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It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

edweissman.com

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Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if your workplace environment really doesn't permit that, move on. Doing just that :) It's basically a startup with 10 of us where I am the only in house developer. I've tried many things like asking folks to Skype me instead of walking over to my desk or calling my name. I've gone to great lengths to get em to understand why skyping to get my attention is different than other ways. None of these guidelines reall…

On this subject: Whenever someone chats me in the following manner, I want to kill them. Straight up. Just fucking take an ice pick and jab it right through their skull: Other Dude: Hi. Me: Hello A minute elapses Other Dude: I'm having a problem Me: How can I help A minute elapses Other Dude: ACTUAL PROBLEM THAT THEY NEEDED HELP WITH Me: Oh, here is your resolution which took all of 15 seconds to give to you. WHAT TH…

I'm really bad on IRC with this kind of thing. Need to get to the point faster. Thanks for pointing that out.

Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#163
"Also, dude: learn to say no." This is horrifyingly bad advice, and in fact I doubt it even acknowledges the problem. It takes time to say "no". Are you telling us to learn "the path of least resistance" in saying "no"? Is this legitimate advice?

At a previous development gig, I would have to learn how to say "no" to at least 5 different types of people. And quite honestly, and candidly, I think this advice is absolute bullshit. I genuinely believe it wholesale ignores all the junk-news that's bubbled up around Zuckerberg's attire at meetings, the joke about Ohanian's suit on Bloomberg TV, etc., the culture of corporatism. If you say "no" enough, you end up like Zuckerberg: An Emperor with no Suit. (Or to put it less abstrusely: "This guy won't play ball.") And if you say it with the force and cavalier quality I think you're thinking: you get fired.

This advice prompts me as if a manager, if it's taken without the gusto of the frustration we're all feeling. And I don't want to be a manager.

Let me put it this way. Are you saying there's a verbal silverbullet that shoots down CEOs, Team Leads, Content Authors, Co-Developers, Designers, IAs, Managers, Testers, Team Members, etc.?

I suppose many others have already said this: _easier said than done_.

Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#165
post #93

I seriously don't see the problem. The author seems to be assuming that taking 6 days to have a change made is objectively bad. Does the company run? Does it make money? Do the systems work and stuff? Well, if whatever you're doing now to keep the systems working and the company running and making money obviously works so I'd say it's objectively good. The experience may feel bad subjectively but how you feel is of t…

I don't see the problem either.

The article is extremely self-centred, and doesn't deconstruct why this is bad for their business.

The programmer's job is to help the business achieve its ends. If she feels stymied by process she needs to discuss it with the business. If she's criticised for taking too long she needs to lay out where the time went.

Imagine if lawyers wrote articles about how it took months to convict someone that's obviously guilty?

Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if your workplace environment really doesn't permit that, move on. Doing just that :) It's basically a startup with 10 of us where I am the only in house developer. I've tried many things like asking folks to Skype me instead of walking over to my desk or calling my name. I've gone to great lengths to get em to understand why skyping to get my attention is different than other ways. None of these guidelines reall…

On this subject: Whenever someone chats me in the following manner, I want to kill them. Straight up. Just fucking take an ice pick and jab it right through their skull: Other Dude: Hi. Me: Hello A minute elapses Other Dude: I'm having a problem Me: How can I help A minute elapses Other Dude: ACTUAL PROBLEM THAT THEY NEEDED HELP WITH Me: Oh, here is your resolution which took all of 15 seconds to give to you. WHAT TH…

> On this subject: Whenever someone chats me in the following manner, I want to kill them.

Then refuse this, set your status to "don't bug me, if you have a question just bloody ask it" and check your IM when you've got a lull[0]. If it's not a question, kill the window it's not relevant. I don't need "social interaction" on IM when I'm coding, if the other guy can't get to the point screw him, I'm not interested.

[0] If IM is specifically a way to get you immediately, start blacklisting people who can't get to the point and waste your time and have they go through email.

Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#167

This shit happens at my job and leaves me feeling depressed and at times questioning my own skills because I know and my bosses know that on my part, I just had to make a tiny, tiny change. But when you have a dozen such experiences, I feel like something is wrong with me because when the dust settles, this was a one line code change that took me a week to push to production. It also makes my bosses question my estim…

One backlog for new requirements, another backlog for incidents. Track your time working on the different backlogs (or even per-tasks) and pretty soon you will have some numbers to show the boss why new stuff isn't happening snap-snap.

Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#168
Ditto for most of the IT services companies in Bangalore. Oh just add "Project Manager X chasing the required parties" between every line in that article and perhaps add another 3-4 day delay as most of the teams don't work in the same time zone.

Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#169
This happens at my job too and I want to kill myself when it does. I get so frustrated. All these work protocols and slow useless software that prevents me from being effective at work.

I usually find a way to make things work by going outside the protocols and just fixing the problems. Its not the problem that is hard, its the stupid damn protocols and official ways of doing things that makes it very hard to get something done.

Decisions being made by idiots who have no clue how to allow people to work in a efficient manner, or how much money they lose by people sitting around doing nothing, waiting for some useless step in a useless process.

Seriously, I can feel the rage coming just thinking about it while writing this! What the fuck happened to this industry...

Re: It Takes 6 Days to Change 1 Line of Code

#170
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of passive aggressiveness will make your coworkers hate you and could get you fired because they know you don't have to do that.

Apparently that passive aggressiveness already exists in his work place thanks to his bosses and co-workers... but some how you all fault him and say he can't share that same love?

I was thinking more about other situations. I thought the salesman was isolated to an office because he has to talk on the phone, constantly, to customers and it was interrupting the developers. I've heard similar situations with startups and their CEOs. If I did that in my open space office, my coworkers would just get irritated and eventually I'll be talked about it by my manager.
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