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Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

blog.nuclino.com

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Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#51

Post by lebaux »

greatpatton wrote: post #32

This is quite strange, having organized a large music festival this kind of document were split among different teams. Meaning that people in charge of the backstage are managing their part (getting food, M&Ms, specific brand of beer, and other non nonsensical request, etc) and the people in charge of the stage and technical stuff are taking care of technical requirements (and aligning them between different bands sh…

I did my share of event management and I disagree. It shows how well the teams are managed and attention to detail.

Of course, you should probably have more canaries.

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#52

Post by ghaff »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #42
jedberg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would help. The people who are suffering the most are your former coworkers. Presumably friends. Definitely people you may work with in the future. I'd rather be known as the guy who helps than the guy who is rude about consulting rates.

Asking to be paid for work is not being rude. Spending 10 minutes on the phone to answer questions is one thing, as long as they are respectful, but more than that means that they want you to work for them.

I agree although in some circumstances, contracting for your former employer may be violating your employment agreement with your current one.

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#53

Post by ghaff »

DoubleGlazing wrote: post #39
jedberg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would help. The people who are suffering the most are your former coworkers. Presumably friends. Definitely people you may work with in the future. I'd rather be known as the guy who helps than the guy who is rude about consulting rates.

That would cross my mind. Most potential employers I've encountered have usually asked for references from my last two jobs. On another occasion I had to undergo a background check which involved contacting my last 15 years worth of employers. So no matter how much I may have disliked an employer I would be unwilling to burn bridges until I knew I would never need to rely on them again.

Even if they're being a bit unreasonable, the momentary satisfaction of telling them to F Off is probably not worth the risk of it coming back to bite you some day.

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#54

Post by jagged-chisel »

kozak wrote: post #38
dontdieych wrote: post #5

I'm cable guy. If you are working on data center, there is chance we already met. I've crimped so many RJ45. Can't count. Before CAT6 it was simple. After CAT6, all vendors starting produce their own. This is my best manual all time. I love Penduit manual. http://www1.panduit.com/heiler/InstallInstructions/N-COPN295...

And for all the perfectionists out there, this perfect manual has a typo in figure 9 at page 2.

Nah, that's fine - you just have to read it with the correct accent

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#55

Post by mytailorisrich »

ghaff wrote: post #52
mytailorisrich wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking to be paid for work is not being rude. Spending 10 minutes on the phone to answer questions is one thing, as long as they are respectful, but more than that means that they want you to work for them.

I agree although in some circumstances, contracting for your former employer may be violating your employment agreement with your current one.

That does not mean that you should do it for free (which might still be a contractual breach, btw).

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#56

Post by ghaff »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #55
ghaff wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree although in some circumstances, contracting for your former employer may be violating your employment agreement with your current one.

That does not mean that you should do it for free (which might still be a contractual breach, btw).

Theoretically maybe. In practice, no one to a first approximation is going to have an issue with you spending an hour helping a prior employer with some cleanup related to your prior job. Employment agreements tend to use words like outside employment/consulting/etc. They don't (and it would probably be unenforceable if they did) generally forbid you from talking to a former employer.

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#57

Post by bullen »

I haven't read manuals ever, but last month I bought bluetooth headphones so to pair them I first tried without reading, and failed.

I opened the manual to find it was many pages of legal text and just one phrase of instructions: "hold button for 5 seconds until light is blue" and that failed too.

I mailed support and the instructions then came back as "hold for 20 seconds, until light first becomes white, then blue", I simply mistaked the white led as very light blue.

This is why people don't read manuals!

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#58

Post by tomp »

> We are impatient and have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. To be properly absorbed, information needs to be organized in a way that accommodates that.

Common myth, but actually not true. Joe Rogan has 3 hour long talks with people and is one of the most popular media figures.

The real truth is, most information sucks (it's both useless and boring), so people tune out. Improve information, get more attention.

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#59

Post by gruez »

barbegal wrote: post #6

> If any brown M&Ms were found backstage, the band could cancel the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter. I really don't think this would stand up in court. Does anyone know of any concerts cancelled due to minor issues with the rider?

> I really don't think this would stand up in court.

Why not? Under what legal doctrine?

Re: Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual

#60

Post by numpad0 »

barbegal wrote: post #17
cjhveal wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The brown M&M's were supposedly a canary that prompted a line-by-line check of the technical specifications of the production for errors, which would then be the grounds to cancel the show. Snopes has a good article[0] on the Van Halen rider. [0]: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brown-out/

I understand its purpose as a canary. I'm just questioning the idea of "cancelling the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter" which seems false.

That way you don’t have to point your fingers around to cancel that show.
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