OWH Memorial Undead Topic

I got nothing on this.

 

I don't know about Hollywood, but I think this kind of thing happens a LOT in all manner of industries. ESPECIALLY when it comes to stolen valor, but also education. Not quite the same thing, but I have felt dumb because I was relying on someone's "expertise" they claimed to have, only to find out that it was based on like a single class they took and I actually had more "expertise" than they did. It only became apparent when they never knew anything more than I did and sometimes less. They never claimed anything to be true that wasn't, it was just a matter of perspective and my own lack of self-confidence I guess.

 

Oh. no doubt about it. And there are few things more frustrating than when you absolutely know someone is lying and you are the only one who realizes it.

 

I think Tenny had some posts or a thread on stolen valor. Very weird phenomenon, but I think part of why it is a known thing is because so many actual veterans can KNOW someone is full of shit. So for other experiences/backgrounds that are less prevalent, it ends up being only one or a few people who might KNOW someone is absolutely full of shit-- but can't necessarily produce evidence of it to someone uninitiated.

I am guessing that you run into this regarding investment/finance stuff. Dummies cosplaying as very successful money men.

 

Man, it is SO easy to see through the fakes now. And unless they are trying to con a client/friend/family member I just feel more sorry for them than get angry at this point.

I guess because I am/was weird I knew a bunch of stuff about stuff that others thought they could get away with lying about, so in high school and college I'd call people out, especially if they annoyed me. It was more fun in college, especially when it was time to lay down a [ock cay]-block on someone.

 

I've been on both sides of this-never intentionally by my own doing. Sometimes it's not the person's choice. Early in my career, I worked for a company that had what one of coworkers referred to as a "poof, voila" approach to training its subject matter experts, and I became the robot safety person when I walked through the door. Likewise, I got handed a lot of stuff that I was the SME for and had little or no experience or even training. Sometimes it was in line with my career field, but other times, not so much. What really sucks is when you get anointed with one of these roles and the expectation is you will be a [Penis] about it.

 

I have picked up roles like that, but I don't present myself as having special expertise but rather refer to the industry-standard or peer-reviewed literature. It ain't me saying it, it is this authority/source who says this. This is the best-practice according to these sources, etc. Which is a pain in the ass for me, but it makes it so that it gets the job done correctly, even if I came in with not special qualification.

 

Oh, I never tried to portray myself as being any sort of authority in roles like that. I have met people who do. They, well, I don't think highly of them.

 

My favorite time kind of like this, but not exactly, was four jobs ago or so when a guy who wasn't my boss (but thought he was) hired a guy who he thought was going to be my boss between him and me (but was wrong). Guy hadn't finished his degree, but had his education "in the school of hard knocks" according to this corporate guy (who thought I worked for him).

Now, I'm not an education elitist in that I think you have to have an advanced degree or even a bachelor's to be in the specific field I was in at the time. It's just not necessary, but this guy had worked in this field (industrial safety) for about two or three years. Before that he had been a medic of some sort which some people (idiots like this corporate guy) equate to being the same thing (it's really, really not).

It was a nightmare. Guy would call me up from three or so hours away and ask me what I had going on that day. I would tell him, and he would almost immediately tell me to hold off on that until he got there because he wanted to make sure it was up to "corporate standards" or something. So, I would go tell the tech who worked for me that we were changing up plans for the day. She would go ballistic and complain about the dude for 20 minutes or so as we figured out how to reshuffle activities and whatnot.

This happened about 2-3 times a week. To be fair, often he would tell us in advance, but about three times over the course of two weeks we would need to drop everything to make himself available to us as a resource (how he phrased it often). He would show up just before lunch, and often the big thing he wanted to see would be done by then. He would hang out in my office and often ask me to review a paper he would be working on for his degree. Master's, bachelor's, I dunno what he was working on, but he should have been writing in Crayola.

I left that job after less than six months in. It's the one on my resume that I hope I'm never asked about in an interview. By that point, I had 15 or so years of experience and a lot of contacts, so it wasn't hard to find another job. It really sucked at the time because I took a pay cut and moved back to bammer again, but my next job wound up being pretty awesome.

On a side note, my actual boss and everyone else in management there thought he was an idiot. I've grown to feel sorry for him over the years. He had no business being hired for that role.

 

I usually tell people I'm the "SME" for X, because I have the most recent commit on this monstrosity written by Dave who retired 3 years ago.

 

Mercy. Asking someone you think is your subordinate to read over your school work.

 

I was talking about stolen Valor yesterday with a guy. It's crazy. He asked me about my SEAL hat and we just started talking

 

"Dave's not here, man."

Would be my response when asked why whatever it was that this is, doesn't work anymore, because I blanked it from existence.

 

"No, it's ME. Dave!"

 

So it appears Facebook may have been deleted.

 

right after the whistle blower interview last night on 60 minutes?

 

*elmo Shoulder shrug*

 

just saying, maybe a weird coincidence but sure feels like an Epstein suicide sort of event.