Item — HN Reader

“I see you’ve only had 15 rambles this week”

“Isn’t 15 the minimum?”

“Well, yeah, if you just want to do the bare minimum. But look at Todd over there - he has 37 rambles”

“Well if you wanted people to have 37 rambles why wouldn’t you make that the minimum”

7 comments

Ref: Office Space (Movie) Flare at the restaurant (I believe it's a spoof on TGI Fridays / Chillis etc)

If you have not seen Office Space ... It has a couple raunchy things and it's general political correctness calibration is circa ~2000 USA so go in with about that level of culture expectations.

Having said that, it's a GREAT movie which is practically a comedic documentary of US office politics and tropes. Though some of the standards have shifted a tiny bit, the general culture is still relevant today in many if not most offices. The movie showcases culture and human nature more than any particular era.

> The movie showcases culture and human nature more than any particular era.

Most of my middle management experiences has been between Office Space and Better off Ted.

One with "Don't care" as an answer and the other says "Care more" as its.

Those are the two extremes of the genre.

One of my favorite dialogs is from the pilot:

Ted Crisp: We do everything: industrial products, biomedical, cryogenics, defense technology.

Veronica Palmer: We want to weaponize a pumpkin.

Ted Crisp: Then so do I. Because?

Veronica Palmer: There's a country with whom we do business that grows a great deal of pumpkins and would welcome additional uses for them. As well as cheaper ways to kill their enemies.

Ted Crisp: Well, finally, the pumpkin gets to do something besides Halloween.

I believe this showcases, succinctly, corporate “ethics” in our society.

Absolutely anything to make a buck and strengthen trade.

Veronica Palmer: Pie.

Better off Ted was sadly canceled way too early. Part of me wishes a streaming service would pick it up for a revival, but I know the monkey's paw there would be that it would be subverted by precisely the sort of corporation it set out to lampoon.

Fun fact: I was a key player in actualizing the plan for Project Jabberwocky.

> general political correctness calibration is circa ~2000 USA

there is white people rapping and Michael Bolton is ashamed of his name. Tread carefully folks!

There’s a scene where they smash the shit out of a printer and that still rings true

I think that was the first R rated movie I saw as a child (and probably the first movie I pirated, on pre-P2P networks). The grand wisdom of the Geto Boys (sic) has stuck with me ever since. "The type of chicks that'd double up on a dude like me do [care about money]" I've gotten way off topic

The first movie I can remember pirating was the original Fast and Furious movie using Napster (or KaZaA).

I've fotgotten: Did Napster eventually open up to sharing videos and software after MP3s? I can't remember if I'm just conflating it with memories of Kazaa (I was only 10 or 11 years old at the time, my memory is fuzzy lol). I know I got addicted to pirating and filesharing after being introduced to Hotline at an even younger age.

I couldn't buy rated M games or R rated movies, but I could certainly download them... which led me to my first graphics card and RAM upgrade, installing a TV tuner card, and eventually to PC building. Doing all this while in grade school was the best tech education I could get, especially back in the 90s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications

It’s so much like real work I can’t watch it. Same with The Office series.

Pay more attention to your surroundings, and eventually you can feel the same way about Schizopolis

Don't watch Silicon Valley.

I don't know, I kind of like those cubicles.

Its crazy how that movie has stood the test of time

Recently $DAYJOB has been moving more and more towards Office Space. But none of the young'ins are aware of it. So I just showed them the scene with the Bobs. Their faces were priceless. I doubt any of them came to office with same mindset again.

The scene with the Bobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwfNjGxa_D4

When I told them the movie came out before they were born, yet depict their life damn near exactly as they were living it, their enlightenment lit the room anew hah.

Someone please save my soul..

Mine certainly is. If my employees don't fill out their timesheets and tps reports how will I do payroll

A question I’ve always been afraid to ask: wouldn’t it be easier to do it yourself?

i hire people to do work i dont wanna

I don’t work for people I don’t wana

Bro, some of my employees don’t put the new covers on their TPS reports. Do you know how much we paid the consultant for the new designs?!

That's just a straight shooter with upper management written all over them

Yeah, but Obsidian is a startup. A remote startup.

If you're in a startup of <10 people and someone isn't communicating with the rest of the team, it's not going to work.

I can see how this feels dystopian in a giant corporation, but that's because everyone is there for the paycheck.

In a startup, people are making sacrifices to make the thing work. They could get a higher paying, less stressful job.

Picking a startup and not being engaged is disruptive.

.. yet "being disruptive" is supposed to be the goal of a startup innit?

You want to disrupt the market, not the team.

> Don’t ever go full [disrupt].

The work of Mike Judge is just eerily prescient on all accounts. Spooky and amazing.

If this is your attitude, then you are not part of a team of 2 to 10

Reminds me of the novel "The Circle"

> Hey Veo, guess what? New plot for another Black Mirror episode just dropped