4 ms·

I used to work for road construction, albeit not pothole repair (interstate paving). Because of my lifestyle, money is not an object (grow food, buy bulk, only

I used to work for road construction, albeit not pothole repair (interstate paving). Because of my lifestyle, money is not an object (grow food, buy bulk, only drink free water, no insurance of any kind). There is this thing in my mind where I want to make sure the world is better for people when I'm dead, in whatever small way I can. That means bending over to pick trash even if no one is watching. Doing a good job and not waste any employers time, regardless of "wage". Technically I make more than the people that hire me because I know how to spend it more efficiently than them. We're talking about reputation here: Do we want to be remembered as someone who wants to be paid more? Or who was productive at all times without any complaints?

Jach 8y ago
You're probably getting flack for saying "low standards of perfection" instead of just "low standards"... To me having higher standards and wanting to do (and actually doing) a good job, not just a good enough job, is primarily an attitude problem, not a wage/job pressure problem. Indeed there's a whole cottage industry of grumpy programmers to complain about other highly paid programmers not even suffering under crunch mode who aren't doing good work. Yes, you get what you incentivize on the large scale, but at the individual level you still have choices and opportunities to leave things better than you found them. Activity in scouting or similar when young probably correlates with the attitude.
- moneytide1 8y ago
  I see now, "low standards of perfection" is almost an ironic statement since "standard" describes a minimum requirement and perfection can never be achieved, only pursued. I agree that only wanting to do "good-enough" is an attitude problem. My own motivation comes from the assumption that someone is always watching. The idea is to never put a memory into someones mind of you wasting time and resources. Regardless of your own reputation, it is far more risky for someone to see this attitude and find it acceptable to replicate it. Then the attitude can spread like wildfire (until it hits a group of people with solid principles).

Jach 8y ago

You're probably getting flack for saying "low standards of perfection" instead of just "low standards"... To me having higher standards and wanting to do (and actually doing) a good job, not just a good enough job, is primarily an attitude problem, not a wage/job pressure problem. Indeed there's a whole cottage industry of grumpy programmers to complain about other highly paid programmers not even suffering under crunch mode who aren't doing good work. Yes, you get what you incentivize on the large scale, but at the individual level you still have choices and opportunities to leave things better than you found them. Activity in scouting or similar when young probably correlates with the attitude.

moneytide1 8y ago
I see now, "low standards of perfection" is almost an ironic statement since "standard" describes a minimum requirement and perfection can never be achieved, only pursued. I agree that only wanting to do "good-enough" is an attitude problem. My own motivation comes from the assumption that someone is always watching. The idea is to never put a memory into someones mind of you wasting time and resources. Regardless of your own reputation, it is far more risky for someone to see this attitude and find it acceptable to replicate it. Then the attitude can spread like wildfire (until it hits a group of people with solid principles).