Mercurial Waters

So, I have just graduated from college and went into the working world. I landed a job right out of school (go me) and have been dealing with what it means to be a "grown-up". Not that I'm an immature person or anything, but they really don't teach you some of the stuff that you need to know when you are in school.

Thus, I was thinking that I could point out a couple of things that change once you're out of school.

1. You no longer get student discounts. Granted, this may not affect you, but where I am, everything was discounted for students. It was like the city of Richardson was saying: "You're a student? Here, have 5-20% off of everything." Sucks, I know, but there is an upside. Waiters now look at you like a human being since you don't lead with: "Do you guys have a student discount?"

2. You now have to pay all of your own bills. Yes, this one sucks, but on the upside, you should also have expendable income. If you have a decent job you should be making way more money than you need to live on and so paying an extra bill or two should not be a problem for you. However, if you haven't found that job you went to school for yet, brace yourself, because the pain that is paying bills is coming.

3. You must now wear shoes. OK, so maybe this is just something that happened at my school, but I knew a few people who just did not care for shoes. The reasoning was that it was more comfortable going without. Fair enough, but now that you are a grown up and have real job, you will more likely than not be required to wear shoes. I think some states require them for driving as well.

4. You are no longer able to ask the police to "give you a break". Now I have never had to deal with this myself, but I have heard of students getting away with a speeding ticket or a parking ticket by pointing out that they were stressed out students. Well that excuse is now gone, sorry.

5. Well, let's get to the actual work you will be doing. First, you will most likely have to join a team not form a team. This is something that is alien to most students who have gotten used to the old way of forming a team a the beginning of a project and having that team stay constant throughout the life cycle of the project. People may be added, removed, take vacation in the middle or be fired during a project. You never know, so you must be prepared for all these cases.

6. The there's the concept of "just business". You might think you're worth more money or that you should keep your job or get that promotion, but it might not make business sense for one reason or another. Maybe your company is having financial trouble or maybe they're holding that spot you're trying to get promoted to for someone else. Or maybe your business does not value you and you should leave. Regardless, don't take it personally, business is business and generally involves nice people treating each other very poorly.

So there you are, life is hard and now that you're an adult the kid gloves have come off. But hey you get to drink, smoke, drive, and have sex, so it all balances out. You should probably not mix the first with the last two, but that's just personal choice.

Perception of Self Worth

Have you ever asked yourself: "What am I worth?" Having just graduated college, I find myself asking that question and being unsure of the answers I present. What do you measure your self worth in terms of? Does your income matter?

Well, for me, income does matter. After all, income is what determines what age we can retire at, and what kind of lifestyle we can lead. A person with more income has the ability to go on a trip, go to shows and museums and most importantly spend less of their time doing menial things. For me, income = time, the more income I have, the more free time I will have at some point in my life. I might be trading in some time now for some time later, but the more money I make, the more free time I will have.

Some people think this is silly, but think about this: "How much time do you spend cooking, cleaning and generally upkeeping your home?" Now, what if you made enough money to hire a maid, a lawn-care specialist and be able to afford to eat out more often? Think about having all of that time free to use as you please. Now multiply that amount by however many of the unit of time you picked (I'm assuming most of you thought of this in terms of free time per week or month) that you will have until you plan to retire. Now for most people that will be an unbelievable amount of time.

For example, I'm kind of a slob and only spend about 10 hours a week maintaining my home. Now if I were to retire at 65 that would mean that I would spend 21,840 hours maintaining my home. This is assuming that I will never have a good spring cleaning or a move or a big party (you know, stuff you can pay other people to clean up or carry stuff for you). 21,840 hours is about 2 and half years. So if I were to make enough money that I could hire a maid and a lawn-care specialist and so on, then I would be buying 2 and half years of my life.

This was just a thought that popped into my head and I figured that I should share it with all of you.

Corporate Gains and the Losses Incurred

Now, I'm fairly new to the corporate world, so I won't claim that I know the "right" way to do things or anything like that. But some stories I've read lately, along with some events that I have experienced first hand have caused me to ask a couple of questions.

First, what is the most important asset a business can have? Is it the physical assets (computers, buildings and so on), or the personnel, or is it the company's intellectual property? Now, the smart money will tell you that the intellectual property is the most valuable thing a company can have. People come and go, but the IP will continue to be a viable source of money after everyone who worked on it is dead and gone. I mean, look at Mickey Mouse, or any of a hundred other pieces of intellectual property that will continue making money basically forever.

This all sounds very reasonable, respect your IP, make it the most important asset your company has and you'll be successful. Well, I'm of another opinion. An IP is valuable, sure, but companies are people, and disgruntled people will do the minimum amount of work that will let them keep their jobs. You can have a great IP, that if mismanaged can lose its value and then you're really in a hole.

