TWoPS at first-hand

Been somewhat withdrawn over the past couple of weeks, struggling to deal with one of the more stupid consequences of TWoPS (That WOrst Possible System) – namely getting paid work, which I ‘must’ do in order to be able to operate in this insane society.

I’m a theorist and a generalist – both of which are bad attributes to have in a culture that’s obsessed with partitioning everything into vertical ‘silos’, and needs to have everything predefined in order to maximise the possible ‘between-taker’ cut from each person’s work. And it’s incredibly hard to put a conventional money-based value on what I do, because it’s so unpredictable: for example, one of my clients redesigned his entire business around two words – “trusted intermediary” – that I happened to come out with in describing another process entirely (privacy management, in that example). As a result, I waste months and months looking for roles with conventional descriptions like ‘business analyst’, and when I finally do get a job – which is made even harder because, as a generalist, I seem to be a specialist in nothing – and then at last get a chance to do my real work – the work that in practice they really do want me to do – which is find out what the gaps are, and find ways to bridge them. If they don’t panic at the size of the gaps that I show them, that is, and indulge instead in the ever-popular game of ‘shoot the messenger’…

An insane waste of time, effort, life. Just because TWoPS permits no space to just get on with things in an efficient, effective manner.

Bah!