Thanks for the comment. The scenario you describe sounds quite familiar, I suspect it is common in our industry. Like you said here, it’s hard to know which direction to head.

I’ll give you a concrete example. I’m busy on client A, B, C. Boss asks for a new server to be set up for some ‘little bitty’ work, after all it’s less than 10 data feeds and pretty small. I say i’m available in a few days, he gets someone else to do it cause he’s not worried about setting it up all elaborate, just a quick set up to import the data…. Well in my mind I’m thinking little bitty work always turn into major projects and doing a throw together sql server set up just cause will eventually be a big headache. But I sit there and look and him and think, you know if I say all that, then he’ll continue to stress this is just some small thing and give me reasons why it’s ok to just throw the server together. In the end I’ll look like the negative person, so I sit back and just say ok, you know what you want and you are the boss.
On topic of what you are blogging, nothing on TV is real. If you still believe that, then that’s a bigger problem.

Connie,

Great point there, and it reminds me about a lesson I learned with humor.

It’s easy to ridicule someone else, but that doesn’t make it funny, nor you a funny person. And yet much of what passes for humor these days are acts that ridicule very specific people. We laugh, but we forget that there are people involved in the equation here.

Personal attacks will cause friction, no question.

Brian,

Thanks for the comment, much appreciated. I agree that it is hard to find a good journalist these days. They all seem intent on being able to yell the loudest when all we really want is for someone to say something thoughtful, even if quietly.

I think the trick is to know when to create friction and when not to… and to do your best to not piss off the bossman.

As for journalists in general, it is hard to find a good one. I watch the news sometimes and am finding it harder and harder to find good interviewers. One that sticks out in my mind (not going to name names) had said (paraphrased quote as I don’t remember it word for word) “so when your daughter was kidnapped, how did that make you feel?”. The person he was interviewing gave him the “are you stupid?” look and replied “upset. How would you feel?”. I changed the channel then and refuse to watch his show anymore.

Friction for the sake of drama is never good. Friction for the sake of getting emotion or information out of a story, that makes for a good read. Also, fake or misleading headlines drive me nuts too. I know CBC is bad for that… I mean titling your article “Harrison Ford to magician David Blaine: ‘Get the f–k out of my house'”… sure he said that, but you watch the video and it is VERY misleading.

Thanks for the good reads though. Really enjoy your articles.

The other reason I felt the need to comment was for the tags… “Things I Write While High on Bacon”. That’s awesome.

The whole “be an asshat to get clicks” has been sucking the life out of some communities. The problem with that is some people will speak up, but 90% of people will just leave the community. I’m close to that now because I’m not sure I want to be associated with a group of people that are slowly being defined by their loudest asses. Their braying is covering up the voices of others, making it difficult to engage with others. For now I’m ignoring the frictioneers. But I worry that others see this as a way to be successful. That makes me sad