Maybe their incentive will be that if they don't upgrade, someone will just crash their server.

I deal with the same thought pattern at work on a daily basis. I develop on a very popular e-commerce platform that is notorious for being difficult to update due to poor compatibility with various customizations done to the application code. Clients come to me with problems their store is facing, and I tell them the fix is to update to a newer version. I then tell them that it may cause problems with all the extensions they've installed and that it takes time to get things all sorted out. This quickly puts them into "not enough incentive" mode.

What that really means is they value running their day-to-day business more than they value the sustainability of their business. They'd rather make $1 a day than save $365 a year.

That, and apparently according to the PMs around the office, lots of checklists.

Do you genuinely believe it necessary for someone who smokes pot on a regular basis to check into NA?

Many people use cannabis for various reasons. Sure, some people use it to "get stupid" as you so eloquently put it. Some people might use it because they think it's a form of enlightenment. Both of these types of users are the same and don't really represent the majority of users who smoke cannabis simply to make their bodies less uncomfortable. In this regard, its use is therapeutic.

Prohibitionists just want to enforce their theories of "acceptable therapy" on others, mainly because they have been led to believe cannabis is something different than what it really is.

Otherwise known to the rest of us civilized folks as "next game".

Minecraft may be a good choice, but I would emphasize something like Minecraft, lest they'll be slaves to Queen Minecrosoft.

I remember as a kid, maybe 6 or 7, I had this toy that was one of those flying contraptions where you pulled a string on a handle that spun the flying thing really fast and it flew (mostly) straight up.

On the handle bit where the string was and the flying thing attached to, there was a word and an arrow ... WIND =>

Now, I remember this confusing me for a second, did it mean I should align the arrow with the direction the wind is blowing? Or did it mean that was the direction I should wind up the string so it spins in the right direction?

It took me a second, I was pretty young after all, but I ultimately decided that they meant *both*, even though the latter, I'm sure in hindsight, was the intentional meaning. In this case, basing my definition of WIND on context increased confusion .

You are simply not getting it. A space is always 1 space, you are correct about this, but why are you using spaces for indentation in the first place? Do you seriously hit space bar 12 or 16 times to indent a few columns? What do you do with deep HTML markup?

Besides, why are you even worried about having to backspace over a "random" number of tabs? Isn't that what Shift+Home is for? Shift+Delete (some editors)?

Are there any keys on your keyboard that you *do* use?

git pull --rebase origin master

There might possibly be no other command in the history of software development that has saved more man-hours than this gem.

Assuming I am alone, there are emergency roadside phone every mile or so that I can use. Alternatively, I can use a normal landline or flag down a passing state trooper. I don't see this as an issue, as it will happen at most a handful of times in my life.

If I need a ride home after city buses have stopped, I can call a cab or I can stay the night. Again, is this really a problem? Did people never leave home before cell phones?

Why do you need to phone someone when you show up at their apartment? Why not use the buzzer or knock on the door? If this is a case where the apartment doesn't have doors or buzzers, I can send them a message when I leave home, "hey, I'll be there in 15 minutes."

You came up with three exceptionally weak circumstances where a cell phone might be a bit more convenient if you have managed to not plan anything you're doing.

Again, folks assuming that day-to-day life is impossible without a cell phone.

I do web development and it's mostly the standard LAMP stack type stuff. One of the frustrations I have constantly is that I still need to learn how to do someone else's job simply to do my own.

In that regard I've learned how to use Linux with various services, learned about SOLR, Nginx, Apache, ESXi, Docker, MAAS, and a list of other things I've probably mostly forgotten. If I wanted to, I feel confident I could rebrand as a sysadmin, but lord knows I don't want to. I like writing code and solving challenges, but I hate having to trudge through all bits about getting infrastructure to work.

On top of that I work almost entirely on e-commerce sites, so I am forced to learn various business models, sales tax implications, PCI-compliance standards, payment and shipping APIs, assorted accounting software, and on and on.

I complain, but at the same time I understand that certain combinations of certain skillsets are what make an employee desirable. I like having the ability to do other people's jobs, sometimes I just don't want to.

I would like to report that I have been free of a cell phone for approximately 3 years now and am still alive, happy, and savvy to the things happening in the world.

You don't need to have that thing attached to your face at all hours of the day.

I agree! I think we should go dig up all the dead criminals and stick their remains in a building with bars guarded by men with guns. That'll teach 'em!

Dealing with infections while in the wilderness is pointless, huh? Holy shit are you ignorant.

... or just put on your resume that you have gone through all the free CS video lectures.