Decisionmakers bring in “outsiders” firstly because they (the outsiders) are swayed less by perverse institutional interests and secondly because they (the decisionmakers) enjoy the company of free men.

Capitalism is a fancy word for ROI, or return on investment, where “return” means “more than you put in”. Thus, “returning value to shareholders”.

Because all value is created not by workers but by owners, it is only fair that the equity value of the economy be preserved under all circumstances.

This is how the world actually works.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr…

He sounds like a decent guy.

If he is teaching you to fish then it is a very different thing than if he is doing some other thing.

Indeed, if you foresee yourself, at some definite future point, able to leave his aegis and strike out for yourself, he is more a mentor than a boss.

“Boss” is a subtly pejorative word, indicating subjection, suggesting the chief mechanism of subjection, specialization, i.e., compartmentalization.

And always is there the Eternal Question:

Do you prefer hard liberty before the easy yoke of servile pomp?

I had fun and was reasonably successful, in a geeky sort of way. I was, also, the go away and show up with the answer type of guy.

Instead the older generations breezily throw bromides at them, or if pressed, tell them to read ‘What Color is Your Rainbow’. So we end up with millions of seriously unhappy young adults using drugs and antidepressants, displaying worthless college degrees, going rudderless through life.

Other countries, specifically Germany, Switzerland, Russia and many others, have kids sit for a battery of vocational aptitude tests that direct the student’s educational direction and early career goals. It’s not a perfect system but it’s SOMETHING whereas we offer our young people NOTHING, and then when our failure to plan becomes planning to fail we default to telling the kids that they are LAZY, morally deficient, because after all this is America and all you have to do is double down, triple down, even if don’t really know what the fuck you are doing.

Horatio Alger needs to die.

Doing so takes one off a beaten track somewhat. You have to understand how your firm earns its money, even if you are a machinist. What is gained is you know better than most how your function affects the company better than anyone else. But there is an additional plus, you can pretty much have defined your career path if that is your desire. There is more to ‘follow the money’ that its associated with a crime drama.

It doesn’t come natural for anyone, everyone has to learn how to be free. After all, all of us endured at least 12 years of slave mind washing.

You learned how to be a slave and you can learn to not be a slave too. The choice is yours.

FWIW, I am a mostly self taught architect and structural engineer and I had 31 jobs by the time I was 30 years old and decided I just couldn’t take it any more and started my own business, learning something new every day. I’ve been self employed since 1986 and will die as free as I can be.

You have to want it. Most people have become accustomed to the yoke.

When I was young, the conventional wisdom was you get an education and a gray flannel suit and then get a job as an employee at some company with health insurance and a 401-K and that’s it. This is what they tell you. That’s the blue pill. Be a good boy and everything will be fine.

Then your first place of employment gets shut down, and you start to think you’ve been sold a bill of goods.

Then you notice that your second employer keeps bringing in outsiders and consultants instead of promoting from within.

And then you’re red pilled.

I’ve had good bosses. God bless them. But I’ve had more bad bosses than good bosses. And the best boss I’ve ever had was me. That boss always had my best interests at heart. He screwed up a lot – as they all do – but he always learned better – as they don’t all do.

Capitalism is creative destruction. Everything is temporary. Loyalty (except to self) is not inherently a virtue. All employment is temporary by nature. The only thing wrong with all that from my point of view is nobody told me. The game is just fine, just not the game they told me I’d be playing.

Also it hurts that I got zero education that was relevant to the way the world actually works. I had to learn everything the hard way.

Maybe if I’d taken a lot of business courses in college instead of focusing on technical skills I’d have been in better shape. Or maybe not. I took some of those courses later, and they seemed like a lot of flimflam.

I have a boss.

He’s better at bringing in clients than I am.

He puts in more hours writing bids than I do.

He puts me to work for his clients when I don’t have enough work of my own, which is often.

When I help keep his clients happy, he is happy.

I am not as natural as this particular game as he is, but for as long as I keep trying to improve at it, I am confident that he’ll help me learn to play it better.

Of course, your mileage (and boss) may vary.