toring, I was able to break the environmental reinforcements. How Not to Be a Computer Jerk Leadership and Mentoring In my experience, people who behave like computer jerks can be changed. Usually, the instrument of change is someone who they respect and who has authority over them. In my case, I was working in a chemical manufacturing plant and thought I was the king of the world. I ran the minicomputer, managed all the PCs, and even managed the network, which at the time was a Santa Clara Systems version 1.1 network with 10Base-2 coax cabling throughout the plant (for those of you who don't know Santa Clara Systems, they merged with a company named Novell in 1986). On one of the days when I was feeling particularly smug, I managed to offend my boss by speaking to him in a condescending tone when he needed help with something. This was a man I liked quite a bit and admired a great deal, and from whom I had learned a lot. Still, at the age of 22, I thought I was smarter than he was. My boss called me into his office and calmly asked me what I knew about toluol, methyl methacrylate, and the dispersion process. When I said that I didn't know anything, he proceeded to explain to me that he knew quite a bit about all of these things and then asked me why someone like me, who was probably a third of his age, would think that I had the right to speak to him the way I had. He was right, and I knew it. I was being a jerk. The point of this story is that he took the time to tell me I was being a jerk, and did it in such a way that I listened. The fact that I respected him already helped a great deal, but the fact that someone pulled me aside and explained to me that I was out of line made all the difference in the world. I believe that most of the people out there who habitually tread on others in an effort to prove how smart they are simply need a lesson from a leader or mentor to help them understand how they should change. Chapter 41: Avoiding Frustration Index Symbols top-down processing, 419 Turbo ACLs, 423, 424 802.