There's a big difference between sitting on your ass, picking holes in everything the government does, not being satisfied with anything that's not done your way, basically, as Brad said, being a lamer.....

....and getting off your ass and doing something to fix what you perceive the problems to be.

Empty complaints are worthless.

Martin Luther King didn't just speak out. People don't just speak out, guys. The do things. And part of doing means putting together a plan with a specific goal.

It's really straight forward actually:

1) Identify the problem

2) Identify the solution to the problem

3) Come up with a plan to get to that solution

4) Execute on that plan

The people who strike me as lame are stuck at phase 1. They love to write about the problem without any feasible solution.

Let me give you an example from the other day. We're concerned that the next version of Windows won't have the kinds of extensibility APIs our software needs to do its thing or at the very least APIs that would let us create new software to extend Windows in new ways.  I wrote about that here on JoeUser.  The solution is to ensure Microsoft does have those hooks.  Therefore, to get there, I need to work with our Microsoft reps, set up meetings with developers at Microsoft, fly there to demonstrate what we're do and see what we can do to work together to make sure Longhorn can be extensible.

Identifying that problem is pretty easy "I'm worry we won't be able to do cool stuff on the next version of Windows." Now, if I just wrote it on JoeUser and did nothing else, that would be pretty lame. Am I expecting (hoping) that someone from MS is going to read my blog and magically make everything all better? It's going to take effort to get to our goal. We'll need to make sure they a) understand what issue we're talking about convince them that this is an issue c) convince them that it is worth it for them to address. 

That's just a day to day example of what people who do things have to do. Microsoft is not the world's most successful company because they sit around thinking of things. They're the world's most successful company because they have people who identify problems and then come up with solutions along with the plan to create the solutions and execute on it.

Whining is easy. Doing something meaningful about it takes work.

Absolutely.  I also think that if you see a problem, know that you have the ability to fix the problem, but fail to do anything about it....well, that's reprehensible and you're failing yourself as well as your community and country. 

**My whining related rant**

I tend to feel like a lot of the whining, like what Karma is ranting about, comes from people who don't actually do anything and is directed at people who do.  I have witnessed this in small communities like neighborhoods and schools and it applies all the way up to the biggest communities.  Some people (whiners) sit back, wait for someone to do something, then jump all over them about how wrong things were done and how they should be done in the future.  Do these whiners committ to applying these changes?  No!  They wait for someone else to do it.  Then, when noone wants to step up because they saw how much flack their predecessor got, the whiners start whining because now nothing is being done at all.

Whiners seem to believe that others are "lucky" enough to have more time, energy, money, etc. so they should have to be the ones to get things done.  There is a big difference between constructive input and whining.  Too many people are unfamiliar with the former and too adept at the latter.

**End of rant**

Karma, hope this was enough on topic to avoid trolling   I thought one good rant inspired another.

I will agree with Muggaz that there is *some* luck involved in things. Being born in the United States versus Zimbabwe is obviously a matter of chance.  But that's not what Karma girl is talking about.

In the US, most people get a reasonably equal shot. There is no excuse for any American to be living in poverty other than something like mental deficency (i.e. having somethign that affects your ability to do basic things).

Different people have different obstacles they have to overcome. But I'll tell ya, anyone who knows Karmagirl would not use the words "luck" with her. At the risk of divulging some personal information in here, I would bet real money that no one participating on this conversation has anywhere near as many obstacles facing them as Karmagirl.  Where to start, first she has Lupus and has that fairly severely. If she wanted to, she could sit at home, collect disability and whine how unfair it is that she has so many health problems.  But she doesn't. She gets up every day and goes to work and does a damn good job at it. She has worked her way up, based purely on merit, to the point she is today. She doesn't have a bachelor's degree. She doesn't have a rich family. She did it all on her own.  So don't tell me that luck has to do with how well she's doing today. She earned her success the hard way.

So it's not surprising that she has little patience for people who take every minor setback as an insurmountable obstacle. Or people who have such a low threshold for believing they're doing something that writing a whiney post on some forum is "doing something".  I tend to think of writing things on-line as a good FIRST step but not the end in itself.

Thanks for posts #38 and #39.  Your kind words are much appreciated, especially after I was seriously questioning myself as to why I was getting out of bed at 5am to go to work when I could barely get my hips, knees and ankles to cooperate (Michigan flip-flipping weather and arthritis don't really make a good combination).  But, I hauled my sorry butt into work, poured a cup of coffee and got back to what I like to do- work.  Why do I like work?  Because, at the end of the day, I can say I *did* something. 

Muggaz demonstrates once again why he is considered to be a troll by so many people.

Doing something about a problem means putting in effort. If you think flying to have a "little meeting" with "buddies" is what I described then I don't know what to tell you. I suppose you can belittle any sort of action if you put your mind to it.

nah- just move to the hills of Kentucky.  Heck, most counties don't even have building codes there!

No, the government won't solve your problems- that's not what the government is there for.

Why?  I'm not going to judge, I'm just curious.  I think that you're tougher than that, Mason.