Complaining and Advising

"I don't want to talk about it", is the usual response I give to people when asked about my apparent "problems" at work. Because I don't want to be perceived as any more whiny than I already am, and because I believe that it's difficult for people not in my shoes to give me any good advice anyway.

I was proven right again today when I was coerced into finally going into some detail about the specifics of my problems at work, and the complainee admitted, "Yah, I agree it's a hard problem, I don't know how I can help you."

That, I have to say, is terribly demoralizing.

It's like a kid who goes to his math teacher with a problem that he can't solve, only to have his math teacher say, "hrm, I'm not so sure how to do this either. You'll have to figure it out yourself."

Perhaps only Archimedes and Euclid will rise up to this challenge, the rest of us mere mortals will just decide to give up a lifelong career in mathematics instead.