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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (133692)	3/27/2001 3:36:38 PM
From: Kevin Rose	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

I don't think you or the others really got my message. Sorry for possibly being unclear. What I am saying is that a lot of people who have been lucky will not acknowledge that luck (like some on this board). Some people are lucky, and don't have to work hard to obtain success. Some work hard, but are unlucky. Others work hard and are lucky. For example, working at a startup. You worked hard, and the company was successful. However, there was some element of luck involved. Call it market timing, getting with the right group of people, just plain being at the right place at the right time. I know a lot of people in SV who worked just as hard in such an environment, and didn't make it. I worked at unsuccessful startups, 100+ hours a week. It is not all just working hard, people. There is an element of chance, luck, divine fortune, whatever you choose to call it. I will agree that PERSISTENCE can affect the luck portion of the equation. It took me 4 startups and 20 years of persistence before I was lucky enough to 'make it'. If I had not been persistent, then I wouldn't have been able to cash in on my hard work and luck. As for labor, you have to admit that having a job as a software developer at $100K per year, working from a nice office w/stock and other benefits, beats being a migrant farm worker. It is very LUCKY that I happen to be very good at a profession that I enjoy and which pays great salaries. I hope your labor experience showed you how hard some people really work. It was also an eye opener for me. I include liberals and conservatives in my comments on those who got without hard work. Did I ever make that distinction? By the way, was Newton a Liberal or a Conservative? Doesn't really matter, does it?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (133692)	3/27/2001 5:10:06 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Hi James, good post. Funny coincidence, I also worked as a field laborer for 2 summers in high school. Picked tobacco, corn, string beans and tomatoes. Also built in ground pools which require digging many ditches in the sweltering summer heat. Humped lumber as a carpenters helper also. Now that was a back breaker....Try and keep up with three crack carpenters building row houses as the only lumber mover! Maybe it's because liberals never really worked hard (physically), they feel so guilty seeing someone who has. Quite revealing actually.

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (133692)	3/27/2001 9:47:06 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 769667

James, I think physical labor can be not work. Many repetitive physical tasks are like meditation. But most jobs of just physical labor pay poorly. In my career in engineering I was fortunate and I planned to do a variety of different engineering tasks. I put dozens of hours a week into the tasks I had come my way and I had deadlines and such. But the work I did was fun and I enjoyed it and did not consider it as really work. I really saw it as play. Now I've done Ok but I could have focused on different tasks and been rewarded far more. BUt I chose my course and I have and have not my regrets. So to me understanding one has the freedom to chose and one then is responsible for the consequences is the fundamental blind spot of the vacant liberal mind and that hole or blindness in their minds leads to the most absurd rationalizations. Now come on, software development, It's just an extended chess game. Now I guess though the problem is like the kids soccer games that I attend where the kids are only upset because the adults get hung up on winning and not playing for the fun and enjoyment of the game. Never let the anal retentive engineering managers get you down. The rule is, smile, look them in the eye and say no problem and then ignore whatever they tell you and do the job correctly. Good engineering managers never create stress and get the crap out of your way. That's my experience anyway. tom watson tosiwmee