Way back before we had personal computers I sat at 6 desks at once. One for my typewriter, one for my adding machine, one for my desk calendar, one for my stapler, one for my pencil cup and one for my phone.

At some point this could almost be easier and cheaper if you just hired some human to watch the camera and take appropriate action if whatever happens happens...

Easy to use software is for wussies! What's next, automating slow, boring, repetitive tasks for these whiners?

I've been getting that for years. It seems like a around the early 2000s someone had the brilliant idea to set up some kind of boiler room/call centers where they use dumb software to comb internet job sites looking for resumes and plucking key words, which they then vaguely match to similarly obtained requirements postings. The people who run these probably pay nothing or close to it per hour or per call, but if they manage to contact someone and it results in a job, they get some huge bonus (perhaps a dollar or more?). And these telephone drones are desperate. ANY match between your resume and the job posting will get you a call, often dozens...even from the same "recruiting company". Mostly they barely speak English, they have no technical knowledge and they have never seen a globe or a US map. And the words from your resume that they think match may have nothing to do with the job. If you're a C++ developer but you live on Ruby Rd or Java Dr, guess what kind of jobs you're going to be offered the most? They're almost guaranteed not to have actually read your resume, so even if you put in something like HIGHLY EXPERIENCED VETERAN DEVELOPER LOOKING FOR PERMANENT OR 1-YEAR MINIMUM CONTRACT POSITIONS IN NEW ENGLAND OR NEW YORK, you'll get calls for entry-level 2-month projects in Oklahoma or Oregon. I let most calls I don't recognize on my cell phone go to voice mail, and 90% of the time it's an Indian "recruiter". I call them back in direct proportion to how much they sound like they understand English and know what they're talking about. So I only call back about 1 in 20. I have actually terminated phone calls because I simply couldn't understand the person or even the "supervisor" they got on the line. Worst thing: For some reason some of these "telerecruiters" think that if the more they call you, the better the chance you will call back. Several times I've received 20+ voice messages within 2 or 3 hours from the same recruiter if I didn't pick up or return their call! What could be ruder? When I started doing contract work, 99% of the time from the initial contact to the actual start of the job was handled by local, US-born Americans. Now it seems like 90% of the time the initial contact is made by someone foreign-sounding calling me. X|

One "technical interviewer" asked me (in horribly broken English) several questions like, What is the maximum number of fields you can have in an MS Access table? I told him I had no idea, although I could look it up, but anyone who would purposely build a database table with even 50 to 100 fields would be unlikely to know what they're doing. Apparently you're only a truly skilled programmer if you have memorized all the technical specs for an application. And this turned out to be for a short-term on-site contract position at about $30 per hour for a client 10 states away. :rolleyes:

Not a native English speaker, perhaps?

If every random schmuck in those ancient civilizations was literate and had access to clay, writing implements, etc, we'd think humanity had always put weird clothes on their cats, traded witty insults ("Hittites suck!", "Another idiot from the Eluma Elish Belt!"). So maybe it's better when a society's trivia does kinda crumble away...

I always want to throw up when I hear words like "agile", "sprint", "scrum", "burndown", "waterfall" and all the other trendy management buzzwords. Because it really means it's the currently fashionable form of crippling clusterf***. I'm glad I rarely have to work at places that do that. I prefer to work on projects by creating and following a list of tasks as well as possible, modifying them if necessary, keeping management and others who are affected apprised with quick status updates when there's anything worth reporting, and being trusted (through experience) to finish whatever needs doing in a reasonable amount of time, and having the finished application do what it's supposed to. And all the while communicating in real English words.