The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas • Hacker News Board

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#91

Post by babuskov » Wed, May 01, 2013, 2:20 PM UTC

shinykitten wrote: post #56

> people are inspired to come up with good ideas to ward off bad ones. Interesting theory, but I think something else is happening here. If you have a bunch of people trying to solve a problem, the game is implicitly defined as "propose the best solution." After the first proposal, the game changes to "improve on the best solution so far." This is something to keep in mind during interviews [1] for people on both sid…

+1. I think the same. People, esp. smart people judge their ideas as not so good, and won't even mention it. When you bring up McDonalds, the person suddenly thinks: Hey, I didn't know the bar was that low.

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#92

Post by specialist » Wed, May 01, 2013, 2:26 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #88

There's never really anything new in IT. Looking at past revolutions of the eternal IT wheel the next article will be about Fred Brook's "second system effect" where a simple 1st choice like McDonalds for lunch inevitably leads to a ridiculously overengineered second solution in reaction, like a $300/plate steakhouse or perhaps a strange ethnic restaurant for lunch 90 miles away. This article is basically a rehash of…

I read the article differently. The OP is suggesting failing faster by starting with an idea, any idea, just to get moving.

I've done something similar.

I was a new minted engineering manager. We had lotsa grumpy gate keepers. Domain experts who would withhold information, but happy to snipe later on.

So when it wasn't clear (to my immediate team) what to do, I'd add something really stupid, but plausible, to the requirements. Then claim the document was being sent to our dealer channel.

Oh boy! Then I'd get the feedback I needed.

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#93

Post by yoster » Wed, May 01, 2013, 2:29 PM UTC

qompiler wrote: post #60

yoster wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children do love their happy meals though. There wouldn't be a plethora of these fast food places all over the world if the vast majority of people didn't like McDonald's. It isn't healthy to eat at everyday, but every once in a while is fine.

about once a year is already pushing it

You could eat there all the time if you wanted. They do sell salads....

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#94

Post by papsosouid » Wed, May 01, 2013, 2:34 PM UTC

marknutter wrote: post #87

I like McDonald's. It's cheap, consistent, and fast. I don't need to be a foodie for every damn lunch I have.

Maybe it is just Canada, but I have been lucky to get 1/3 of those qualities from McDonald's lately. A big mac (just the sandwich, nothing else) is $5, and isn't very filling. Every other fast food place around here is just as cheap or cheaper, and very few are as low quality and inconsistent.

It is hard to consider McDonald's the "cheap option" when a big mac and fries is $8, but a gyro and fries that taste way better, and are ~30% more food is $5 at the place across the street. McDonald's is actually the second most expensive fast food option I've found, only being cheaper than Mucho Burrito (which is far better food).

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#95

Post by calinet6 » Wed, May 01, 2013, 2:50 PM UTC

Fantastic article. Love the Ann Lamott reference; read her book "Bird by Bird," from which the quote came; it really is great. Reading more into this article than "start with something and go from there" is reading too much.

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#96

Post by splawn » Wed, May 01, 2013, 2:53 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #82

incompatible wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia is actually a great example of how getting something started can eventually lead to something much better. Here's the first version of that article: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abilene_paradox&#3... That's what Wikipedia was like after it was created: random people writing a few words about some subject they thought they knew something about. It didn't seem like it would amount to much, at the…

Maybe it hasn't amounted to as much as you think. In addition to a great deal of general information substantially duplicating what you already could have found on the internet (much of Wikipedia is actually scraped/aggregated from elsewhere, which is the real use of crowdsourcing here), it's also jammed full of trivialities and utterly biased, misleading, politicized articles guarded jealously by special interest gr…

I disagree with your assessment that Wikipedia doesn't add value. It acts as an awesome aggregator and is usually a good place to start when learning about any topic. Im not going to play "name that fallacy", but your points against it seem weak to me. Of course its info is scraped and aggregated from other sources. Thats how information works. Thats normal even in academia. Im sure that on pages that don't have many watchers, a bad edit could go unnoticed for a long time, but this shouldn't be an issue for you, since you follow up on sources and practice critical thinking no matter what source you use .

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#97

Post by calinet6 » Wed, May 01, 2013, 2:57 PM UTC

brucehart wrote: post #5

I use a technique like this when I am stuck trying to write code and can't figure out how to do it efficiently. I ask myself "what is the worst possible way to implement this function?" and start writing that. Sure enough, that gets my mind going almost immediately and I start thinking of the improvements needed to turn it into good code.

Excellent concept, and it works great.

Often you overcomplicate implementation by thinking about the right way from the start, and while this is a good thing to do in general, sometimes it gets in your way. I like to think of the simplest possible way to write it (not necessarily the "worst" but just the simplest). Then you have something, anything at all, and you can go from there.

My ex-coworker always said "Make it work, then make it good, then make it fast." Good rule of thumb that has taken me pretty far in code productivity.

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#98

Post by dkrich » Wed, May 01, 2013, 3:12 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #88

There's never really anything new in IT. Looking at past revolutions of the eternal IT wheel the next article will be about Fred Brook's "second system effect" where a simple 1st choice like McDonalds for lunch inevitably leads to a ridiculously overengineered second solution in reaction, like a $300/plate steakhouse or perhaps a strange ethnic restaurant for lunch 90 miles away. This article is basically a rehash of…

This is really the availability heuristic (basically that the information that is most readily available seems most accurate or likely to be true).

When smart people explain complex subjects clearly and confidently we have the tendency to say "oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense." In reality nothing is always true but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't good to fool ourselves into thinking so. In fact it's probably how progress is made. If people knew how hard most things were going to be at the outset, they'd never start and look for something easier to do.

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#99

Post by ripter » Wed, May 01, 2013, 3:37 PM UTC

ffn wrote: post #15

flatline wrote: post #6

Of course, there is the risk that everyone thinks McDonalds is a swell idea, and then no one will ever do anything nicer for lunch ever again. Not to stretch the analogy too far, but I have had this happen both literally and figuratively.

As the guys who usual says "that's a swell idea", or "yeah, I'm down for some McNuggets" to really gross food decisions (masochism, I don't know), I personally love it when other folks throw out these "sequestration" choices because it's usually the only way to get everyone to go to McDonalds.

And that's how I discovered the McRib

Re: The McDonald's Theory of Bad Ideas

#100

Post by Sakes » Wed, May 01, 2013, 3:37 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #88

There's never really anything new in IT. Looking at past revolutions of the eternal IT wheel the next article will be about Fred Brook's "second system effect" where a simple 1st choice like McDonalds for lunch inevitably leads to a ridiculously overengineered second solution in reaction, like a $300/plate steakhouse or perhaps a strange ethnic restaurant for lunch 90 miles away. This article is basically a rehash of…

Maybe the concept is not new, but the example he uses is brilliant. Everybody eats, everybody has at one point or another tried to democratically decide where to eat, and everyone that likes food dislikes/hates McDonalds. The article is funny, it anchors the idea to a global brand, and so it will be easy to remember for anyone who reads it.

I feel as if you read this as simply a rehash of known techniques, and what I saw was a light hearted/entertaining story, that anyone can relate to and take value from.