 days ago (5 children)

I maintain that lazy programmers are the best programmers because they put all their energy towards having to do as little work as possible. Everything goes to efficiency. Everything that can be automated will be. The code will be structured and documented to avoid future work.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 days ago

YUP can I automate this? is the output as good as my manual work? did I just save my client 8 billable hours? can I go home now

[–] shalafi 25 points 5 days ago

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

~ Bill Gates

[–] Diplomjodler3 25 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Absolutely. Let me spend five hours to automate this ten minute task.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

I did that once and cost someone their job.

Back in the bad old days of 2009, the company I apprenticed at furloughed the secretary and made me enter in job tickets. We had a special relationship with one client and they used us like one would use a drop shipping company – they sent us their customer orders and we fulfilled them. It was low volume (per job), high frequency work. About 80% of our tickets originated from PDFs that always followed the same pattern. As my first serious foray into programming, I automated the ticket intake for just their tickets so I didn’t have to type them up manually. At the time, I did not realize reducing a 10 minute task to 10 seconds (repeated about 15 times a day) would mean they never brought her back to work full time.

I don’t feel that bad about it: In the 5 years there she’d never been given a raise, the healthcare plan was atrocious, and she found out she was pregnant during the furlough. However, she decided to look for another job, and found one as a secretary at a school just down the street from her house. It was a dramatic pay increase, much better benefits, and better job security.
I left a few months later, and a year or so after, the business folded.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Nibodhika 14 points 4 days ago

If you do that task 6 times a day after a week you're in a net positive of time. And a lazy programmer would not automate something he will do just once, because of laziness it's easier to just do the 10 min task once.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

xkcd has the chart for this: https://xkcd.com/1205/

[–] shalafi 22 points 5 days ago

Did that over and over job before last.

CFO was complaining about how much time "her girls" spent daily on a task.

"You're scanning CSVs with you eyeballs?! I can make that go away."

She didn't understand what I was saying, so I went behind her back to her second in command.

"Send me a couple of example files."

Within 2-hours we were ready to test. Perfect. My god accounting loved me.

[–] Usernameblankface 13 points 5 days ago

Yes! There are so many times where a focus on efficiency is mislabeled "laziness". As long as the job gets done the same or faster, it's just efficient to put less work into it.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 5 days ago

Cruelty is not so good in nursing but is a desirable trait in a CEO.

[–] Siethron 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Logical reasoning is good for programming but won't get you anywhere in management.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

Logical reasoning is good for programming

For a given type of logical reasoning.

(Everquest once introduced the command "/stand" in a patch, replacing the existing command "/sit off")

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Brutally beating up and killing people is seen as insanity in education but effective in law enforcement

[–] Stovetop 9 points 4 days ago

Until there's a school shooting and every teacher is expected to be the Good Guy With Gun™.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Paranoia (to a healthy degree) is good for information security professionals but drives literally everyone else crazy. I wish people would adopt more of that, though. Maybe we'd see fewer data breaches...

[–] I_Has_A_Hat 20 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The CEO of my company decided to send a holiday E-Card to everyone right before Christmas. I reported it as a phishing attempt and IT just laughed and said it was fine. Apparently I'm the only one that reported it and just... What? An email from outside our organization that claims to be from the CEO and contains a non-descript link to an unknown website? And I'm the only one that saw red flags from that?!

[–] deltapi 9 points 4 days ago

I'm sorry. I agree with you that your take is valid. I once had to explain to the assistant to the CFO why it was a bad idea to whitelist a gambling website ("they're doing a fun play for the world Cup that uses points instead of real money'") for the team handling customer card payments...and even then she still wanted it done until I told her she had to officially sign a release accepting responsibility for negative outcomes.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] I_Fart_Glitter 57 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I almost cried with joy when my boss at my new job as a massage therapist thanked me for being so quiet. I was turned down for jobs and nearly fired from one for being “too quiet.”

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 60 points 5 days ago (2 children)

A very large penis is an asset in porn but frowned upon for mall Santas.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago

“You’ve been very naughty”

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Most neurodivergences

ADHD is hell in a corporate setting but fantastic in a creative profession (I do both)

[–] deltapi 9 points 4 days ago

My untreated ADHD was a huge asset when I worked customer support for an airline. I had tons of customer complements and I was hailed as an example by area management on how to balance corporate costs with getting customers what they want.

I utterly failed managing a team of 15 people doing the exact same job. The multiple competing priorities on any given day often left me in task paralysis.

