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Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#291

Post by brightball »

ulchar wrote: post #274
brightball wrote: post #228

I once worked for a VP who needed to sunset an old internal tool that people were unwilling to part with, so he asked me to make it suck intentionally. Added random sleeps to slow down performance. Random alert messages about fake errors. It was weird. EDIT: Since this is getting some votes I'll add some more details. He would also come by to tell me how happy he was about all the complaints he was getting about it.

this one's crazy lol. frankly it sounds kind of fun, but i'm sure it was not in reality.

It was actually pretty entertaining. This was almost 20 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#292

Post by lozenge »

ragnese wrote: post #118
windowshopping wrote: post #90

I built the best site out there for playing magic the gathering online. It's way better than any other available option. I've never shared it with the magic community because I think wizards of the coast would just send me a cease and desist, so three years of work is just sitting idle. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

Off topic, but I recently looked in to playing MtG again because my son expressed interest. But, I was a bit taken aback by how different the environment is. I last played when they still had numbered "base sets", e.g., "9th Edition", and then rotating "blocks" of three smaller-but-more-advanced sets. I was assuming I would go in and buy a couple of starter decks from the most recent numbered "edition" to start teach…

You could also consider games which have the mechanics of MtG without being collectible, such as Epic. It still has plenty of depth.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#293

Post by tomdell »

I spent the past two and a half years building prototype features for a large internal application. One month ago, the CFO decided that as a part of organizational restructuring, the company will no longer invest in the application. New development on it is ending, and the entire application may potentially be deprecated at some point in the future in favor of cheap dashboards.

I am being moved to the team that builds the cheap dashboards (I'm not happy about it). Among all the prototype work I did, only one significant project has made it into production - the others were continually iterated on for a couple of years, and though some of them have a highly engaged and appreciative beta userbase within the company, I am not allowed to do much more development on them, and they will be taken out of my hands at some point and passed off to other teams.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#294

Post by WideCharr »

clbrmbr wrote: post #141

After the first lecture of my first programming course in college, I went to the Professor Tewksbury and started to tell him about a simulator I was writing to help other students check their work. He holds up his hand to stop me speaking, says “you have an A. Don’t come to class anymore.” So, I never went to class or did any of the assigned work, instead working on the simulator in my dormroom. At the end of the ter…

Was this at Stevens Tech? I had a Prof Tewksbury there that would have done something just like this.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#295

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

secondcoming wrote: post #209
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #47

I worked for a company that used to resell a single-board computer used for control applications. The vendor was getting antsy because we were always late paying our bills. Our company owner didn't like their complaints, so I was told to design one that was "better than theirs." That's it. That was the entire spec. OK, I was also told that customer X would like a board that they can program in C (current board had a…

> That was the entire spec To be fair, that's how most ideas start off. Your boss gave to free reign over a new project. You should have been happier than you seemed.

Oh, I loved the project. I was acutely aware that it was a complete waste of money, but I knew that I worked for idiots and I rode that train all the way until it finally derailed.

I just wish that I was able to get all the stuff out of there that they promised me before the Sheriff locked the doors!

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#296

Post by datadrivenangel »

majikandy wrote: post #279
exccenture wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work at Accenture back when they paid workers overtime. As engagement managers got into overage (underestimated projects, often fixed fee), they would put pressure on their workers to work overtime but not log the hours. Two law firms were already reaching out to workers ~2002 trying to form a class for a class action lawsuit. My boss came by one Friday morning and informed me i'd be onsite working all week…

I feel there is something missing in this story… what was implied by your email about cancelling your flight home the agreement to only log 40 hours? Sounds like you were just saying “affirmative”… what is the stunt he thinks you were pulling? And what is the second email about which you mention gmail and taking him off. It was a great story until that point and I want to know what happened next, I feel I’m missing s…

The stunt is creating a paper trail.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#297

Post by datavirtue »

williamcotton wrote: post #257
shaftway wrote: post #117

Any time you feel useless, remember that it's someone's job to install turn signals into BMWs.

Have you see the new animated turn signals on luxury cars? I've noticed that people actually use them!

Yes, I always wonder WTF is going on and after it's too late to be of any use it registers and I'm reminded of all the stuff I'm reading about in this thread.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most useless project you have worked on?

#298

Post by datavirtue »

dgfitz wrote: post #217
shaftway wrote: post #117

Any time you feel useless, remember that it's someone's job to install turn signals into BMWs.

Someone once told me "as a current BMW driver, the whole 'BMW drivers don't use signals' is complete bullshit, I didn't use them before I drove one!" So I wonder if someone not using turn signals in a non-BMW is a leading indicator that they may buy one in the future. Shower thoughts.

You nailed it.
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