I aim to please.

Oh, and godwinning yourself in the process.

No, I said at least *you* didn’t Godwin. Talk about reading disorders…

What will you do for the hat trick?

Hitler Cat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://fhwang.net/img/hitler_cat.jpg

Thanks SO much for reading things into my comment that I didn’t say and then complaining about what you thought I said. Oh, and godwinning yourself in the process. What will you do for the hat trick?

Go back and read what I actually wrote instead of what you imagined I wrote. And, leave out the Nazi fantasies. They’re so last century.

Kaleburg, that’s an interesting point about girls being told to follow their dreams. I was told that as a kid and as a result I went into science…

Confirmation bias.

Each to his own. I’m just not happy with any implication that one is better than the other. There’s also something to be said for having a large support organization to get things done, solid company backed health care, a large pool of expertise to draw upon, and being able to get that expensive piece of Agilent test equipment RIGHT NOW! I like working on BIG projects that the space industry offers.

I get tired of being told I’m “shackled” or “controlled” and that starting your own business is somehow a lofty high road to Heaven.

I love Pamela…. really, I do.

I dig you too BA, but in a different kinda way – ya know?

This doesn’t work out all that well for a lot of women who find themselves without some salable skill to fall back on. That was the great feminist story of the 1970s. All those June Cleaver’s sending their children out into the world and finding that they had empty nests, empty marriages, empty lives, and empty pockets. There is nothing wrong with depending on someone else, particularly someone who loves you, for a living, but the feminist movement didn’t come out of nowhere.

In some part, this follow your dream mantra is a sexist hold over from back when they wouldn’t let high school girls take automobile repair. I have no problem with grown ups deciding to punt things and follow their dream. I have no problem with the handful of highly focused people I have met who have very particular dreams and basically will do whatever it takes. I do have a problem with encouraging people to follow their dream before they have acquired marketable skills. The fact that it is usually girls who are given this advice is particularly rankling.