> Such notebook is suitable for posting photos on Instagram, but not for work. At least not for mine.
Why do people feel the need to be so snide and put down what other people do as 'not work'?
Why do people feel the need to be so snide and put down what other people do as 'not work'?
This is not a snide remark. The site is habr.com, which is a Russian resource. So what you perceive is an offensive faux pas, is just a dry and cynical joke of a kind very common to the IT people of the former Soviet Union space. It's not a terribly funny joke, nor do I personally like this brand of humor, but it's clearly not made in bad spirit or meant to offend.
Yes it's a shame that it lets down the rest of the article, isn't it?
> This is not a snide remark.
Maybe you have a different idea of what snide is. I don't think it's 'offensive' I just think it's a bit nasty. Why can't they talk about their work without saying that what someone else does isn't work? What's the need for it? What does it add? This is 'snide' to me - derogatory and mocking.
It might be useful for the author to know how the text might be read, but otherwise one is probably better off reading the text with some lenience towards weaknesses, or mistakes in style and tone.
The author clearly did quite a bit of work, writes an article in decent English, and I believe they deserve a little slack for what is most likely a minor cultural gaffe, or a joke that doesn't translate that well.
Do you think that being a social media person is equally valuable to being a sysadmin? If so, why do sysadmins get paid more? It’s because fewer people have those skills, and everyone and their mother can most pictures on Instagram. There’s no reason to put people down, but the answer to your question is also pretty straightforward.
Also, in Russia, people don’t coddle each other like they do in The States, so if they think uploading things to social media isn’t skilled work, they just go out and say it. I personally find that refreshing on some level, because then you can actually talk to people straightforwardly. Russia sucks in lots of ways, but at least you can communicate with people directly there.
So saying it pays less is irrelevant. It's not a competition to see how can look down on whom.
And it's not just Instagram. They said that the MacBook Air wasn't suitable for work, and just gave Instagram as one example of what it is suitable for. I could do my job (programming language research) on a MacBook Air. I know someone who writes medical text books on a MacBook Air. Are these things not real work?
I don't know why the author couldn't just say 'A MacBook Air wouldn't be suitable for my work'? Why add the extra snide bit that if you could then you aren't doing real work? Why communicate that idea at all, directly or indirectly?
The author isn't a typical corporate sysadmin running between offices and the server room; he works with wide variety of hardware and in conditions including outdoors and on top of antenna masts.