Ah, work ethic. Dictionary.com defines it as "a belief in the moral benefit and importance of work and its inherent ability to strengthen character." This seems like a good definition, and Calvin's Dad would certainly approve. Now that it has been defined, let's examine this a little more closely:
My work ethic appears to be flexible. There are times when my subconscious cries out to be useful, and others when it constantly tells me not to reinvent the wheel. One occasion that springs to mind would be many summers ago as the lead summer intern in the TECH department. That particular summer was the great "Cable Pull of '04." It was a horribly inefficient use of cat-5 (my idea!) that saved us at least three weeks worth of pulling. Manteca threatened to "Rock* our world" if my crazy plan did not work. Alas, the crazy plan worked, but it was the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic; someone almost burned down the school a few months later.
Given that our hard work ended up being in vain, the question becomes do I feel better as a result of formulating the path of least resistance to get there? More appropriately, do the ends justify my means? If I say yes, then I am saying that I was forseeing the possibility that our hard work would be destroyed by acts of malice, stupidity, or God. I guess that's not too much of a stretch; the school is situated in tornado alley, employs individuals who intentionally hide computer components from the tech department, and has some pretty abysmal standardized testing scores. Sure, why not. It's certainly not inconceivable that some idiot would burn down the school, in fact, it's very probable.
So there, four years later I have rationalized taking the lazy way out of pulling over three miles of cable because I foresaw the possibility that some idiot would be ruining all of our hard work in a fit of pyromania.
What's your rationalization?
It's all just a bunch of distractions until we die anyway...
Jeff C.
*He didn't say "rock," but it did have four letters and kind of rhyme.
**Instead of the hammer of justice, might I reccomend THE FUBAR.
