Comments on: Can You Farm?

By: Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:33:48 +0000

Another ditto here. I don’t even bother trying to explain what I do anymore. Instead, I agree with them. I grab the nearest pen and paper and start whipping up a ballpark project plan. I give rough guesstimates about the number of days/weeks each step will take. After I’ve sketched out at least half a dozen steps in the plan (each usually taking at least several days), I say in a completely straight, honest tone of voice:

“This looks like a pretty big project at first, but it’s not really that big at all compared to what we do at work. Thing is, we usually have several web programmers working on this full time, so it only takes us a couple of weeks. But if I tried to do this just by myself, I’ve only got 2 days per week to work on this – max – and that’s if I ignore Erika all weekend. At this rate, I’ll be done in six months of continuous weekend work, at which point you’ll have a web site and I’ll be single again. I can’t do that, but I’d be glad to help you call local consultants to help you find people who can work on this full time.”

Usually I don’t have to get all the way through that schpiel – they understand long before I get to the punch line. The key is that you can’t be sarcastic – you have to be fair, just like if someone at work came to you and asked you to build that same thing yourself.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:27:17 +0000

Seriously. I’m the IT person. My background is in data communications. But what do I get asked to fix here a lot? The plasma cutters.

By: Jason Griffith

Jason Griffith — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:44:32 +0000

I deal with this kind of thing on a daily basis. I’m a programmer, plain and simple. People come to me when their computer is “broken” or they can’t do something on the network or whatever it might be and I often have to tell them they’re talking to the wrong guy. I never took any classes on fixing hardware or setting up networks, so all that I know in those fields is what I’ve found as it happened to me. I can write code in 11 different languages, but I can’t tell you what to do when your computer gets jacked up. Well, I can but “I don’t know, go ask John,” doesn’t really get you very far.

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:41:00 +0000

I loved Mitch Hedberg. It’s so sad he overdosed. In honor of Christmas:

“A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.”

By: rk

rk — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:40:22 +0000

“DAMN IT OTTO, YOU HAVE LUPUS!”

By: Judy Graham

Judy Graham — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:07:04 +0000

LOVE IT! And how true… if it involves anything with a computer, we should be able to handle any task… correct?!