Who are you?

Medusa said:
Did you do that on purpose, the "screw" and "drive," or was it double entendre happenstance?
Or... is that so way obvious I'm being lame to point it out?
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I hate to point this out because it will, well, point it out, which is the opposite of my goal, but I feel compelled to make known that I am referring to the correllation between woodworking, screws and driving with hammer and nails.
 
Old Lady. Young Heart. Family is everything to me.

I think I might have put that in my profile here too ;)

I don't think I've ever defined myself by my job, because I've never been career oriented. My whole life my primary focus has been on my family, even during those periods where I was working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day sometimes (because my ex was a deadbeat and stopped working altogether eventually.) Even then, my priority was my kids, and that's never changed.

I've lived on three continents, travelled extensively, I'm an accomplished Ballroom Dancer, a good cook, technologically savvy (for my generation at least) a competent organizer, dedicated wife, an autodidact, extremely fast typist, I love words, have an extensive vocabulary, and read extensively every day (often audiobooks because I can do that while I work)

In spite of all that, if I was forced to define myself by some role or job or ha or skill, it would be Mother. I am a Mom/Grandma first, above and beyond everything else. Mom, nurturer, Mother Earth type.
 

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I am the mother of triplets plus one. I have a couple of degrees. I've worked in various jobs, but not as much after the boys were born. I don't have very much life experience, other than being educated, raising kids, and working.

I love to read, about 300 books a year. I have been keeping a list of books read, by genre, since 2011. I am beginning to think I am an e-book hoarder. My favorite book is The Martian, by Andy Weir. It is scifi, and I usually do not like that genre, but this book -- I read it straight through, no breaks.

I love animals, especially birds and dogs. Cats would be on the list, too, but they drive my dog crazy and he becomes super annoying. So I am not around cats very much.

i am very resilient, although that gets old after awhile.

I like to learn new things, and I am very (too) curious. I get bored about once every couple of decades. I've had to take it down a few notches when dealing with people. A long time ago, I used to sound like a journalist interviewing them. I just wanted the information, which I kept completely confidential. No judgment about what I was told. I've long since stopped interviewing people ... now I just mentally encourage them to talk to me, tell me all!

I am an enthusiastic person, in the main.
 
My favorite question that I have posed to myself often through the years: Who am I when I'm all alone, without a role to play? It seemed I was always "playing a role" - daughter to a wonderful Agnostic father and hateful, hypocrite Catholic mother; sister to a much older brother with Down's Syndrome, wife (multiple times), friend (occasionally), mother of two (then mother of one after son's fatal overdose), student (lifelong), teacher, grandmother of three (though only two share anything with me) and as of 6 months ago, a great-grandmother of twin boys who grin when they see me. Now: I am unemployed and living alone with my dog and four parakeets. So, who am I? It's back to roles that I seem to need desperately - Doting great-grandma and dog trainer. Throughout it all, I was driven to be my best. I'm over that! I can't fix the world, although I still wish I could. I always wanted to fix any and all injustices in the world. Nowadays, I just try to improve things in a much tighter circle and I take time to be good to myself. I enjoy sky-watching and observing living creatures and collecting rocks and putzing in my yard. I am content.
 
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WheatenLover said:
I am the mother of triplets plus one. I have a couple of degrees. I've worked in various jobs, but not as much after the boys were born. I don't have very much life experience, other than being educated, raising kids, and working.

I love to read, about 300 books a year. I have been keeping a list of books read, by genre, since 2011. I am beginning to think I am an e-book hoarder. My favorite book is The Martian, by Andy Weir. It is scifi, and I usually do not like that genre, but this book -- I read it straight through, no breaks.
First,
I love animals, especially birds and dogs. Cats would be on the list, too, but they drive my dog crazy and he becomes super annoying. So I am not around cats very much.

i am very resilient, although that gets old after awhile.

I like to learn new things, and I am very (too) curious. I get bored about once every couple of decades. I've had to take it down a few notches when dealing with people. A long time ago, I used to sound like a journalist interviewing them. I just wanted the information, which I kept completely confidential. No judgment about what I was told. I've long since stopped interviewing people ... now I just mentally encourage them to talk to me, tell me all!

I am an enthusiastic person, in the main.
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I really enjoyed your post and thanks for the book recommendation that I have found in an audio form (and I hope it's a true version):
 
win231 said:
I think many people define themselves by their occupations because of the way we answer the question: "What kind of work do you do?"
It's rare for someone to answer: "I do engineering," or "I sell cars," etc. They usually say, "I'm an engineer," or "I'm a salesman."
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No argument, my point was not all of us do. Some of us relate to work and life roles (spousal, parental) differently than that.
 
officerripley said:
I was also told that, "...if people want to be treated decently, they need a college degree."
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i don't know who said that to you but it is a load of BS and just another excuse for treating some people as 'less than' themselves.

A very educated and generally recognized as brilliant man, Einstein, said he talks to everyone the same way from University Administrators to the janitors. He also often took time to answer questions he got from schoolchildren. In personal/intimate relationships he had his flaws but he was pretty decent human being to people in general despite their education or social 'status'. My Dad instilled a similar philosophy in us. Treat everyone with respect until/unless they prove they don't deserve it.
 
officerripley said:
Retired "uneducated" (so I was informed) office worker and long-time info-nerd.
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feywon said:
Whoever said that is clearly too ill-informed to know that some of the most highly educated people are auto didacts.
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Unlike decades ago, in many technical fields today that are rapidly advancing, being able to consume leading edge science and technology with strong reading and comprehension skills by reading other's research and tersely concise standards and information documents are key to remaining at the top of one's fields. That is a skill only a minority possess while conversely a majority only learn effectively by formal instruction. For example, Internet IETF and RFC standards all this computer web stuff we use are created from, takes much more than just reading once to comprehend. College and seminars only go so far although some college educators and HR departments tend to work against such.

