Dear Bob ... I agree with your idea that most charging of costs between departments in a business don't affect the business's real business of providing a service to it's external (paying) customers. I also just had surgery for a brain tumor. I'm now 44 years old, (slightly brain damaged), and I'm being asked to stay home and recover for a month from this operation. The operation was a great sucess, yet I'm Dear Bob …I agree with your idea that most charging of costs between departments in a business don’t affect the business’s real business of providing a service to it’s external (paying) customers.I also just had surgery for a brain tumor. I’m now 44 years old, (slightly brain damaged), and I’m being asked to stay home and recover for a month from this operation. The operation was a great sucess, yet I’m told that I’ll need radiation and/or chemo treatments “as soon as I’m strong enough”. It’s all a bit much for me to understand. If the operation was such a success, why must I stay home and to “get strong enough” for additional treatments? – Just wonderingDear Wondering …This is a bit outside of my normal beat, so take this with the usual grain of salt: I have two, mostly conflicting pieces of advice for you. The first is that if you don’t understand the recommended course of medical treatment, ask. It is, after all, your brain they’re fiddling with. You ought to know why they’ve decided to fiddle the way they have. And if you still don’t understand, ask for another explanation, this time with fewer syllables and vague generalizations like “get stronger.” (BTW: You’ll understand the frustrations end-users often have with our profession as you have this discussion.)The second piece of advice is, they’re the experts. When in doubt, they’re more likely to be right than you are. So while making sure you understand why they’re recommending what they’re recommending is important, letting the experts do their jobs is probably more important. Unless, when you ask the “why” question, you find yourself thinking, “Obviously they’re making this up as they go along.”And, by the way … you’ll now understand the frustration business executives have with our profession when we tell them they have to invest real money in “enterprise architecture,” or another of the “you’ll have to take our word for it” investments we sometimes have to ask for. I’m really not making light of your medical situation – I hope you understand that, and that I’m sincerely concerned for you.It’s just that, somehow, the parallels seemed relevant to the conversation.Whatever you decide to do, keep a positive attitude. And failing that, decide to be as mean as a snake about everything. Sometimes, in health as in business, that’s what it takes to beat whatever is trying to beat you. – Bob ——– Technology Industry