They went to school because, at age 16-17 or younger, their parents told them that going to college was the necessary for a good future (for me, it worked out, for many, it didn't).

I wonder how well responding with sympathy and apologies works in the face of threats to murder/rape you/your family.

I wonder how well responding with sympathy and apologies works in the face of threats to murder/rape you/your family.

I can see how customer (or manager) diagnosis could often be incorrect, especially if you work with services, databases or deployment; "the database is down" is a great example of that.

Good point. I've used a smartphone for so many years that I forgot dumb-phones still exist.

I started riding the city bus by myself when I was 10, and I started going out alone at a much younger age. I wouldn't have minded having a cellphone in case something came up while I was out.

I learned this tick for delegation in high school to deal with group projects, and it has served me well into my professional career.

When I tried DuoLingo they focused a lot on translating something in a foreign language to your native language. Have they changed that?

"If you give specific, actionable items at the top, people will usually respond to your email in the same form."

If you're putting trivial tasks on your To-do list, then you'd probably fitter away your day with trivial tasks anyway. The list might give you an extra bonus when you complete a trivial task, but it's not the core of the problem by a long shot.

What about Time Commitment?

Getting flamed for a polite refusal is exactly why I don't respond to random inquiries on any page. Some people might be able to laugh it off, but it can make me angry for days, so I use the one tool I have to avoid it.

I used pico for a long time before I finally learned vim. Vim isn't so bad once you learn :e, :q and :w, but it sure doesn't help you learn.

Windows + (left|right) snaps the window to the left or right half of the screen.

Neat.

I don't eat meat in restaurants (except on my birthday). This is a pretty easy diet to follow, and has the following benefits.

If you're on the west coast, Edy's is called Dryer's.

I agree with much of what you've said, but I prefer a slightly different order.

DBAs might be scarce because they have a great capacity to do harm, but little management visibility otherwise. That's a recipe for stress if I ever heard one.

I absolutely agree. If you're dealing with an anonymous support person who is randomly assigned to you, then it's really the luck of the draw and I don't know if there's anything you can do to improve that experience.