Are Gunners Insecure?

Do you think all gunners are insecure at heart? Most? Some? None? I’m going to say 75% of gunners are driven by insecurity. Backed up by zero data.

I think a lot about how to make my kids self-motivated, but it’s a balance I think. I don’t want them to be gunners either. I don’t know which would be worse, if my kids were gunners or slackers. Given my personal sentiments against gunning (just for myself) I think I’d prefer slacker kids but who knows. Self motivated without gunning though, that’s what I’d want.

Have I ever told this story? So my dad got a PhD in EE from Ohio State. Anyway, he was applying for jobs and I think he was applying to IBM, and I think it was his first interview. So they asked him about himself, and he says to them, “I’m lazy.” Reason being, his belief is that great scientists in the past were somewhat driven by laziness, by a desire to get more things done with less effort, something like that, and that that’s the impetus for progress. Of course, with his English, that message didn’t get through, all that came through was that he considered himself lazy, and the interviewers were like, “Uh… that’s not a good quality.” Whoops. He didn’t get an offer.