Work Life: Dealing with Anti-Change Hypocrites

In almost all large corporations, there always seem to be someone that is against any sort of change in practice. I add "in practice" because none of them will openly admit that they are against change. One of the reasons is that they are usually the loudest person about how horrible things are now and that is why they are always behind.

And it is this last point that I believe is the crux of all their "lies" and hypocrisies. They are able to use it as a crutch to continue business as usual because to them this is "retirement work". They only say there so many other factors that are impacting their "low performance".

The reason it is difficult to deal with these people especially with management that do not understand the nuance of human relationships. Things like "lies", "retirement work", and "low performance" are difficult to identify. Interestingly, these people seem to be the most productive in the most obvious of metrics, appearing to be the busiest body.

But there are many red flags that can be used to identify the situation. One of these is "this is how we have always done it" but may not be in these words. This can also be "impossible to regression test", "the new process does cannot handle of these exceptions", or "not enough resources to manage current process and new process". They appear busy because they are just doing repetitive tasks that appear complicate. 

A harder flag to identify is that they avoid building a solution that will address the majority of the problems. They are always the first against standards or general processes. Whenever someone new joins and asks why can't we build a simple solution, that person will face a long list of reasons why it cannot be.

Which leads to another flag. If someone actually sat down to identify these claims, one would find most of these are anecdotal. And in most cases, the simpler solution would even address the claim. One of the favorites used is that they do not have enough resources. The reason they do not have resources is because they do not use standard. To them, additional resources would be needed but management would not give them more resources.

One reason is because they have already thrown them more resources in hopes to address the problem. But because the process does not scale, the problems continue to grow. By the time management realizes this, they are not able to appropriate additional resources. And for some reason in majority of the cases, managers are not able to just say no to incoming requests and prioritize the work so that they can reduce the workload.

Summary

There is little that can be done to change the behavior of the anti-change coworker (usually a manager). These people are difficult to deal with and takes risk to manage.

The easiest method is open the eyes of the next level manager. But it cannot be any manager, the manager needs to be someone that is able to enforce the policy change. Most managers are doormats in that they will either collapse from the list of "problems" or all bark with no bite.

Personally, I am fortunate to be in a role that typically has to funnel through me. So I make people's lives "miserable" so that they are encouraged to do the right thing. It is a lot like teaching kids to eat vegetables. And to be fully honest, this is only because I care to make things better. Otherwise, it is super easy for me to coast through my job too.

Buggish: Microsoft Teams Web Excel slow performance at 7500 records

I use Microsoft Teams Web Excel. There is an obvious performance issue at 7500+ records with about 15 columns that are mostly populated.

This spreadsheet is an audit history of objects that I have promoted since last year. The largest column is the object path which typically would be file paths as they would include server and folder paths. The other columns are simple strings at most 50 characters or date-time fields.

The biggest problem is the copy/paste. I will oftentimes get the error:

Retrieving data. Wait a few seconds and try to cut or copy again.

Before, waiting will sometimes work but now waiting does not seem to work at all. I do not know if waiting will ever work but I've tried pasting a few hours later and I will still get this message.

Copy/pasting rows now take time. Inserting new rows take time. If I keep my browser open overnight, sometimes it takes a minute or two just for the page to allow me to click on something.

Do I know specifically that this is due to the number of records? No. I am only assuming because it seems to be a trend I see with Microsoft products. Also there is weak correlations between the number of records and frequency of issues or length of delay.

Rebooting sometimes helped before. Now, most little tricks to improve performance no longer work.

Update (2021-09-02)

I split some old data to another sheet, and the performance almost seems immediately better. I moved about 2500 records out of the primary sheet. With around 5200 records, performance still has intermittent issues but much less frequent and faster but still noticeable.

My struggles with overeating

For those who is reading my blog for the first time, I do exercise quite regularly but still cannot lose weight or yo-yo when I lose significant amount. I am not fond of sharing my personal health experiences, but I do wish to help others and I found it helpful to know that other people have struggled and overcame their struggles.

I say that I exercise regularly, but I do go in slumps. In the big picture, I typically do the worst when I am at a new job because I overwork, eat poorly, eat more frequently, don't exercise, and sleep less. I get too tunnel-visioned in learning as much as I can in as short period of time. I do this rather successfully at the expense of my health.

I also do very, very well when I do not work. I lost 30 pounds in a summer when I was volunteering. I lose a lot of weight when I am between jobs. Basically, I do well when I just focus my attention at one particular lifestyle.

Lately, I have been doing better at balancing these two. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of bad habits. Eat a lot and frequently. I know it, but it is still hard to avoid it. No matter how much I tell myself... I could be telling myself the entire day that I should stop late night eating, I will still waver hard and indulge..... even when I wasn't even hungry.