I am of the opinion that employees should be treated well and kept content. I recently read a story about Google charging its employees for childcare to the tune of 50,000 dollars a year. Some employees have understandably become upset and the story hit the news. This cannot possibly have a good impact on Google's public image and in the search engine business, image can be important. So my personal opinion is that they should have ate the losses and then made a public announcement of how they were ok with the loss of money as long as the employees had a safe place to leave their children during the day. That would have made them look like saints, but now Google looks like the rest of us, watching that holy bottom line.

So what if an employee likes to shoot a few instant messages to their significant other to feel like they did something to connect during the day? So what if an employee like to check up on tech news a couple of times a day to feel like they are part of the world around them and not just working in a room with no windows for 12 hours a day? These are concessions that a company should make, within reason, to ensure that their employees feel happy.

Is the employee doing their job? Have their tasks been making their deadlines? Is the quality of their work up to the standards of the company? These are the questions that should be asked, not "Are you working at least 8 hours a day?"

Now this might seem like a bitter rant, but it isn't. I'm just concerned that companies in this country are treating their employees like lower priority assets than the work which the employees produce. As a simple analogy, a flower that receives sunlight and water will grow and produce better petals than one which is in the shade and has very little water. So too will an employee that feels appreciated and valued produce more, higher quality work than one which feels like a cog.

The Return

Good day everyone. So, I'm back, yet again. And this time I'm actually going to try and post something or a semi-regular basis.

So, I've been looking around at alternate transportation means as gas prices here in the US begin to normalize with those in Europe. I'm just going to go over a few ideas that popped into my head.

First, there's hybrids. Well these things are meant to save the rainforest, keep people from clubbing baby seals and make the dodo become un-extinct. But, when you actually look at their fuel economy and their cost, the picture is not so rosy. I'll talk about the Prius, since I have a good friend who has one (and who loves it). The fuel economy is good, but really only on par with a small diesel engine (35-45 MPG). And, if you are an agressive driver, look for fuel economy in the low 30s with what I consider to be terrible perfomance.

Next, there's the really small and trendy Smart car. OK, I'll admit to lusting after one of these when I heard about them and saw pictures of them in Europe. They're small, they good on gas and they don't cost an arm and a leg. The base model is one of the cheapest cars in America. And it isn't made of tin foil like some of the other cars in the sub 12K range. But there's a catch. It does poorly in incliment weather, it only has two seats and the fuel efficiency is lower than the European 50 MPG. I still think this is a great car for a student since it is hard to even hit stuff with something so small and it's so slow that you probably won't be going very fast if you do hit something, but for an adult, it might not be the best choice.

Then there's the full electrics. Or rather, I should say, there's the Tesla. Cool? Yes. Fast? You betcha. Practical? Hell no. With a 100K price tag and a ~100 mile per charge range, this thing is awesome if you don't drive very far to get to work and if you have a lot of money. But for the rest of us, the GM Volt might be the answer.

Which brings me to the GM Volt. Shorter all electric range than the Tesla, and with a gas generator that powers the electric motors and recharges the batteries when they run low, this thing (if it ever makes it to the streets) will be the US's oil equivalent of a nicotine patch. All electric is scary since recharging is slow and it makes road trips impossible. But something that's all electric on a daily basis but can also go for long distances once in a while, that's something that fits America.

Then we come to the other solution, get a bike. "I live far from work." OK, get a scooter, or a motorcycle. Now, don't get me wrong, these are not for everyone as they require a lot of skill to operate, but the gas economy is staggering. Assuming you weigh less than 250 lbs (and I apologize to all those really fit bodybuilders who weight a metric ton), then you can get a nice cheap scooter than gets 80+ MPG. Can you use it in a blizzard? No. How about a tornado? No. Can you tow a house with it? No. But most of us have jobs that we commute to and from during mostly fair weather (sorry Seattle, I know fair is relative for you; oh, and screw you guys in California with your perfect weather year round). Now, if you are on the bigger side (whatever that means for you), then you can still get a motorcycle that will give you better gas mileage than that SUV or Pickup truck for your commute to work.

Now, before I get flamed for trying to turn us into a country of Scooter riding pinko commies, I'd just like to note that I'm not saying: "Get rid of your pickup." I'm saying: "Don't drive it to your office job." Get a second small car and save gas so you can take the road trip you currently can't afford. Or maybe take the money you saved and go on a vacation to some place you've never been before and learn something about this the awesome world around you. It isn't always about making more money, just about using what you have to it's full potential. And you don't maximize anything sitting in traffic with your 6 liter V10 idling. That's your vacation money burning away.

Just wanted to say my peace on the subject since I know everyone else is.