The opposite. Department heads get fired for allowing blow-ups in their area, that should have been avoided. "Getting credit" means keeping the job managing the department via preventing problems.
Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
41–50 of 446 posts
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#42In about that same timeframe, Y2K is also really good example. Nothing of note really happened. But if people had just ignored it a lot of things probably would have.
Not "probably". I was involved at ground level fixing code for BP in '98. Can say without a doubt that bad things would have happened. And not because my salary depended on it - there was no shortage of opportunities to work on other things, obviously. It was legitimately an issue that would have crippled the energy industry (major players, and all their many, many dependents). I infer from this experience that the impact would have been the same on many other industries (e.g. finance, resource development) directly and indirectly.
But it is a great example. I still run into people who recall Y2K as an example of much ado about nothing. No, no!! It wasn't an issue for you because many people worked hard to prevent the problems.
Those problems were not terribly complex just pervasive and critical, requiring a high LOE. It wasn't like a huge moon-landing engineering problem to be held up as some accomplishment of humanity, more akin fixing a lot of dumb Challenger o-ring problems before a blow-up.
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#43This may be one of the biggest challenges facing human civilization. Climate Change, Financial Bubbles, etc.
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#44Volvo probably is an exception in the car world.
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#45I've been contemplating the issue in the headline, as pertains to my value. When I help somebody in 40 mins with something they've been stuck on for 3 months, my value is clear to everyone. When I work there the whole time, and nobody ever gets stuck for 3 months, my value is unclear. Don't know how to deal with this paradox.
Life and its rewards aren't perfect. Work with honest, intelligent people; genuinely do your best; your days will be much better and the odds will be with you.
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#46In about that same timeframe, Y2K is also really good example. Nothing of note really happened. But if people had just ignored it a lot of things probably would have.
Yeah. I've heard folk who should know better (looking at you, John C. Dvorak) call Y2K a nothingburger and suggest the effort to prevent problems was a total boondoggle. Disclaimer: I was part of that effort. The funny thing was that I was brought back to a previous client to fix something that my previous efforts had literally caused. Took me 20 minutes to fix it once I saw what the problem was. And then there was a…
While I often enjoyed reading Dvorak columns in PCMag, he was always more someone who liked to provoke people than offer thoughtful commentary.
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Easy - half a$$ your code and when it breaks - swoop in, "fix things" (actually do it right) and play the role of hero! (I've seen so-called "Rock Stars" at places I worked do this over and over)
Would you feel good about being that kind of engineer, if the external validation was great enough?
It's OK, the new validation method is AI driven, we're good.
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a ton of reactionary legislation on the books that exists pretty much entirely because politicians wanted to be seen doing something. It's mostly crap.
Yeah, the legendary politician's fallacy: 1) We must do something. 2) This is something. 3) Therefore, we must do this.
I thought that was the voter's fallacy.
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#49Another variation on the problem is the over-allocation of resources to preventing problems which actually happened once, versus those that are more severe but haven't happened yet. This is a management problem, because no-one wants to be accountable for a repeat incident even if it was rational to be working on something else more important.
The thing is: it's very easy to play up the likelihood and severity of problems that are entirely imaginary. This can be just a bad habit, but also a deliberate tactic. In either case, a lot of effort, time, money, etc. is wasted. Waiting for something to actually happen before allocating resources to preventing it is (to some degree) a rational policy.
yeah that to the Ai doomers who are making six figures off of it
Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]
#50I've been contemplating the issue in the headline, as pertains to my value. When I help somebody in 40 mins with something they've been stuck on for 3 months, my value is clear to everyone. When I work there the whole time, and nobody ever gets stuck for 3 months, my value is unclear. Don't know how to deal with this paradox.
[deleted]