There are many times I refrain from truly saying
what I think here, on the off chance someone I
don't want to see it will.

This is NOT a private forum, and there should be
no expectation of privacy. So while I will occasionally
ask for advice, I'll try to do it in a manner that
achieves plausible deniability if I an ever called
on it.

I go by a handle that is very close to my exact name,
and can easily identify me. I will also forward
occasional links from here when I see something
that may interest a co-worker.

Also, when I get a resume for a position, I WILL
Google the name and try to find out about the
person. And if I see what could be threatening
flame fests or signs of insanity, I will be extra
careful in my dealings with that individual.

Won't work for you if someone really wanted to
delve. You are too well known, and I've seen
people use your name in response to things you've
written.

Dependability is far more important than genius.
I know, because I AM a genius. Low grade, entry
level, but still a genius.

141 on the Stanford Binet IQ test, around 1972.

An no matter how smart I am, it doesn't mean shit
if I can't deliver against a deadline. I've worked
with "rocket science" geniuses. Never again. They'd
zone out for a few days, exploring esoteric tangents.

Mental masturbation.

Nobody pays other people to mentally maturbate. So
to say some employers don't want to work with depression
that borders on genius is self delusion. Employers
want production, and nothing else. Anything else is
a distraction to the production.

Nobody want an employee that causes societal rifts in
the work place, either. Which means if you are the
initial genius, you surround yourself with people
like yourself as much as possible. Since it is very
difficult to hire such people, your department grows
very slowly, carefully. And since such people are
rarely "socialized" like the rest of the world, you
are willing to make allowances. But not too many.

If you are the lone genius hired into a "regular" group,
you are usually treated better than the rest by the
person who hired you. When my current employer read
me resume, he had 2 questions:

Can he speak?
Does he bath?
If so, hire him.

Too many perks to an individual and the rest of the
department gets pissed. That perked individual better
be SO valuable to ALL people, especially the ones not
getting the same perks, that they would be willing to
give that person the perks. This is the ONLY situation
where a lone genius will last. But if he pisses everyone
else off (even the idiots), he WILL be removed, no matter
how productive. A VERY difficult lesson for a genuis
to learn. Then politics come into play.

So you then attempt to build a group around you, as stated
above, but then ALL other departments feel the pressure.
They can't produce as much, or as fast, or as well, so
they complain about dress, hours, and attitude.

So eventually there will be a power struggle, departments
will be split apart, joined to others, and certain
individuals will be either fired or promoted. All this
SHOULD be based on your ability to add to the bottom
line. Sometimes it is based on the person at the top,
and their attitudes. A small amount of ass kissing
combined with a good track record for making money
will beat a lot of ass kissing with no track record.
But NO ass kissing combined with almost anything else
(making money or not) will usually get you canned, since
the person in charge needs to be able to communicate with
you and trust you, and it is unlikely any previous
communication led to trust, since there was no shmoozing
involved.

I've also met others who make me feel stupid. Ben
Tilly is one of them. And I'd hire him in a second.
And he doesn't make me feel stupid by one upping and
digging into my lack of knowledge. He does it merely
by exuding information, logically arguing, and not
taking shit from bigoted idiots.

Speaking of which: Ben, isn't time for your wife to
come to a Phila medical school so I can hire you?

I've just hired a sysadmin straight out of college.
The guy is smarter than me, and he knows it. It's OK.
But at the same time, I had to explain why it was his
job to help a moronic employee to achieve a certain
task as simply as possible, and that he was not allowed
to change any procedure or alter the environment in such
as way that this person would be confused, no matter
how trivial an alteration.

This pissed him off. This meant a bit of extra work
for NO reason, at least none that could be justified
in his perfect world. He though that the other employee
should be fired if she was too stupid to handle a trivial
change.

I explained that she was far more valuable than him, in
regard to business knowledge, and we could trust her to
accomplish certain tasks that would take others months
to figure out. And the only time he was allowed to
modify her environment was when he fully automated her
out of existance, no sooner. And even then, we'd find
something else for her to do, so don't think we are getting
rid of her.


I always worry about saying anything to you, thinking I'll push
you over the edge. So I probably will stop responding to
this thread at this point.