I’m not one to complain about small squabbles, but there comes a time when enough is enough. Consider this my towel thrown in. FIRST was fun, but I feel it is no longer the place for me to spend my time. You might see me involved in the future, but I wouldn’t count on it. Over the past two months I have been verbally assaulted and degraded by more than ten people in the FRC community that I used to look up to. I have attempted to provide a different perspective on many things, and as a result received a torrent of PMs and other messages that have both degraded my intelligence, and blatantly (and seemingly intentionally) misinterpreted the bulk of my ideas.
I hope to leave you all with a message: Just because someone disagrees with you, and has a differing opinion, does not mean they are “un-GP.” Just because someone thinks differently than you or your team does not make them inferior. The issue of waving the GP flag at anything that was different has come up, but nothing changed. Consider this your first casualty of the FIRST cult mentality.
Having been kicked off a FIRST team by a student with power delusions, I hoped to be able to keep involved through CD. For a time, it worked. I was still a part of FRC, and I enjoyed it. But over time, the same issues that have bugged me for a long time, and have dug at me since I joined have not gone away, nor even diminished. There are many here who were not part of the problem, and I’d like to thank them. I could name names, but it wouldn’t prove anything, nor further any goal.
So farewell, Chief Delphi. I applaud FIRST’s goals, I just think many people here need to examine how they communicate with others. Sometimes it is worth it to stop and read what you’ve written before posting.
Farewell, CD. It was a fun ride. If for some reason anyone needs to contact me, feel free to email me or AIM me any time. My contact info should stay up here until someone decides to delete my account to save a few bits.
We’ll miss you on CD but we all have that time to move along. For some it may never come but for many others its close. I’ll miss your CAD work and your posts. Good luck in life!
I for one will miss your posts, your designs, and your expertise. Best of luck in life outside of FIRST. I hear they pay you for stuff out there (and not in Krispy Kremes).
If I could point to the FIRST community’s Achilles heal, it would be what you laid out here, and even after knowing about it in my gut for more than 3 years (oddly after 2004 this became evident, but not on CD so much), I could not at all put it better than you have right here.
That said, FIRST is not a battleground for anything and should never be treated like such, and seeing this sort of departure is plainly sad…
But, you gotta do what you gotta do. Good Luck out there!
I hope to learn a lot about CAD from you later on. I’ll try to keep in touch. As for you leaving…its sad how people on here interpret things and don’t let opinions of others lay where they are… people really need to ease up with the whole “Un-GP” and GP thing sometimes and stop using it to back everything up or like you said, use it as a blatant excuse to shoot down another person’s opinions.
Good luck out there, please develop your ideas into a reality…and yes Ed, I hear they pay in cupcakes, not Krispy Kreme:D
Wow Craig, I’m at a loss for how to reply. I for one, will miss seeing you around CD. I have always appreciated your input on subjects that you post on.
I must say, I didn’t realize the you were dealing with the battles that you mentioned above. Maybe that is because you had the GP, and wisdom, not to air those issues publicly. THANK YOU!!!
It seems from your comments that your style of thinking outside the box, considering alternative approaches, attempting to do things in an unconventional way and having the courage to talk about it has gotten you in trouble. Well I say, KEEP DOING IT!!! That style of thinking is where genius resides and flourishes.
If you ever want to work with a team again, look me up. The teams in this area could definitely use your support and experience, and we love the unconventional. Besides, Sacramento is not that far away.
I don’t think it’s right that people have been rude enough to make you feel that you have to leave, here or your on your team. I don’t believe I’ve had much of anything bad said about me, but to think that people would to it in here slightly disgusts me. Enough bad things are said about robotics people as it is, why turn on ourselves and make our colleauges and, for me, family feel not welcome. Man, I’m sorry you have to go. In the words of the Rugrats, “You gotta do what ya gotta do!”
Edit: “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
Helen Keller (1880-1968)
Sigh, Craig, I’m not gonna a beg you to stay, or tell you that I understand why you are leaving, just gonna tell you one thing.
so long, and thanks for all the fish.
not only did you start ME working on CAD designs and posting them on CD, and probably encouraged many others to do so as well, you helped brew really collaborative little clouds of discussion around other designs as well as your own, making CD a great place to discuss designs and ideas. you even helped me out when I was attempting to figure out my own designs, before they even hit CD. just FYI: Until yesterday, I thought you were a mentor. thanks again.
As you choose to move on, good luck and I hope to see you someday.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention once again. I would go further, though, and say that someone with a differing opinion who expresses it graciously is VERY GP. For we cannot grow and change as we need to if everyone sits there and says “Yea” to everything that someone above us proposes; sometimes we need to give a different view. For example, the idea of starting a team that would be elite from the start is a new one, and possibly should be tried sometime.
There’s been a saying around these parts:
‘your second year as a team member is your first year as a mentor.’
I do not know who originally said that, maybe someone will post and tell us.
It sounds like Craig has done a good job of making that a true and wise statement.
And here’s a thought about thinking differently: if we were supposed to think in a cookie cutter fashion, we’d all be making cookies and that would be all we would make/achieve. Nothing wrong with that - but this is FIRST and as we are always encouraged to do by many of our FIRST leaders, including members of the GDC, it’s ok to think outside the box - think differently. It may have something to do with that innovation thing…maybe something to do with inspiration, as well.
Peace out and live well.