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Collaboration sucks

newsletter.posthog.com

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Re: Collaboration sucks

#51

Post by hinkley »

kykat wrote: post #9
throwaway713 wrote: post #8

> Every time you see collaboration happening, speak up and destroy it. Say “there are too many people involved. X, you are the driver, you decide.” (This is a great way to make friends btw). Corollary for managers: Do not say "it's your call", then once the decision has been made (and you skipped all the meetings pertaining to that decision), comment about how you would have done it differently and then retroactively…

At my previous job, "what about..." slowly became a trigger word for me EDIT: In the context of infinite pixel tweaking, layout tweaking, and of course, new features that would require significant full stack rework

    The four worst words on a software project are:
    “Why can’t you just…”

Re: Collaboration sucks

#52

Post by usernamed7 »

Take a look at their codebase (posthog is open source) and then tell me again that collaboration sucks, because i feel like the lack of collab is why their codebase is in such terrible condition.

Re: Collaboration sucks

#53

Post by jdauriemma »

codegeek wrote: post #10

"Unfortunately for me, not all collaboration can be rooted out, and even I will admit that some collaboration is useful. Ian and Andy edited this newsletter after all." So "good" collaboration does work. It is just that the post is talking about things that are not really true collaboration and those should be avoided. Title is click bait but posthog is famous for these.

Framing obvious/old ideas in a novel way can be helpful. "Collaboration" is a meme that makes it easy to view all collaboration-shaped exchanges as helpful and the opposite as harmful. A memorable counter-narrative can help people think more critically when faced with an applicable situation.

Re: Collaboration sucks

#54

Post by willsmith72 »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #16

Praising people for saying "it's your call" and in the same article boasting about "extraordinarily high ownership" is simply laughable. The two are literal polar opposite.

not at all. me, owner of a new feature: hey boss wanted to get your thoughts on this. Boss: "let's schedule a review for next week, and pull in x and y who are familiar with the space"

Vs Boss: "your call"

Re: Collaboration sucks

#56

Post by happymellon »

jesse__ wrote: post #15

While I don't agree with Charles' (clearly nuts) distaste for sparkling water, I'm happy to see people finally talking about this issue publicly. I've suffered through this at several companies, down to the level of sometimes spending like 3x the time it took to implement the actual feature on answering and 'fixing' pedantic stylistic nitpicks during code reviews. While having a homogenous style is important, I'm sol…

Have a formatter. There are plently out there that can be part of the compile/build/commit flow, to the point of failing pipelines if the files you changed not match the style.

Let people know if you have a requirement on layout and enforce it. Code review is far too late.

Re: Collaboration sucks

#57

Post by chadrs »

Collaboration slows things down but going fast at all cost leads to tech fragmentation, tech debt, and product debt.

fwiw I'm not in the camp of "we must have everything done in one consistent way" but there are places, for example a public API, where having 4 different names for the same concept, 3 different response format/url path styles, etc. starts to look really sloppy.

Re: Collaboration sucks

#58

Post by NumberCruncher »

Marketers ship code, salespeople answer technical questions without backup...

...and you dentist cuts you hair and your hairdresser pulls your teeth. Because everything is a trade what can and should be learned, except if it's related to writing and selling software.

To be fair, you did not say that marketers ship working and maintainable code, salespeople answer technical questions without backup the correct way. Therefore you might be right, thought.

Re: Collaboration sucks

#59

Post by asdfman123 »

codegeek wrote: post #10

"Unfortunately for me, not all collaboration can be rooted out, and even I will admit that some collaboration is useful. Ian and Andy edited this newsletter after all." So "good" collaboration does work. It is just that the post is talking about things that are not really true collaboration and those should be avoided. Title is click bait but posthog is famous for these.

The problem is design by committee.

Re: Collaboration sucks

#60

Post by TZubiri »

My girlfriend enter a new job and she told me about some scenario related to IT, kind of asking for my input. At one point she told the IT guy, who was discussing through emails or chat, that they should hop on a call. I told her that the IT guy probably hated that, but she couldn't understand why.

I think speaking to people is a stressor, it's an activity that drains energy, like running or literally doing anything, but IT people can go for weeks without talking to people, so they have that muscle atrophied and even the slightest of real life interactions feels like excessive to them.

This article is just peak IT. Collaboration is normal man, you probably didn't invent a "it's your call" solution to the "problem" of collaborating in companies. I wish you the best of luck in building your social skills.

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