I spent over 45 minutes on the phone with Verizon customer "support" today. The girl who took my call had a hard time understanding what I wanted her to do for me, and it took about 30 minutes for me to explain it to her. Then it took her 15 minutes to decide she couldn't help me.
It was simple, really. I have 50 "bonus" minutes on my account. During the last billing cycle, I used about 50 minutes beyond my limit, so I thought "hey, I'll apply my extra minutes and save myself 25 bucks." Simple enough, right?
Well, for some reason this girl couldn't figure it out. By the time she told me it couldn't be done, I was absolutely convinced that she was incompetent. So I didn't believe her. I called back and talked to a different representative. He was able to confirm her response and it only took him 2 minutes.
This has happened before, too. Half the time I call Verizon I get incompetent, poorly trained reps who can't seem to answer my questions. I think I've finally learned to hang up immediately when my moron detector goes off. I should have done that today - it would have saved me 45 minutes of trouble.
Turns out I'm not the only one who has had problems with Verizon support. One guy, for example, couldn't get Verizon's reps to understand the difference between dollars and cents.
I was almost convinced to switch carriers today - I would have if I weren't attached to a blood-sucking two year contract. What is it with these guys?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Music and Cheese
I've been called a "music snob" before, and possibly for good reasons. I don't feel like a "snob," though - I merely recognize music for what it is. If it is shallow, banal, trite, and unoriginal, I tend to dislike it. Sue me. I do realize, though, that not all music was created for the same purpose.
Forgive the analogy, but I think music is a lot like cheese. I am no connoisseur, but I understand that there are a wide variety of gourmet cheeses, and that the process of making them is nearly an art form - they are carefully cultured, handled and salted, aged and matured to produce unique tastes and textures. Even the same types of cheese produced by different people can taste different - each maker might have a carefully cultivated signature. There are hundreds and hundreds of gourmet and artisanal cheeses, and each one is unique.
And then there is cheese whiz. Cheese whiz and other processed cheeses are designed to be cheap and consistent, suited for mass production. It is... nasty stuff in comparison to "real" cheese, but it sells very well. Sometimes people just want a cheap dairy product, and that is what cheese whiz is designed to be. Someone well acquainted with the wide and dynamic world of gourmet cheeses might sniff in disdain at that unoriginal, characterless, artless, pasty yellow stuff. Can you blame them?
Music is similar. Some music is thoughtless stuff that sells well because people prefer shallowy music that doesn't make them think. This is the cheese whiz of the music world. Interestingly, cheese whiz music is often mistaken for the "real thing," not because it is deep or artistic, but because people lack the background to understand that they are listening to banality. Its like the world is filled with people who have only really tasted cheese whiz and therefore think it is gourmet.
On the other hand, some music is genuinely art, studied by musicians for its originality and revered for its depth. "Gourmet" music isn't arcane and boring. In fact, a lot of the best music happens to be wildly popular. But popularity is not an indicator of real music any more than it would be an indicator of real cheese. There is good stuff, and then there is stuff designed to be mindlessly consumed.
I understand enough about music to know when it is good art, and I prefer to avoid music that isn't. If this makes me a snob, then so be it!
Forgive the analogy, but I think music is a lot like cheese. I am no connoisseur, but I understand that there are a wide variety of gourmet cheeses, and that the process of making them is nearly an art form - they are carefully cultured, handled and salted, aged and matured to produce unique tastes and textures. Even the same types of cheese produced by different people can taste different - each maker might have a carefully cultivated signature. There are hundreds and hundreds of gourmet and artisanal cheeses, and each one is unique.
And then there is cheese whiz. Cheese whiz and other processed cheeses are designed to be cheap and consistent, suited for mass production. It is... nasty stuff in comparison to "real" cheese, but it sells very well. Sometimes people just want a cheap dairy product, and that is what cheese whiz is designed to be. Someone well acquainted with the wide and dynamic world of gourmet cheeses might sniff in disdain at that unoriginal, characterless, artless, pasty yellow stuff. Can you blame them?
