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Individuals Matter

danluu.com

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Re: Individuals Matter

#411

Post by MaxDPS »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #395
BatteryMountain wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm like this. Not just in a commercial context, but also at home with pet projects. I go through phases of being extremely creative with things I come up with, for about 2 or 3 days, then I go back to normal for about 30 to 60 days before I get to that state again. Luckily I've been able to notice this behavioural quirk so I try to code/write as much as possible down to use as building block to use on my "boring" da…

I have to note that I've been diagnosed with Adult ADHD earlier this by a psychiatrist. No bipolar, depression, anxiety behaviours present.

I was just about to say that sounds very adhd like (I’m diagnosed as well). Have you tried adhd medication? Not sure if that was inferred by your comment on drugs.

Re: Individuals Matter

#412

Post by Dudeman112 »

kragen wrote: post #410
Dudeman112 wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What made you think I think physics or programming is analogue to easily quantifiable manual labour? >It should come as even more of a surprise to find "Jeff Dean" To find them, yes. To point out that they exist and the likely that you'll work with them is statistically insignificant? No. The thing with intellectual labour is that some insights have immeasurable value. Some statistical outliers have such humongous in…

None of that makes any sense.

I would be happy to explain myself better :(

Re: Individuals Matter

#413

Post by blindmute »

radicalbyte wrote: post #297
Kalium wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a harsh lesson about this in one of my very first jobs. A senior engineer on my team had built a rather complicated system. He was accordingly intimately familiar with all aspects of it. So when he estimated something on that system, it came with nearly all the discovery work already done. The PM proceeded to take an estimate from this person, hand it to a brand new hire, and expect them to deliver on that. Nee…

That engineer is Senior in title only. Unfortunately this is a common pattern - a mid-level developer will play "hero", make a mess that only they understand, and - if given the title/responsibility by immature management - proceed to royally screw their team. Actual Seniors have the experience and foresight to handle this properly. Either build code with enough documentation/tests that others can understand it, or m…

The management graciously allocated all the time that the senior needed for all this documentation and onboard plan, then everyone in the company clapped

Re: Individuals Matter

#414

Post by blindmute »

john_moscow wrote: post #56
Swizec wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Devs: there are no 10x engineers!! Orgs: okay you are indistinguishable cogs and we will treat you as cattle Devs: no wait not like that Truth is everyone knows that who or which teams takes a task matters immensely. We know that if Bob leads it’s gonna suck and if Alice does it’s gonna rock and finish on time. Managers know this also. But we’ve constructed a corporate culture where this is not allowed to be said. So…

The corporate culture serves a very specific purpose of lowering the self-esteem of the 10x folks, keeping them at their place doing 10x work at 1x salary until they burn out. This is scalable, predictable, and serves management's interests well. It's just if you happen to be a 10x guy, for the sake of your own sanity, learn how to run a business and get out of the corporate swamp. Nothing else will bring you happine…

The trick is to be a 10x dev and work 0.2x of the time, remotely of course. Everyone thinks you're decent and you get a full salary working 3hrs per day.

Re: Individuals Matter

#415

Post by BatteryMountain »

MaxDPS wrote: post #411
BatteryMountain wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to note that I've been diagnosed with Adult ADHD earlier this by a psychiatrist. No bipolar, depression, anxiety behaviours present.

I was just about to say that sounds very adhd like (I’m diagnosed as well). Have you tried adhd medication? Not sure if that was inferred by your comment on drugs.

Yeah.

Concerta messed me up so badly for about a week, then I stopped taking it. I want to try Vivance but it is not available in my country.

Re: Individuals Matter

#416

Post by noduerme »

Jensson wrote: post #225
noduerme wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like pessimistic estimators are way more accurate and probably more intelligent than optimistic ones. I'd probably use software like that to fire half the team. (edit: of course then I'd have to fire half the team again... and again... until only one or two incredibly depressed pessimists remained... tough call)

Why would you fire the team? The software shows you how their estimates relates to real world timelines, just adjust their estimate accordingly and the problem is fixed. I never understood why managers get so upset over consistent time under estimates, just track it and add the relevant factor without telling the team and it should on average be on point.

I was sort of just reducing the idea to absurdity. I only work in small teams - everything I do is by feel. It's easy to tell if things are behind or not. Easy to tell if someone is wasting time, or if they're stuck on a problem, and extrapolate a new ETA. Honestly, the idea of trying to feed that into software seems heartless and inevitably wrong, but if I were going to do it, I'd opt for the pessimistic analysis.

Re: Individuals Matter

#418

Post by bumbledraven »

“… when ROI is a heavy-tailed distribution … then severely tamping down on the right side of the curve to improve legibility is very costly and can cost you the majority of your potential returns.”
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