oldzork

It appears that it's time for a somewhat inebriated journal entry. Could be entertaining... could be excruciatingly dull... never know until it's done. I need to finish the research for my thesis in the next month, so it's going to be a hard-core month of research, productivity, and hard work. That was the plan for January as well, but it didn't work out. Alas. Now that I think about it, that was the plan for December and November as well. There appears to be a pattern forming here... a pattern I must break, before it breaks me.

You probably know the "Peter Principle"... the explanation for why there is so much incompetence in the public service, corporations, unions, and more or less any large organization: the reason is that competent people are promoted. Very simple and sensible, but there's a catch. Sooner or later, just about everybody reaches a level at which they are no longer competent. At this point, they are no longer promoted. So the ranks slowly fill up with those who are not competent to perform their tasks. For most of my life, I performed well, and was promoted fairly quickly. Now that I've reached the PhD level, it appears that I've reached my level of incompetence. I'll probably get the stupid degree, eventually, but really... who needs another incompetent PhD? I'll be overqualified (according to official credentials) for the jobs I'm actually qualified for, and incompetent (according to my actual abilities) for the jobs I'm "qualified" for. It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out.

I went hiking on the weekend, and it was fun.