Abusing someone's profession

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Fictional example 1: Someone convinced another person that strands of hair are nothing, nothing at all, so they will need a free haircut.
Fictional example 2: Being a real estate broker, you are just matching people who want to buy and sell, but they exist independent of you, so that job is nothing.

My situation: I'm a database programmer, and a friend tells me my shit is just technical stuff, which amounts to nothing in comparison to what he might offer

What to do with this..

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Ok I'm drunk and sad, so if I did not make good enough point in the previous post, I'll make in this:

People abuse each other's professions by (trying) to make it belive their professions are worth nothing. They make all kinds of shitty arguments that are worth nothing.

After this kind of convicing, they will want free service on the basis that the said profession amounts to nothing.

I absolutely hate people doing this trick and I would rather strangle them outright rather than give free service. Do you know the concept or do I have to explain more?

 

[Tennessee Jed]

Technically, in most occupations you don't actually charge people for labor. You actually charge them for the *time* you spend doing work for them. Per-hour rates, and all that.

So just agree with them that the actual work is "nothing" in the sense that they're arguing it. But point out that if they won't pay up, you won't put in any of your valuable personal *time* on their project for them.

Tell them: "Time is money, bro. I have other things that I can be doing with my time. So if you want my time, you'll make a fair monetary bid for it. If I accept your bid, you'll give me a deposit up front and pay me the balance after I'm through."

 

[EJCC]

Some people just need to feel superior by putting others down. Those people are douchebags and you shouldn't let them get to you.

Reminds me of this comic:

(the comic, I assume, is well-meaning, but comes from a lot of real obnoxious and invalidating attitudes. Just because one science is "less pure" doesn't mean it shouldn't exist or that it isn't of value.)

 

[á´…eparted]

Some people just need to feel superior by putting others down. Those people are douchebags and you shouldn't let them get to you.

Reminds me of this comic:

(the comic, I assume, is well-meaning, but comes from a lot of real obnoxious and invalidating attitudes. Just because one science is "more pure" doesn't mean it shouldn't exist or that it isn't of value.)

I love that comic and I reference it from time to time. Scientists like to poke fun at that sort of thing a lot . It can be subdivided within the fields too. For example, organic chemists will joke and say "oh, biochemistry is just glorified organic chemistry!". Where physical chemists will say "oh, organic chemistry is just glorified quantum mechanics!". I'm happy to say I have encountered no one who takes that sort of attitude seriously. Closest I have seen to it are people thinking a specific field is a fraud/lie.

In refrence to the OP, people do do this to feel superior. There are a littany of reasons and motivations for doing so, but it's almost always comes from a drive to assert onesself as better than others and to hold power over them. The best thing to do is (depending on the circumstance) is to not let them do it to you and invalidate their assertions, or outright ignore them.

 

[LovecraftianMonstrosity]

 

[Bush]

Reminds me of this comic:

(the comic, I assume, is well-meaning, but comes from a lot of real obnoxious and invalidating attitudes. Just because one science is "less pure" doesn't mean it shouldn't exist or that it isn't of value.)

aka "Fields arranged by potential for self-congratulatory masturbatoriness if in the hands of arrogant, narrow-minded douchebags"

Whatever. The reality is that we need database programmers to work with the shitload of data that gets collected nowadays (Big Data..?), brokers to match up buyers and sellers on account of one another not knowing the other exists..

Look, there's no way in hell that I'd be able to pull off the sort of stuff that my team members can. I can't pretend that I know everything that they do, especially down to specifics. It's everyone's loss if I brush their assessments/work off as "nothing." So, you know, fuck people who do that.

And if they demand that you do something for free on account of it being worthless.. well, the fact that they have to demand it in the first place means that there's value to it whether they realize it or not. They just can't admit it. So fuck those people, too.

 

[ceecee]

After this kind of convicing, they will want free service on the basis that the said profession amounts to nothing.

I absolutely hate people doing this trick and I would rather strangle them outright rather than give free service. Do you know the concept or do I have to explain more?

They want a free professional service? So? They can ask. You can just as easily tell them to fuck off. And find new friends because the ones you have sound like shit.