Music is similar. Some music is thoughtless stuff that sells well because people prefer shallowy music that doesn't make them think. This is the cheese whiz of the music world. Interestingly, cheese whiz music is often mistaken for the "real thing," not because it is deep or artistic, but because people lack the background to understand that they are listening to banality. Its like the world is filled with people who have only really tasted cheese whiz and therefore think it is gourmet.
On the other hand, some music is genuinely art, studied by musicians for its originality and revered for its depth. "Gourmet" music isn't arcane and boring. In fact, a lot of the best music happens to be wildly popular. But popularity is not an indicator of real music any more than it would be an indicator of real cheese. There is good stuff, and then there is stuff designed to be mindlessly consumed.
I understand enough about music to know when it is good art, and I prefer to avoid music that isn't. If this makes me a snob, then so be it!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Credentialing
I didn't know that the word "credential" was so commonly verbaged.
My bishop is a very successful lawyer. He seems a good guy anyway. I was talking to him last night and I mentioned that I had started my own business and was entertaining the idea of obtaining an MBA - starting a business has made it very clear how little I know about it, and I thought that an MBA might shore up some of my deficiencies.
My bishop was all for the idea, but not for the reasons you would expect. He suggested that business school really wouldn't teach me anything, that in terms of knowledge gained, an MBA would be a waste of two years. But he suggested I do it anyway, not for the knowledge, but for credentials. Imagine that!
He obviously loved this idea of "credentialing," probably because it worked well for him. As he perorated about the vast benefits of building up your portfolio for its own sake, I couldn't help but feel that he was missing the boat entirely. He has this screwily common perception that success is measured in terms of wealth and prestige. I'm sure he would disagree with that statement because I worded it in a disagreeable way, but his enthusiastic diatribe was quite revealing to me.
I wanted to argue the point with him, but I understood that the topic was deeper than our casual conversation warranted. Besides, I didn't expect to convince a successful and wealthy lawyer that his world-view occupies so narrow a slice of the human experience.
My bishop is a very successful lawyer. He seems a good guy anyway. I was talking to him last night and I mentioned that I had started my own business and was entertaining the idea of obtaining an MBA - starting a business has made it very clear how little I know about it, and I thought that an MBA might shore up some of my deficiencies.
My bishop was all for the idea, but not for the reasons you would expect. He suggested that business school really wouldn't teach me anything, that in terms of knowledge gained, an MBA would be a waste of two years. But he suggested I do it anyway, not for the knowledge, but for credentials. Imagine that!
He obviously loved this idea of "credentialing," probably because it worked well for him. As he perorated about the vast benefits of building up your portfolio for its own sake, I couldn't help but feel that he was missing the boat entirely. He has this screwily common perception that success is measured in terms of wealth and prestige. I'm sure he would disagree with that statement because I worded it in a disagreeable way, but his enthusiastic diatribe was quite revealing to me.
I wanted to argue the point with him, but I understood that the topic was deeper than our casual conversation warranted. Besides, I didn't expect to convince a successful and wealthy lawyer that his world-view occupies so narrow a slice of the human experience.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
What is "agency," anyway?
I've been trying to wrap my mind around agency.
I understand the standard Mormon theological definition - agency refers to our ability to make decisions that can either damn us or exalt us. These decisions are naturally made from within the framework of our environment. But if you trim away all the external circumstances, all the environmental influences, there is a little gem called "agency" that is supposedly the prime motivator of all human behavior. Agency is what allows us to "act," and not be "acted upon."
Unfortunately, my little brain has a hard time comprehending what that actually means. The engineer in me wonders what the mechanism is that causes us to exercise our agency in one way as opposed to another. But if agency is really free will, uninfluenced by outside circumstance, then it has no "cause." It just IS. Agency can't be explained in terms of anything we know because doing so would reduce it to an effect. The only way to define agency is therefore in terms of itself - agency is agency. Period.
