3 ms·

I do sometimes wonder how much of the attitude and behavior of many IT people I've met might ultimately be sourced from the BOfH, taken to heart by people who d

I do sometimes wonder how much of the attitude and behavior of many IT people I've met might ultimately be sourced from the BOfH, taken to heart by people who didn't really get the joke. Much like how modern game 'critic' culture seems to have been derived from the AVGN.

user-the-name 5y ago
Yeah, I really do suspect that a lot of the rotten parts of programmer culture stems from things like this.
- datavirtue 5y ago
  Real life BOsFH hate developers more than lusers.
  - shagie 5y ago
    > Want of become enemy of ops? Install developer friendly product. -- DevOps Borat ( https://twitter.com/DEVOPS_BORAT/status/305113251388203008 https://twitter.com/DEVOPS_BORAT/status/305113251388203008 )
dijit 5y ago
I think in this case that art imitates life. Most people working in IT when these things came about were burned very hard by being a "cost centre", they were user facing and also had to be deeply technical. It's difficult to be under appreciated, held to high standards for output but also be user facing (because support requires, more than anything else, patience) and maintain a positive demeanour, most people specialised into roles like "Helpdesk" but those always felt very entry level and were probably very unfulfilling. Even if you had a Helpdesk: it probably felt that the implementor was "very far removed" from the user, which makes things even more annoying when something breaks down and you want things to move quickly. BOFH is almost certainly a fantasy that follows the perception of an operations person. Certainly I believe that more than I believe it's a work of fiction that came from nowhere that people identified with and imitated.
- Maursault 5y ago
  > roles like "Helpdesk" but those always felt very entry level and were probably very unfulfilling. I used to think that also until I worked with some career helpdesk operators that were well suited to the position for their excellent social aptitude and reasonably well compensated for their skills and excellent tact. This is not confined to Tier I, as the most successful in Tier II will also have this gift of being personable that is less common or with less opportunity to express it in Tier III, but it appears again in Tier IV. It is ironic, but generally a less competent but extremely personable operator will be more successful than a competent and efficient operator with no social skills.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
I remember greatly enjoying BOFH when I was young, in the same way it’s fun to watch a movie with a deeply flawed character behaving poorly. Then I worked at a company where the IT person modeled their personality on BOFH and it was, unsurprisingly, a miserable experience for everyone. Strangely, they got a free pass for the gruff behavior because there was this idea that “that’s just how IT people are”. Fortunately, that’s not the norm or even acceptable at any sane workplace and I went on to work with a lot of great and professional IT people since then. But I’ve often wondered how much the BOFH fictions influenced some people who missed the point.
toyg 5y ago
Nah, it's always been considered a revenge fantasy. IRL BOFHs were BOFHs before it came around, they just didn't have a label. The omnipotence mania is built in the very concept of "administrator" or "root", and because this obviously doesn't translate directly in the real world for IT admins, there is always a friction, a source of frustration, for people in those jobs. The real outcome of BOFH was to sensitize some bosses to the problems such personalities can produce, a concept that made it all the way to Sarbanes-Oxley. And despite that, the likes of Terry Childs [0] are still very much around. [0[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Childs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Childs
datavirtue 5y ago
I though that too until I brought up BOFH to actual BOFHs who had no idea the series existed.

user-the-name 5y ago

Yeah, I really do suspect that a lot of the rotten parts of programmer culture stems from things like this.

datavirtue 5y ago
Real life BOsFH hate developers more than lusers.
- shagie 5y ago
  > Want of become enemy of ops? Install developer friendly product. -- DevOps Borat ( https://twitter.com/DEVOPS_BORAT/status/305113251388203008 https://twitter.com/DEVOPS_BORAT/status/305113251388203008 )

dijit 5y ago

I think in this case that art imitates life. Most people working in IT when these things came about were burned very hard by being a "cost centre", they were user facing and also had to be deeply technical. It's difficult to be under appreciated, held to high standards for output but also be user facing (because support requires, more than anything else, patience) and maintain a positive demeanour, most people specialised into roles like "Helpdesk" but those always felt very entry level and were probably very unfulfilling. Even if you had a Helpdesk: it probably felt that the implementor was "very far removed" from the user, which makes things even more annoying when something breaks down and you want things to move quickly. BOFH is almost certainly a fantasy that follows the perception of an operations person. Certainly I believe that more than I believe it's a work of fiction that came from nowhere that people identified with and imitated.

Maursault 5y ago
> roles like "Helpdesk" but those always felt very entry level and were probably very unfulfilling. I used to think that also until I worked with some career helpdesk operators that were well suited to the position for their excellent social aptitude and reasonably well compensated for their skills and excellent tact. This is not confined to Tier I, as the most successful in Tier II will also have this gift of being personable that is less common or with less opportunity to express it in Tier III, but it appears again in Tier IV. It is ironic, but generally a less competent but extremely personable operator will be more successful than a competent and efficient operator with no social skills.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

I remember greatly enjoying BOFH when I was young, in the same way it’s fun to watch a movie with a deeply flawed character behaving poorly. Then I worked at a company where the IT person modeled their personality on BOFH and it was, unsurprisingly, a miserable experience for everyone. Strangely, they got a free pass for the gruff behavior because there was this idea that “that’s just how IT people are”. Fortunately, that’s not the norm or even acceptable at any sane workplace and I went on to work with a lot of great and professional IT people since then. But I’ve often wondered how much the BOFH fictions influenced some people who missed the point.

toyg 5y ago

Nah, it's always been considered a revenge fantasy. IRL BOFHs were BOFHs before it came around, they just didn't have a label. The omnipotence mania is built in the very concept of "administrator" or "root", and because this obviously doesn't translate directly in the real world for IT admins, there is always a friction, a source of frustration, for people in those jobs. The real outcome of BOFH was to sensitize some bosses to the problems such personalities can produce, a concept that made it all the way to Sarbanes-Oxley. And despite that, the likes of Terry Childs [0] are still very much around. [0[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Childs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Childs

datavirtue 5y ago

I though that too until I brought up BOFH to actual BOFHs who had no idea the series existed.