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Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

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Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#91

Post by CrazyStat »

deltree7 wrote: post #69
hallway_monitor wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are assuming the worst intentions here but anyone who has worked in an enterprise knows sometimes it's useful to build tools for your use and not to share. The tool might not even be allowed, C# is probably not in the supported platforms and even if it was, getting it into the official repos can be arduous. If OP really cared about maximizing everyone's productivity of course they would share the tool…

Increasing productivity never lays people off, unless the people were originally being unproductive. That's a dumb understanding of economics and even management. Also, scaling tools to more than one user is incredibly hard. Software development is still custom / art. This tool works because it is suited to OPs workflow and his "way of thinking". In order to make it work for others, it needs lots of improvement and g…

> Increasing productivity never lays people off, unless the people were originally being unproductive.

Maybe in some imaginary world with spherical cows, infinite demand, and no friction (physical or transactional).

In the real world, increasing productivity so that one person can do the job that ten used to do very often results in layoffs. 70 years ago there were hundreds of thousands of telephone switchboard operators in the US. Productivity increased and they got laid off.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#92

Post by wffurr »

mindcrime wrote: post #52
wffurr wrote: post #33

I don't understand this sentiment at all. I have no idea what any of what you're posting has to do with "well intentions" or "money mak[ing] people do anything". Are you just mad that dislikes were removed from YouTube? I don't see what that has to do with any of those statements.

don't understand this sentiment at all. I have no idea what any of what you're posting has to do with "well intentions" or "money mak[ing] people do anything". Pretty sure they're saying that the YT developers would break their cool hack if they knew about it, because they want to keep their jobs (eg, getting paid, or "making money"). Sounds like the OP wants to view all developers as adhering to some Platonic ideal…

That's... incredibly naive. And I don't think YouTube dislikes are a clear-cut case of "bad thing done for money". It can easily be argued either way.

It's also naive to think that YouTube developers don't already know about said hacks / workarounds.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#94

Post by parksy »

JohnFen wrote: post #26
dkersten wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For work sure, but it also sounds to me that it was built during personal time. If I use my own time to make something, work isn’t getting it without paying for it. I don’t care what the contract says about personal projects (although I‘ve also never signed one of those “we own everything you do outside of work” clauses because I find them exploitative and abusive)

> (although I‘ve also never signed one of those “we own everything you do outside of work” clauses because I find them explosive and abusive) Me too. I always ask that it be removed from the contract, and so far, it always has been.

When I was working as a web developer for a company, I published a game I spent many years dreaming of, and in real terms thousands of hours learning and creating. I wrote the music, drew the sprites, coded the game loops, purchased all the tools, built it using my own hardware etc. The CFO at some party or other after a few beers told me if the game actually became successful, there was nothing I could do to stop them claiming ownership of all of the IP because of a clause I'd signed at some point.

Since I left that place and I believe most of my time-limited terms have expired, IP is one of the very few things I'll get caught up on with a contract. I'm flexible around hours, reporting, attire, presence, etc, but IP outside of specifically client-related work activities is where I draw the line.

I am a digital creator on my own time, I always have been since I was a child, I draw inspiration from many sources, whether it's work or books or videos or art, or even just a random thought. The notion that one day one of these things randomly becomes successful and a bevy of previous clients lays claim to the fruits of my labour sickens me to the core and goes against every sense of living in a fair and just society.

I've knocked back clients who refuse to budge on this issue. I'm no Bill Gates or whatever, but there's absolutely no way I'm signing over rights to things I invent or innovate on my own time. If the people I work for want access to that additional service beyond whatever monkey-shit I'm doing for them then they can pay for it and not just swipe it through some boilerplate IP clauses.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#95

Post by [deleted] »

monocasa wrote: post #81
deltree7 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Increasing productivity never lays people off, unless the people were originally being unproductive. That's a dumb understanding of economics and even management. Also, scaling tools to more than one user is incredibly hard. Software development is still custom / art. This tool works because it is suited to OPs workflow and his "way of thinking". In order to make it work for others, it needs lots of improvement and g…

Management commonly has a dumb understanding of economics and management. Particularly when they view engineering as a cost center.

