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Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

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Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#201

Post by marton78 »

adenozine wrote: post #168
noir_lord wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You drink 5L of water a day? (assuming 180lbs, 28ml Oz that's 5.04L)

No no, so it's half your weight in lbs, in oz. So for a 200lb man, it'd be 100oz. Just under a gallon. It seems like a lot at first, and for the first few days I peed a lot, but now it seems normal. Granted, I'm doing myself a small service by saying 200, but that's just a few covid pounds.

As a European, I had to look up the fact that 16 oz = 1 lbs. So the statement means: drink 1/32 of your weight.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#202

Post by Hajuijj »

afarrell wrote: post #182
cube00 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why we don't put @author comments in our code. Once the code is in the main line it's owned by the team. It also helps to promote quality within the team because if you see something unreasonable you are empowered to take action (that may not be possible immediately because we all have our day jobs but at least adding a TODO for it) The standard you scroll past is the standard you accept.

This works up util a point. If the code is owned by 4-30 people, its good. If the code is owned by 120 people, then it takes way to long to tell what the quality standard is. > The standard you scroll past is the standard you accept. The challenge is how to get work done without spending 60 hours a week pointing out or solving code quality problems. To overcome this challenge requires accepting some standard of crapp…

I think it is worth it in the lo g run.

In best case your team grows and the original hurdles are fixed.

It's always problematic for bad colleges which just do the same mistakes over and over and over again but what do you wanna do? Accept a potential security bug because it is too much effort?

If your code is so complex or big that you have 120 people on it, you should have enough people in governance positions and hierarchical quality gates.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#203

Post by Hajuijj »

valmarket wrote: post #133
cube00 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why we don't put @author comments in our code. Once the code is in the main line it's owned by the team. It also helps to promote quality within the team because if you see something unreasonable you are empowered to take action (that may not be possible immediately because we all have our day jobs but at least adding a TODO for it) The standard you scroll past is the standard you accept.

This only works if the team has a very high standard and some self restraint. Otherwise notorious code churners who are addicted to a high commit count plow through the code base, regardless of whether they are area experts or not. If you contradict them, they cite the common ownership rule and paint you as a non-team-player. If they introduce bugs into the release and you point it out, you are the villain again. All…

This sounds like a leadership issue.

I personally would either point it out or actually leave the project.

We don't have to accept every shitty job as Software engineers.

Unfortunately it takes time to experience and see those issues and to learn to handle them properly.

I do prefer sustainable development and at least my track record shows that it is paying off: high security, high trust in the system, stress-free oncall etc.

If I can't sit in a beer garden on a nice august afternoon a little bit early because everything is falling in peaces I have done something wrong. Not saying that I'm spending all my time not working just saying to have the freedom to be more flexible in when and how I work.

This does demand pushback to management if someone outside of your team starts to sell things with deadlines without asking you.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#204

Post by Hajuijj »

quanto wrote: post #48
mjthompson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly he's got some issues given the reaction. However, was he informed of the bug? Was there an expectation he would fix his own mistakes? I don't work in IT/Software Engineering - I work in law. But when I find fault in other's work, it's a courtesy to let them know and give them an opportunity to address it. It's part of being a team player. I am not trying to be critical of you. It's just reading this reminded…

No offense taken. Your questions are valid. 1. Would he be informed of the/a bug(s)? Absolutely. We monitor bug tickets submitted to our team throughout the day. It's a main part of our job. 2. Was there a strict code ownership per individual contributor? No. This team's culture was such that once one contributor's code was committed to the main repository, it is part of the team's responsibility, not just the origin…

One point though: i personally don't like that as well as I see my bugs/issues as something I should fix.

I always prefer a short message like 'hey I saw a bug here and I will fix it. At least this gives me a heads-up.

But of course I wouldn't tell you that and I would definitely not hold a grudge against you because of it.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#205

Post by Hajuijj »

efficax wrote: post #160
mjthompson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly he's got some issues given the reaction. However, was he informed of the bug? Was there an expectation he would fix his own mistakes? I don't work in IT/Software Engineering - I work in law. But when I find fault in other's work, it's a courtesy to let them know and give them an opportunity to address it. It's part of being a team player. I am not trying to be critical of you. It's just reading this reminded…

Software is a machine. You don't ask the other mechanics if you can go and replace a faulty part on an engine they rebuilt last week. The engine is broken, you fix it and move on.

I would still expect communication. After all I don't want someone else to take away a potential learning experience.

If someone else just fixes stuff for you all the time that just might not be good in the long run.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#206

Post by Hajuijj »

_qzu4 wrote: post #142
kjakm wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this attitude to be the same as kids not telling on the bully because it’ll make things worse. The guy lost a four figure bonus for no sane reason. Keeping quiet isn’t going to make anything better. You either speak with HR or firstly maybe your boss’s boss. Maybe things are a bit different if you work in one of the places where you can be fired at will but generally you have employment rights that will protec…

Never talk to the bosses boss without going to your boss first. By doing so, you are ignoring the chain of command and likely will you fired. How would you feel if someone you managed went behind your back to talk to your boss?

That kind of behavior is for me a red flag which would definitely lead to me scheduling a meeting with the boss of my boss.

If you really wanted to stay with that company because everything else is great, your only chance is to solve this with the boss of the boss.

5 figure bonus lost due to this is abuse.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#207

Post by adenozine »

marton78 wrote: post #201
adenozine wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No no, so it's half your weight in lbs, in oz. So for a 200lb man, it'd be 100oz. Just under a gallon. It seems like a lot at first, and for the first few days I peed a lot, but now it seems normal. Granted, I'm doing myself a small service by saying 200, but that's just a few covid pounds.

As a European, I had to look up the fact that 16 oz = 1 lbs. So the statement means: drink 1/32 of your weight.

Sorry! I didn't realize the overload.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#208

Post by thunkshift1 »

lostcolony wrote: post #29

To change anything you have to be responsible, empowered, and knowledgeable about it. If you only have one or two of them, seek out the others. If you can't attain all three, stop worrying about it; you can't change it. Transparency leads to trust, but also can be abused. Be transparent in incremental steps, so that you still build trust with those that are trustworthy, and so you aren't hurt too badly by those that…

+1 , some excellent points in there

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#209

Post by noir_lord »

adenozine wrote: post #179
noir_lord wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh. That makes more sense, I drink about that just for water excluding over drinks. Pint of water soon as I wake up, Pint before bed and the rest through the day.

Nice! Good work. I was terrible about it before. Coffee, energy drinks, sugary crap. I drink almost exclusively water and herbal teas, and I've been staying under 20g of sugar most days for the past few months. I don't know if you're American or not, but I have struggled with just being surrounded with terrible snack choices and meal choices. It's been nice focusing on changing these behaviors.

UK but we are heading the same way in regards to it been easy to make terrible choices.

For me switching to sugar free energy drinks and fewer of them was a big change.

Re: Ask HN: What lessons did you learn from your best or worst colleagues?

#210

Post by closeparen »

Worst: you may very well have better ideas about how things should work based on your last job, but take your time to build credibility and internalize how things work at your current job before you start to push them.

Best: always be curious. When you spot a bad idea, be especially curious about the parts that will go wrong. Most of the time, people will figure it out and change course without a conflict.

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