Jungle Drums

School projects are usually done in groups. We divide up the work, do our assigned tasks and strive to complete the project together, right? Wrong.

There are people who do not turn up. There are those who do not even answer calls when we call them. There are those who make work hard on other team mates by declaring they do not know how to implement a simple function. There are those that do not maintain communications and tells you out of the blue one day that he has done his own work and is leaving the group, while all this time the team was waiting for him to complete his part.

What's with these people. Basically, selfish. I was asked to help change some codes for a school project, since 2 guys wrote the same function using different implementation. One uses the built-in function (let's call him A), one wrote a new class himself (and B). A thinks B's code need to be changed to suit his code. B says ok, the implementation is all there, change it to suit yours then. A says no, he says he doesn't know how to do it. He wants B to change it. B thinks wtf? B told him that since it's A who wants the code changed (both work anyway), he should do it. A says no, he doesn't know how to do it. Group leader comes to me, and I got the job to change B's code to A's convention. Took me 1 min to go to Google to see the functions, 2 mins to change the code. A's code I realized wasn't complete so I cleaned it up for him.

Let's see now. What is A's problem? He obviously took his code from some website and did not bother to study it and tweak it. He thinks HIS code is correct and did not want to bother looking at B's code to see if it works. From the way A insisted B change his code to suit A's, I was utterly disgusted. This is but ONE example of the problems I encountered in my project. Another problem is attendance and responsibility. I admit I had skipped 2 classes, but I did ask my lead developer if I could help out some. There are guys who disappear entirely and do not give two hoots if the group needed help. This I utterly despise.

And then, there are those who agree to form a group, but whilst everyone else in the group was waiting to hear from him, he tells them he had completed his own work and the rest could disband and do the work themselves. And if the group had not contacted him, they would have been waiting and waiting isn't it? If this is not revolting, I dunno what is. At least have the courtesy to imform your team mates man! Self-centered assholes like these ought to be shot.

I just talked to a friend who's going places in New York. He has to put on fake smiles and network with people who might be his colleagues/boss. He feels like shit cos he ain't himself and feels fake and selfish. I reassured him this is part of his job, and he gotta face up to it. If he doesn't do it, he might just shrivel up and die in the corporate world. How different is this kinda selfish from the selfish i mentioned? I guess the difference is AT LEAST my NY friends know it's wrong, but had to do it cos it's for survival.

Sighz. As we grow up, the world gets darker and darker.