[{"_1":2,"_140":-5,"_141":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_38":-5,"_39":40,"_117":118,"_138":-5,"_139":-5},"root",{"_5":-5,"_6":-5,"_7":8,"_22":23,"_24":25,"_26":27,"_30":31,"_36":37},"user","shoppingCartId","shoppingCart",{"_9":10,"_11":12,"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":18,"_19":20,"_21":14},"id","no-cart","count",0,"free",true,"updatedAt","2026-02-10T16:04:25.500Z","paymentGateway","STRIPE","cartItems",[],"loading","locale","en","readerTheme","system","constants",{"_28":29},"paypalClientId","AX53Cwz8jR6rVVzzZiZNWWXl0dGagi-GZrjG-S3Ua14E5nrKMn7DxDQ730O4R8LusLPp49ALn6aRVaEy","publishers",{"_32":33,"_34":35},"companies",[],"universities",[],"needsLocaleCookieSync",false,"routes/_store+/_readers+/read_/route","routes/_store+/_readers+/read_.$slug/route",{"_41":42,"_66":67,"_110":111,"_115":37,"_116":-7},"book",{"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":-5,"_48":49,"_52":53,"_55":56,"_64":65},"title","People Matter!","slug","people-matter","metaText","coverFeatured",{"_50":51},"url","https://d2sofvawe08yqg.cloudfront.net/people-matter/s_featured?1620399528&1620399528","coverFeatured2x",{"_50":54},"https://d2sofvawe08yqg.cloudfront.net/people-matter/s_featured2x?1620399528&1620399528","authors",[57],{"_9":58,"_59":60,"_5":61},"Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6UHJvZHVjdEF1dGhvci84NzYz","name","Cameron Seebach",{"_62":63},"username","cameronseebach","showReadLinkString","sample","parts",[68],{"_43":44,"_69":70,"_71":12,"_72":73},"description","","fileCount","chapters",[74,84,100],{"_75":76,"_43":77,"_78":79,"_71":80,"_81":82,"_83":-5},"level",2,"The Manifesto","path","#leanpub-auto-the-manifesto",1,"subsections",[],"youtubeId",{"_75":76,"_43":85,"_78":86,"_71":80,"_81":87,"_83":-5},"Your Attitude","#leanpub-auto-your-attitude",[88,94,97],{"_75":89,"_43":90,"_69":-5,"_78":91,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},3,"The Right Goal","#leanpub-auto-the-right-goal","quizType","sectionNum",{"_75":89,"_43":95,"_69":-5,"_78":96,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},"No Ego","#leanpub-auto-no-ego",{"_75":89,"_43":98,"_69":-5,"_78":99,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},"Healthy Body","#leanpub-auto-healthy-body",{"_75":76,"_43":101,"_78":102,"_71":80,"_81":103,"_83":-5},"Single Core Brain","#leanpub-auto-single-core-brain",[104,107],{"_75":89,"_43":105,"_69":-5,"_78":106,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},"Unnecessary Communication","#leanpub-auto-unnecessary-communication",{"_75":89,"_43":108,"_69":-5,"_78":109,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},"Baggage","#leanpub-auto-baggage","toc",[112,113,88,94,97,114,104,107],{"_75":76,"_43":77,"_69":-5,"_78":79,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":76,"_43":85,"_69":-5,"_78":86,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":76,"_43":101,"_69":-5,"_78":102,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},"isUnavailableOnline","unavailableMessage","routes/_store+/_readers+/read_.$slug.$chapterId/route",{"_43":44,"_119":120,"_41":121,"_135":127,"_136":137},"content","

The Manifesto

There is only one best-practice I have ever needed. I prefer to call it a Manifesto.

People are more important than computers.

That’s it. You could stop reading now.

If you really believe in the truth of the Manifesto, it changes many things. It changes how you interact with your users. It changes how you treat yourself. The rest of this book is about those practical consequences.

",{"_122":123,"_43":44,"_47":-5,"_45":46,"_64":65,"_124":125,"_134":120},"previewContent","

\n The Manifesto\n
\n Your Attitude\n
- \n The Right Goal\n
- \n No Ego\n
- \n Healthy Body\n
\n
\n Single Core Brain\n
- \n Unnecessary Communication\n
- \n Baggage\n
\n

The Manifesto

\n\n

There is only one best-practice I have ever needed. I prefer to call it a Manifesto.

\n\n

People are more important than computers.

\n\n

That’s it. You could stop reading now.

\n\n

Your Attitude

\n\n

The Manifesto will change your attitude about others and yourself. This chapter is about the most important ways it does so.

\n\n

The Right Goal

\n\n

You are more important than the computers you maintain. You must make your happiness your highest goal.

\n\n

So what is happiness? I do know some things that happiness is not.

\n\n

Happiness is not wealth. There are unhappy rich people just as there are unhappy poor people.
Happiness is not booze or drugs. There is always a crash.
Happiness is not having an endless stream of lovers. At some point hedonism becomes unfulfilling and dangerous.
Happiness is not even power. We do not want people to like us because we dominate them. We just want to be likable.

