radiant.matrix

The misanthropic side of me loves Violent Acres, a vitriolic monologue on money matters and the little annoyances of life. Perhaps my favorite part is that it usually makes me think — even when I disagree with the author.

That site has a post titled A Peaceful Marriage is Not Always 50/50 that speaks to the various difficulties of sharing responsibilities. The post’s central theme — if something bothers you, you should fix it — got me thinking about how I’ve applied the “fix it your own damn self” paradigm in my own life (and where I’ve failed to apply it).

In the professional world — and especially in large corporations — one is often constrained by the available tools. For example, I organize my e-mail using Thunderbird; but at my current place of work, I’m forced to use Lotus Notes for e-mail and calendar. There’s simply not any other option, and I can understand why that’s the case. Still, it’s very hard to get Notes to do the things I’ve come to need for organization.

There are three options for responding to something like this:

1. Just accept it
2. Complain about it / try to get it changed
3. Fix it your own damn self

If I just accepted that I was stuck with Notes and couldn’t organize in a way that works for me, I would get far less done, and I would eventually have to find other employment as a result. I could try to get an exception so that I could install and use Thunderbird, but that would require the support team to commit to a fair amount of work and some extra risk — not to mention I’d probably fail to get the exception and just make a few enemies in the process.

So, I chose to fix it my own damn self. In other words, I adapted. I modified the way I organize (both at home and at work) just enough that I could be effective using the tools I have. Of course, I still mentioned that it would be nice if “power users” like me could use our own tools (people should always tell their employer what they believe would make them more productive and/or effective).

The author at Violent Acres is, I think, espousing the same type of idea. If something is irritating you — whether it’s because it makes you less productive, causes you to expend too much effort, or simply goes against how you work — it’s up to you to adapt and make things better. Sure, you can try to get your employer or co-worker to make some changes, but pushing the issue is simply a waste of effort. That effort is better spent adjusting your habits.

So next time you run up against a stupid policy, missing tool, or odd requirement: bitch less, and fix it your own damn self.