Many hi tech corporate HR departments in this era also tend to unwisely toss resumes of those without some top recent degree but have strong experience at the same time hiring departments are crying to fill positions. The rise of Linkedin was a direct result to the dismay of bean counters that lost control as hiring departments began to circumvent HRs.

I worked decades as a self taught autodidact peon in a list of Silicon Valley electronic hardware engineering groups. There are significant amounts of technology that cannot be taught to a level some PHD even out of a top university can just move in to a job and be productive at but rather require working in those environments with access to equipment, tools, and personnel only found within. And there are plenty of examples of those with tech degrees that after landing jobs do little over decades to keep up in their fields, remaining in various necessary middle level niches that change little.
 
A prevalent stance on hiring at the University at which I worked was that it was better, not just there but at anyplace in the world, to hire someone with a degree, for instance an accounting firm would do better to hire someone with a degree in Medieval Poetry than someone with "only" accounting experience since, as it was put to me, "No matter how many years of experience a person has, it's better for them to have a degree since experience only teaches someone WHAT to think whereas a university education teaches a person HOW to think." I think there is something to that in some cases, but I also think as David points out, some jobs really do require some experience.
 
officerripley said:
A prevalent stance on hiring at the University at which I worked was that it was better, not just there but at anyplace in the world, to hire someone with a degree, for instance an accounting firm would do better to hire someone with a degree in Medieval Poetry than someone with "only" accounting experience since, as it was put to me, "No matter how many years of experience a person has, it's better for them to have a degree since experience only teaches someone WHAT to think whereas a university education teaches a person HOW to think." I think there is something to that in some cases, but I also think as David points out, some jobs really do require some experience.
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Wow glad UW felt differently.
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What they forget that not every degree requires one to learn how to think. Many can be earned simply by able to retrieve data from your brain that you gleaned from textbooks and lectures.
 
officerripley said:
A prevalent stance on hiring at the University at which I worked was that it was better, not just there but at anyplace in the world, to hire someone with a degree, for instance an accounting firm would do better to hire someone with a degree in Medieval Poetry than someone with "only" accounting experience since, as it was put to me, "No matter how many years of experience a person has, it's better for them to have a degree since experience only teaches someone WHAT to think whereas a university education teaches a person HOW to think." I think there is something to that in some cases, but I also think as David points out, some jobs really do require some experience.
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Employers assume that someone with a degree has the ability and discipline to learn. It does take a certain level of intelligence to get through a university, although some seem to get by solely with the ability to memorize information without necessarily being able to process that information or think logically. And that's fine for some occupations.

As far as a university teaching students "how to think," I'm not so sure about that. Maybe it depends on the subject matter. Some fields may promote independent and critical thinking more than others. In most math classes, they tell you "this is how you do it... If you deviate from this method, you'll get marked off," whereas a philosophy class may expose students to varied perspectives and encourage unconventional approaches.
 
SeniorBen said:
As far as a university teaching students "how to think," I'm not so sure about that. Maybe it depends on the subject matter. Some fields may promote independent and critical thinking more than others. In most math classes, they tell you "this is how you do it... If you deviate from this method, you'll get marked off," whereas a philosophy class may expose students to varied perspectives and encourage unconventional approaches.
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I took a math class like you described once -Calculus 1-3, for business majors. The taught only how to work the problems, which is astonishing for a class in calculus. Well, I couldn't do it without understanding how it worked. After the first test, I harnessed a married couple who were my best friends for help. One was a physicist and the other a chemist. They taught me how it works and why it works.

On the first test in that class, which was required for business degrees, everyone in the class made 0, and all but 2 or 3 continued making 0's throughout the course. Everyone passed with B or better somehow, even though the guy didn't openly curve the grades. The professor loved Mickey Mouse, wore only ties with the mouse on them, and talked about the mouse a lot.

I think having to learn math by rote is appalling because one can't apply what they know about how math works to solve other math problems that no one has taught them how to do. One cannot advance one's understanding, IOW.
 
officerripley said:
A prevalent stance on hiring at the University at which I worked was that it was better, not just there but at anyplace in the world, to hire someone
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That's just BS. I got my start in accounting with no knowledge of it, and without a degree. I got on the job training for two jobs: accounts receivable clerk, and accounts payable clerk.

After that I went to work for a large international company, and got training to be an accountant. By then, I was 30% through with my degree. I was hired as a secretary. My boss had nothing for me to do, but all the other controllers had secretaries. So I helped other accounting clerks with data entry, and that only used up 1/2 a day a week.

Then I went to the senior accountants and asked them what they hated doing the most. I suggested that if they taught me how to do those things, they wouldn't have to do them any more. Then a junior accountant quit, and I got the job. A few months later, I was promoted to senior accountant and had my own (useless; he did no work) junior accountant. When I left the company,my position was filled by 2 senior accountants and 1 junior accountant (a new one).

I kept track of my hours, and once I became a junior accountant, my average number of working hours per week was 55. I did not waste one minute of those 55 hours because I was going to school 4 nights a week and at 6 a.m. twice a week to finish my accouting degree. I didn't have time to waste. I quit my job because I had more courses to take and I could knock them out in one semester.
 

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