When I am on my deathbed, looking back at my life, I want to be pleased. I want to have given of myself to others regardless of whether they deserved it. I want those I influenced to be happier and better because I was here. I also want to have done things that I enjoyed.

\n\n

Any day that I am doing any of those things, I am happy. You probably have a different definition than I do, and that is okay. However, I challenge you to define happiness in such a way that it excludes altogether the happiness of other people.

\n\n

This is the common thread that binds humans together. We are tied up in each other’s happiness. Improve the lives of those around you, and you will feel happy. It is that simple.

\n\n

No Ego

\n\n

Minimizing your ego is a powerful way to bring happiness to your workplace and your users. It shows them that they are more important than the hardware they use.

\n\n

There are at least five reasons to get rid of your ego.

\n\n

From a purely pragmatic point of view, you have to understand that this hurts your relationship with the people you think are “inferior”. Generally, the people in a workplace are good people, and strive to do their jobs with sincerity and diligence. When they fail, it has almost nothing to do with you, and almost everything to do with stresses and problems in their lives or in the institution. So be nice. You do not help an already bad situation if you add your enmity for them on top of what baggage they carry.

\n\n

From a developmental point of view, there is not much difference between you and the person whose computer you are maintaining. With a difference in education, or even just upbringing, you could be them and they could be you. Highlighting this difference cannot fix the problem. In fact, to other people, you appear insecure when you condescend based on intellect or education.

\n\n

From a simple mathematics point of view, the people who are using “your” systems have more experience than you do. It takes 10,000 hours to be an expert at something. Have you spent 10,000 hours using Excel? Maybe. Collectively, your users have done at least that and far more. They are experts at being users: you are not. It is that simple. We do not often scoff at the words of single experts when they have twenty years experience - neither should you scoff at the words of your users.

\n\n

From a historical standpoint, you are eminently replaceable. The universe will not grind to a halt when you retire. Presidents and Prime Ministers will not beseech you to return to your post. You will simply be replaced. It is the way of things, and it is nothing to be sad about.

\n\n

Finally, from a talent point of view, the people who are using the systems we put in place also have talents that we do not. Generally, they are able to do with high precision and at great speed, for long periods of time, tasks that give us incredible discomfort after just 20 minutes. This is a behemoth strength, one that pays your salary, and one that you ignore at your own peril.

\n\n

Now, if you read this, and reflexively think “I do not have an ego,” and are prepared to argue it for hours, giving examples of how great you are at not having an ego, I hope you will realize how egotistical that response is.

\n\n

Healthy Body

\n\n

Having a healthy body is also a part of putting yourself above the computer systems you work with.

\n\n

Exercise your body. Even something as simple as walking every day makes a huge difference. I am trying to walk in order to get some daily exercise. I hope to find a sport soon that I can do with a friend or two for an even better body-feel.

\n\n

Eat when you are hungry. You are doing nothing less than fueling your amazing mind so it can do great things, on a daily basis. Do not fuel it with unbalanced garbage - each vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and meat, if you eat meat. Junk food is okay every once in a while, but sooner or later it will take a huge toll on you. If you have to pack a lunch with you wherever you go, do it. Packing a lunch is far cheaper than take-out, for the record.

\n\n

Sleep when you are tired. Your body needs rest for many reasons which are already documented. For those of you who pull all-nighters on a regular basis, I greet your cries of “sleep when I’m dead!” with a stern “don’t sleep and you will be dead.” All-nighters will be necessary from time to time in IT - but try to minimize them, they are destructive to whatever positive sleep rhythms you can build.

\n\n

Single Core Brain

\n\n

Do you often wonder why most of your good ideas come to you on the pot? Or in the shower? Or in some other quiet place when you can think about just one thing?

\n\n

Your mind can only handle a certain number of things at once. It is like a single-core CPU. When you have too much on your mind, you cannot work well. Try to eliminate unnecessary distractions, and only work on one task at a time.

\n\n

We sometimes believe, especially in a computer world so rapidly evolving in a parallel direction, that we are just like the machines. “Of course I can run five remote sessions at one time! Of course I can focus on the deliciousness of my lunch and read this book on server administration at the same time! Can’t everybody? It’s just clicking this button and then waiting five minutes. I’ll just sneak in something else while I’m waiting.”

\n\n

It may give you an adrenaline rush to have all this information thrown at your brain, but it is extremely stressful and more ineffective than you would like to think. Those who can handle it wonder why they are so fatigued - and those who can’t have long since become so unbalanced that they have been culled from the workforce.

\n\n

People matter. You need to do the best job you can for them, but also for your own conscience. This means one thing at a time.

\n\n

Unnecessary Communication

\n\n

One of the first things to eliminate should be frivolous and constant communication.

