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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]

#241

Post by red-iron-pine »

markus_zhang wrote: post #182

The title reminds me of an interesting ancient Chinese anecdote. And it is also a bit ironic that Toyota has gotten itself into some scandals recently ( https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wwj1p2wdyo ). King Wen of Wei asked Bian Que: “Of you three brothers, all physicians, who is the finest in the healing art?” Bian Que replied: “My eldest brother is the finest; my second brother comes next; I, Bian Que, am the leas…

> And it is also a bit ironic that Toyota has gotten itself into some scandals recently (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wwj1p2wdyo).

the article is from June 2024. this is "recently"?

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

#242

Post by projektfu »

harimau777 wrote: post #207

I had this problem at a previous job. I spent almost all of my time taking care of the behind the scenes administrative work (scheduling meetings, making sure that people had the information they needed to come into the meetings prepared, etc.). However, when performance review came around I was told that the only thing that they cared about was that I hadn't completed many story points because I was too busy keeping…

Like what would have happened to the 4077th MASH if Radar O'Reilly had been reassigned.

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

#243

Post by projektfu »

thx67 wrote: post #217
m463 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think of electric vehicle fires and jet airliner crashes. Also, telsa self-driving. yes, we know about the greatly publicized accidents, or the tweets of the founder, but the avoided incidents not so much.

This is where the industry made and continues to make mistakes wrt autonomous driving. They should be able to quantitatively say how many crashes were reduced, avoided and spotted. The autonomous safety system should be running all the time and it should detect not only issues with primary vehicle but it should also catalog issues it sees in other vehicles in its vicinity. We shouldn't have gotten AD before we got au…

My car (Honda Prologue) is a little bit of a nervous Nellie, warning me to brake when someone is turning out of my lane, but it has definitely noticed developing situations many times before I have.

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

#244

Post by mmsimanga »

akudha wrote: post #178
keyle wrote: post #17

I've been in those companies where "struggling departments" ended up getting all the praises and raise in budgets the following quarter because of the heroic saves they did, and raising awareness on how important they are... For stuff they totally caused on themselves. Meanwhile, my perfectly purring department was struggling to keep the lights on. It's a serious problem in this industry due to the disconnect between…

Isn’t this a universal problem though, not just software industry? Even at home, if one kid just does his thing quietly but another kid is difficult, what do we say? “John has his problems but he is trying, we gotta encourage him”. While his brother gets no praise or attention for just doing his thing quietly without fuss. When things run smoothly, very few people notice. When things break, everyone notices

As a middle child this rings true for me.

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

#245

Post by jimnotgym »

ashirviskas wrote: post #201
tom2026hn wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

How many euros or kilograms is it?

I would say in nice round numbers 50 grams prevention for a kilo of cure. That is my only criticism of the metric system, it doesn't often coincide with quantities handy for every day use, so makes poor 'sayings'.

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

#246

Post by nilamo »

dchevell wrote: post #73
keyle wrote: post #17

I've been in those companies where "struggling departments" ended up getting all the praises and raise in budgets the following quarter because of the heroic saves they did, and raising awareness on how important they are... For stuff they totally caused on themselves. Meanwhile, my perfectly purring department was struggling to keep the lights on. It's a serious problem in this industry due to the disconnect between…

By building pain into the system. If your hands dealt with injury directly without sending pain signals up to your brain, you'd never change the behaviour that led to that harm or reconsider your priorities. Like it or not, sometimes the best thing for an organisation isn't to just fix every problem and prevent it from bubbling up; it needs to be treated like a learning opportunity for org leadership, which means sen…

"You knew there was a problem, and didn't fix it? You're here because I don't know programming. Fired."

I think we've worked with very different kinds of people...

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

#247

Post by qurren »

Sharlin wrote: post #163
qurren wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> start is tracking all the proactive things being done and reporting them Speaking from experience, this does nothing. If you're at a company that is okay with average performers, then absolutely, 100%, fix all the bugs in advance, make the system rock solid and stable, prevent downtime, be a good engineer. If on the other hand if you're at a company where 10% of people must get stack ranked and PIP, or at a company…

> They set the rules of the game, you just play the game. Obviously the only winning move here is not to play. Things like stack ranking are a perversion and no amount of compensation would be worth working for a company like that. If you choose to play, you're complicit in the moral abomination.

It's not always a choice when the system increases costs of living to a point where you need to enter a toxic company in order to literally exist, and interview acceptance rates are abysmally low.

If I had enough money that employment is optional, then yeah, I can make that choice, but until then, I'm not complicit.

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

#249

Post by nullhole »

teddyh wrote: post #220
nullhole wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The passage that comes to mind for me whenever this idea comes up, from the Brett version of the Holmes story "The Dancing Men": H: So, Watson. W: Hmm. H: You do not propose to invest in South African securities? W: How on earth do you know that? H: Now, confess, you are utterly taken aback. W: I am! H: I should make you sign a paper to that effect. W: Why? H: Because in a few minutes you will say it is all so absurd…

Why on earth would you quote a TV version of a book, when the book is readily available to be cited? ⁂ “So, Watson,” said he, suddenly, “you do not propose to invest in South African securities?” I gave a start of astonishment. Accustomed as I was to Holmes's curious faculties, this sudden intrusion into my most intimate thoughts was utterly inexplicable. “How on earth do you know that?” I asked. He wheeled round upo…

Why on earth? Because I love that TV series, and the passage from that TV series is what comes to mind for me.

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

#250

Post by sirlaser »

markus_zhang wrote: post #182

The title reminds me of an interesting ancient Chinese anecdote. And it is also a bit ironic that Toyota has gotten itself into some scandals recently ( https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wwj1p2wdyo ). King Wen of Wei asked Bian Que: “Of you three brothers, all physicians, who is the finest in the healing art?” Bian Que replied: “My eldest brother is the finest; my second brother comes next; I, Bian Que, am the leas…

"My eldest brother prevents bugs from appearing before they ever arise, so his skills are only known to the dev team he's on.

"My second brother casually fixes bugs as soon as they appear, so his skills are known to the entire tech department.

"As for me, I rush around everyday putting out fires everywhere, so everyone in the company knows of me."

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