PlugTunin

good question

I laughed my ass off, because I decided he was the only person in LA County to have asked that question anytime recently. Incidentally, I guarantee you he has no idea who Diego Maradona is.

Crunch also once asked me, 2 days after the election, "Did Obama win?". He was traveling overseas and was "out of the loop". I saved the email and laugh about it to this day.

(If you don't know who Crunch is, and you're using this website, that's funny.)

No meat. No soda. No fast food. Sweets and booze only on rare occasions.

Black beans are good for your brain and leave you full & satiated for longer than most food. Their notorious side-effects -- to those around you -- are somewhat exaggerated. Fats and sweets make me feel lazy. I like to stay active (weights, hoops, doing things outside) but can slack for weeks at a time w/out consequence.

I don't give myself credit for being disciplined -- just have good habits and decent genes. What I am proud of is that in spite of not being the most mentally healthy person, instead of turning to food or drugs to comfort myself, I use exercise, good food and a sense of humor to lift my spirits.

Alternatively, some people come to see the err of their parents' ways and realize that in spite of their good intentions, they lacked the emotional maturity to build (a) a healthy marriage and (b) a nurturing environment for their children. I love my parents but realized in my late 30s that many adults are just large children with gray hair. What's important is understanding how you may have been impacted, breaking the cycle, and trying to do better.

In the same way that one can learn a ton from being part of a failed project at work, the same applies to those raised in a less-than-functional home. I'd also say that healthy debate (read: experience arguing with family) can foster skills in conflict resolution. Make lemonade from those lemons, folks!

What went wrong, besides bad luck? I was good enough at what I did that the perception formed that I'm not a real Finance person. So, instead of being used in roles with longevity, where writing code was an adjunct to domain expertise, I became The Tech Guy: a'hired gun', used exclusively to build tools for the real Finance pros to use in perpetuity.

Reading these comments is upsetting because they suggest that in 2020, someone w/ my background should be able to support themselves. To those who understand the power of databases and automation, the inanity of using Excel to do almost everything except wash your dishes is painfully obvious. Trust me: there's a better way.

Many technical people -- W/OUT a business background -- are prepared to do whatever is necessary to improve their understanding of The Business Side. Why is it that asking finance types to write code is akin to asking them to perform brain surgery? Perhaps grasping math and accounting principles doesn't imply creativity, or competency w/ language and logic? I've worked with people who can do all of these things. In 20 years, those who can't may struggle to find work. Somehow, in spite of my background, I ended up in the same boat.

Sorry to sound bitter, but people with skills who can't find work are sometimes more miserable than those without any skills, who have resigned themselves to a life of earning minimum wage. I miss the good old days, when I could flush money down the toilet for sport.

However, I'm not in favor of the common practice where employers make no attempt to hire a US citizen and instead hire an H1-B employee who is willing to work for peanuts.

That doesn't mean I'm a xenophobe.

But occasionally, I suspect these reasons become convenient excuses to go with the younger, more attractive, reasonably-qualified candidate.

(I'm totally kidding; your question is an excellent one.)

What's funny to me is how sometimes there are two qualities -- being both more competent (than one's peers) and not liked -- that in combination can further perceptions that someone "isn't a team player"..in the eyes of The Majority, the same people who are the real problem.

If the team says pigs can fly, the sky is red and Bob isn't a team player, all of those things might as well be true. After all, perception is reality.

I understand, though: you hate VBA. And by extension, Access. But Excel, with or without Python, doesn't mean it can suddenly be used as a relational database. But you knew that.

So, what should replace Access?

When faced with a decision b/w using a RAD tool to create something outside of IT, or spending $500,000 and waiting 6 months so real devs can deliver something Finance needed yesterday, that may not be needed tomorrow, the choice is an easy one.

Your generalization isn't entirely unfair; IT is often called on to fix a mess, but some Access solutions are built by people who understand database design/normalization and can put together a easily-maintainable application that never hits storage limits or requires upgrading to a SQL Server-managed back-end.

Corporate IT never lays eyes on many Access projects that aren't crap.

Decent People refusing to employ anyone who thinks Jews, among others, are subhuman is NOT the same thing as Indecent People refusing to employ Jews.

Basis For Arguments Matter™

Indeed, as another comment states, girls have historically been under diagnosed with autism, for a variety of reasons. (That's not to say males aren't more likely to have the condition.)

Simply put, employers need to do a better job of ensuring that those with talents (some female, some autistic, some minority, etc.)-- who are under represented in IT, are given fair opportunity to put their talents to use. I wouldn't get too caught up in worrying about how giving opportunities to one group takes away from another. We're all on the same team. It's not too different from how Affirmative Action (which I support) has its place in society.

Also, I was confused by the constellation bit. The spectrum descriptor is quite apt and just as generally accepted in the community as the idea that it's genetic in basis...well, unless you're an anti-vax kook. I've only heard the term constellation in the sense of describing the various symptoms. (As the adage goes, if you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism...no two are alike.) I'm actually in the middle of reading Steve Silberman's Neurotribes, which I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to know more about autism.

(Contrary to what the article says, Sasha Baron-Cohen (of Borat fame) is the cousin, not brother, of famed autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen.)

- Guy w/ Asperger's