Now I work in I.T. and my ADHD is an asset again. I complete most days work in 3-5 hours and play video games the rest of the time.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] sunbrrnslapper 56 points 5 days ago (3 children)

"Thinking outside the box" is rewarded in software development but terrifying when applied to assembling an airplane.

[–] Usernameblankface 23 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Boeing would like to know your location.

[–] sunbrrnslapper 25 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Ha! Boeing couldn't find me when I worked there.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Having a brain is wanted in most professions, however the military would preffer brainless suicidal muscle sacks.

[–] MutilationWave 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

~~brainless~~ poor suicidal muscle sacks

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

Actually ideally both

[–] Stovetop 5 points 4 days ago

Same with policing. Most police departments (in the US at least) basically don't want folks above C-student level. There are tests required to be a cop and it's possible to be rejected for doing too well on them.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 18 points 4 days ago

For me personally adhd makes factory work torture but kitchen work a breeze.

[–] FourPacketsOfPeanuts 33 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

autism_IT_superpower_trope.jpg

Joking aside. I struggle in everyday conversation or in most job settings because the small inconsistencies and inaccuracies that are a normal part of everyday speech accrue in my head without any discharge in a painful way and I either detach to cope (and look like I don't give a shit) or have to splurge back at someone all the minor nonsense logical inconsistencies they've been using over the last few minutes. Or people rely so much on you being in the same mental world as they are that I genuinely don't understand what they mean and come across like a pedantic asshole. From experience this is deeply unwelcome. I would not last long anywhere where normal conversation and ways of thinking is not the thing under the microscope.

In software development, I can take architects, senior devs, department heads, c-level execs.. whoever.. streaming technical info, regulatory requirements, business processes at me seemingly for any length of time because I can ask anything I want and at the end of it they'll ask me what's wrong with it and I can give them a list and how to fix it. I'm also completely immune to telling senior-whomever that they are wrong, because when I tell them, it's because they are and I can show them why.

For this I am paid $$$. Anywhere else I would be fired.

(Also, watch The Accountant, it's great)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 days ago (1 children)

ADHD. I'm an excellent developer... I'd probably murder someone if I had to do retail or do any other "always on" job.

[–] TheBananaKing 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Working in emergency medicine would be amazing, but the first lull that happened, I'd fuck up and people would die

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago

I have ADHD and I have worked in Emergency Medicine...and the lulls just result in going down weird rabbit holes in the medical information databases. I'm a medical student now and I am really hoping to get into Emergency med for residency.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Questioning your superior's orders in the military is probably gonna get you yelled at, probably dishonorably discharged, and if at war, could cause your country to lose a battle, or possibly a war.

Questioning your captain's orders on an airplane is a good part of Crew Resource Managenment (CRM) and sometimes can let the captain realize his/her mistake and avoid a catastrophe. And sometimes it even goes as far as just telling your captain to fuck off and you take over the controls, if the captain's capacity to fly is demininished for some reason (aka: subtle incapcitation).

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What separates four nymphomaniacs from two alcoholics?

The cockpit door.

Old joke I learned from my pilot father.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Unless they're wrong. You're supposed to turn down unlawful orders.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Wonder how often that goes well for the subordinate.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] MTK 18 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Soft hands.

Great for massage therapists, surgeons, etc.

Terrible for any physical work such as construction, wood working, etc

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

Don't you get rougher hands from those things though? So it would only be disadvantageous for a while, not forever necessarily.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

In most other jobs you need to have some level of critical thinking and some ethics. The police profession is therefore ruled out.

[–] son_named_bort 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Talking on the phone is necessary in a call center but is not something you want your surgeon to do during surgery.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

I get what your saying but I've held a phone to a surgeons ear in the middle of surgery. Sometimes they still need to communicate with people outside of the OR

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago

There are so many jobs where looking at only the details in front of you at a given time is absolutely crucial, and yet being called myopic is still an insult.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Improvisation is a brilliant skill in something where you can just keep going if something goes wrong. Attention to detail is a brilliant skill in something where something going wrong will get someone killed. The example that comes to mind is a stage hand vs a stage hand where pyrotechnics are involved.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (3 children)

stereoblindness is bad when you're an athlete in a ball game, good when you're a photographer

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Empathy and compassion are all but useless in business, but are key tools in psychiatry/therapy.

[–] pdxfed 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Saying no in sales is anathema to success. Saying no in HR is everything and the world will burn if you cannot.

load more comments
view more: next ›