I am the Kat that Walks By Itself

A song from "My Fair Lady" came up on the randomplay. Professor Higgins, male chauvinist, is one of those fictional characters that I would like to give a good talking to about his sexism. But the problem with time travel, is that one doesn't have the same context; I started pondering how one could explain "Computer Programmer" to someone from before computers were invented... or whether it wasn't worth trying.

First attempt:

Computers are machines that weave numbers. You might think that's pretty useless, but you can use numbers to represent anything. Words. Pictures. Sounds. The machine can translate back and forth between the numbers and what they represent. Which means that you can manipulate them: store them, retrieve them, change them, transmit them over telegraph wires.

... and at this point my brain fails me.

Here is a metric for women's equality: 50% participation in all professions that do not require a penis. Contrary to expectations of the males of the species, there is only one profession that does require a penis: that of Gigolo.

It is curious that Frankenstein's monster, having no name, was bestowed by the public with the name of his creator, while Dr. Frankenstein in turn became nameless.

The universe is full of holes
Empty spaces left by those departed.
The pain fades only as the memories do
But then the joy fades too.
If there were no valleys, there would be no mountains.

There will always be injustice. And it must always be fought.

Self-righteousness is by no means limited to conservatives; all it takes is a group of like-minded people and a lack of humility.

It is much easier to hate faceless groups than individuals. It is also much easier to forgive individuals than faceless groups.

Diatribes without action only produce ulcers.

Guilt is an easy motivator, but it isn't a good one.

The most fundamental error of Accounting is to consider staff to be a liability rather than an asset.

Do not try to be the moral guardians of Them, only of Us.

Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.

1. Never give unasked-for advice.
To someone who is discouraged, unasked-for advice sounds like criticism.

2. If you are giving advice, always couch it in terms of "I found X helpful to me".
Giving your personal experience means that you are walking alongside the person, not pontificating at them. If you don't have personal experience of a similar situation it is probably better not to give advice.

3. Saying "I know you feel" may or may not be helpful.
If you have been in a similar situation, showing empathy and reassurance can be awesome. It can backfire if you come across as downplaying the difficulty of their situation (either because you don't want them to worry, or because your situation was worse), as the person could become discouraged because they aren't coping with it as well as you did.

4. Speak encouraging truths.
Flattery is lying, and lying is BAD. They are your friend. You like them. Remind them of why, remind them of their good qualities. There is no need for flattery, and truth is a much stronger and enduring piece of encouragement.

5. Saying "I know you can do it!' may or may not be helpful.
Sometimes it is just the thing the person needs. Other times it backfires horribly, especially if the person considers themself to have already failed at something, because they patently can't do it, and saying that they can is either flattery or criticism (since they ought to be able to do it, and haven't succeeded).

6. If you can't think of anything to say, give a hug.
This can be an Internet {hug} or a hug in person. Hugs are good (except physical hugs when the person is in physical pain - ouch!).