61–70 of 86 posts
Reminds me of a story a friend related a long time ago about how to manage bosses. That probably applies to bike sheds. The general idea is to introduce a glaring mistake into any proposal you make. Then the boss (or whoever feels like bikeshedding) can "catch" that mistake upon which you congratulate them on their infinite wisdom, fix the mistake, and the project can move along. So to avoid the bikeshed color discus…
Do people actually do this? It seems silly and childish. Although I’ve never had a boss that needed to find an error.
I think that is key. A great mentor early in my career pointed out to me: "A" rated people need to work for "A" rated bosses. It's possible to have a "B" or "C" person work for an "A" boss, but when you put "A" people under "B" or (god forbid) "C" bosses, all kinds of problems ensue.
[I've personally experienced that situation only once, and swore never again.]
Reminds me of a story a friend related a long time ago about how to manage bosses. That probably applies to bike sheds. The general idea is to introduce a glaring mistake into any proposal you make. Then the boss (or whoever feels like bikeshedding) can "catch" that mistake upon which you congratulate them on their infinite wisdom, fix the mistake, and the project can move along. So to avoid the bikeshed color discus…
Reminds me a bit of the story about "bird mode" at google [0] https://mashable.com/article/google-maps-origin-story-satell...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do people actually do this? It seems silly and childish. Although I’ve never had a boss that needed to find an error.
> Although I’ve never had a boss that needed to find an error. I think that is key. A great mentor early in my career pointed out to me: "A" rated people need to work for "A" rated bosses. It's possible to have a "B" or "C" person work for an "A" boss, but when you put "A" people under "B" or (god forbid) "C" bosses, all kinds of problems ensue. [I've personally experienced that situation only once, and swore never a…
Actually, I bet you could have an ok workplace with “A” workers under “C” management. Or maybe the “C” turns into an “A” if they manage to hire good people and get out of their way…
Wrong URL; it should be https://blue.bikeshed.com/ Or perhaps https://steelblue.bikeshed.com/ . (For those who haven't seen, the site accepts any CSS color as a subdomain.)
Reminds me of a story a friend related a long time ago about how to manage bosses. That probably applies to bike sheds. The general idea is to introduce a glaring mistake into any proposal you make. Then the boss (or whoever feels like bikeshedding) can "catch" that mistake upon which you congratulate them on their infinite wisdom, fix the mistake, and the project can move along. So to avoid the bikeshed color discus…
How does one do this without appearing incompetent?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do people actually do this? It seems silly and childish. Although I’ve never had a boss that needed to find an error.
I was writing software at a bank and found a bug. I was told to save it for when we had our audit —- because no matter what, the auditors were going to insist we fixed something and it might as well be something the development team wanted fixed too. I’ve heard of contractors who leave electrical outlets out of their plans so that the building department, which will insist something be changed in the plans (proving t…
Reminds me of a story a friend related a long time ago about how to manage bosses. That probably applies to bike sheds. The general idea is to introduce a glaring mistake into any proposal you make. Then the boss (or whoever feels like bikeshedding) can "catch" that mistake upon which you congratulate them on their infinite wisdom, fix the mistake, and the project can move along. So to avoid the bikeshed color discus…
"The dead cat strategy is a kind of misdirection where somebody will say something so ridiculous or do something so outlandish that it takes your attention away from where they don't want you to look. ..."
1 minute summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3NvncA_oh0
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Although I’ve never had a boss that needed to find an error. I think that is key. A great mentor early in my career pointed out to me: "A" rated people need to work for "A" rated bosses. It's possible to have a "B" or "C" person work for an "A" boss, but when you put "A" people under "B" or (god forbid) "C" bosses, all kinds of problems ensue. [I've personally experienced that situation only once, and swore never a…
I’m not sure what maps to “A,” “B,” “C” here. My gut says: “B” is the kind of person who you’d use this trick on, “C” might be too lazy and just not bother, and “A” might be confident and respected enough to say (and have everybody believe) that they checked and didn’t have any issues. Only “B” has that mix of insecurity and some ability… Actually, I bet you could have an ok workplace with “A” workers under “C” manag…
But the problem with "C" managers is that they won't judge "A" work as "A" work, won't understand why some of the "A" work is important, and will get in the way of the "A" engineers, making them go down "C" paths.
A "C" level manager brings the whole team down to "C" level and destroys the morale of "A" and "B" workers while they're at it.
An "A" level manager can guide everybody towards "A" level work.
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These appear to be the interesting threads. Others? Ask HN: How do you avoid bikeshedding? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30959723 - April 2022 (14 comments) Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29772108 - Jan 2022 (1 comment) Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is? (1999) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12533079 - Sept 2016 (52 comments) Bikesheddi…
Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25888 - June 2007 (4 comments)