I do not know why. But once it is late, I just want to eat. By this point, I have already eaten the usual 3 meals. I am even worse when I actually feel hungry. This has a multi-part problem. First, I don't cook frequently so I cook an entire week's worth of food over the weekend. Second, I do not like to waste food (in a broader view, I do not like wasting in general). Third, when I do something I go all the way. Fourth through to infinite, I am pretty bad to almost all bad eating habits except for sweets. 

I have never been much for candy, cakes, ice cream... unless they are the only available edible foods which I practice eat them more like a meal than a snack. I also do not have a problem with snacking, but I like snack foods. So if I am hungry, I can down a bag of potato chips. In between meals, I have no problems avoiding it. Once I am hungry and I eat one chip... the bag will basically be consumed within minutes.

So if there is food around, I will want to "finish" it even if I am full. I don't like leftovers, so I will eat it all. Even if I am stuffed, I will finish off the food. Because I don't buy candy or snacks, I am at least able to avoid very unhealthy foods. When I host parties and have leftover snacks... sadly I will eat them. To avoid this, I have been giving them away as guests leave or bring them to the office.

But easily my one biggest issue is late night eating...

I eat an extra late night meal. This is so hard and no amount of logic can explain why I still want to eat... except out of habit. I will look into every nook and cranny for some resemblance of food that needs to be consumed and make-up some excuse that it needs to be done before it expires. Even to this day, I am staring at the food and practically yelling at myself (or the food) that I should not eat... I will not eat it.... over and over.

I do not know what triggered the change, but in the last week, I have actually been able to put the food back into the fridge and just not eat it. And like that, I have been able to lose 1-2 pounds a day. It does not even matter if I ate unhealthy (fried chicken, fries, etc.). I am not saying that I should be eating it, but this just shows how unhealthy late night eating has been for me. I am already down 8 pounds in the last week. (Just for some reference to those who is trying to lose weight, I should weigh around 170 and currently 250 at the start of losing... so don't be thinking you'll lose a pound if you are already at average weight.)

Even now as I write this post, I still have the urge. It has become literally to the point of my left arm pulling my right arm away. So, I really hope anyone who is trying to lose weight that you are not alone in your struggle. It is hard... and sometimes there really is no good explanation except purely will-power to make a change in one's life. So, keep fighting even if you fail. 

Human Decency - Mr. Rogers - Senate Subcommittee (1969)

Still relevant today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0AA
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fredrogerssenatetestimonypbs.htm


Senator Pastore: Alright Rogers, you've got the floor.
Mr. Rogers: Senator Pastore, this is a philosophical statement and would take about ten minutes to read, so I'll not do that. One of the first things that a child learns in a healthy family is trust, and I trust what you have said that you will read this. It's very important to me. I care deeply about children.
Senator Pastore: Will it make you happy if you read it?
Mr. Rogers: I'd just like to talk about it, if it's alright. My first children's program was on WQED fifteen years ago, and its budget was $30. Now, with the help of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation and National Educational Television, as well as all of the affiliated stations -- each station pays to show our program. It's a unique kind of funding in educational television. With this help, now our program has a budget of $6000. It may sound like quite a difference, but $6000 pays for less than two minutes of cartoons. Two minutes of animated, what I sometimes say, bombardment. I'm very much concerned, as I know you are, about what's being delivered to our children in this country. And I've worked in the field of child development for six years now, trying to understand the inner needs of children. We deal with such things as -- as the inner drama of childhood. We don't have to bop somebody over the head to...make drama on the screen. We deal with such things as getting a haircut, or the feelings about brothers and sisters, and the kind of anger that arises in simple family situations. And we speak to it constructively.
Senator Pastore: How long of a program is it?
Mr. Rogers: It's a half hour every day. Most channels schedule it in the noontime as well as in the evening. WETA here has scheduled it in the late afternoon.
Senator Pastore: Could we get a copy of this so that we can see it? Maybe not today, but I'd like to see the program.
Mr. Rogers: I'd like very much for you to see it.
Senator Pastore: I'd like to see the program itself, or any one of them.
Mr. Rogers: We made a hundred programs for EEN, the Eastern Educational Network, and then when the money ran out, people in Boston and Pittsburgh and Chicago all came to the fore and said we've got to have more of this neighborhood expression of care. And this is what -- This is what I give. I give an expression of care every day to each child, to help him realize that he is unique. I end the program by saying, "You've made this day a special day, by just your being you. There's no person in the whole world like you, and I like you, just the way you are." And I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health. I think that it's much more dramatic that two men could be working out their feelings of anger -- much more dramatic than showing something of gunfire. I'm constantly concerned about what our children are seeing, and for 15 years I have tried in this country and Canada, to present what I feel is a meaningful expression of care.
Senator Pastore: Do you narrate it?
Mr. Rogers: I'm the host, yes. And I do all the puppets and I write all the music, and I write all the scripts --
Senator Pastore: Well, I'm supposed to be a pretty tough guy, and this is the first time I've had goose bumps for the last two days.
Mr. Rogers: Well, I'm grateful, not only for your goose bumps, but for your interest in -- in our kind of communication. Could I tell you the words of one of the songs, which I feel is very important?
Senator Pastore: Yes.
Mr. Rogers: This has to do with that good feeling of control which I feel that children need to know is there. And it starts out, "What do you do with the mad that you feel?" And that first line came straight from a child. I work with children doing puppets in -- in very personal communication with small groups:

What do you do with the mad that you feel? When you feel so mad you could bite. When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right. What do you do? Do you punch a bag? Do you pound some clay or some dough? Do you round up friends for a game of tag or see how fast you go? It's great to be able to stop when you've planned the thing that's wrong. And be able to do something else instead -- and think this song --

'I can stop when I want to. Can stop when I wish. Can stop, stop, stop anytime....And what a good feeling to feel like this! And know that the feeling is really mine. Know that there's something deep inside that helps us become what we can. For a girl can be someday a lady, and a boy can be someday a man.'

Senator Pastore: I think it's wonderful. I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the 20 million dollars.

Review: IE vs FF vs Chrome

Comparing Internet Explorer, FireFox, and Chrome on Browser Behavior from Generic End-User POV

I've been using IE, FF, and Chrome as my primary browsers. In recent years, Chrome has been my default browser. FF was my primary before then, and IE when I first started using the internet. I still use FF and IE occasionally to keep up with their changes and there are some sites that still work better in FF or IE.

As for the impact to my computer, I notice that FF is most effective for the long-term. By long-term, I mean keeping the browser window for a long period of time (in days). FF has not had any significant impact to my system if left open for several days. IE is similar to FF but will slow down my system in a few days. Chrome seems to slow down my system dramatically if left open for several hours.

By slowing down, I mean that everything (word processing, other browsers, games, applications) else seems to slow down dramatically. Once IE or Chrome are closed, everything else improves dramatically in performance. Chrome seem to do even worse as there are more tabs. I can even notice the difference in performance as I close each tab. I have not noticed this problem with IE.

IE seems to load the fastest with FF seemingly the slowest. I have not timed any, but I think my senses are important in that this has a direct impact when I am trying to search for information especially back in tech support days. When rushing, you will notice even fractions of second delay when a customer is breathing down your neck. I have defaulted to IE for those instances and basically the only reason it was a part of my life.

Today, I use IE the least except maybe to test Bing and for some sites still developed only for IE. To my dismay, IE8 is the only approved browser at work (tech support will only troubleshoot web applications when using IE8, web developers also only design for IE8 for in-house uses). Many Microsoft applications seem to integrate better with IE. I find that IE is the worst at handling javascript exceptions.

I primarily use Chrome because it is youngest of the browsers and still figuring the ins-and-outs of it. It seems more compatible to other sites than FF, but renders IE specific sites worse. I like that Chrome allows me to drag and drop tabs into different Chrome windows. Surprisingly, I use that a lot more than I originally thought (which was never and how silly that feature was). I really like the built-in developer tools although FF and IE have similar features as add-ons. I find the Chrome version the easiest to use. I do not like Chrome's configuration placements. It seems to take me much longer to find certain configurations and sometimes never find them. I am mixed on the logging into the browser part. There are some good features and some I prefer not to have.

I do not have much to say about FF except that it works as I expect a typical browser should do except opening slowly. It renders almost all webpages, configurations are decently logical, and I like supporting a non-corporate built application. It has some nice add-ons. It is only unfortunate that it is not more popular because it is not a default installation like IE and Chrome.



Reference:
My PC is about 4 years-old built from scratch with relatively cost-effective parts (ie not the cheapest but also not the most expensive).

Complaint: Google Chrome Crashed - Videos on Infinite Loop

Browser: Google Chrome

Version: 28.0.1500.95 m

Error Message: Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage. To continue, reload or go to another page. Reload. If you're seeing this frequently, try these suggestions.

I notice that I get these if I leave something running particularly with flash or silverlight for a long time (8+ hours). My guess would be something with memory leaks. Some examples are with Pandora or YouTube playlists with a loop.

The issue is minor in that I just refresh the page and on rare occasions restarting the browser. I feel that FireFox does a better job on this where I've ran the same sites for multiple days without any problems. I cannot quite remember Internet Explorer since it has been a while but I think it used to just slow down my system to the point where I couldn't do anything else without close the browser.