Last week I was remembering an old incident that happened in 1987 or so. My mother had a big fight with me, and took the rant to my father. She was incredibly upset because I spent all the day outside my house and I would stay out and return at odd and late hours.
What is very funny is the fact that I was not hanging out with friends, in the pub, or drinking, but working on what was then one of the first accounting consulting firms with a CP/M networking systems running compiled Basic accounting programs (batch processing back then…)
I started to work half-days but was immediately drawn into the mist of programming. I would spend all day learning how to extend the power of the language, building complete new curse libraries to liven the other way bare screens of the time. I did not mind working 12 hours straight if that meant learning something new about sending ASCII codes to the printer to make the invoicing scheme better or faster, or using my first ever relational database, DATAFLEX.
But my mother was shocked. She considered that if I got paid for working 5 hours, I should not spend one minute more inside the office. She would rather have me inside the pub drinking beer, or going out with friends at night. The fight got so bad, my father wanted to go talk to the owners of the office so they would keep me away from the place after my five hours.
These are common traits of mediocre Latin America heritage. It is only now that the new generation is learning the advantages of passionate work, no matter how long the day gets. I love spending 14 hours straight working, and I loathe 2 hours of meaningless chat at a party where I hate the music, the people, and the environment. I was lucky enough to avoid giving up to my parent’s whims. Had they worked harder when they were young, they would not be in such a tight position now (they are basically retired on a minimum pension.)
Who thought my parents working over 8 hours was demonic (I find no other way to put it, it felt as bad as if my parents found me drunk)? I wonder why complete generations grew on these beliefs. The side effect is the actual state of Latin America, and only recently have we been able to break the mold and get people excited and proud about giving 100% no matter what the clock says…
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