\n\n

Let me ask you if this sounds familiar:

\n\n

\n
You arrive in the morning to the office, refreshed and feeling great. You check your email, and there are five new tickets added today and several emails of various priorities.
\n\n
Several are issues labeled URGENT, either with a priority flag of some kind or by actually saying URGENT in the title. One of these is actually urgent, but it takes you ten minutes to sort through them. You go to fix the URGENT issue.
\n\n
While you are on the way there, another URGENT issue pops up on your phone email - you read it, and you are so distracted by it that you cannot fix the issue you were on your way to fix in any way except for a quick, 5-minute duct tape one. You go off to fix the second issue, more tickets and emails come in, and every time you must stop what you are doing and respond.
\n\n
At the end of the day you are tired, cranky, and overcaffeinated to keep yourself going. Finally, one of your 5-minute fixes blows up in your face, and you briefly wonder why you have stayed in this job that you hate for so long.
\n

\n\n

There are several problems in this story - abuse of URGENT by your coworkers, quick fixes - but the one I’d like to focus on here is the importance of that ball and chain, your email, in ensuring you will have a crappy day. Every time that you wanted to do a good job, or had the right energy and intention, you were distracted by what seemed to be the next burning issue. This way of work will leave you a broken, unsatisfied person.

\n\n

I have been there, and here are my recommendations:

\n\n

Do not keep your email open at all times. Do not put your work email on your phone.

\n\n

If you are a one man-shop, this is easier said than done. One way I have found for lone wolves is to schedule work in 30 minute or hour-long increments, in-between which you read incoming email and sort it by priority, allowing only the most urgent matters to interrupt your plan for the day’s work.

\n\n

If you have a team, or at least a pair, split responsibilities so that one of you can deal with communication, while the other maintains focus. You may find that stopping these frequent and jarring interruptions eliminates the need for the interruptions altogether!

\n\n

Establish a list of people who are allowed to interrupt you at any time. I suggest your spouse and children, and one or two superiors. Be clear with your superiors that they call only when everything else must be dropped. It takes courage, but you must be firm with them if they start calling about non-important issues.

\n\n

You may say that this sounds extreme. One should focus on being as responsive to users, superiors, and clients in general as possible.

\n\n

But keep in mind that it’s your own happiness you’re draining if you take that principle to an extreme. If you think can do good work with your phone blinging in your pocket every five minutes, or your email client flashing constantly in the background, then you are either decieving yourself, or you could do even better work without that distraction.

\n\n

Furthermore, you are being paid to focus on your client’s work, not to write back to your buddies about poker night on Tuesday. Sure, everybody might be doing it, and I am guilty of it myself, but ultimately what it says is that you do not care. Do not blame others when they stop caring too. They are only following your example.

\n\n

A solution I have worked out with my employer is that I am allowed to go downstairs once during the day and take and make personal calls on this break. I do not bill for this time. The rest of the day my phone is on silent. Do not be afraid to ask for this. IT people are important enough that you will generally get this time. Your employer will appreciate your honesty, and you can go back to work with a clearer mind once you have returned calls.

\n\n

Baggage

\n\n

On top of our desire to flood our brains with information, we do not enter the workplace with clear minds, most of the time. We each bring our own baggage with us, and it is a heavy weight. Like most of what distracts us, at the core it is so much emotional garbage that we have been fed by people we trust or want to like us.

\n\n

You must discard it, if you are to work well.

\n\n

I do this by spending some quiet time, with just myself, before I go into work. Sometimes this is at home before the day has begun, and sometimes this is just before leaving the car at the parking garage.

\n\n

I meditate - which is a word that evokes incense and humming, but in my view it requires nothing more than a quiet, private place, and a few minutes. I am a beginner, so I focus just on taking deep breaths, and the feeling of my body as it fills with life-giving air. My mind of course wanders, but eventually I corral it for a few moments. And in those few moments, a weight is lifted.

\n\n

You will need to find what kind of meditation or other quiet time works for you. Playing or listening to calming music is another good option. Stretches work for some.

\n\n

Know that it won’t always work. But I have not yet found that it didn’t help, at least a little.

\n\n","tocStructure",[126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133],{"_75":76,"_43":77,"_69":-5,"_78":79,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":76,"_43":85,"_69":-5,"_78":86,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":89,"_43":90,"_69":-5,"_78":91,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":89,"_43":95,"_69":-5,"_78":96,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":89,"_43":98,"_69":-5,"_78":99,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":76,"_43":101,"_69":-5,"_78":102,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":89,"_43":105,"_69":-5,"_78":106,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},{"_75":89,"_43":108,"_69":-5,"_78":109,"_71":80,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_83":-5},"publicChapterContent","nextChapter","sections",[],"routes/_store+/_layout","routes/_store+/_readers+/_layout","actionData","errors"]

The Manifesto

Table of Contents

The Manifesto

Your Attitude

The Right Goal

No Ego

Healthy Body

Single Core Brain

Unnecessary Communication

Baggage