@11b - I did the 'self-taught' thing for C#, PHP and javascript, and I think it's been fairly successful. However, even with just 1 semester of C++ I felt that my knowledge of objective oriented programming in all languages has improved tremendously. I'm currently rewriting clankiller.com using classes and inheritance in ways I would not have been comfortable with a year ago.

However, I'm actually taking these classes for a degree as well. Plus c++ is a different animal from those other languages since it's close to the metal. Pointers and memory management can be a bit tricky. You should see the base code of a "simple" MFC windows application... it's friggin' crazy.

@Rinox, I'm a firm believe in small, fast meeting. You get the most important stake holders together with an agenda, go over the important crap, make decisions, and move out. A meeting should last no longer than 30 minutes in my opinion.

Then there are meetings to make customers feel good. Those typically take 15 minutes unless the customer is a bureaucracy, in which case it could take hours.

And then there's meetings to make our managers feel important. That could be a 2 hour meeting every single day with everyone just saying the same shit, over and over again. Those are my favorite.

Of course, meetings with bureaucratic customers that are assholes can be just as fun. I love it when a customer actually cusses on the phone... I instantly lose any level of caring for them that I may have possessed.

Oh God yes. They just keep showing new graphs rehasing the same terms and hollow business speeches over and over again. With the worst of them, it's what they actually do all day (writing up those things) instead of actually managing shit.

Public service isn't all that hot (bureaucracy etc) but at least it spares me most of those long meetings where people want to prove they read a book about business management a year ago.

hah...funny you should mention that. Our worst managers regularly recommend various bullshit 'optimize yourself' type business books and will quote typical idiocies from it for a week or three.

Hey bitches, I've spent the last two years reading Ulysses! How about you do something productive instead of reading more bullshit!