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Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

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Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#31

Post by syndicatedjelly »

runamuck wrote: post #29
hakunin wrote: post #27

I've been contemplating the issue in the headline, as pertains to my value. When I help somebody in 40 mins with something they've been stuck on for 3 months, my value is clear to everyone. When I work there the whole time, and nobody ever gets stuck for 3 months, my value is unclear. Don't know how to deal with this paradox.

Easy - half a$$ your code and when it breaks - swoop in, "fix things" (actually do it right) and play the role of hero! (I've seen so-called "Rock Stars" at places I worked do this over and over)

Would you feel good about being that kind of engineer, if the external validation was great enough?

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#32

Post by bluGill »

I always get cynical when I see awards for software releases. Someone always gets an award for staying up late to fix a last minute problem. Normally the person that should have written good code in the first place so they wouldn't have had to come in late. The award should go to the person (likely people) who never got called in at all in the first place because we didn't find a bug in their code.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#33

Post by SilasX »

runamuck wrote: post #29
hakunin wrote: post #27

I've been contemplating the issue in the headline, as pertains to my value. When I help somebody in 40 mins with something they've been stuck on for 3 months, my value is clear to everyone. When I work there the whole time, and nobody ever gets stuck for 3 months, my value is unclear. Don't know how to deal with this paradox.

Easy - half a$$ your code and when it breaks - swoop in, "fix things" (actually do it right) and play the role of hero! (I've seen so-called "Rock Stars" at places I worked do this over and over)

Hah, that was in my archetypal description of the fake 10xer, that somehow they are able to swoop in and fix their spaghetti code, come what may, while no one else can make sense of it:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18462325

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#34

Post by thfuran »

arp242 wrote: post #21
thfuran wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a ton of reactionary legislation on the books that exists pretty much entirely because politicians wanted to be seen doing something. It's mostly crap.

This is probably a bit too cynical; it's not just "politicians who want to be seen doing something"; the public often wants something done as well. And "we didn't do anything after that incident from ten years ago and now it happened again" is not a good look. Complex stories about trade-offs and the cure being worse than the disease often don't "play well" in the media, especially not with the opposition demanding t…

>the public often wants something done as well.

Sure, that's why the politicians want to be seen doing it. But the legislative focus is often on getting something passed now while it's a hot issue rather than on eventually getting a good bill passed (let alone deciding that we actually already have the correct amount of legislation on the topic).

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#35

Post by brazzy »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #6

Another variation on the problem is the over-allocation of resources to preventing problems which actually happened once, versus those that are more severe but haven't happened yet. This is a management problem, because no-one wants to be accountable for a repeat incident even if it was rational to be working on something else more important.

The thing is: it's very easy to play up the likelihood and severity of problems that are entirely imaginary. This can be just a bad habit, but also a deliberate tactic. In either case, a lot of effort, time, money, etc. is wasted.

Waiting for something to actually happen before allocating resources to preventing it is (to some degree) a rational policy.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#36

Post by Jtsummers »

runamuck wrote: post #29
hakunin wrote: post #27

I've been contemplating the issue in the headline, as pertains to my value. When I help somebody in 40 mins with something they've been stuck on for 3 months, my value is clear to everyone. When I work there the whole time, and nobody ever gets stuck for 3 months, my value is unclear. Don't know how to deal with this paradox.

Easy - half a$$ your code and when it breaks - swoop in, "fix things" (actually do it right) and play the role of hero! (I've seen so-called "Rock Stars" at places I worked do this over and over)

Don't do it right, double down on the flaws. You had a 3k SLOC single function (all in main) C program to do something that could be expressed cleanly and clearly in 200 SLOC. Some specific sequence of inputs leads to an error. Instead of tidying it up, removing the repetition that led to the mistake, you copy/paste everything again and add another 100 cases to your various switch/case statements (actually you use if/else because switch/case might make things clearer). The specific problem is solved, but in a year another buggy code path will be discovered and you'll have another chance to play hero. In 5 years it'll be 50k SLOC of C all in main, that could have been under 1k SLOC (still all in main). No one else will be able to fix it but you!

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#37

Post by nonrandomstring »

Justsignedup wrote: post #24
ghaff wrote: post #3

In about that same timeframe, Y2K is also really good example. Nothing of note really happened. But if people had just ignored it a lot of things probably would have.

the readiness paradox: If you are prepared, nothing interesting happens, life moves on, people opened a notebook and pressed a few buttons. If you are not prepared, the texas grid freezes, people die, people lose their savings, and "nobody could have imagined it would be this bad".

Recommend "Left of Bang"

In strategic sysadmin and cybersecurity this is staple thinking, and a useful part of what I teach now.

Problem for vigilant thinkers is the rewards, as explained in TFA, are perverse.

People are content with technology to be magical. They don't see the millions of people quietly repairing it and planning to keep it all going smoothly.

To "bosses" cybersecurity only bring them problems, and cost them money apparently doing nothing. The same for any defence force, until you need it.

Did some nice interviews for international sysadmin day last summer [1].

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22663095-left-of-bang

[1] https://cybershow.uk/episodes.php?id=15

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#38

Post by ortusdux »

hakunin wrote: post #27

I've been contemplating the issue in the headline, as pertains to my value. When I help somebody in 40 mins with something they've been stuck on for 3 months, my value is clear to everyone. When I work there the whole time, and nobody ever gets stuck for 3 months, my value is unclear. Don't know how to deal with this paradox.

See also: The Locksmith's Paradox - https://medium.com/@pk.patrick.kelly/the-locksmith-paradox-6...

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#39

Post by ghaff »

_yb2s wrote: post #10
ghaff wrote: post #3

In about that same timeframe, Y2K is also really good example. Nothing of note really happened. But if people had just ignored it a lot of things probably would have.

What, what do you mean nothing happened? I'm in my underground bunker, do you think it would be safe to come out and look around? You guys are all in your Y2K underground bunkers still, right?

I didn't worry. Even took a trip to a different country. Though I can totally understand why some people (know you're joking) might have played it more conservatively.
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