6 ms·

Karma is Real

83 points by jsonmez 14y ago

harscoat 14y ago
If you are genuinely interested in humans as humans, who they are, their personal stories, their touching, impressive, positive specifities and in them not as means for x,y,z, you'll be rich! (doesn't mean only with money)
- KC8ZKF 14y ago
  The author's xyz in this case was making a point. Instead of paying for the meal and getting his freebee the next time his daughter and he ate at the cafe, he felt he was RIGHT and JUST, the owner was WRONG and SHORTSIGHTED. I wouldn't be bringing this up if it weren't for the authors use of "karma." It seems like all parties incurred some karma here.
alexanderh 14y ago
The only problem I see with this analogy is that "Development" and "Programming" is an entirely different class of job as "Register attendant at a cafe." If it was the owner of the cafe who did this, then that'd be really strange, because obviously the owner probably does (or at least should) have the "big picture" in his/her mind. But some lowly employee who checks people out at the cash register? Of course they dont see the big picture, its not their business to. Good points though, although they are all kind of a no-brainer in my mind. This seemed a lot more like a chance to articulately vent frustration, than actually making any real points or major revelations. Sorry your family got hassled like this.
- benatkin 14y ago
  The author said it was the owner of the cafe.
- MattRogish 14y ago
  I've found the best performing consumer companies require their employees to think in the same way.
  - jsonmez 14y ago
    Great point
m0skit0 14y ago
"Someone is using your software otherwise you wouldn’t be writing it." Well this is actually wrong. A lot of people write code just for fun (for the lulz), or for their personal use.
- yxhuvud 14y ago
  There is also a whole lot of code that gets written but never used.
vibrunazo 14y ago
"Every model is wrong, but some are useful." - George Box While every model is a simplification, and technically wrong. Some simplifications can be useful when they are right almost every time. But this is not the case here. This is too much of an oversimplification, he overgeneralized it. The only useful take away from here is "mind the long term consequences". Everything else needs to be decided case by case. "The costumer is always right" is an overgeneralization. It's not always right, it depends. It's not even almost always right. You'll need to be critical case by case more often then not. It's not useful to oversimplify this.
- vacri 14y ago
  I remember hearing a businessman say "The customer is not always right. The customer has a right to be heard".
K2h 14y ago
The business owner could have been upset because the promotion ended up rewarding an established regular customer instead of converting a new client to a regular. regardless of the reason you were treated unfairly be the account presented. I have had enough promotions and warrantys turn out to be more work than they are worth (usually some escape clause or fine print) that I tend to either let my wife deal with them (I know... let the flaming begin) or just avoid them all together.
- nikatwork 14y ago
  If the promotion didn't work out, that's the business owner's fault. Taking it out on a loyal customer is just wrong-headed.
lightyrs 14y ago
"There are only two types of people in this world..." This is always a great indication that the author engages in reductionist simpletonia. There are many types of people in this world, all of which can be plotted along a spectrum between two poles.
- Lambdanaut 14y ago
  The author ACTUALLY said "There are two basic kinds of people in this world.", which would imply that there are variations to these basic forms. If he had really said what you mis-quoted, you might have some point.
  - lightyrs 14y ago
    I stand by my original post.
- justin66 14y ago
  > This is always a great indication that the author engages in reductionist simpletonia. There are many types of people in this world, all of which can be plotted along a spectrum between two poles. You probably shouldn't drop the "all of which can be plotted along a spectrum between two poles" line right after complaining about reductionism. It's a common reductionist notion that fails for even the most simple of cases, politics.
blueprint 14y ago
Yes, karma definitely exists in reality. It means that what you have done and what happens to you all accumulates inside you. It continually exerts an influence on you and tries to control you – it appears through your actions even though you don't want it to. Karma is always trying to conquer the self. That's why in order to truly live your own life instead of following the orders of Karma you need awakening and determination. Here's a particularly illuminating article on karma. I hope you decide to have a look and read with some interest: http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/enlightenment_what_is_karma.htm http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/enlightenment_wh...
paulsutter 14y ago
