Here are two behaviors I need to vent about. The world hardly needs more negativity so I will at least make it quick. This is all IMO, disclaimer disclaimer, etc.
- Criticism by proxy. I've touched on this before, but it was from a don't-yuck-my-yum angle. Now, the true intent is more clear: Sometimes a person resents you but they want to keep up the appearance of being magnanimous (or simply "not a jerk"). So instead of belittling you directly, they criticize the things around you. "Your house is shabby, your car is gay, that picture (you picked out) is ugly." It's usually sneakier than that, but that's the gist of it. All of it so that if you blow up and ask them "what is your problem with me?" then they can look shocked and retort, honestly (technically), "I never said a word against you!" Right, you just slagged off every choice I made, they way I live, etc. etc. Eventually it's obvious what their real target has always been.
- Setting daemons. A daemon is a background process in computing and it's how I think of certain (non-computing) tasks with specific triggers. I am assigned tasks all the time and they broadly fall into three categories: Do it when able, do it at a certain time, and do it when a condition is met. That last category has the potential to incur terrible costs beyond the cost of the task itself. "Tell me this account balance" and "tell me this account balance on the first of every month" are easy. The latter just needs a recurring calendar entry. But "tell me this account balance when it becomes negative" is a huge pain in the neck. (Because what am I going to do, check that account every day to see if the balance has turned negative? It might not turn negative for three years, and if it takes me one minute to check it each day, that's more than 18 hours of work you're asking for.)
My real gripe with this one is that the people asking almost never think about the processes involved. They assume things can be automated when they can't. I explain this, but it rarely sinks in. Many times, the best I can do is turn it into a category-II task ("Okay, I'll check it on the first of every month and tell you if it's negative."), but even then, using the previous example, we're looking at 36 minutes of work. And the real problem here is that the asker, being ignorant of the process (and often unwilling to learn), gives the request as much weight as if it only needed to be done once ("It only takes you a minute!").
Alright, it's off my chest. Thanks.
