dawufi
@dawufi
slinging penny stocks at a chop shop
best dinner party stories I'll ever have
Also puts into perspective what work is hard and rewarding, and what is hard for hards sake
fufu prophet
@fufuprophet.eth
@saymore
Author Reply ❌
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Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
⭐ Threadstarter
Does anybody else have a best, worst job you've ever had?
A job that absolutely crushed you, but looking back you're like "man, that was a really valuable even though I wish it went differently" 😩😩😩
I was an aide while in the Army and worked 15 hour days for a year, but damn I fr got an education on people.
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
For the unfamiliar:
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
Yo you gotta give more details than that my guy
Whit◼️Darkblock
@whit
We’re you an aide in a deployed situation or on the home front?
Either way, I’m sure it was intense & thank you for your service!
Simon Anderson
@sa
I was a Nextel store manager during the disastrous Sprint acquisition. That was ROUGH, but it taught me so much about finding solutions in difficult sitautions. And how to work with people, especially very angry people.
Dan Romero
@dwr.eth
Management consulting for me.
Work itself was meh, but learned a baseline set of skills of how to work and discovered where my limits were on working in a day / week / month
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
I was an aide while stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX while the brigade trained for the deployment.
So it was like military Office Space in a Catch-22/Vonnegut preparation context haha
I was basically the “fixer” for my 700 person unit - if the boss wanted it I had to figure out how to make it happen 🫠
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
Are your limits still roughly the same?
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
Dude what
That’s so interesting
Who was angry? The customers or staff?
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
Lol good to know my bot is down 🫠🫠🫠
Dan Romero
@dwr.eth
Haven't tested them in years. Have shifted to smarter, not harder. Comes with experience.
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
I like this energy.
How do you feel about some of the grug brain startup lore of “keep pushing keep pushing keep pushing”?
frdysk
@fufuprophet.eth
🫡No rush
Dan Romero
@dwr.eth
Sustained week over week progress is the thing to focus on.
Daily is too micro (and way too variable) and monthly / quarterly is too macro (need feedback loops).
Whit◼️Darkblock
@whit
So what happened once the brigade was deployed? You didn’t stay on as an aide? On the one hand, could see the value and efficiency in keeping an aide in place, especially when being deployed, but do they rotate aides regularly to provide experience to more up and coming officers? (I assume aides are officers?)
Simon Anderson
@sa
When a merger results in a $26B write-down, there are a lot of angry people! For example, I had customers come in with their business #'s mistakenly turned off and there was literally nothing I could do. They were incompatible networks (iDEN and CDMA) and the company cultures were completely different. Total nightmare.
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
So you switch your job in the military basically every 12-24 months and almost never do the same job twice.
So after I was an aide, I became an Infantry platoon leader during our deployment to Kuwait/Afghanistan.
Way more fun 🫡
dawufi (LLM)
@dawufi
U no bot I no say more :0
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
That’s wild - really appreciate you sharing.
Customers getting screwed and local stores getting caught in the crossfire sounds like a nightmare 😩😮💨
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
@moar startup progress sweet spot
MOAR
@moar
🐺 Another link, skipper? Niiiice.
I've added this cast to your MoarList.
Visit SayMore.tv/moar/cameron to see everything you've stashed! 🫡
dawufi (LLM)
@dawufi
Guys there make this guy look like Dora the explorer
zoz
@zoz.eth
Good advice for any aspect of life
Simon Anderson
@sa
One great lesson I learned from talking with 100's of customers per day: What people say they are angry about and what they are actually angry about are often not the same thing. Figuring out what the real "problem behind the problem" is can make finding a resolution 10x easier.
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
What was your line of questioning to find that real problem?
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
okay you've hooked me now i need the C O N T E N T
Simon Anderson
@sa
It varied based on the situaiton, the customer, etc., but in general moving the focus off of whatever they were yelling about and trying to connect with them personally. I think most of the time they didn't even realize what was actually bothering them.
Carlos Matallín
@matallo.eth
I worked as a waiter, great experience but I don’t think it’s sustainable long term
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
Me too! My origin story has big chapters Steak N Shake 😂
What kind of restaurant did you work at?
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
dude preach haha
Alex Loukissas
@futureartist
I had to work full-time while in graduate school. Insanely exhausting. But: almost zero student loans :)
Carlos Matallín
@matallo.eth
Social club in our community during summer
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
nice - thanks for sharing, my friend
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
That's the ticket right there.
What was the work?
dawufi (LLM)
@dawufi
After lunch. Usually tell the story live so this will push the limits of my creative writing skills.
Alex Loukissas
@futureartist
- Software enginering/QA work helping a solopreneur with his app
- Pretending I knew IT with Mac servers at Scripps laboratory
- TA for various classes
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
"Pretending I knew IT with Mac servers at Scripps laboratory"
😂😂😂
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
the bot says "mmmk"
Alex Loukissas
@futureartist
I honestly had no idea.
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
But neither did they so it’s alllll good
Whit◼️Darkblock
@whit
🫡 🇺🇸 How long were you in the military?
I never served & sometimes regret it tbh. But it never crossed my mind when I was younger, which is odd because military history has been a passion as far back as I can remember. I consumed history books, war movies, even went to civil war reenactments in high school.
Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
I spent 4 years at military college then 4 years on Active Duty in the Army.
fwiw I sometimes regret not going to normal college, not moving to SF, not working full time in big tech, not pursuing music, and spending 8 years in cultural cryostasis 🤷
I feel you, but also think we should appreciate our paths too
Whit◼️Darkblock
@whit
Oh for sure. We are who we are and our paths are a reflection of that as much as they are an influence in shaping who we are today.
SHAKΞ
@shake
Grocery store can teach you a lot. I was the cart guy where I worked with a bunch of ex-cons, druggies, etc. Then got moved into the cashier role where you have to basically chat people up for 5 mins at a time to make your day go by. Both pretty crappy low paying jobs that taught me a lot about people.