My best suggestion for the author of the post, is to return to the restaurant. Be gracious, say please and thank you. Make sure your kid is especially well behaved. Tip well (30% plus). When you get the chance, tell the owner that you come an extra distance because you appreciate her food and enjoy the place. Because it's a touchy subject now, don't quibble about the bill (even if there's clearly a mistake). For a while, don't worry about the promotion. Just be a good customer. You'll see, in time, that her attitude will soften, and things will be comfortable again. It's hard to run a business, whether it's a startup or a breakfast spot. There are lots of stresses your customers will never see, and a lot of burdens. Especially financial burdens on non-venture-funded/bootstrapped businesses like the breakfast place. Maybe she snapped, maybe she overreacted. Maybe there's more to it than you realize. Maybe she gets annoyed with people who are too exacting about small financial things. It doesn't matter. Just be a good customer to her. It's he best thing you can do.
- vacri 14y ago
  I found it particularly ironic that the author considered this a 'single transaction' from the eatery's side, but a 'lifelong' transaction from his side. If you're really not worried about single transactions, pay up today, and get the discount next time. Extrapolated out, you make the loss of an amazing $1.25 - instead of wasting your own time and causing a scene.
  - jsonmez 14y ago
    The difference is being the customer vs being the service provider. As the customer I have options, I can go elsewhere. I pay for food service because I get service, I can get food anywhere. When I stop getting service, I stop paying. Do I really care about the $10? No, but it makes a great point for a blog post.
    - vacri 14y ago
      I don't care about the food or the service in your story, it's irrelevant to my point. I care about you having different standards for the two parties. Standing on principle over a measly $1.25 is 'single-transactioning'. If you were really concerned about your lifetime transactions, you'd take the blip and keep on running. You've already said that the eatery has 'high quality food and higher quality service', so it's clear that this behaviour is not the norm. So what you're saying here is that at the sign of the first mis-step, you're out the door? That means you see it as a series of single transactions.
mikecane 14y ago
This the kind of thing Scott McKain writes about all the time: http://mckainviewpoint.com/ http://mckainviewpoint.com/ Remember the recent story of United losing the kid? No big picture there, either!
guscost 14y ago
damn straight!
jd7 14y ago
Enough whining already. Was this really the best use of your time to write a 2000+ word blog post on how some tightwad cafe owner decided to cheap out on her obligation? Move on and get something done.
lifeguard 14y ago
I find the pop (mis)use of the word "Karma" annoying. Karma is part of a cycle of reincarnation. Karmic benefits do not accrue in one's current life -- they affect the next life. Our current situation is the result of actions in a past life. Every person I have heard use this word casually does not believe in any form of reincarnation. And to go deeper, this is a selfish argument for ethics or hard work. "Do it because it is good for you" should be, "Do it well because this is the correct thing to do".
guscost 14y ago
A lot of things seem to be real these days, it's crazy.
jim_kaiser 14y ago
While I agree with the whole long term vs short term thing. One should be careful about how to apply this. For instance, devoting yourself to your soulless corporate job most often doesn't pay dividends in the long term. There are many companies out there who are happy with exploiting such employees. I say this because I have done just the same thing the last 4 years i.e. put in my heart and soul for such a company. Happily, I have moved on to better things and the company is worse off. So yay karma :) But, you sometimes have to make tough decisions now in order to achieve your long term goals. [EDIT: I did become a really good programmer in the process and learnt a lot from my team lead who was highly knowledgeable, so that was the only good to come out of it.]
mckilljoy 14y ago
Those 'single transactions' start to be a lot more important the closer you get to your bill deadlines! People tend to be a lot more generous after the 1st of the month has past :-)
nnq 14y ago
Simpler interpretation of the cashier's behavior: thinking in terms of transactions is the obvious rational thing to do for the cashier, but things would probably have been VERY DIFFERENT if you interacted with the OWNER of the place! Owners care about the long term success of the business so they are usually much more friendly to costumers than employees. And I think this can be generalized to the fact that the few employee owned businesses way have much better customer relationships.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  It wasn't a cashier, it was the owner.
philhippus 14y ago
My antivirus (Bitdefender AV plus 2012) blocks the link with a warning of malware detected on the page.

