A quote from Upton Sinclair on self-interest

I read this quote from Upton Sinclair years ago, and it really resonated with me.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends upon him not understanding it."

This is another one of those quotes that is both true on the surface, and also true at a deeper level. At the surface level, people believe that their jobs should be protected. 

For instance, union steel workers will agitate against free trade in steel, because they don't want their jobs to disappear due to lower cost imported steel, even if it would benefit everyone else. And teachers don't want to admit that it should not be as difficult as it is to fire a bad teacher. As an example - a teacher friend of mine told me about a math teacher colleague who was a truly horrible teacher. A two year process was ongoing, which would likely culminate in the firing of the teacher, but still - two years! My teacher friend, through connections, managed to engineer it so that his children didn't get this teacher. Other children weren't so lucky.

It reminds me of a project I once worked on. Because of some peculiarities in the company, it was wildly, insanely overstaffed. It was also a very poorly conceived project, which is another story.

But I was talking to a project manager on the team (there were about 5, there should have been 1, max). We were talking about the over-staffing on the team - which we both agreed on. But it turns out that in her opinion, it was not HER team, and in particular not HER job that was unnecessary. It was everyone else's jobs.

At the deeper level, what this illustrates to me is that self interest is paramount in people's minds. And it's not just about money, it's also about reputation, power, all those things.

There's probably some evolutionary cause for this. I remember reading a book on evolution, which suggested that people are hard-wired to believe in a version of events or a philosophy that  benefits them, even if it don't necessarily make sense. The theory was that this would make them more vehement and convincing when they're arguing for their "rights".

The Grass is Greener on the other side - more profound than it seems

One SAT question from many years ago sticks in my head. In the question, we were asked to rank common sayings and proverbs by how profound they were. I can't remember most of them, but I do remember the one I ranked least profound - it was, "A stitch in time saves nine".

A saying I've been thinking about recently is "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". I think this one is more profound than it seems. Sometimes it's used to refer to jealousy of other people possessions, but it's also used to refer to the idea that something else is always the answer. For instance, if you're in high school, you think that once you graduate everything will be great. Or when you're working, that a vacation will make you happy. 

I'm not a fan of staying in situations that cause misery, and I'm also a big believer in change, trying new things, and challenging yourself. But one thing I've also learned is that even situations that seem great can lose their luster. For instance, I worked at Haleakala National Park on Maui one summer many years ago. A big part of my job was to walk traplines for invasive species. 

So there I was, hiking on this beautiful mountain on a beautiful island, usually with some stunning views. Occasionally there were yummy ohelo berries to pick, which are very similar to blueberries.

At times it was great. But over the course of a few months, it got old, and the annoyances that were minor at the beginning (living on a small island, everything being very expensive) began to grow.

Later I traveled for many months in New Zealand. It was challenging, interesting, and beautiful, but after 4 months the constant travel started wearing on me, and I yearned for a regular job and an apartment.

Both of the experiences - the work in Hawaii, and the travel in New Zealand - were ones that I wouldn't trade for anything. And maybe this is more a personality trait rather than human nature, but for me, I'm always looking out for the next thing. There's always something out there that I want to do or try. I won't be happy if there's not something on the horizon to look forward to, even when that "something" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

To conclude, here's a quote from the book The Depths - the Evolutionary Origin of the Depression Epidemic:

Happiness itself is not a goal - it is the fleeting by-product of progress towards other goals. 

Visiting the New York Botanical Garden, where I worked 25 years ago

As part of a family trip to New York City, I went and visited my old boss, Brian Boom, currently a director at the New York Botanical Garden. It was great to see him again - he's a friendly, welcoming guy, as evidenced by how I got the job. In 1990, I had developed a very intense interest in botany after doing fieldwork with the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska the previous summer. I cold-called everyone related to botany whose number I could find (no internet back then - finding information was much more difficult!), and Brian offered me a job at the New York Botanical Garden, and a place to stay - not knowing me in the slightest. I worked with him for a few months, learned about plant classification, mounting specimens, all kinds of stuff.

Then he gave me the opportunity to work at a field station in Puerto Rico for the summer, identifying trees in what was called "The Big Grid", based at the El Verde Field Station of the University of Puerto Rico. I just did a bit of research on it, and found this blog post: https://treesandfish.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/field-work-in-the-big-grid/. I don't remember it being nearly as difficult as this person found it. Granted, any type of repetitive work will get boring after a while. But I don't think it was physically that hard. I do remember needing to watch for the stinging nettle relative - urebac - which was very painful.

Anyway. I had a very enjoyable time visiting with Brian. He showed me some of the rooms I worked in, and some of the specimens I collected in Puerto Rico ( It's interesting the paths that people's lives take. I didn't end up pursuing botany as a career (there's close to zero jobs in botany, anyway) and am actually not even that interested in gardening, even. But it was a very interesting little interlude in my life, that I will always appreciate.

Here's one of the specimens I collected:

My first experience teaching online - Database Programming using TSQL

Almost a year ago, I sent an email to the University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education program, asking if they were looking for instructors for their database certification. I heard nothing from them for about 3 months. Then during the summer while we were on vacation, I got an email basically offering me a job as an instructor, without an interview or anything.

I was thrilled, and wanted to write a really well-thought out letter, accepting their offer. So, I waited about 4 days until we came back from vacation, and sent my well-written email back. By that time, they had gone on to the next person on their list, and the position was no longer available. Ha-ha.

Life lesson - if you get an opportunity, jump on it!

After they told me the job was no longer available, I offered to be on their wait list, or available as a substitute. A few months later, the person who had originally accepted had to turn down the position, and it was offered to me again, and I accepted. So, it turned out well in the end.

I'm teaching this class 1 evening a week for 10 sessions, via Adobe Connect, an online presentation platform. I was nervous - more nervous than I thought I would be - leading up to the class, but now that I've done my first session, I feel much better about it, and hope to make my next session more engaging and interactive. The previous instructor did a 3 hour session, but I'm just doing one, with an online "office hours" another day of the week, to be available for questions.

I was considering a question - why do people take an online class like this? All the information is certainly out there, in books and online. Why pay almost $1000 for a class? Here's the reasons I came up with:

• Accountability - there are homework assignments, and if you don't finish them on time, you won't pass the class.
• Knowledge curation - yes, the information is out there. But there's a lot of it, and it can be very difficult to figure out what's important, and what's not. I provide a trusted source of knowledge.
• Social interaction - this is a little lacking in online classes. There is a bit, since there's an online session that they MUST attend, and I try to address them all by name during the session. But it is mimimal.
• Certification - They get a SQL Server Developers Certification from the University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education program. That will hopefully give them a leg up in job hunting, and of course, practical knowledge of SQL Server development.