OK the Self Deprecation thread (also the tolerance thing) got me to thinking about this one...
What is the absolute stupidest (or embarrassing) thing you've ever done, that you'll admit to?
Are there many stupid things you'll never admit to? Maybe they've been expunged from your memory by a proactive subconscious?
Surely this thread has been done before... But heck, I think so many of them are good for a laugh in a Douglas Adams or Basil Faulty type way. (And I've been trying to put my mind in gear for some humorous writing.)
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So, I'll go first:
I have a few toe curling acts of stupidity in my life that I will take to my grave and that serve to keep my ego in check (because I know nobody else is capable of being that stupid). But aside from those few, some give me the shivers like...
(I've told this one very rarely, because I find it oh so humiliating, and I think the Brits here --heck anybody not American-- are going to get a real kick out of it.)
On a fast/intense development project I was managing many years ago I had individual conferences with each of the team members before we started. Two of my team were from the same foreign country. Having worked before with foreign coworkers who had sometimes slipped back into their native tongues when discussing things with fellow countrymen, I thought I should proactively address this at the start of this new project.
So, I sat down with the first fellow, and after going through all the basic project management stuff, I, as tactfully as I could, explained to him my past experience and my desire that all team members use english when discussing the project.
Then I paused for his reply and he said, "John, Srini and I are from different provinces," (You see, they were both from India.) "We don't speak the same native language, only English do we share."
They don't put rocks in small conference rooms that you can crawl under.
<stupid> <stupid> <stupid> <smack> <smack> American! Damn stupid American schools!
What is the absolute stupidest (or embarrassing) thing you've ever done, that you'll admit to?
Are there many stupid things you'll never admit to? Maybe they've been expunged from your memory by a proactive subconscious?
Surely this thread has been done before... But heck, I think so many of them are good for a laugh in a Douglas Adams or Basil Faulty type way. (And I've been trying to put my mind in gear for some humorous writing.)
-----------
So, I'll go first:
I have a few toe curling acts of stupidity in my life that I will take to my grave and that serve to keep my ego in check (because I know nobody else is capable of being that stupid). But aside from those few, some give me the shivers like...
(I've told this one very rarely, because I find it oh so humiliating, and I think the Brits here --heck anybody not American-- are going to get a real kick out of it.)
On a fast/intense development project I was managing many years ago I had individual conferences with each of the team members before we started. Two of my team were from the same foreign country. Having worked before with foreign coworkers who had sometimes slipped back into their native tongues when discussing things with fellow countrymen, I thought I should proactively address this at the start of this new project.
So, I sat down with the first fellow, and after going through all the basic project management stuff, I, as tactfully as I could, explained to him my past experience and my desire that all team members use english when discussing the project.
Then I paused for his reply and he said, "John, Srini and I are from different provinces," (You see, they were both from India.) "We don't speak the same native language, only English do we share."
They don't put rocks in small conference rooms that you can crawl under.
<stupid> <stupid> <stupid> <smack> <smack> American! Damn stupid American schools!
