Last mile

Last mile

For those who sucked their mother's tits while confidently tapping their free pen on a modern smartphone, some explanation is required. The Internet was not always distributed everywhere and penetrated into every crevice like air. His path to each individual was difficult and thorny. It was on this path that the “last mile” was the main obstacle. Laying the main highways – high-speed, optical – was not even half the job. But to reach each specific consumer… This was all done, of course, first through the telephone network. But the crappy telephone cables were designed to handle what was called a “voice frequency signal,” which had a range of 4 kilohertz. And only through fairly sophisticated coding over such wires was it possible to pump as much as 56 kilobits of speed. The Internet became widespread when they solved this very “last mile” – first entangling everything with twisted pair cables, and then through the air, catching up with each of us.

Now let's move on to logistics. A funny figure – the average salary of a courier ranges from 120 to 150 thousand rubles per month (Moscow, St. Petersburg). Already, it seems, the juniors are paid noticeably less. But the source of the problem is the same – it is possible, by skillfully consolidating cargo, to deliver it very cheaply to any point, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. But for the last couple of kilometers you have to stomp your feet, and then, it turns out, you have to pay such absurd sums (the couriers at our company called payment for deliveries “hoofed fees”). In general, until we are all put into a computer so that all goods and services without exception can be delivered directly via the Internet, like music and digital books, this problem will continue to exist.

But I started writing this for a different reason. A couple of years ago, our company received a call from a college at RANEPA (specialty: system administrator) and asked to take a couple of people for an internship – this is a mandatory part of their graduate program. The boys finished their month, did something, brought/dropped something, wrote a laudatory review for themselves signed by us, and left to finish their studies. A year later, one of them called asking if there was any work for him. They called me to talk.

It turned out that our Senya worked as a courier for a year after his diploma, raising 100K+ money. “Well, you understand,” said the boss, “that I won’t be able to pay you such money right away. To begin with, I can offer 60,000 rubles.”

And this is the key point. Remember that psychological experiment described in the literature, when kindergarten children were offered an alternative: one candy right now, or two, but after 10 minutes? Allegedly, those who agreed to endure later achieved more in life. So the situation with such a wage range is actually good. It will really weed out all those who rushed to IT just because they pay a lot, from those who are ready to grow and develop.

I really want to believe in it!