<OT> Did I do the right thing?

[James McDonald]

Jerry McBride wrote:

>I just finished answering a plea for help from a newly installed unix admin. 
>He needed help finishing off the install of a an applicaiton that the "old" 
>previous admin hadn't completed. My take of the situation was that the "old 
>guy" was chopped off at the knees, juist as the project he was working on got 
>started...
>
Sounds like political attrition.

>
>Anyways, I politely pointed out where and how to gather the needed 
>documentation to complete the project. It's funny, I would have assumed the 
>documentation should have been there already. The response I got back was 
>kinda snotty, so typical of todays youth and it ended in yet another plea for 
>help...
>

It's the classic case of the user that rings the help desk and wants you 
do something for them. When you insist on training them how to do it you 
get a variety of responses. But in the end when you show them how to 
"fish" it stops you becoming a regular on their outsourcing rounds (Have 
you noticed some employees manage to delegate all their tasks).

>
>After finishing my brandy and pondering what to do about this last bleet for 
>help... I responded with a paraphrased quote I learned so long ago... 
>Something like...
>
>"If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day... if you teach a man how to 
>fish, he will eat for the rest of his life"... I then told the young MSCE to 
>"GO FISH".
>
>I'm not conflicted about what I told the guy... I'm just a tad bit concerned 
>that he won't groc it... :') Did I do the right thing?
>
Being humble and gracious when recieving help is  a practical survival 
technique... as you say this was a young MCSE perhaps... you are just 
training him in the benefits of humbly accepting that the MCSE didn't 
give them encyclopedic knowledge and that there are going to be times 
that they will need to consult people for knowledge they don't possess.

>
>Cheers...
>
>P.S. Happy birthday to me... 48 and none the wiser. :') Uhhh... BudWiser...
>
>  
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