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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]

#101
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.

No one knows your true value but yourself. Move accordingly.

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

#102
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.

Me neither. And I've had a similar issue with the first case. You do your work and help someone finish theirs, people still think you only did you job (even if people do credit you, you still have normal impact).

The psychology of workplace is quite subtle and almost backward. There's a motto "squeaky wheel gets the grease" .. to the point I'm thinking of trying some games. Like designers who produce crappy options and one good to toy with higher ups thinking they decide. There are some ideas in that vein so you flip the relationship and benefit from it instead of bleeding.

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

#103
post #19

In our org, this was brought up. People who had problems, then fixed them, were the ones being seen and recognized by higher level management, and awarded for fixing the problems, when they, often, shouldn't have happened in the first place. Now we have something akin to a "person that prevents problems" award. It's a nice gesture, but, even though I received one, I think it's mostly nonsense. You don't get the face…

Award everybody with a bonus that can be deducted with every bug report

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

#105
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)

I was just considering it, but never had a chance to see it in real life.

I'm dumbfounded about all this, you spend years learning and reading books about the craft but the only topic which will matter is how you can con the game ?.. weird.

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

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For extra points, keep the sane solution in a secret source file, then implement a compiler which generates the obfuscated spaghetti. :-P

and enjoy your participation to the ioccc :)

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

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For extra points, keep the sane solution in a secret source file, then implement a compiler which generates the obfuscated spaghetti. :-P

I kind of did that once. For a proprietary language that didn't support functions and had very limited support for loops (mostly labels and gotos, it is sold for way too much per seat for a niche industry and the language and implementation are awful). I needed to implement something that was too tedious to write out by hand (~1500 lines of this nonsense) so I made a Python program that spit out the code I needed.

The company that makes it also has a generator they use when they're contracted to make more code in their awful language. It's bad, the code has to be manually cleaned up and sometimes is delivered broken. Then they get the money on the support contract to fix their problems. (It's not their only product/service, but it's key to many of their services, a way of hooking customers.)

Their generator did not using the looping constructs, and several of their "senior" engineers actively discouraged it because "You can't be sure a loop will do what you want it to do." (Wish that weren't an actual quote.)

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

#108
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.

It's mostly a question of finding organizations that recognize and value that sort of contribution. It also helps if you track who you work with and what you help out on every day, so when review time comes along you can list not only your 'regular job' wins, but all the wins you helped teammates get.

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

#109
post #60
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah that to the Ai doomers who are making six figures off of it

The argument there is that waiting for "it" to happen would be way too late. Especially if "it" is a billion people are dead and the rest of the people don't have much time.

[deleted]

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

#110
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.

That's not true, your value is clear just subtle.

If your solutions tend to be more stable from the get-go, it will get noticed at most places. There are always going to be that odd company where that's not true, but in my experience, simply doing higher quality work gets appreciated.

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