In a lot of ways, it seems like agency is Aristotle's "Prime Mover," the one thing that can't be explained in terms of anything else. Every chain of cause and effect goes back and ultimately stops at agency. Why is the sky blue? Agency. Why does the earth exist? Agency. Where does God come from? Agency.
It seems like agency is this permanent, pre-existing, omnipresent force, even more permanent and eternal than God Himself. Or maybe God IS agency. Whatever.
I understand the standard Mormon theological definition - agency refers to our ability to make decisions that can either damn us or exalt us. These decisions are naturally made from within the framework of our environment. But if you trim away all the external circumstances, all the environmental influences, there is a little gem called "agency" that is supposedly the prime motivator of all human behavior. Agency is what allows us to "act," and not be "acted upon."
Unfortunately, my little brain has a hard time comprehending what that actually means. The engineer in me wonders what the mechanism is that causes us to exercise our agency in one way as opposed to another. But if agency is really free will, uninfluenced by outside circumstance, then it has no "cause." It just IS. Agency can't be explained in terms of anything we know because doing so would reduce it to an effect. The only way to define agency is therefore in terms of itself - agency is agency. Period.
In a lot of ways, it seems like agency is Aristotle's "Prime Mover," the one thing that can't be explained in terms of anything else. Every chain of cause and effect goes back and ultimately stops at agency. Why is the sky blue? Agency. Why does the earth exist? Agency. Where does God come from? Agency.
It seems like agency is this permanent, pre-existing, omnipresent force, even more permanent and eternal than God Himself. Or maybe God IS agency. Whatever.
Blog Parallels Life
I have a tendency to binge-write. When I remember how much I like writing, I do it prolifically for a series of weeks. Later, some other poorly-regulated passion will take its place, and I'll only sit down to write once or twice in a week.
I was thinking about starting another binge when I realized that my blog-writing behavior parallels many aspects of my life. My binge right now is in sensor design - yesterday I started working on a new design early in the morning and continued almost non-stop until 2:00 AM the next morning. I was quite oblivious to the passage of time. Otherwise I might have been a little more responsible and stopped before midnight.
Another favorite binge is practicing jazz piano. Usually I get around two hours of practice in a day, but sometimes I completely lose myself in it and spend as many as six hours a day - to the neglect of everything else I am supposed to be doing.
Last week, I binged on my research - one night, I came home at the reasonable hour of 8:00 PM, but I was so mentally engaged with the problem I was working on that I went back at 9:30 and worked until it was solved (about 1:00 AM).
In the past, I've binged on swing dancing (REAL swing dancing, not country swing), but its been a while since I got into that.
On the positive side, I tend to get good at the things I do because I can focus intensely on them for arbitrarily long periods of time. On the other hand, it isn't at all conducive to forming long-term relationships. Past girlfriends objected to my staying focusing so exclusively on things other than them. For good reason, I suppose.
I was thinking about starting another binge when I realized that my blog-writing behavior parallels many aspects of my life. My binge right now is in sensor design - yesterday I started working on a new design early in the morning and continued almost non-stop until 2:00 AM the next morning. I was quite oblivious to the passage of time. Otherwise I might have been a little more responsible and stopped before midnight.
Another favorite binge is practicing jazz piano. Usually I get around two hours of practice in a day, but sometimes I completely lose myself in it and spend as many as six hours a day - to the neglect of everything else I am supposed to be doing.
Last week, I binged on my research - one night, I came home at the reasonable hour of 8:00 PM, but I was so mentally engaged with the problem I was working on that I went back at 9:30 and worked until it was solved (about 1:00 AM).
In the past, I've binged on swing dancing (REAL swing dancing, not country swing), but its been a while since I got into that.
On the positive side, I tend to get good at the things I do because I can focus intensely on them for arbitrarily long periods of time. On the other hand, it isn't at all conducive to forming long-term relationships. Past girlfriends objected to my staying focusing so exclusively on things other than them. For good reason, I suppose.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)