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Red Light Green Light

jamessevedge.com

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Re: Red Light Green Light

#151

Post by Buttons840 »

jyrkesh wrote: post #105
Buttons840 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish it was a common practice to ban certain words from difficult conversations. But whenever I suggest it people just talk past me as though I've said some weird thing. There's facts and opinions, but also definitions, and too often disagreements boil down to a different definition of a single word. Ban that word and say what you mean and the disagreement may suddenly be gone. Edit: I wrote this before reading the…

I didn't know this was a thing that had a term either! I don't talk politics anymore except with folks that I explicitly know want to talk politics, but I frequently suggest that people shouldn't use a whole litany of terms in those discussions: right/left-wing, capitalist, socialist, liberal, conservative, communist, libertarian, fascist...so many people use these terms as short-hand for "stuff I really/don't like",…

I didn't want to mention politics, but "Critical Race Theory" is a prime example and should really be tabooed as a temporary exercise to aid understanding. So many discussions about it without people having a consistent understanding of what it means. I think they've even written laws regarding it without defining what it means. But, sadly, politics is rarely about understanding each other or reaching consensus.

Re: Red Light Green Light

#152

Post by emmelaich »

I immediately guessed why, but for a slightly different reason.

Some people when driving (e.g. me) have an unfortunate habit of looking at the other lights, to anticipate the green.

I thought perhaps that the kid was watching the parent's head direction. In fact I suspect that this is the real answer. Lights aren't typically that hard to see ahead, even from the back seat.

Re: Red Light Green Light

#153

Post by cloverich »

QuadrupleA wrote: post #87

Sorry to be a curmudgeon, it's a poetic little story - but isn't the takeaway a little banal? "Different people have different perspectives." Well sure. "Consider things from others' viewpoints." Of course. I don't know, it rings a little of management-ese, or something overpaid consultants might present in the boardroom that gets everybody nodding their head and feeling like they've received great wisdom, but is a l…

I think its pretty common, especially when building software for other people, to make all manner of invalid assumptions. This is a nice, succint story to demonstrate how easily things can get over our heads. To ground it a bit -- if people aren't buying your product, or aren't using your feature the way you expected, you try to understand them. But if they or the world don't make sense, you might need to more literally get into their shoes to figure out why. How often on HN do we see people complaining that what someone does makes no sense. Whether another political party, upper management, non technical people, etc. Its actually the main thing that drives me away from HN at times, because those comments never go anywhere substantive.

Re: Red Light Green Light

#154

Post by supportlocal4h »

ehnto wrote: post #77
troupe wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> first being specific about what we agree upon. Or even just trying to define the goal you are trying to accomplish. I've seen many disagreements on software projects because people's definition are completely different. The arguments are just a symptom of a deeper problem that no amount of careful discussions are going to fix.

It is very valuable to be able to spot differences in definitions, so you can address them before moving on. If you feel like you are talking past eachother, that might be the issue causing it.

I have been accused of being dim for not understanding a common word. Or alternatively of intentionally playing dumb.

Then I layout out six reasonable definitions for the word that could fit this context. Then I am accused of making other people feel dumb. Unless it's my wife, who simply claims, "You know what I meant." :)

Re: Red Light Green Light

#155

Post by supportlocal4h »

beaker52 wrote: post #135
aeternum wrote: post #15

Similar things happen surprisingly often in companies. Many intense arguments can be diffused by first being specific about what we agree upon. Just to add to this, one strategy from the rationalist community that I rarely see practiced is to 'taboo' certain words. For example if two engineers are arguing about a solution not being scalable, taboo the word scalable. They both re-explain their POV without using the wo…

I've often remarked at how common it is to hear two people talking about completely different things using the same words, thinking they're both understanding each other. Communication could be something that we think we're better at than maybe we actually are.

That's why type systems are important in languages.

Re: Red Light Green Light

#156

Post by supportlocal4h »

aeternum wrote: post #15

Similar things happen surprisingly often in companies. Many intense arguments can be diffused by first being specific about what we agree upon. Just to add to this, one strategy from the rationalist community that I rarely see practiced is to 'taboo' certain words. For example if two engineers are arguing about a solution not being scalable, taboo the word scalable. They both re-explain their POV without using the wo…

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Re: Red Light Green Light

#157

Post by coryfklein »

QuadrupleA wrote: post #87

Sorry to be a curmudgeon, it's a poetic little story - but isn't the takeaway a little banal? "Different people have different perspectives." Well sure. "Consider things from others' viewpoints." Of course. I don't know, it rings a little of management-ese, or something overpaid consultants might present in the boardroom that gets everybody nodding their head and feeling like they've received great wisdom, but is a l…

Yes, but that's not how we _learn_. You can read all the succinct bullet points of advice you want, but seeing a lesson explained through the eyes of an engaging story is a strictly better way of _ingesting_ said lesson and makes you more capable of actually pattern matching situations where it is appropriate.

"Consider things from others' viewpoints" is a summary of the lesson, but you could have told that to the mother in the story all day long and she wouldn't have grokked how to apply it to her situation, or even that she would benefit by doing so!

Re: Red Light Green Light

#158

Post by kqr »

KronisLV wrote: post #128
kqr wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use the "taboo" terminology, but I frequently ask people to operationalise their definitions in arguments. ("What specific steps would I go through to test whether the system is scalable or not?") The first time I ask, people ignore it and/or don't understand it. The second time I ask, people get uncomfortable because generally they haven't thought about what they mean to that level of detail, and they try to…

> The first time I ask, people ignore it and/or don't understand it. What if this also happens the second, third and Nth time you try? > The second time I ask, people get uncomfortable because generally they haven't thought about what they mean to that level of detail, and they try to weasel out of it. Or maybe people decide to stay here, believing their subjective views to be good enough answer for such a question.…

This is where it has paid for me to practise interpersona skills. Once I'm outside of the common situations every situation is unique and I have no general advice.

Re: Red Light Green Light

#159

Post by eloff »

nefitty wrote: post #150
zestyping wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Applause! I hate the word "performance" and its evil spawn, "performant". Do you mean speed? Efficiency? Accuracy? Say what you mean.

This is my excuse for why I have no idea what "performance optimization" entails or means. Now to convince interviewers..

In a context of an interview it means how performance of an algorithm scales with respect to the input length. This is measured in Big O notation. Understanding that is seldom very helpful on the job, but it's very important for interviews, so make sure you learn it.
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