Ye ghods... Talk about opening up a can of worms. It's the eternal struggle between the nerds and the pointy-haired ones. I think life as we know it would be a lot better if everybody knew where their strengths and weaknesses were, and endeavoured to keep their activities in their area of competence.

Hacker gets contracted in to configure storage for big company. Finds the equipment he's supposed to work on neatly wrapped on the pallet it came on. No electricity, no network. When he asks for specifications on how to configure storage, is presented with a piece of paper describing such beauties as a Raid-1 array on a single disk, and a RAID-0 array for a database. Hacker works late at night correcting mistakes and doing a pretty decent job. Is then told that this is not according to specs, and told to follow the specs, in the mean time, is blamed for the project running late. Explains that in a RAID-0 configuration, failure of any of the seven disks will be the end of the entire database. Is told that we have a good backup. Thinks "Bollocks, if that's what you want, that's what you get". Configures as nearly to the specs as physically possible. Then, a disk breaks. It turns out that there is not, in fact, a backup of any kind. Guess where the excrement lands...

One bit of text I've always treasured in this regard is "Abigail's Oath", reprinted herewith:

I am hired because I know what I am doing, not because I will do whatever I am told is a good idea. This might cost me bonuses, raises, promotions, and may even label me as "undesirable" by places I don't want to work at anyway, but I don't care. I will not compromise my own principles and judgement without putting up a fight. Of course, I won't always win, and I will sometimes be forced to do things I don't agree with, but if I am my objections will be known, and if I am shown to be right and problems later develop, I will shout "I told you so!" repeatedly, laugh hysterically, and do a small dance or jig as appropriate to my heritage.

--Abigail's Oath for Sysadmins

I never did find out who Abigail was, but he/she definitely demonstrates the levels of cynicism that is the hallmark of the system administrator. Thinking of this: I may be posting this in the wrong monastery.

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