Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 4]
Discussion
Clockwork Cupcake said:
V8mate said:
I think that approach could be applied to many industries.
The big accountancy/management consulting firms focus their succession planning on taking wide-eyed graduates,brain-washing giving them the blinkered, in-house view and then deploying them as automatons.
Very true. I was mentoring a fresh-faced developer for whom it was his first job. Very bright guy, great ideas, a free thinker who was an asset to the team because he wasn't constrained by any knowledge of "how things are done" so came up with some really great ideas and implementations. The big accountancy/management consulting firms focus their succession planning on taking wide-eyed graduates,
When our team was disbanded and he was made redundant (tough gig), IBM were hiring and they wanted to interview him, and I did everything I could to dissuade him as I felt they would blinker him, crush him, and force him to conform to "the IBM way" which would affect his entire career. Fortunately, he took my advice on board and turned them down.
When you are starting out your career, your first job or two can affect your entire career, and the way you think - I know it did for me, and some bad experiences early on in my career is what made me go freelance.
What did happen to him ?
RizzoTheRat said:
FiF said:
Just wondering the following from idle observation. Why is it that on PH threads posters who claim to be speaking from experience of currently working within the insurance industry are such snippy buggers? Quick to rile and generally abrupt. We can all think of examples, possibly.
I suppose if we had threads involving supermarket purchasing departments a similar phenomenon might be seen. Reference the old gag alleging Tesco purchasing department recruit graduate trainees and turn them into a
holes.
Probably because posts about insurance tend to be to complain about insurance companies being robbing bI suppose if we had threads involving supermarket purchasing departments a similar phenomenon might be seen. Reference the old gag alleging Tesco purchasing department recruit graduate trainees and turn them into a
holes. ds so get started on the wrong foot and go downhill fast. 
For purposes of full disclosure, I can be a snippy git some days too.
Exige77 said:
I thought you were going to say “then this young lad, Steve Jobs, went on to achieve great things”
What did happen to him ?
LOL. What did happen to him ?
He got a job elsewhere in a more modern, less restrictive, environment. As far as I know he's doing well - I should get in contact and see how he's doing.
Edit: Also, how old do you think I am????
Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 23 July 15:22
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Exige77 said:
I thought you were going to say “then this young lad, Steve Jobs, went on to achieve great things”
What did happen to him ?
LOL. What did happen to him ?
He got a job elsewhere in a more modern, less restrictive, environment. As far as I know he's doing well - I should get in contact and see how he's doing.
Edit: Also, how old do you think I am????
Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 23 July 15:22
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Exige77 said:
I thought you were going to say “then this young lad, Steve Jobs, went on to achieve great things”
What did happen to him ?
LOL. What did happen to him ?
He got a job elsewhere in a more modern, less restrictive, environment. As far as I know he's doing well - I should get in contact and see how he's doing.
Edit: Also, how old do you think I am????
Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 23 July 15:22
Flibble said:
Out of interest have you worked at IBM?
I have a good friend & colleague who has, and have also met several ex-IBM people over the years. There is also a weight of anecdotal evidence on various forums, plus news reports on tech websites, articles, and the like. All of these, over several years, have caused me to form the opinion that they are a stifling, procedural, jobsworth, by-the-numbers, do-it-our-way-or-leave place to work at. I have no particular axe to grind with them. I just got an overwhelming sense that it was the wrong place for my young colleague to go to so early in his career.
glazbagun said:
If Genghis Khan had died in childhood and the mongols failed to materialize as the all-smashing force they became, would Christianity have held on to Europe or would we eventually suffer the fate of Constantinople?
I don't understand your question. Last time I looked Christianity did hang on to Europe, and Constantinople was toppled by the Turks, not the mongols.glazbagun said:
If Genghis Khan had died in childhood and the mongols failed to materialize as the all-smashing force they became, would Christianity have held on to Europe or would we eventually suffer the fate of Constantinople?
I think the absence of his genes being widely spread around Eurasia might have had a bigger impact.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/other-me...
