Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 270 posts

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

#61

Post by byteface »

I was inspired by a guy from Brazil to learn to touch-type. It not on the national curriculum in the UK. I'd say well over half of UK coders can't touch-type. I can easily do 90+ words per minute without trying. I just think and my fingers wobble and words appear. It's like magic. I'd say everyone should learn.

I learned to run code without re-reading it from a bad coder. I used to spend a few mins reading code I'd written to double check it. Then i worked with a guy that just would run code, it would error, my heart would jump, but the world wouldn't explode. So I do that too nowadays a little bit sometimes. Just run the code after writing it without rereading it. It's scary but works 85% of the time. thing is you can run code twice and let the console tell you the issue often quicker than you reading it carefully. (be careful with this tip.) .i.e there's a time to do it and a time not to. i.e. if your changing some css block, you may not need to reread it 5 times before refreshing the page. but if you are about recursively rm some dir then maybe check.

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

#62

Post by codingbbq »

GoToRO wrote: post #56
codingbbq wrote: post #51

Best : My manager who appreciates everyone's time. He puts in efforts to immediately reply to anyone, takes quick decisions and acknowledges quite often. If anyone is dependent on you, unblock them immediately. Worst : Many of the co-workers/ department heads etc. etc. have moved ranks above me exponentially and yes because of their hard work. Congratulations to them. But sometimes if I have to reach out to them or t…

They are not mocking you. They respect you for making the right decision for the project as opposed to the best they could do, the right decission for themselves.

A sudden change in the tone is obviously noticeable. You can feel it when some one else is being called by their first name and you are being addressed as Sir.

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

#63

Post by wiether »

plank_time wrote: post #21

One of my mentors at the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley never said “no” to one of my ideas. He said “okay, we’ll try it out and see what happens.” He was inherently supportive of new ideas and as a junior engineer it felt very refreshing to not have to argue my way into a feature that I felt strongly about. I’ve carried that same mentality throughout my career. My worst colleagues were the exact opposit…

> One of my mentors at the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley never said “no” to one of my ideas. He said “okay, we’ll try it out and see what happens.” He was inherently supportive of new ideas and as a junior engineer it felt very refreshing to not have to argue my way into a feature that I felt strongly about. I’ve carried that same mentality throughout my career.

I try to always have this kind of mindset, but sometimes I just don't see how to do it. Imagine you are at the office, the break room's microwave just broke down and you are discussing with your colleagues what should you ask at management to replace it. Two units ? Since the company grew and one microwave for twenty people is not enough. One more powerful ? The old one took like ten minutes to heat even the smallest meal. And then a colleagues, very seriously, suggest that a big barbecue would be more efficient and can heat many meals at a time. If we take the physical constraints (buying a barbecue...) apart since in software we can easily let a bad project dies in the limb of our repository, how can you say "okay, we’ll try it out and see what happens" to them ?

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

#65

Post by ellimilial »

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…

This really stuck a cord, thank you for sharing.

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

#66

Post by somishere »

My favourite colleague ever was the nicest, most diplomatic and considerate leader I've known. He taught me that if you're genuine and know the playing field, you really don't have to be a dick to succeed ... despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

My most annoying/disappointing colleague, who I was fooled into hiring into a senior position, taught me many, many lessons .. but the most positive was that speed to market trumps attention to detail 9 times out of 10. Seems obvious now!

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

#67

Post by GoToRO »

codingbbq wrote: post #62
GoToRO wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not mocking you. They respect you for making the right decision for the project as opposed to the best they could do, the right decission for themselves.

A sudden change in the tone is obviously noticeable. You can feel it when some one else is being called by their first name and you are being addressed as Sir.

That’s different then. I did call some people Sir but it was out of respect. Mostly I appreciated that they were easy to get along with.

If you did nothing wrong I would say it’s still a sign of respect even if done theatrically every time.

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

#69

Post by beforeolives »

byteface wrote: post #61

I was inspired by a guy from Brazil to learn to touch-type. It not on the national curriculum in the UK. I'd say well over half of UK coders can't touch-type. I can easily do 90+ words per minute without trying. I just think and my fingers wobble and words appear. It's like magic. I'd say everyone should learn. I learned to run code without re-reading it from a bad coder. I used to spend a few mins reading code I'd w…

I never understood this way of thinking about touch typing as a distinct skill from typing. My experience was that when you're kid and use a computer for the first time, you need to look at the keys, and then over time you look less and eventually you can type without looking at all. I never saw it as a distinct skill that needs it's own name or needs to be taught in school (apparently I'm wrong about this). It's just typing to me.
Post reply on HN