Re: General advice beyond Org

[edgar@openmail.cc]

> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 19 May 2018 18:31:55 -0400
> From: "James K. Lowden" <jklowden@speakeasy.net>
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: General advice beyond Org
> Message-ID: <20180519183155.caea7e3c88b046e85a82e888@speakeasy.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> 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.

American, Canadian, Australian... dollars? :D . I don't like to measure 
myself in currency. It is as if turning into a product. I guess that you 
mean how much I am willing to give up for my inclination, which is a 
good question.

> 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.

This reminds me of the comment from Gene:

> Date: Fri, 18 May 2018 16:27:12 -0700 (PDT)
>> Do you have any idea how many in positions of authority to constrain
>> your freedom of choise OWN Monopoly$oft stock and have no qualms about
>> misusing their positions of authority to specify proprietary products
>> which benifit them as stock holders?!
>> 
>> Don't EVEN go there!

But it is good to know that I will face this.

> 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.

Golly! I still remember all the time that I had to devote to partially 
use Emacs correctly, having used many others in the past! I would not go 
back!

> 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.

The first part of this statement is very daunting, depressing and grim.

> 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.

Oh! war! thou creator of all!

> 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.

I don't know what "pamper your fingers" mean, but I think that the 
message is the comparison between technical and scientific v.s. business 
and administrative.

> 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.

May be that is why it is easier in academia? where answers are not 
completely clear?

> 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.
> 

Thanks for the heads up!

> --jkl

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