I have spent about a year working my way through Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and I have learned a lot.
One of the things that really surprised me was that after the First Crusade, the later Crusades became wars between the Roman Catholics and their adherents in Western Europe and the Orthodox Christians in Constantinople. The eventual fall of Constantinople to the Sultan was not without the connivance of the Pope, who was not willing to support his Christiam brothers in the east, unless they defected to his own brand of Christianity. The Sultan must have been laughing his socks off.
It took Gibbon eight volumes to explain why the Roman Empire fell, and the last two thirds of the work is mostly about the Eastern Empire. The gradual decline was self inflicted, the Turks were not the first invaders of Constantinople, and the eventual conquest by the Turks was more a matter of picking up the pieces of a shattered civilisation than anything else.
In any case, the so called Eastern Empire was little more than the city and a remnant of territory around it by the time the end came. Many of the inhabitants were not averse to the Turkish takeover either, if it brought with it a little peace and good civil government. The Turks were not exactly an uncivilised race, and their preservation of classical scholarship did much to kick start the Renaissance. It was not a matter of Muslim hordes sweeping across the Steppes and turning up at the gates of Constantinople one fine morning to everyone's surprise and consternation.
One of the things that really surprised me was that after the First Crusade, the later Crusades became wars between the Roman Catholics and their adherents in Western Europe and the Orthodox Christians in Constantinople. The eventual fall of Constantinople to the Sultan was not without the connivance of the Pope, who was not willing to support his Christiam brothers in the east, unless they defected to his own brand of Christianity. The Sultan must have been laughing his socks off.
It took Gibbon eight volumes to explain why the Roman Empire fell, and the last two thirds of the work is mostly about the Eastern Empire. The gradual decline was self inflicted, the Turks were not the first invaders of Constantinople, and the eventual conquest by the Turks was more a matter of picking up the pieces of a shattered civilisation than anything else.
In any case, the so called Eastern Empire was little more than the city and a remnant of territory around it by the time the end came. Many of the inhabitants were not averse to the Turkish takeover either, if it brought with it a little peace and good civil government. The Turks were not exactly an uncivilised race, and their preservation of classical scholarship did much to kick start the Renaissance. It was not a matter of Muslim hordes sweeping across the Steppes and turning up at the gates of Constantinople one fine morning to everyone's surprise and consternation.
Roofless Toothless said:
glazbagun said:
If Genghis Khan had died in childhood and the mongols failed to materialize as the all-smashing force they became, would Christianity have held on to Europe or would we eventually suffer the fate of Constantinople?
I don't understand your question. Last time I looked Christianity did hang on to Europe, and Constantinople was toppled by the Turks, not the mongols.I was wondering what the Islamic world (who weren't without divisions themselves) would have been able to achieve had it not been facing two existensial threats, whilst Christendom was busy with its own infighting.
glazbagun said:
The mongols absoloutely battered the Islamic world (it makes fearsome reading!), some say that Irans population wouldnt recover until the 20th century.
I was wondering what the Islamic world (who weren't without divisions themselves) would have been able to achieve had it not been facing two existensial threats, whilst Christendom was busy with its own infighting.
Another of the things I learned from Gibbon was how the Turks eased over the Caliphate, which had presided over the Muslim world in the east for centuries, and had settled into a very comfortable relationship with the surrounding peoples. There were Muslims, Jews and Christians all getting on well together in Jerusalem itself, with their own quarters, of course, but no friction. The Turks, having the zeal of recent converts, entered Jerusalem, roughed up the Christian Patriarch, and news of his treatment reached Rome, prompting the Pope to instigate the first Crusade. I was wondering what the Islamic world (who weren't without divisions themselves) would have been able to achieve had it not been facing two existensial threats, whilst Christendom was busy with its own infighting.
I love reading history. If you have the patience and the time, Gibbon is still a fabulous read, and besides its exemplary use of English, is still a useable history even after 250 years.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff