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Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

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Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#371

Post by LaundroMat »

blurbleblurble wrote: post #73

> Companies find it incredibly hard to reliably staff positions with hard-working generalists who operate autonomously and have high risk tolerances. This is not the modal employee, including at places which are justifiably proud of the skill/diligence/etc of their employees. This one. Every job I see when I go looking is 40+ hrs a week, likely with plenty of idle time and projects I don't believe in. Part of this is…

One of Marx' theories was that people are estranged from their labour by making it a purely economic entity. To me that's exactly the reason behind the reactions in this thread (and also why I feel the same).

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#372

Post by perl4ever »

md224 wrote: post #104

> Charge more. Charge more still. Go on. This might sound stupid, and maybe it's my inner hippie talking, but did this make anyone else slightly uncomfortable? I get that it's "good business", but something feels kinda gross about saying "extract as much money from other people as you possibly can." Like... shouldn't you just charge whatever you think something (a product, your time) is worth? I realize that "what so…

Sometimes charging more is a signal that you're serious and will increase demand, contrary to elementary ideas about demand curves.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#373

Post by rayalez »

claudiulodro wrote: post #75

> The chief products of the tech industry are (in B2C) developing new habits among consumers This was a profound revelation I didn't realize until I read it just now. Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. have all done so well by starting a habit for their users. ("Check Facebook daily to see what your friends are up to." "Google it whenever you need info." "Buy your stuff conveniently on Amazon when you don't want to go to…

I've just finished reading "Hooked:How to build habit-forming products", a very good book that explores this subject in a lot of detail.

If you're interested in learning more about this stuff, I highly recommend reading it.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#374

Post by Joof »

Danihan wrote: post #85
toasterlovin wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Higher education is used as a proxy for intelligence by companies who are hiring because they are not allowed to use IQ tests. So I think it kind of makes sense that our society is confused about the purpose of higher education.

For fuck's sake, cut out the middle man and just request SAT / ACT scores.

I did well, but I also took it with a severe migraine. Can I take it again now?

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#375

Post by ZenoArrow »

r00fus wrote: post #206
eponeponepon wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think lots of industries are ripe > for "habit-ifying", and I'm going > to pursue that further. Brilliant > insight. This is, of course, the same insight that the gambling and tobacco industries and cults thrive on. Not talking you down - just reminding you never to forget the moral angle.

Is it a moral issue if the habit a starts a virtuous cycle? Like my Apple Watch making me exercise more?

Yes, it can still be a moral issue (I'd prefer to use 'quality of life' rather than moral, as the term moral implies a certain level of judgement of the choices of others, and I'd rather be focused on making those judgements over my own choices).

Use of technology can both help and hinder us. On the negative side, we can become dependent on it, and that dependency does not always enhance our lives. Even in the case of your Apple Watch making you exercise more, used in moderation you can get the benefits without too many downsides, but it can also become a device that distracts you from the world around you, disconnecting you from experiences that you could get by being more fully in the moment. To be clear, this isn't an issue solely limited to use of technology, but the more devices we have and use the more easily distracted we become.

The ideal for companies is to have all our life's needs and wants fulfilled by companies. If they can do so by suggesting there's a hole you need to fill by buying their products, and you become unhappy if you don't have it, is this a healthy trend? What if you were generally happy before this marketing campaign started?

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#376

Post by watwut »

repler wrote: post #311
ysleepy wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could someone elaborate what specifically is meant with having high risk tolerances?

I wouldn't dream of speaking for Patrick but I believe it's something along the lines of: unreasonable deadlines, non-existent documentation for existing systems, non-existent QA processes, unavailable/non-existent support staff, undocumented/unclear requirements, etc.

It sounds like the person that tolerates bad management well, wont try to change things so that they are better managed and simultaneously is autonomous enough to manage own responsibilities well. I see how last one is a bit in contradiction against first two. Such people exists, but are indeed rare and hard to recognize.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#377

Post by seppin »

Kluny wrote: post #363

> Charge more. Charge more still. Go on. I find this advice unhelpful. In the past, when I was making $23/hour as a web developer, people would occasionally ask to hire me for freelance work. I've given various answers, from $30 to $100, and haven't had any takers yet. The only freelance work I've actually done so far was when I said, "what do you think it's worth?" and my friend said, "I dunno, 60?" It was for about…

your company markets, has sales people, and manages every part of the transaction from signing the contract to developing the code. I don't know if all that is 77/hour, but it might be.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#378

Post by ZenoArrow »

eropple wrote: post #370
ZenoArrow wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I'm a competent, high performing generalist who can work autonomously and self-sufficiently with enough confidence in my capabilities to have a high risk tolerance. In my current company I got tossed around from starting under a marketing manager, to getting shifted under the CTO after stepping on IT's toes too often, to getting pushed into a newly formed Operations group, to finally just reporting directly to the…

I've said this in a sibling thread, but most shops I've seen that doesn't have This Guy are worse-run, less friendly, and higher business-risk shops. (Which isn't to say that counterexamples don't exist, but I can't think of a good one in my experience. The best companies institutionalize the role.)

Part of the reason my job needs to exist is to address lack of adequate staffing levels and dysfunctional inter-departmental practices. I would say the company I work for is transitioning between one that is haphazardly run to one that is more professional, but that transition doesn't happen overnight, and you need people to pick up the slack during that transition.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#379

Post by ZenoArrow »

neetle wrote: post #353
ZenoArrow wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I'm a competent, high performing generalist who can work autonomously and self-sufficiently with enough confidence in my capabilities to have a high risk tolerance. In my current company I got tossed around from starting under a marketing manager, to getting shifted under the CTO after stepping on IT's toes too often, to getting pushed into a newly formed Operations group, to finally just reporting directly to the…

How did you get into a role like that? Sounds like something that would be fun.

It is fun. As for how I got into it, I got hired for a different role (test engineer), proved myself in this role but also took on extra responsibilities outside my remit (I should note that I also had worked in various different technical roles in previous jobs). An opportunity came up to be a founding member of a new Business Analyst team and I took it, but because of the structure of the company I'm in I didn't leave the IT Development team fully, so now I sit somewhere between them. In the space of a week I can be doing data analysis, business analysis, software testing, software development and user training. The hours are long, but I'm seeing improvements in the business culture gradually coming in as a result of this work, which is satisfying.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#380

Post by jstanley »

OrwellianChild wrote: post #235
jstanley wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one had no idea this was not a blog post.

Can we change the link to this: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/936615043126370306 (so folks understand this is a tweetstorm and not a post?)

I actually think this interface is a better way to read a tweetstorm, it could just do with prefixing the title with "A tweetstorm by patio11" to remove the confusion.
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