83 points by jsonmez 14y ago

If you are genuinely interested in humans as humans, who they are, their personal stories, their touching, impressive, positive specifities and in them not as means for x,y,z, you'll be rich! (doesn't mean only with money)

KC8ZKF 14y ago
The author's xyz in this case was making a point. Instead of paying for the meal and getting his freebee the next time his daughter and he ate at the cafe, he felt he was RIGHT and JUST, the owner was WRONG and SHORTSIGHTED. I wouldn't be bringing this up if it weren't for the authors use of "karma." It seems like all parties incurred some karma here.

alexanderh 14y ago

The only problem I see with this analogy is that "Development" and "Programming" is an entirely different class of job as "Register attendant at a cafe." If it was the owner of the cafe who did this, then that'd be really strange, because obviously the owner probably does (or at least should) have the "big picture" in his/her mind. But some lowly employee who checks people out at the cash register? Of course they dont see the big picture, its not their business to. Good points though, although they are all kind of a no-brainer in my mind. This seemed a lot more like a chance to articulately vent frustration, than actually making any real points or major revelations. Sorry your family got hassled like this.

benatkin 14y ago
The author said it was the owner of the cafe.
MattRogish 14y ago
I've found the best performing consumer companies require their employees to think in the same way.
- jsonmez 14y ago
  Great point

m0skit0 14y ago

"Someone is using your software otherwise you wouldn’t be writing it." Well this is actually wrong. A lot of people write code just for fun (for the lulz), or for their personal use.

yxhuvud 14y ago
There is also a whole lot of code that gets written but never used.

vibrunazo 14y ago

"Every model is wrong, but some are useful." - George Box While every model is a simplification, and technically wrong. Some simplifications can be useful when they are right almost every time. But this is not the case here. This is too much of an oversimplification, he overgeneralized it. The only useful take away from here is "mind the long term consequences". Everything else needs to be decided case by case. "The costumer is always right" is an overgeneralization. It's not always right, it depends. It's not even almost always right. You'll need to be critical case by case more often then not. It's not useful to oversimplify this.

vacri 14y ago
I remember hearing a businessman say "The customer is not always right. The customer has a right to be heard".

K2h 14y ago

The business owner could have been upset because the promotion ended up rewarding an established regular customer instead of converting a new client to a regular. regardless of the reason you were treated unfairly be the account presented. I have had enough promotions and warrantys turn out to be more work than they are worth (usually some escape clause or fine print) that I tend to either let my wife deal with them (I know... let the flaming begin) or just avoid them all together.

nikatwork 14y ago
If the promotion didn't work out, that's the business owner's fault. Taking it out on a loyal customer is just wrong-headed.

lightyrs 14y ago

"There are only two types of people in this world..." This is always a great indication that the author engages in reductionist simpletonia. There are many types of people in this world, all of which can be plotted along a spectrum between two poles.

Lambdanaut 14y ago
The author ACTUALLY said "There are two basic kinds of people in this world.", which would imply that there are variations to these basic forms. If he had really said what you mis-quoted, you might have some point.
- lightyrs 14y ago
  I stand by my original post.
justin66 14y ago
> This is always a great indication that the author engages in reductionist simpletonia. There are many types of people in this world, all of which can be plotted along a spectrum between two poles. You probably shouldn't drop the "all of which can be plotted along a spectrum between two poles" line right after complaining about reductionism. It's a common reductionist notion that fails for even the most simple of cases, politics.

blueprint 14y ago

Yes, karma definitely exists in reality. It means that what you have done and what happens to you all accumulates inside you. It continually exerts an influence on you and tries to control you – it appears through your actions even though you don't want it to. Karma is always trying to conquer the self. That's why in order to truly live your own life instead of following the orders of Karma you need awakening and determination. Here's a particularly illuminating article on karma. I hope you decide to have a look and read with some interest: http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/enlightenment_what_is_karma.htm http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/enlightenment_wh...