[deleted]

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#96

Post by slingnow »

dylan604 wrote: post #61
anthomtb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s entirely possible that his colleagues have no desire to be helped, which can happen in a shitty organization.

Seems like better time spent on looking at how to get out of shitty org than gaming the system

I'd be curious to see why you're so confident that OP's time is better spent getting out of this organization where they can work 2 hours a day for what I assume is a decent living.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#97

Post by pddpro »

jayd16 wrote: post #63
charles_f wrote: post #10

> but apparently money makes people do anything. I don't see the link with your example. How would people profit of finding the number of dislikes on YouTube? Also, sharing this would increase the number of users of the exploit, and its general publicity, making it more likely to be fixed. Nothing to do with having each other's back. And then, considering that you are disclosing a security leak, the "having each othe…

Yeah, the leap here is that OP assumes the dislike change is inherently bad, or universally disliked outside of some minority at Youtube that also doesn't read HN. Why would money need to be the main motivator?

I know that it would be a pretty biased response but do Corporates not make large decisions only when they think that it'll make them more money? Removing dislike metrics sounds like a supremely large decision.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#98

Post by slingnow »

dawnerd wrote: post #84

I mentioned something we built at work and got the typical HN nitpick about it and decided to never bring anything else up again. If something is open source and you don’t like just move along.

Seems like a healthy, well-adjusted response! Something didn't work out one time? NEVER DO IT AGAIN!

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#99

Post by np- »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #9

Yeah I do this. Most of what I build, nobody knows about it nor is it release into the wild. Latest example: at my current workplace we have some crappy custom compilers for our platform.... I've rebuilt them in a way that I like (and using C# instead of Java), that enables me to use it in a small visual studio code plugin that enables me with real time error messages as I code against our platform, so basically cons…

Kind of similar but maybe in a different context—there are a few tools that I’ve written for myself that speed my work up significantly but I haven’t widely disseminated. It’s not because I don’t want my coworkers to succeed, but more that my tools are directly mapped to the way my brain and hands work. Ie, I’m much more of a shell guy who likes to write command line scripts to speed things up while most of my coworkers prefer heavier IDE/tools/plugins to assist (no judgment either way, its just how our brains work). I offered some of my tools a few times but no one took me up so I don’t bother anymore.

Generalizing a solution, becoming a product owner, maintaining it for others, or even worse having some douchy manager take your idea and ruin it, seems like it would be way more work than I can handle and still do my day job.

Re: Do you ever avoid submitting something on HN so devs won't ruin it?

#100

Post by mmcgaha »

jayd16 wrote: post #51
version_five wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you care? He's not actively harming his coworkers, he's doing what is asked of him work wise, and his colleagues presumably are too - and are themselves getting apparently slack jobs if there is 6hrs per day of easily automated work. Imagine if your coworker told management about an efficiency hack that made you responsible for 4x the output per day. Would you rather work with that person? Personally, I wou…

Assuming its not trivial, its hiding a useful tool from your coworkers. Why share any knowledge at all? Why mentor someone if it just gets them more work? Seems pretty toxic to me.

This isn't any different than keeping a bunch of text snippets that you use as a starting point for creating things. Text snippets may seem trivial in comparison to some tool that writes code or checks for your common errors, but when there is a bug in your text snippet, you own the bug.

Let's say he gives away his tool and all of a sudden he is the guy who has to work on it when other people have problems. Now his coworkers have more time, he has less, and he is the scapegoat for when things go wrong. Not only that but since it is not a real product of the organization, no one will recognize the time he works on it so he will have to work over time to meet his other goals.

Now if someone wants to ask for a copy of what I use, sure but they own their copy and I own mine.

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