On Sunday 14 November 2004 08:03 pm, Victor Odhner kindly wrote:
> Siri Amrit Kaur wrote:
>  > Why do they listen to doctors but fight us every step
>  > of the way?
>
> Easy!  From childhood, except for the occasional shot,
> we come to associate the doctor with making PAIN go away.
> If you get in the position where (1) your co-workers are
> in pain and (2) you can make it go away, you'll begin to
> make some headway -- if they didn't blame the pain on you
> in the first place, of course.
>
> So as several have commented, most of us require some pain
> to learn a lesson.  Little kids learn little lessons
> because they can't generalize:  don't stick things into
> *that* wall outlet.  A lot of adults fail to learn better,
> they make a very narrow decision not to make *that*
> mistake again.  These are the folks whose lives are rough
> because they make one bad decision after another.
> They need to learn lots of little lessons, and either
> end up with a patchwork of voodoo rules, never seeing the
> big picture; or else get the wrong big picture, becoming
> paranoid because they get all the bad luck.
>
> Siri, we *need* intelligent "lay people" like you out there
> on the business side of the business, and in the small
> businesses where the harried owner serves as the IT
> department.  In more generous days you would have *been*
> the IT department by now, but those days are gone -- we
> buy the marketing line and stay in denial that all our
> pre-packaged solutions will take care of us, so we don't
> need to staff the job.  But if you keep it up (even with
> a "slow learning curve", which many of us have), you may
> find yourself turning a buck or two in the future as a
> security consultant -- or running the office.  Because
> you are one of the ones who gets the big picture, but are
> willing to get your hands dirty.
>
> Hang in there,
>
> Vic

Thank you so much, Vic. That's the nicest thing anybody's said to me in a long 
time.

And thank everybody who helped me with the great insights, suggestions and 
moral support. I spent 18 hours this weekend reading your replies, studying 
your suggestions, and writing a comprehensive proposal for my company. It 
includes setting up the LAN and firewall, and also a tough security policy 
for users. I don't have any expectations of it getting adopted. If it does 
I'll be thrilled (until I screw up, that is <grin>), and if it doesn't, at 
least I learned a heck of a lot in the process and brushed up my technical 
writing skills.

I'll let you know what happens. Thank you all for being there for me.

Siri Amrit
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