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You Have to Feel It

mitchellh.com

81–90 of 165 posts

Re: You Have to Feel It

#81

I've learnt that just about everything in life boils down to feelings, which is interesting. No matter how rational a person or people claim to be, usually it comes down to feelings... Life choices? Business decisions? Who gets promoted? It's all vibes and feelings. People will deliberate and argue over facts but ultimately there will be some "weighting" factor which is feelings and will make or break the outcome. Yo…

I grew to believe that feelings have hard-to-recognize rationales that can be explained if you dig deep enough. Very few people ever do however. Recognizing the rationale is a great skill to have in many circumstances where you give feedback, like code reviews for example. It's also a skill that makes you a better teacher.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever you think about Apple, I find it hard to believe that the team that developed the original iPhone could have done so without feeling it. Perhaps that was just the magic of Jobs, who definitely felt things . But he didn't make the iPhone single handedly.

I think there is some survival bias in the analysis, and that something like the iPhone was inevitable given all the experimentation going on in the market. Apple also made the Newton. But folks don't call back to it or praise its makers very often.

> the Newton

I found the idea fascinating, but it was too clunky and heavy for the features it offered. I think the concept was too far ahead of its time, it couldn’t be implemented well in available tech.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#84
post #14

But I feel depressed every time I use Terraform. I see why it is useful, good etc. But I just enjoy it least of all the programming activities. Pulumi isn't much better. I feel IaC done that way isn't the way we will settle on long term.

I quit a $400k+ job to get away from IaC. I loath yaml. More and more, my day was filled with "you have an error on line 1, good luck." It was more k8s than tf, but I get the same sneer on my face when messing with tf.

I refuse to let such a shitty experience be what defines my day.

I was hoping pulumi would help. Haven't used it yet, but it is sad to hear it doesn't live up to the hype.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever you think about Apple, I find it hard to believe that the team that developed the original iPhone could have done so without feeling it. Perhaps that was just the magic of Jobs, who definitely felt things . But he didn't make the iPhone single handedly.

I think there is some survival bias in the analysis, and that something like the iPhone was inevitable given all the experimentation going on in the market. Apple also made the Newton. But folks don't call back to it or praise its makers very often.

Actually, I’ve found people often do praise the Newton. They lament it as being ahead of its time, but in terms of feeling it actually did have the right vibe. The tech just wasn’t there yet at the time.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#86
> Our work evokes a feeling. The feeling matters. The feeling is part of the work. The desired feeling is part of the requirements.

I do share this ambition. In my own metric, I was as successful as it gets when “the desired feeling” is achieved. But I often have the impression that others around me don’t share this, or do so to a lesser degree. However, that doesn’t stop me one bit.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#87
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people suffer greatly and die to cause that mess. A perfect example is the terrible mismanagement of the epidemic in the USA; over a million people dead, many (most?) of them unnecessarily for the active rejection of basic infection control measures. A perfect example of the corruption of which you speak: many countries got €1-2 rapid tests (I bought a 50 pack) where the US only approved the $30 two-pack. Th…

Take it up with the people who could easily prevent it by instituting reforms, not with me, that's shooting the messenger because I'm easier to get to. But I'm fighting those people tooth and nail precisely because every small victory however symbolic is one pebble in the scale and there are degrees of "mess": plenty of corrupt elites make a deal, let's pray these do. If there's a genocide level event it won't have m…

I'm not taking it up with you and I'm not shooting the messenger. The only issue I have is takes like this:

> Be of good cheer, it collapses under its own weight in this neighborhood of dysfunction. Its almost over.

There's nothing remotely cheerful about how bad it's going to have to get first before it gets better. The fact that a genocide eventually ends is not a reason to be happy about being in the beginning of a huge one.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#88

I've learnt that just about everything in life boils down to feelings, which is interesting. No matter how rational a person or people claim to be, usually it comes down to feelings... Life choices? Business decisions? Who gets promoted? It's all vibes and feelings. People will deliberate and argue over facts but ultimately there will be some "weighting" factor which is feelings and will make or break the outcome. Yo…

> You can have a perfectly argued decision that fails some vibe check and is hence discarded One of the worst hires I ever worked with was excellent on paper, came with good credentials, had an impressive resume, and did objectively well on the interview questions. However, everyone who interviewed him felt uneasy about him. He failed the vibe check, even though he checked all of the boxes and knew all the right thin…

It's all very well when it works to your advantage but "vibes" also do the opposite.

People who instantly take against you tend to see every mistake and interpret every event the worst possible way and eventually decide that their initial feelings were right. Once again intuition triumphs. You don't get a chance to prove you're no worse than anyone else - there's just a period of time where they look for evidence to confirm their vibe.

I remember going to work in a country where my apparent origin was seen in a positive way and realising that if I'd been from somewhere in Eastern Europe I'd have been automatically disrespected. I remember going to an interview for a flat share and the moment I said I was from Zimbabwe one guy said that "South Africans" (sic) "drink and party too much." Since I'm white I'd never been on the opposite side of prejudice before and it was highly interesting.

Oh yes, I agree, it is information that's telling you something but because one doesn't usually have a way of putting it into words it's not clear what the message is. People who are different from you are sometimes just nervous and not sure how to present themselves.

I have, however, had to fix the terrible work of grifters (e.g. no unit tests, every minor change breaks something silently) and nobody ever cottoned onto them even though they were quite obvious. The feelings they gave management were "good ones" despite them being terrible for the business. I, as the person fixing stuff after said grifter left suddenly, was blamed for everything that was wrong.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#89
The only thing you have to do is pay taxes and die. It does help to feel good about the project and the work, but it is not a requirement for a fulfilling life.

Looking back at most times I have felt horrible in the depth of adversity, resistance or burnout I realize those were the times of greatest potential for achievement, learning and growth. Those are the memorable chapters, the things that define my character. The times when I continued to grind, continued to push through and didn't give up because of feelings were the times when I actually accomplished something: raised a kid, bought a house, switched continents.

Re: You Have to Feel It

#90
post #14

But I feel depressed every time I use Terraform. I see why it is useful, good etc. But I just enjoy it least of all the programming activities. Pulumi isn't much better. I feel IaC done that way isn't the way we will settle on long term.

To connect the dots, Mitchell is the creator of terraform. And honestly, I kind of feel the same. I think it points out that even if you "feel" it as the creator, that doesn't mean others will feel the same way, necessarily.

FWIW: https://x.com/mitchellh/status/1938066378185183279

With Terraform I have felt I'm fighting it at times but I also understand the reasons.

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