[deleted]
A Short Story for Engineers
71–80 of 128 posts
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#72In this parable, I’ll let you guess which is the server-rendered HTML form and which is the Javascript single-page app.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#73This reminds me of a true story (yes, true not "true" I was there). I was a manager and representing my development area and my boss was there to greet the new client. We were a consulting firm, so of course we were paid to build things. The director of architecture was there, and he comes up with this plan to charge 100k for a solution of various needs. Surprisingly the client said no; they can't afford it, and we didn't get the business. The business was kind of shocked the company said no, then my boss sarcastically pointed out that everything they needed could be solved with Google Drive and 15 minutes on their phones to set it up.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#74It's fun. Break a butterfly on wheel.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#75These are the stories that non-engineers like to tell themselves to feel smarter. Especially managers like to think they have more common sense than engineers.
But reality is that engineers are the ones who know most about the subject, they know the details how everything interacts with each other.
I had meetings with managers that thought their common sense could help me, only ending up me explaining the most basic of concepts to them.
Same with the NASA pen story vs pencil.
Most projects fail because of stupid managers that don't trust their experts. Not because engineers can't see the forest through the trees.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#76Yes, the story is an urban legend, the budget goes up every time it's told, etc. But I think the important lesson here is not really "line worker outsmarts expensive consultants", its really about incentives . The consultants are incentivized to do good work (they want to keep a good reputation and potentially get more work) BUT they are also incentivized to charge as much as possible ("value-based pricing" is the te…
I think it actually matters that it's an urban legend. If it were a true story the value of its message would be less disputable. But if it's an urban legend that means that the message -- that line workers have valuable and inexpensive insights to offer -- is unsubstantiated and may not be true in the main. (I qualify this with "in the main" because of course there must have been some occasion when a line worker had…
Does it really make a big difference if it’s true or not? Even in the case where it’s 100% certifiably true, it’s just one anecdote. As you point out, you need more data on a trend to take it more meaningful.
That all being said, I think this sort of tale can still be a useful tool to have a discussion around. And then that discussion can in turn produce questions that could later be backed up by research and data.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#77Yes, the story is an urban legend, the budget goes up every time it's told, etc. But I think the important lesson here is not really "line worker outsmarts expensive consultants", its really about incentives . The consultants are incentivized to do good work (they want to keep a good reputation and potentially get more work) BUT they are also incentivized to charge as much as possible ("value-based pricing" is the te…
I think it actually matters that it's an urban legend. If it were a true story the value of its message would be less disputable. But if it's an urban legend that means that the message -- that line workers have valuable and inexpensive insights to offer -- is unsubstantiated and may not be true in the main. (I qualify this with "in the main" because of course there must have been some occasion when a line worker had…
You might want look in Kaizen, which one of the key basis is that the workers closest to the problem are empowered to stop production when issues arise and have input when approaching problems on the line.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#78Yes, the story is an urban legend, the budget goes up every time it's told, etc. But I think the important lesson here is not really "line worker outsmarts expensive consultants", its really about incentives . The consultants are incentivized to do good work (they want to keep a good reputation and potentially get more work) BUT they are also incentivized to charge as much as possible ("value-based pricing" is the te…
I think it actually matters that it's an urban legend. If it were a true story the value of its message would be less disputable. But if it's an urban legend that means that the message -- that line workers have valuable and inexpensive insights to offer -- is unsubstantiated and may not be true in the main. (I qualify this with "in the main" because of course there must have been some occasion when a line worker had…
>in real life common sense is often not correct
I can easily imagine a real-life scenario where some quick and dirty fix works, say, 75% of the time. (And maybe that's good enough.) But the expensive process change works 99%+ of the time and, even though there are cheap ad hoc alternatives that work in a particular scenario, you're still better off actually fixing the problem properly.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's another element where the consultant simply enumerates all of the things that the employees have already been telling management for years. And of course there's an entire spectrum in between. Some things are only important once a dollar figure is attached to them.
This blog post touches on the topic (highly recommended read): https://blog.erratasec.com/2020/07/how-ceos-think.html > Outside consultants often end up saying the same thing you do, but are trusted whereas you are not. CEOs listen to the outsiders because they have no hidden political agenda.
The one time in my career that I worked with management consultants, I wasn't all that impressed. The partner and one of the associates were sharp enough. The other associate was not.
That said, they created a big fancy spreadsheet that kept the business planning people happy and basically validated what we had been telling senior management.
I'm not sure that's bad though. Having been, at a later time, an IT industry analyst myself, there's certainly some value to someone coming in with a fresh set of eyes, without the biases and mindset of people within the company, and (as you say) without the motivations to push a project that may not make sense.
Re: A Short Story for Engineers
#80Yes, the story is an urban legend, the budget goes up every time it's told, etc. But I think the important lesson here is not really "line worker outsmarts expensive consultants", its really about incentives . The consultants are incentivized to do good work (they want to keep a good reputation and potentially get more work) BUT they are also incentivized to charge as much as possible ("value-based pricing" is the te…
“value-based pricing” As I understand it, the value is based on the customer’s perception of value. And I believe this is contrasted with hourly-based pricing. If I try to come up with an example, I might say the postal service has a value price. Mail a letter anywhere in the (continental) US, 0.55 You don’t pay 1.55 if it gets there sooner. Even if you overnight the letter, there is a flat fee. The extra cost for mo…
Mail is 55c because it's a simple amortized cost of a unique government service with some margin. The value varies widely.
Value pricing is when different customers pay different prices for substantially the same service, like first class vs economy airline tickets, and app store fees.