I've got to say, it's a long step from a TDD course to
knee surgery. I wouldn't put myself into debt for a
workshop unless I knew it would immediately make me more
money.
Now, I agree that $1000 isn't exactly breaking the bank
for a well payed engineer, but these are difficult times
for everyone. For comparison, $3000 buys a semester long
full course load at many community colleges.
Personally, for $1000 I would want to be working towards
at least some kind of TDD certification. Otherwise, I
think it might be better to bank it for security's sake.
JP and I have a running agreement to provide one free
scholarship to any of the classes we teach. I provide
two scholarships. I'm just that way I suppose.
Wow - you're an ass
$1k? That's barely a drop in the bucket compared to what
doctors have to go through. If Roy was in my town and
provided that kind of deal, I would happily add to the
debt load.
Education is expensive; Expertise is even more
expensive.
I think the point of you post is valid. You could,
however, have chosen a better comparison to illustrate
your point. The problem is that if you don't take the
surgery you are going to be worse off. If you don't take
the course, tomorrow will pretty much be the same as
today. The motivation factor is not the same.
The second example is better since it illustrates the
fact that you might be better off by doing something.
Really enjoyed your book btw. Trying to convince my
coworkers to read it as well.
"I've got to say, it's a long step from a TDD course to
knee surgery. I wouldn't put myself into debt for a
workshop unless I knew it would immediately make me more
money."
"The problem is that if you don't take the surgery you
are going to be worse off. If you don't take the course,
tomorrow will pretty much be the same as today."
I think the idea is not to treat such comparisons as
realistic, but rather to normalise your thinking between
extremes to help decide whether you *really* want to do
something or not (i.e, if I really had to find $1000,
could I? if I really wanted to learn web programming,
could I?). Wanting something just enough to complain
that you don't have it is a waste of everyones time,
including your own; better to put it into context and
decide whether it really is important to you and then
either forget about it or work on finding a way to get
it.
People are not so binary. You sound like an ass.
Love it.
You are correct, there are two kinds of people out
there: people who decide they want something and tell
the world how it's gonna be, who they're gonna be, and
how they're gonna do it, and those that whimper to
anyone who will listen about how life's not fair. Life
is what you make it.
Look at all these excuses and rationalizations.
Pathetic. If you decide to do something, DO IT.
When you make a choice to do something, that's IT. You
find a way to make it happen. Don't b*tch to everyone
within earshot, keep that to yourself and go around that
stuff. Man up.
This is what separates the people who accomplish their
dreams from those who look back on their lives and whine
wah wah wah all the way home.
Anyway, great post.
"if you really wanted to do it, you’d find a way, see"
This is true. But it also points to a deeper truth:
people don't "really want" a TDD master class.
And the price *is* high, not just on an absolute scale
but relative to other offerings: 4000USD for your class
of 20, yet a tenth that gets you 2 hours of pair
programming time with Kent Beck. I think personal time
with Kent is going to be far more valuable if you want
to learn XP.
Finally, I can't help but wonder if you're doing the
same thing your "victim" did: instead of finding ways to
get people in your class, you're complaining on a blog.
When somebody told you why he couldn't make it, you
didn't get him in your class, you put the ball in his
court. If he doesn't show up, it's *his* fault, no?
Classic victim speak.
I can't believe you are lumping this guy into a "victim"
category for a very valid reason for not attending the
workshop. It sounds to me like this guy is actually
responsible enough to make the RIGHT decision. He isn't
going to spend money he doesn't have on something he
doesn't need.
Furthermore, why is everyone always putting labels on
people when everything about life is so dynamic and
every situation is different for every person every day?
This really has cemented the opinion about you that I
have been weighing up for some time
*unsubscribes*
For a career, this sounds like a fine motto.
For a life, this is a naive and dangerous view.
Our lives are ruled by random and often cruel forces. As
you say, there is much we can't control, but your
victim/doer paradigm seems to ignore this reality and
places all of the blame on the victim.
Frankly, you sound like someone who has never been
blindsided by chance...
There are plenty of people whinging here about what an
arse you are, but i agree with your point.
if you want something bad enuff then you'll go and get
it done. the simple fact that you dont get it done means
that you dont want it bad enough (in most cases, natural
disasters etc etc excluded).
offer it to him for free. you fool.
While looking for information on RegEx use in Excel,
someone linked to here and I ended up on this thread.
A first impression of you is you are arrogant and full
of yourself. In my world there are victims, doers and
holier than thou egotists.
You'd like everyone to think you have done a nice thing
going out of your way to offer a discount - pfft - You
have done it not because you wanted to genuinely help,
rather to feed your insatiable ego - to prove a point.
I find most egotist's lack something in their lives, so
sorry for you sir... but you _could_ "do something
about".
@FirstImpressionsAreLasting
He did do something about it? He offered a discount, but
the guy still whinged and complained, the guy was not
willing to do something for himself. So why should Roy
bend over for him?
Well said Roy.
Don't worry too much about the negative comments on this
post. The "Never try to teach a pig to sing..." quote
comes to mind.
Anyway, to balance out the force, I'm subscribing to
your blog now! Actually, I was going to anyway, but
don't tell them that :)
@James RE:"@FirstImpressionsAreLasting
He did do something about it? He offered a discount, but
the guy still whinged and complained, the guy was not
willing to do something for himself. So why should Roy
bend over for him?"
You totally failed to see my point. Did you actually
take time to try to understand what I was saying? My
point about being able to do something about it was that
Roy could do something about whatever is lacking in his
own life rather than posting arrogant rants to feed his
own ego.
Where do you see evidence of this in the article? "but
the guy still whinged and complained, the guy was not
willing to do something for himself." There is no
reference to what the guy in question actually chose to
do, only speculation as to what he _might_ do.
You come off sounding like a Lemming and need to learn
to think for yourself.
var condition = debtFreeLife < roysTDDClass;
if(condition)
Console.WriteLine(" Person attends Roys Clas ");
else
Console.WriteLine(" Person saves up for tough times,
learns TDD on his own ");
// Hope Roy can test this..Code would make you
understand