May 25, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Greed Is Good (for IT)
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May 26, 2011 at 6:09 am
I think I disagree with the premise of the editorial, and I have just been through a circumstance that I think illustrates why the presumptions made are generally, not correct. Greed is in fact, numbing.
A couple months ago my children came to me and said that two of their favorite games on the PC were not working anymore. After some investigation I discovered that McAfee Anti-Virus had actually deleted the EXE's for these games. I would reinstall the games and actually watch as the EXE's disappeared, deleted by McAfee.
No problem, I had been through this before. Just add the EXE's to the exclusions list.
Well, you cant. McAfee, who, on their web site advertise "World Class Support" now does its exclusion list via the web - you cant add your own entries - you have to submit the EXE's in question to McAfee, and long story short, it took McAfee 2 and 1/2 months to add those games to the list.
Worse, trying to explain to McAfee that these were not virus files took multiple on-line chats, and three phone calls where I sat on hold for at least 15 minutes before getting no good answer at all. That is "World Class Support"? Sure, and I am the Queen of England.
My point? As the web has grown, the end-user has become a statistic, no longer a person. Lousy software design (as in this case) has become a "who gives a damn" issue. Lets just put nice smiley-face stock pictures on our site. "World Class Support" is in fact, just a phrase - the actual support well, sucks. Their goal? Get rich. At any cost.
And people get very rich. A few... Near the top. Who gets forgotten? The human being on the other end who made 'them' rich. It will be interesting to see if LinkedIn, a very good site I have been a member of for years, now goes this way. Most companies do after getting "too rich". Money may not be the root of all evil - but it certainly seems to disconnect the people who get rich, from those who made them that way. And what fills the void? Nice stock photos, catchy phrases - and all of it just "image". The reality is in fact, quite ugly.
May 26, 2011 at 7:18 am
Greed is never good, for anyone, least of all the person driven by it. Maybe another word, another motivation?
May 26, 2011 at 8:55 am
Perhaps another word would be better, but I do see so many of our executives as being greedy. Not evil, but getting caught up in the Lord Byron quote about power corrupting. Plus it was my "Wall Street" reference that came to mind (Gordon Gecko)
I think there's a difference between "fixing" things and tackling new ways to engage with customers. My hope is that some executives see the LinkedIn IPO as way of further noting that consumers and customers have better connections with each other and that your missteps or your lack of listening to them will have an impact.
I guess I can hope, though I'm not confident.
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May 26, 2011 at 2:36 pm
I agree with you that there are some seriously overcompensated management positions. :exclamationmark: As long as the culture is there, folks will gladly take the money...we all have some greed to deal with. The sad thing is how it goes unchecked, or is even promoted.
We do have opportunities to "go home and rethink" our lives, as Obi Wan put it. And reminders from you as well. Thanks, Steve, by the way, for all the thought and effort you have and are putting into SQL Server Central, as well as the mentoring program, and many other things I'm totally unaware of.
Gratitude is one way of helping check my own greediness. 😉
Haven't seen "Wall Street".
Best regards,
Mark
May 26, 2011 at 3:20 pm
"...Last week LInkedIn had an initial public offering (IPO), which was very successful..."
The last word has not been written on this yet. The typical result of an IPO is that the price spikes in the short term and then days, weeks, or months later drops like a rock to much less than the IPO price when the hard-nosed investors get a good look at the financial performance. The people that buy on the "IPO high" are the ones that get left holding the bag.
May 31, 2011 at 1:58 pm
In the big picture, the "greed is good" mentality isn't good for anybody -- IT or otherwise. Wall Street fat cats with an overabundance of that thought pattern are what sent the economy into the crapper three years ago.
While it's true that there may be some limited collateral benefits (execs want more tech things such as computing power and apps, thus leading to more IT work), "greed is good" is a losing proposition when applied to society at large. You have a point about there being opportunities to be had in any situation, but "greed is good" wasn't the right headline to get it across.
May 31, 2011 at 2:26 pm
The whole "Greed is Good" thing sounds very similar to Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations":
"As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestick industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestiek to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other eases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the publick good."
...
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages."
May 31, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Geoffrey Wrigg (5/31/2011)
In the big picture, the "greed is good" mentality isn't good for anybody -- IT or otherwise. Wall Street fat cats with an overabundance of that thought pattern are what sent the economy into the crapper three years ago.While it's true that there may be some limited collateral benefits (execs want more tech things such as computing power and apps, thus leading to more IT work), "greed is good" is a losing proposition when applied to society at large. You have a point about there being opportunities to be had in any situation, but "greed is good" wasn't the right headline to get it across.
I disagree. Greed is nothing more then the final act in the simple trait of man to be ambitious.
Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.
There's truth in that, although like any other vice abuse can destroy. Ask the caveman if he felt wanting 4 walls on the cave was greedy, ambitious, or if he should have been happy with what he had.
Greed *drives* us. Call it what name you like, ambition, worry for family, whatever. It's greed. The word greed is just the naked admittance that we want more. Those that didn't want more got ran over. Just ask the Neanderthal.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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May 31, 2011 at 3:22 pm
What possible purpose would asking a Neanderthal or caveman serve? :blink:
May 31, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Mark Cook-926564 (5/31/2011)
What possible purpose would asking a Neanderthal or caveman serve? :blink:
Heh, I guess I wasn't very clear. My apologies for that.
I was trying sideswipe the idea by taking it out of the realm of IT, to show it in a slightly different light. The idea of greed is that we desire something and take more of it. In the case of the Neanderthal, the other tribe's women, or skins, or hunting grounds. The non-greedy or non-ambitious versions of the early human breeds would be pushed around and out by the greedy ones. Those that wanted more learned to use tools, running over tribes that didn't. Etc.
It's part of our nature, and that nature is part of what got us here today. It's instinctual. Should it be balanced by thought and reason? Of course. It's still part of our makeup, and it's one of the things that makes for dominance amongst us, ignoring the rest of the world. Not enough of the other species have thumbs.
Hopefully that helps, otherwise I'll be over there, in the corner, trying to figure out a completely different way to phrase this. 🙂
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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