Another unposted rant

I wrote a longish rant about a campus issue this morning. It felt good. I drew upon the wounds of repeated slights [1] to comment vociferously on a more recent slight [2]. But I tried to be rational. Instead of posting it immediately [3], I decided to run it by a few valued colleagues to get their feedback on it. One of them wrote the following [4].

Sam, your rant effectively targets two staff members. Have you put yourself in their place? Here are some things you might think about ….

My colleague was correct. I had not put myself in their place and I should have. When I did, I realized that I was not being fair. The situation was one that I did not like, it reflected an experience that I’ve had multiple times, but it wasn’t really the fault of these two staff members. So, as is sometimes the case, I have decided not to post today’s musing [5]. And perhaps I’ll learn to think more about the position of the other before I rant about them [8].

[1] The slights I suffer as a computer scientist are generally not nearly as bad as the microagressions folks suffer for their perceived race or gender or other identity. But they do build up.

[2] Well, perceived slight.

[3] Or waiting until tonight, revising slightly, and then posting.

[4] Okay, they didn’t say exactly the following. But it’s a close enough paraphrase.

[5] Or at least that one. Today may be a multiple musing day [6].

[6] Nope. I didn’t finish the second one [7].

[7] More precisely, I didn’t finish the work that I was trying to describe in the second one, which makes it difficult to finish that musing.

[8] Should I do the same for administrators? We’ll see. It would help if I didn’t get yet another painful data set today.

Version 1.1 of 2017-08-14.