Letters to the Editor
calcareous
Published Letters: 304 Editor's Choice: 50
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3 betrayals
[Read the article: Graduate schools can drive you crazy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I agree that betrayal can cut you deep. I've had three major traumas in my life, all of which have been betrayals a sense.
The first was a romantic betrayal, and it has affected me by causing me to keep my guard up. It wasn't exactly a concious decision, but I've decided to never let somebody get into a position where they could hurt me like that again. It hasn't inhibited my subsequent relationships too much, I'm not afraid of intimacy, or commitment - I'm just never going to give somebody myself completely again, because you can't completely trust anybody. Its been nearly 15 years now, but it still hurts a little bit, I think it always will.
The second was an academic betrayal, in graduate school. My advisor, for reasons I still don't completely understand, cut me off and hung me out to dry. It was only thru great determination, and a refusal to accept failure, that I completed my program and obtained my degree. My studies were the focus of my life for several years, and since then nothing has really replaced them. I don't have the kind of fire and inspiration I once had, and while living a successful life, feel like there is a part of me that isn't being fulfilled. But I don't know what will inspire and galvanize me, so I wait, hoping at some point in the future that something will make itself apparent. I suspect it might not, in surviving and succeeding, I've become so pragmatic that it is getting hard to imagine doing things for their own sake.
The third was an employment betrayal. I endured a nearly untenable situation at my job for several years, and managed to outlast the person who was the source of my problems. Now I'm recalibrating to try to be less defensive and perfectionist, and to accept that people think I do a good job. I really don't have anything to prove, just a job to do - which is a much more manageable task, than trying to constantly shore up insecurities, and prove oneself.
I think that part of why betrayal can hurt creative people so much, is that in a sense we live in a fantasy world of ideals of our own contruction. By creating these ideals, we are able to leverage them into great accomplishments, but when a betrayal shatters the ideal, we take it as an attack on our self. Unlike people who deal with these sorts of things as structural setbacks (ie: guess I'll just get a new job), the creative often deal with them thru changing themselves. This is hard work, and it takes time.
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requirements, requirements, requirements!
[Read the article: Software is hard]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nobody would build a structure, even a simpler one like a house, without generating a blueprint first. You figure out where the plumbing and electrical will go, where the walls doors and windows are at. You think about practical usage - put the bathroom close to the bedrooms, and not on the other side of the building. Clearly, the only way a complex project like a house can come together is with a plan.
The problem I see repeatedly in my organization, is that a decision is made that "we don't have time to specify the requirements". This drives me crazy! How can you expect to predict how long something is going to take to make, when you can't even say what it is going to do? In my opinion, if you can keep your requirements specifications under some control, you are over half way there to producing a product that does what it is expected to.
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advertising gets people to buy things
[Read the article: Women drink "diet," while guys sip "calorie-free"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It seems to have escaped people that the purpose of advertising it to get people to buy things. Simply stated, diet coke is intended to appeal to a female audience. Why? Because it works. As it happens, many women today are obsessed about their weight, and it is a very effective to market things to them based on this obsession. Were women to collectively decide to be a bit more reasonable about their body image, the marketing approach would change to follow that. Corporations only want your money, not your soul!
The fact that Coke has decided to differentiate its product by avoiding the diet lable says more about the effectiveness of the diet lable in hitting it's target demographic, than it does about Coke Zero being targeted at men. I've had both beverages and if it comes down to an issue of taste there is no contest, Coke Zero is MUCH better. Now that there is a better low calorie option available, why would Coke choose to continue selling an inferior beverage? My guess is because the people that are buying it aren't just buying a drink, they are buying into a dream. In the same way the poor will play the lottery dreaming of getting rich, people drink diet soda thinking it will make them thin. Heck, everybody likes to dream, and its alot easier to buy into that dream for $1.25 at the vending machine down the hall than it is to actually exercise and watch your diet.
So in summary, I think the article is basically correct, except that the focus is backwards. Coke Zero isn't so much masculine, as Diet Coke is feminine, and most men do not want to think of themselves as feminine.