161–170 of 183 posts
A year or two ago I was writing some training material on how to keep your software solutions as simple as possible. (In my mind this is the most critical skill in software development that nobody seems to actually teach) I decided to use project management as an example. It's a known field, it's something most everybody can relate to, it looks like something a lot of coders kick around, and it's commonly way, way ov…
I find it quite interesting but I am definitely guilty of it. Planning some new idea makes me feel a short-lived sense of achievement that I am using my brain but then I realise my Onedrive is full of things that would be great that I never finished (or even started properly in some cases).
I guess one problem is that the tools, processes and online stimulation/information, makes us think that we can be productive without hard work, long hours and risk-taking. Even the highest achievers (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, whoever) didn't get there by tools, processes and planning. They took hard decisions and made mistakes.
The real question is which of our dreams or ideas is worth sacrificing our spare time to pursue? Which would make the world better? Which others would be better consigned to the bin of "some-else could probably do this better than me" or "If I did this, would I even care on my death bed?"
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From my perspective, some of what middle managers do is helpful, much of what they do could just was well not be done. My point being that these tools create work from top to bottom. There's information to fill out, statuses to be updated, progress to be tracked, reports to be generated, etc. etc. etc. which all fall on to a spectrum of "things which have utility" and "things which are busywork" often heavily favorin…
I wonder if HN’s demographics contributes to a general disdain for middle management because, from my non-software engineering point of view, software doesn’t need a lot of management to produce. Hardware on the other hand, needs an organization layer on top of the production layer. Removing barriers, creating traceability, improving processes, and trying to get multiple different teams to work together efficiently.
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I absolutely desire to support it, but just being realistic it is at least 1-2 years off, pending our overall success as a company. The market just isn’t big enough to justify the R&D expense at this stage. Sorry :(
Why not? It’s your company. If you think it would be a cool thing to build, and something you desire to support, then build it.
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Someone like me! I’ve been doing the exact same thing for about a year now. My quality of work is up, and so is my salary. I have more time for family and hobbies. Whenever I’m stuck on a problem and my four hours are up, I right down my thoughts and the next morning I find the solution quickly. Either you and I are special, hyperproductive but easily exhausted workers, or everyone else is just pretending to work twi…
It think it's a combination? No way anyone is working productively for 8 hours. It's not just possible in the long term.
I am happy I work for a company that doesn't distract me too much as distractions cause me to lose focus. Every Monday we discuss deliverables and bugs issues with last deliverable. I add new features and fixes in the coming days and Thursday evening or Friday morning I send out a new release for testing. Apart from this there isn't too much communication, this approach allows me to focus on my work most of the time.
My daughter has been home for the last month or so, since schools have closed due to COVID. To stay productive, I only work in the night once my daughter is in bed. This way I have no distractions. I sleep in the morning while my girlfriend takes care of our daughter. In the afternoon I wake up and spend plenty of time with our daughter.
As a freelancer I only bill the hours that I feel I really delivered work. Because of this mindset and because I want to make a decent amount of money, I can't afford to slack too much. An hour of slacking is an hour I not bill to my client. I think some freelancers are probably more liberal in what hours they invoice, e.g. always invoice 8 hours every workday regardless if they really worked 8 hours or been slacking half a day. I think most clients wouldn't be able to tell the difference regardless.
The more project management tools I have to work with, the less likely I am to work for or with a company. I have a somewhat similar stance on software architecture. Sure, I’m TOGAF certified but if you actually expect me to work with notation correct Archimare/UML/whatever and not just draw boxes on a napkin you’re either insane or sell a product with no competition. This is anecdotal of course, but after 30 years o…
I see it as a similar problem as we (humans) have with all systems: we mistake the system for the actual solution. It's not. You need to focus on the real problem at hand, and devise/adapt a correct solution in context. Systems and frameworks provide helpful tools and templates, but they all require contextual adaptation. FWIW this is what I like about the foundations of Agile for project management. The manifesto po…
While reading, “Wow, a thoughtful piece on to do list software,” after finishing and noticing the byline, “Oh! Clive Thompson! That dude always makes sense.”
A year or two ago I was writing some training material on how to keep your software solutions as simple as possible. (In my mind this is the most critical skill in software development that nobody seems to actually teach) I decided to use project management as an example. It's a known field, it's something most everybody can relate to, it looks like something a lot of coders kick around, and it's commonly way, way ov…
Did you write more about it here or elsewhere?
As for this particular exercise from the book, I think I did a video on YT. It probably isn't around, though. As a tech coach, I've had programming, management, and consulting experience in this kind of work from solo developer up to 150-person programs. So there's a lot to cover in a stand-alone piece, at least three in-depth topics. (For instance, I'm willing to bet a lot of other consultants with similar experience would say this result wasn't possible. This is what made the exercise so worthwhile; our intuition about the complexity required and the actual complexity involved in solving problems is commonly off by at least a couple orders of magnitude.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see it as a similar problem as we (humans) have with all systems: we mistake the system for the actual solution. It's not. You need to focus on the real problem at hand, and devise/adapt a correct solution in context. Systems and frameworks provide helpful tools and templates, but they all require contextual adaptation. FWIW this is what I like about the foundations of Agile for project management. The manifesto po…
It's like a finger pointing at the moon
The more project management tools I have to work with, the less likely I am to work for or with a company. I have a somewhat similar stance on software architecture. Sure, I’m TOGAF certified but if you actually expect me to work with notation correct Archimare/UML/whatever and not just draw boxes on a napkin you’re either insane or sell a product with no competition. This is anecdotal of course, but after 30 years o…
There's a high correlation for me between bad managers and managers that think they can get you to use a tracking tool that provides zero benefit to yourself and gets used to do their job for them and also occasionally to pick favorites, lay people off, or deny raises/promotions. You're dealing with smart creatives, nobody is volunteering for that shitshow.
You got a tool that helps me keep track of my day or be prepared for meetings? Maybe. But if I have to stop what I'm doing to use it, then no fucking way.