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Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#91

Post by drpotato »

0xBDB wrote: post #73

I was hired to implement and operate a specific product for a specific customer who paid for four years of onsite support. I do other things too, but that's my one contractually obligated responsibility and my primary one. Turns out the customer didn't read the (enormously expensive) SOW. They don't want the product, can't ingest its output, don't want to do the work necessary to implement it, and on a recent roadmap…

Get another job or use the money for counselling / therapy, your mental health is more important than the job.

Hell, maybe try work two jobs if you can!

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#93

Post by happyweasel »

leiradel wrote: post #66

I was a new hire at a game development company. My first task was to optimize a function that was consuming more cycles than all the other ones. The function was responsible for dispatching Objective-C++ method calls. After a quick debug session, the problem was clear: the methods to call was being searched using a linear search. I changed the search to use a hashtable and the function disappeared from the list of mo…

I hope you ran away from that company. Your change was too disruptive, because it made other people look stupid, like they didn't grok basic data structures. I think everyone overlooks obvious solutions to everyday problems every now and then, but the way they reacted speaks volumes...

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#94

Post by sanderjd »

whinvik wrote: post #46

I worked at a place for a few months where they had this very complicated K8s, Argo Workflows architecture for processing some Bioinformatics data. Felt cool when I joined, but it clearly was way over-engineered. I started with a proposal on how to simplify it and went about developing a POC. However, a couple of months in, I realized that the company actually had NO customers for this. And multiple engineers had wor…

What was your proposal?

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#95

Post by psnehanshu »

Worked for a client via freelancing. Built 3 projects, all failed. He likes to follow the trends, first SaaS, then crypto/blockchain, and now AI. He apparently raises money, pays himself and builds bullshit projects. That's it. But while doing so, he does everything to look like a legit startup.

Ngl, he was my first major client with whom I gained a lot of experience, but it doesn't change the fact that he is a hype chaser.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#96

Post by blackhaj7 »

If it’s at all possible to get moved to work on sometthing that is not “useless” then I would push for that. Would your TL be open to it?

Not only for job satisfaction but, given the current market and the propensity for layoffs, working on something useful will give you a little more job security

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#97

Post by matrix_overload »

TL is lining you up for PIP/termination. The other guy on the team is likely his buddy. Come review time, you will be shown as an IC that struggles to deliver, and the other guy will get all the credit.

Been there, seen that. Start looking for other teams internally ASAP.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#100

Post by tgittos »

windowshopping wrote: post #90

I built the best site out there for playing magic the gathering online. It's way better than any other available option. I've never shared it with the magic community because I think wizards of the coast would just send me a cease and desist, so three years of work is just sitting idle. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

I started building a Magic based data science tool for 6 months before coming to the same inevitable conclusion. It sits in a Github private repo rotting away.
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