31–40 of 98 posts
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> Biggest personality wins. I'd argue that a "big enough" personality (thinking of some past cow-orkers here) cause disruption and difficulty no matter what the situation. Right now we're hiring people with personality type as the foremost criteria. One difficult person is really too many for a small team.
Biggest charismatic personality still wins. You're optimizing too much for extroverts.
I could imagine this working with four or five people, and I'd be worth the experiment, but I don't think I'd want to do it all the time.
Here's the deal, some 70%+ of developers are introverts. Mobbing can be great for fixing a bug or mentoring more than one person at a time but mobbing is not how you should expect your devs to work all day every day. This is probably not lost on fellow HN'ers but OMG the cargo culting amongst managers. Do not let them see this article.
Lastly, watch this time lapse video of a team mobbing and pay attention to the body language. Who is plugged in, who is checked out, who is talking the most? I think this says it all. https://youtu.be/p_pvslS4gEI
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> If it's an ego fight, you've lost no matter how you code. Better to get it out in the open and deal with it. (And perhaps let the person go) I know what you mean, but "you've lost" is a bit too final for me. Obviously ideally you would never have these people, but in reality you may do, and as that's not the only quality you're judging them on letting them go might be a little harsh. What I'm talking about is the i…
I exaggerated to make a point. Of course you'd work with folks. Apologies for the hyperbole. You have a good point, but consider this: the team is in the hook for whatever the code is anyway, whether there are disagreements or not. So the real question is whether or not you surface those disagreements (or bury them, in your example), or simply don't address them at all. I'm thinking you surface them, even if the herd…
I think it's a cool idea. I'd still worry about people taking over, coasting, checking out or otherwise not getting to express themselves, but realistically that's a constant concern anyway, regardless of whichever development structure you take.
But I'd try it. I'd be exhausted, frustrated and very much in need of a drink after the first day, but that says more about me than it does the approach :-)
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I exaggerated to make a point. Of course you'd work with folks. Apologies for the hyperbole. You have a good point, but consider this: the team is in the hook for whatever the code is anyway, whether there are disagreements or not. So the real question is whether or not you surface those disagreements (or bury them, in your example), or simply don't address them at all. I'm thinking you surface them, even if the herd…
Hey no worries, your perspective (as a breathing human who's actually done this before, whereas I'm very much being a couch referee or whatever that phrase is) is really interesting. I think it's a cool idea. I'd still worry about people taking over, coasting, checking out or otherwise not getting to express themselves, but realistically that's a constant concern anyway, regardless of whichever development structure…
Beats me. But I really want to try :)
I'm an agile coach and my clients won't stop talking about this. Here's the deal, some 70%+ of developers are introverts. Mobbing can be great for fixing a bug or mentoring more than one person at a time but mobbing is not how you should expect your devs to work all day every day. This is probably not lost on fellow HN'ers but OMG the cargo culting amongst managers. Do not let them see this article. Lastly, watch thi…
This is an introvert's nightmare. I feel like going to a room and turning off all the lights just reading about this. I'm glad it seems to be working for them, and I'd be willing to give this a try for a week, but I'm not even sure if I'd wait 'til I had a job lined up before giving my two week notice. If I have to spend eight+ hours a day doing nothing but talking to people, I'm going to have no energy left for anyt…
I switched to working remote full-time just because of people who wanted to talk with me all the time in the office.
Upvoting because it's a fascinating idea. I find it weird they didn't really point out any down-sides, possibly because it's a corporate blog and marketing wouldn't let them. Off the top of my head though, I'd be worried about: - No time to think. I find I solve solutions by thinking about them, and I can imagine mob rule would lend itself to less thinking and more doing (fastest solution that sounds half-right gets…
People say mob programming is great for keeping programmers on task, but just as frequently the reverse is true.
I've done a lot of accidental mob programing recently, and frequently, someone wants to take a break and show you this awesome video, they get enough support that lead typist goes to check it out, and suddenly you don't have just one off task programmer, mindlessly browsing YouTube, you have 5!
Until someone works up the courage to party-poop and demands that the team get back on task.