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Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

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Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#51

Post by HerbManic »

keyle wrote: post #17

I've been in those companies where "struggling departments" ended up getting all the praises and raise in budgets the following quarter because of the heroic saves they did, and raising awareness on how important they are... For stuff they totally caused on themselves. Meanwhile, my perfectly purring department was struggling to keep the lights on. It's a serious problem in this industry due to the disconnect between…

This thinking eventually results in The Scream Test. When the screams come as a system fails that is when they act on it.

Alas, for many parts of society there is a large amount of people that would rather be reactive than proactive. It means it is easier today but harder long term.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#52

Post by HerbManic »

timmg wrote: post #9

There are a lot of things like this. My favorite is how elegant solutions often look simple in retrospect. So if you noodle on a problem for a while and then come up with a clever solution: once you explain it to someone they'll be like, "yeah, of course." Meanwhile the guy next to you that overcomplicates the problem ends up getting kudos for building something so difficult :D

I have said it for decades - Basic is easy, Simple is hard.

But when someone comes up with something simple but effective, it always looks so obvious in retrospect.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#53

Post by qurren »

al_borland wrote: post #41
keyle wrote: post #17

I've been in those companies where "struggling departments" ended up getting all the praises and raise in budgets the following quarter because of the heroic saves they did, and raising awareness on how important they are... For stuff they totally caused on themselves. Meanwhile, my perfectly purring department was struggling to keep the lights on. It's a serious problem in this industry due to the disconnect between…

I think a good place to start is tracking all the proactive things being done and reporting them. At least then maybe someone will see why it’s quiet, because you’ve anticipated the problems and stopped them before they start. When things come up with other teams, you’ll have a catalog of tasks that were done to show why you didn’t have the same issue. The work was done, just at a better time to avoid downtime.

> start is tracking all the proactive things being done and reporting them

Speaking from experience, this does nothing. If you're at a company that is okay with average performers, then absolutely, 100%, fix all the bugs in advance, make the system rock solid and stable, prevent downtime, be a good engineer.

If on the other hand if you're at a company where 10% of people must get stack ranked and PIP, or at a company where "meets expectations" actually means you're going to get the stick, and you're supposed to be "redefining" expectations every year ... then yeah, don't do anything preventative. The optics are better when you take the 3am on-call and fix the issue (that you secretly knew in the first place would happen some time in the future in your coworker's code, and already knew how to fix -- but don't actually fix it until it surfaces). Be the savior that the VPs praise in the next meeting, that's your insurance against the PIP.

They set the rules of the game, you just play the game. The rules were their choice. They could have chosen different rules.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#56

Post by Dwedit »

tjwebbnorfolk wrote: post #13
rmunn wrote: post #6

Article published in the Summer 2001 edition of California Management Review, yet it never mentioned Y2K, the first thing I thought of when I read the line "fixing problems that never happened". Perhaps it was actually written in 1999 and took a while to get published, because otherwise that seems a very strange omission. The Y2K problem was very much over-hyped by the American news media at the time (no, at no point…

Y2K is especially interesting because the fact that the year 2000 would one day occur was entirely foreseeable, and no less probable in 1990 than in 1999. I can hardly think of anything with closer to 100% probability of happening.

Year 2038 says hi.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#57

Post by esafak »

keyle wrote: post #17

I've been in those companies where "struggling departments" ended up getting all the praises and raise in budgets the following quarter because of the heroic saves they did, and raising awareness on how important they are... For stuff they totally caused on themselves. Meanwhile, my perfectly purring department was struggling to keep the lights on. It's a serious problem in this industry due to the disconnect between…

Track leading indicators, pricing them if possible.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#58

Post by throw0101c »

Terr_ wrote: post #35
nullhole wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The passage that comes to mind for me whenever this idea comes up, from the Brett version of the Holmes story "The Dancing Men": H: So, Watson. W: Hmm. H: You do not propose to invest in South African securities? W: How on earth do you know that? H: Now, confess, you are utterly taken aback. W: I am! H: I should make you sign a paper to that effect. W: Why? H: Because in a few minutes you will say it is all so absurd…

Found the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx6Dr1iJ4p8&t=3m13s

Meta: I found this video essay (?) "Jeremy Brett vs Basil Rathbone — Who Was the Real Sherlock Holmes?" interesting:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaQFJcI_yfI

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#59

Post by kamaal »

keyle wrote: post #17

I've been in those companies where "struggling departments" ended up getting all the praises and raise in budgets the following quarter because of the heroic saves they did, and raising awareness on how important they are... For stuff they totally caused on themselves. Meanwhile, my perfectly purring department was struggling to keep the lights on. It's a serious problem in this industry due to the disconnect between…

>>I'm not sure how we solve this, other than having management come from engineering.

Given the whole point of management is to work to ensure their own survival and growth, it would in their interest to kill genuine competition when its coming up.

Who wants to raise their new competition and lose to them, no one!

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