Re: General advice beyond Org

["James K. Lowden" <jklowden@speakeasy.net>]

On Fri, 18 May 2018 00:28:22 +0000
edgar@openmail.cc wrote:

> _I_ need help. I am in graduate school, and I keep having issues with
> my advisor for my strong inclination to use free software. I am
> obviously not in position to refuse, but she dislikes to have
> discussions about it. She pays a stipend to me every month, and my
> tuition is waved.

Question #1: How important is your strong inclination, measured in
dollars?  Because we all have to go along to get along, to some extent.

Every place I've ever worked used at least some proprietary software.
Every place had the need to exchange modifiable files.  The desire to
move from Windows to, say, Qt was nil.  

The need to share information trumps concerns about software licensing
every time.  The need to keep using what you know trumps touted
features of what you'd have to learn.  If you don't believe me, ask
someone whose department switched to Git from Subversion.  

Your advisor is only the tip of the iceberg.  Really, she's a messenger
from the real world, a place where you'll have to learn to use software
you don't like, and deal with many other contraints and impositions on
your freedom to get the job done.  All organizations have rules, after
all, by definition.  

If you're trying to defend your ideals, it might help to remember you
can't, because everything is connected to everything else.  

During the Vietnam war, it wasn't uncommon for someone to declare their
opposition to the war meant they refused to work for a defense
contractor.  OK.  Banking, then?  But banks finance defense
contractors.  McDonalds?  They feed defense contractor employees.
Academia?  You're training new defense contractors.  No matter how you
earn your bread, your employer and your earnings eventually feed the
same maw.  

If you're just trying to pamper your fingers, it might help to remember
you can.  To the extent others are unaffected, you'll usually be free
to choose what software to use.  That will be more true in technical
and scientific areas, and less true in business and administrative
ones.  

How much independence you have depends on how expert you are.  If you
need guidance in how to accomplish a task, any task, you can't expect
the person helping you to *also* learn your software.  Usually help
comes in the form of "using X do Y", and if you don't have X, you have
to figure out what X(Y) is.  If you know the problem domain and your
software very well, the route to X(Y) is shorter than if you don't.  

One last point that's often underappreciated: if you use whatever
software you're asked/expected to use, then if you have problems or
delays -- as you certainly will -- you'll have a sympathetic ear.  If
you insist on doing it your own way, others will blame every problem or
delay, fairly or not, on your choice of software.  Before you buck the
system, it pays to get buy-in or to be very, very sure you'll come out
ahead.  

--jkl