In the last week, a strange thing has occurred.  At first, CH contributors were puzzled as to just why things were a little better.  Weirdly, the dims are a bit more switched on.  The dimherders are almost reasonable.  Even the dimlord has been... friendly.
We considered various possible explanations; perhaps a unique combination in biorhythms of all involved.  Maybe the planets are perfectly aligned.  We even wondered if all of the dim-crew had been replaced by beings from another planet.
But the truth is rather more revealing...  A particular person is absent, and most worryingly, this person is from the non-dim side of the fence.

Moral Compass

http://dilbert.com

How to lose a geek in 10 years

From the outside, MegaCorp is a 'halo' company; that is, the biggest, the best, and where everyone wants to be.  I fondly remember my days of ignorance, when MegaCorp excited me.  I could hardly believe I'd landed an almost 'dream' job at the biggest firm in it's field, a powerhouse of money and influence, with zillions of dollars in assets.

What I didn't know, and was yet to learn, is that MegaCorp is dangerous, potentially fatal.

MegaCorp is a little like the X-Men character, "Rogue":

Rogue (Anna Marie) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superheroine of the mutant super-team, the X-Men [..] Rogue considers her powers a curse. She involuntarily absorbs the memories, physical strength and, in the case of super-powered persons, abilities of anyone she touches.

Early on, the sense of 'wanting', the way MegaCorp draws you in and demands your attention, is flattering; it boosts your ego and makes you feel as though you're able to make changes, do something useful.
However, as the years roll past, the 'draw' becomes a 'suck'.  Kyle Reese (real name Michael Biehn) says it best:

Listen. And understand. That terminator MegaCorp is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

The instruments of the attack are chiefly poor management and the fact that everyone has given up; all they care about is the next pay cheque, or the next course of action that will secure their position.  No-one wants to do things 'right'.  Ethics?  Bollocks... As Dilbert points out, once you've got a fucked up moral compass, you're on the fast-track to management.

Once you realise that MegaCorp doesn't give a flying fuck about you, and all it wants to do is suck you up and spit you out, your career as a non-dim is effectively over.

Your first (and default, it seems) choice is to cruise.  You can easily become part of the beast, be assimilated, become faceless.  My CH co-author mused yesterday that MegaCorp is where IT geeks now go to die.  Whale bones everywhere...

The second choice is to get out.  It's harder than it sounds... you have to achieve a level of fury in order to produce escape veolocity necessary to beat MegaCorp's "suck", whilst at the same time, not destroying everything around you.

We're working on the second part; a how-to will be posted here...

Sadim touch

The opposite to the Midas touch, is perhaps obviously, known as the Sadim touch.  Whereas the Midas touch turns everything to gold, the Sadim touch turns everything to shit.

MegaCorp is well staffed with people that have the Sadim touch.

Got a great idea?  Present it and promote it.  It'll save millions, make life easier and fix global warming too.  Be ready though, once the Sidam touch has been applied, once the 'procedures' and 'standards' have been setup, once the apathetic people you're trying to help have given their collective 'meh'¹², your idea is no longer a huge, impressive, gleaming statue of gold; now it's grey, dark, and limp pile of poo.