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Friday morning (for me) Deep question - who influenced you the most?

mmcisme1
Active Contributor

Who influenced you most?  Was it a friend?  A collogue? A boss?  What kind of influence was it? Home, work, play?  Or all of them?

This question is always fun for me.   Because it depends on the day to how I answer.   Really, I believe she influenced me in my job, home, and play!   That would be my Mom.   When I was younger both my Dad and Mom worked full time after my sister started in school.   It was a big adjustment and one I NEVER liked.  So I made myself a promise my child would always have Mom or Dad with them.   <Sigh>  The way it ended up is that Nate's Dad was always there for him.   That controlled my job/home life.  When I started working I worked around 80 hours a week - yes, and got paid for 40.   I've gradually lowed that number - I needed a little balance.  

My Mom always complained about not have a college degree.  So you guessed it - I got one.

My Mom and I have similar interests - we both love animals and love riding horses.  Not so much the riding anymore, but they are in my backyard.  She and I both didn't like them living in a stables with limited room to run so my first (and the house I still live in) had 15 acres - our horses moved home with us.

I used to go to horse shows (jumping and 3 day events).  She was always there cheering me on.

The last thing - well you all will think I'm crazy.   My Mom and Dad live 3 houses down from me.  And I love it.  I also share my work reviews with her every now and then.  She was in HR.   And I want her opinion on different things.

Not now, my vacations are usually at home.  But when I was younger both my Mom and Dad had fun taking us to different places.  Disney, Hawaii, Florida on the beach, California, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota...   Yep a lot of places in the US.

Yes - my Mom was my greatest influence.   She has been a positive in every aspect of my life.

8 REPLIES 8

DellSC
Active Contributor

My mom was an influence also, but more so my dad.  Dad was a programmer sometime in the 1970-71 timeframe, when he was working at Digital, he brought home a book about BASIC.  He handed it to me and told me to go have fun (I was 9 or 10 at the time.)  He also taught me how to do things like take my hairdryer apart to clean it out when it started overheating.  It never made a difference to him that I was his daughter - and I'm probably more like him than my brother is.

It's interesting to me that we a both programmers (or he was before he retired), but I can't do what he does and he can't do what I do.  Several years ago it tickled me to no end when he came to me to ask how to do something with data - he'd always worked in the realm of programming direct interaction with hardware, such as the boot code that ran on Nokia cell phones when you turned them on, and had never had to work with long-term data storage.

-Dell

mmcisme1
Active Contributor

How funny!   You both developed programs and neither would be able to develop in the other's timeframe.  It reminds me of a back to the future movie.  How about a "Freaky Friday" where you change places for a day.   

So cool your Dad was such a big influence.

TammyPowlas
Active Contributor

I think it's a combination of people:

My oldest brother, who is always there for advice

My mother, who always said she didn't like it when people "had their hand out" - to me that means self sufficiency, something that has carried me through out life.

My oldest sister, who always had my back and taught me to crochet: https://blogs.sap.com/2021/10/04/crochet-everyday-sap-community-talent-show-entry/

manfredKlein
Participant

For me it's definitively my father. Both developing along and to the contrary. This makes me a craftsman-it-hybrid.

My father is a farmer. Veeery conservative. He told me to use tools. Any tools. From monkey wrench to chainsaw. You name it. Also taking care of animals. Not just keeping a pet. Ever taken care of pigs? More than one?

But he is/was a technophobe. He HATES computers. Have the pleasure to teach him getting along with a computer in his 70ies. <sarcasmExtreme>Real fun</sarcasmExtreme>

For me computers always have been wonder machines. A gate to a different/better world. Make a living out of farming is tough. Computers are the opposite of that. So becoming an IT-guy was the only logical consequence.

Now in the late 40ies: IT was the right choice. But knowing around tools is always beneficial. I don't look down on non-academics. Everybody has his/her calling. And as long as you follow your calling, it is fine. Just love what you do. No matter what it is.

Consequence of being hybrid: A jack of all trades is a master of none. BUT being a generalist provides quite wide common sense and enables more unconventional possibilities to solve problems. Be open minded also to different fields of science. You never know if this helps you in your own domain. Example: A diagnosis of an ill person and a broken computer has many parallels. You have to deal with many unknowns and the more experience you have, the better your chances of a direct hit. The patient has yellow eyes/the screen is odd => 80% guess: somethings wrong with the liver/graphic card.

Closing the arc: Never thought it that way, but my father influenced me more than I ever realized.

 

I also often help my mother (75) with her computer stuff.  It's "real fun", I agree 😂
You really need to be patient for that. 😅


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0 Kudos

Oh joyful christmas time. The time where people return to where their cradle stood...

... and solve their parents' computer problems.

<vibeChangeExtreme>Dadumm</vibeChangeExtreme> 🤣

0 Kudos

Sounds like an amazing man!

mohdsap
Active Participant

Hi All 

Friday Morning always bring joys for us. We have great gathering for  Fundy Friday