paulsutter 14y ago

My best suggestion for the author of the post, is to return to the restaurant. Be gracious, say please and thank you. Make sure your kid is especially well behaved. Tip well (30% plus). When you get the chance, tell the owner that you come an extra distance because you appreciate her food and enjoy the place. Because it's a touchy subject now, don't quibble about the bill (even if there's clearly a mistake). For a while, don't worry about the promotion. Just be a good customer. You'll see, in time, that her attitude will soften, and things will be comfortable again. It's hard to run a business, whether it's a startup or a breakfast spot. There are lots of stresses your customers will never see, and a lot of burdens. Especially financial burdens on non-venture-funded/bootstrapped businesses like the breakfast place. Maybe she snapped, maybe she overreacted. Maybe there's more to it than you realize. Maybe she gets annoyed with people who are too exacting about small financial things. It doesn't matter. Just be a good customer to her. It's he best thing you can do.

vacri 14y ago
I found it particularly ironic that the author considered this a 'single transaction' from the eatery's side, but a 'lifelong' transaction from his side. If you're really not worried about single transactions, pay up today, and get the discount next time. Extrapolated out, you make the loss of an amazing $1.25 - instead of wasting your own time and causing a scene.
- jsonmez 14y ago
  The difference is being the customer vs being the service provider. As the customer I have options, I can go elsewhere. I pay for food service because I get service, I can get food anywhere. When I stop getting service, I stop paying. Do I really care about the $10? No, but it makes a great point for a blog post.
  - vacri 14y ago
    I don't care about the food or the service in your story, it's irrelevant to my point. I care about you having different standards for the two parties. Standing on principle over a measly $1.25 is 'single-transactioning'. If you were really concerned about your lifetime transactions, you'd take the blip and keep on running. You've already said that the eatery has 'high quality food and higher quality service', so it's clear that this behaviour is not the norm. So what you're saying here is that at the sign of the first mis-step, you're out the door? That means you see it as a series of single transactions.

mikecane 14y ago

This the kind of thing Scott McKain writes about all the time: http://mckainviewpoint.com/ http://mckainviewpoint.com/ Remember the recent story of United losing the kid? No big picture there, either!

guscost 14y ago

damn straight!

jd7 14y ago

Enough whining already. Was this really the best use of your time to write a 2000+ word blog post on how some tightwad cafe owner decided to cheap out on her obligation? Move on and get something done.

lifeguard 14y ago

I find the pop (mis)use of the word "Karma" annoying. Karma is part of a cycle of reincarnation. Karmic benefits do not accrue in one's current life -- they affect the next life. Our current situation is the result of actions in a past life. Every person I have heard use this word casually does not believe in any form of reincarnation. And to go deeper, this is a selfish argument for ethics or hard work. "Do it because it is good for you" should be, "Do it well because this is the correct thing to do".

guscost 14y ago

A lot of things seem to be real these days, it's crazy.

jim_kaiser 14y ago

While I agree with the whole long term vs short term thing. One should be careful about how to apply this. For instance, devoting yourself to your soulless corporate job most often doesn't pay dividends in the long term. There are many companies out there who are happy with exploiting such employees. I say this because I have done just the same thing the last 4 years i.e. put in my heart and soul for such a company. Happily, I have moved on to better things and the company is worse off. So yay karma :) But, you sometimes have to make tough decisions now in order to achieve your long term goals. [EDIT: I did become a really good programmer in the process and learnt a lot from my team lead who was highly knowledgeable, so that was the only good to come out of it.]

mckilljoy 14y ago

Those 'single transactions' start to be a lot more important the closer you get to your bill deadlines! People tend to be a lot more generous after the 1st of the month has past :-)

nnq 14y ago

Simpler interpretation of the cashier's behavior: thinking in terms of transactions is the obvious rational thing to do for the cashier, but things would probably have been VERY DIFFERENT if you interacted with the OWNER of the place! Owners care about the long term success of the business so they are usually much more friendly to costumers than employees. And I think this can be generalized to the fact that the few employee owned businesses way have much better customer relationships.

StavrosK 14y ago
It wasn't a cashier, it was the owner.

philhippus 14y ago

My antivirus (Bitdefender AV plus 2012) blocks the link with a warning of malware detected on the page.