be up, out or otherwise shielded by age 35 or otherwise prepare yourself for a world of hurt, especially if you care at all about what you're doing.
Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
41–50 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#42This is why I hate office politics.
This is why I quit and built my own company from ground up. I can't tolerate office politics it probably is the first reason why there are so many self employed people out there.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#43Deliberately playing office politics with manipulative behaviors like this is a losing game. These behaviors will be quickly identified and managed out in any competently managed team. If they work, it means you’re in an office that rewards bad behavior. Instead of trying to play the game, work on finding a better job. You’ll be happier and healthier. I’ve had to remove several employees over the years because they w…
Step 1) join a broken/toxic company. Theyre a lot more common than competent ones
Toxic I can't deal with. But I've made my career working in broken areas that simply didn't know how to do things better and giving them the tools to do so. It can be a weird feeling though. My proper domain of expertise is a sort of data analysis/programming mix to provide operational support for individual units to help them do their work better, but then more advanced analysis to inform the strategic directions of the entire business (well, not business: I work in Higher Ed).
It's the individual units that tend to be broken though, stuck in methods of working that are anywhere from 10 to 30 years out of date. Which results in some weird experiences, because some of the most technically simple things I do for them are the ones that get the most "OMG This is Amazing!" response. Which always makes me feel like I produced a kindergarten scribbling and someone's telling me I'm DaVinci. I'm always happy to have helped, but it's hardly a "pat myself on the back" situation. One of the most extreme examples was when I took 15 minutes of so to write a SQL query and use it to automate a crosstab report sent to a group on a daily basis. They were completely floored by it. Because, not knowing how to even do a pivot table in excel, they had literally just been sorting the raw data and counting rows by hand.
So, if you're in the "right" kind of broken-- but not toxic-- environment, you can still accomplish quite a bit. Even though only about 15% of my work has a high level of technical complexity, over the years it's saved my workplace tons of money, generated tons of money, and most importantly-- because this is a University-- greatly improved the experience & success of some of our students.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#44Sounds like a totally unfulfilling life to me.
I've worked with guys like this before. They make you not want to work in software. Build a black box around themselves, become unfirable, make sure to have a say in every design decision even if it is pointless. These types are parasites on any company, when you're the type that genuinely wants to bring value and contribute and learn and solve problems, the sorts of endeavors that actually generate revenue, these guys become needless obstacles. If I were a manager of a team and someone started doing things like this I'd fire them as soon as possible, because they deliberately create technical debt and wear on the rest of the team and erode productivity, and it's best to have them gone before they entrench themselves, which is their goal.
There is some good advice in there. Get to know your team and other colleagues. Take an interest in what they're doing. But these things make for a better life and work experience, they're not a means to an end.
The only thing that is kind of politicky that I'd say is good is to make sure your work is visible. People forget, take things for granted, it's human nature, so it isn't a bad idea to remind people around you in subtle ways the improvements you've brought. If you do that, you'll be judged in your merit, and if you genuinely bring value that is more than enough.
There are certain things I do that may or may not take away political capital, but that ensure you get likes by the people that matter. Number one is to show my genuine disdain for busybody work and inefficiency. Productive people share this sentiment. You might piss off a troublemaker or come across as complaining about something some higher up demands of your team, but you'll make friends that are productive and genuine and you'll create a culture of productivity by ensuring other people are not afraid to voice their concerns about stupid shit either.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#45The Ropes to Skip and the Ropes to Know
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#46Can anybody tell me why anyone would want to join a non-eng team?
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#47[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#48Politics is an INTEGRAL part of organisations.
It has widely been studying in all social sciences and particularly in management.
Try to read books or articles of J. March or K. Weick or H. Simon ( I'm a talking about scholar with more than 300.000 citations each: they are the foundation of all social sciences) in their manuscript they talk about politics in organisation.
We study these in Management PhDs.
Enjoy
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#49There's a cult classic series of blog posts called "The Gervais Principle" https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
Venkatesh Rao also put out a book collecting his newsletter, "Be Slightly Evil" with a lot of explorations of this topic like, "What's the right length of time to hold a door open for someone?" Another book of his is Tempo, which is more about understanding and manipulating the tempo of different interactions in business. But definitely start with the Gervais Principle. It's wonderful.
> "What's the right length of time to hold a door open for someone?"
Such a simple yet thought provoking question.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#50Except for 4 how is that “dark”? As a company owner I would love to have an engineer getting interested in the business side and maybe becoming a partner. But I would pass on a sociopath applying a playbook for their personal gain.