GM and Delphi / The CEO-president / Another interview / Apple update / On systems…

GM and Delphi

Delphi is seeking for pay cuts (from $27 to $10) for its hourly workers. As Krugman points out, accepting this and similar pay cuts in other industries, will definitely destroy the American middle-class. After pay cut the GM, Ford, etc employees could not afford to buy cars they are building. So what, say the though guys. One of them wrote a week ago that since Boeing employees cannot buy airliners, GM employees should not being able to buy GM cars. Well, fair enough, but if GM employees cannot afford car, who will? Will the store clerk in Mall, will teachers? It is hard to keep economy running an growing while slashing salaries - entering a deflation is too easy, getting out of deflation is the trick. But, maybe it is not that important, maybe economy really does not matter, maybe only cultural things (abortion, porn, guns, and Islam) matter. Or something. If I were US citizen, I would start to worry a lot. Right now.

The CEO-president

Mr Bush said once that he is going to be a "CEO president". I guess he has misunderstood the job of the CEO. The job of the CEO is not to amass wealth to himself and to his friends, it is to see to that the shareholders get better interest for their capital in the company than they would get from bank. (one can argue, that companies have other social responsibilities, but that's communist BS as they say here). Also, the CEO should take care that the company survives in the future too. So, why is the CEO-president not advocating similar health-care system as Canada and European countries have? Why is the CEO-president wasting twice the money and getting half of the benefit by insisting on the broken system? How long would he survive as a real CEO if he would behave similarly in real corporate world?
Similar argumentation also in Krugman's column today. Also, check the news about GM's employees (UAW) taking benefit cuts. I calculated that GM is losing some $500 per car. If USA would have Canadian/European health-care (and retirement) system, GM would not have any problems. Very expensive ideology, indeed.

Another interview

Again, an invitation to an interview. Very nice, almost flattering. It seems, that some companies appreciate me, at least they consider me worth an interview. I appreciate such professional courtesy.

Apple update

Again, I got to listen to free iTunes-music from my iPod-Mega. Very nice African rhythms for an hour, enough to keep me from losing my temper. What's more, I was given so many opportunities to listen to different songs, while waiting to talk to the next computer. And they said "we appreciate your patience", which no real person has ever said to me in real life, face to face. I am so flattered. I also got to know, that the real person, a manager even, who is responsible for/handling my case is Scott Sellmon, His phone number is 512 674 2500, extension 48973 . So, if Apple ever loses your computer, you may skip the nice iTuning and appreciation of patience and call Scott directly. He does not answer, though. His voicemail tells, that he will answer after 2 business days (again, some patience is very much appreciated by Apple). If you do not call him often enough, and he has not dealt with your case in the last 30 days, you must go back to 1-800-apple and listen to a new selection of iTuning.

On systems architecting

Many of my class-mates do not like the systems architecting course. I, well, I like it almost too much. But where does this difference come from? I think one of the reasons is just differences in personal preferences of work, or problems to handle. I saw already in Nokia, that not every clever person is willing to do systems archictecting. So, I assume, that my class-mates know themselves well enough to realize, that they are never going to to do systems archictecting as lectured by Crawley (or Recting, or Muller). This is just fine. I think, that there are not very many persons in the world, who would have both the intellectual capabilities and personal characteristics required for working as a systems architect. The characteristics include at least: humble, but bold, curious, tolerating extreme level of unknown issues, willingness to dedicate years, or in some cases a decade in some archictecting effort, and extremely wide range of interests. A systems architect is a modern day Renessaince-person, one who has to know much about several fields, one who never stops learning new things of all the fields and systems he encounters. In addition, the systems architect has naturally very tense relation with the business management; many persons are not willing to take the challenge and risk.
Anyway, I have really found my profession, the thing I really want to do, and the thing which I am somewhat good at doing. And I like to course so much, even the assignments are just fun. In fact, the assignment 3 was absolutely the best assignment I have done in MIT. It is just a pity, that the TAs spoiled the fun of some other class-mates by showing some example solutions. They should not: the fun is in thinking. And thinking about a framework for evaluating systems architectures is one of the most pleasant things one can do. I have spent so many blissful days thinking about it with my systems architect friends in Nokia.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs October 2005".