Only Debate The Non-Linear
thelog.farm
Only Debate The Non-Linear
1–10 of 39 posts
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#2Love this article, hope it becomes a foundational piece in some tech org cultures, that reward engineers to focus on "better than linear improvements", vs. pedantic debates I've seen teams that strive for improvement grow so used to for the cheap feeling of improvement they provide.
nit: (so I don't lose the habit) that flashing gif in the middle causes a more than linear nuisance while I'm trying to read the article, otherwise LGTM!
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#3Love this article, hope it becomes a foundational piece in some tech org cultures, that reward engineers to focus on "better than linear improvements", vs. pedantic debates I've seen teams that strive for improvement grow so used to for the cheap feeling of improvement they provide. nit: (so I don't lose the habit) that flashing gif in the middle causes a more than linear nuisance while I'm trying to read the article…
There's some project management guru who wrote a book on managing projects that helped keep people micromanaging them.
Years later I read that he really regretted it because he realized that project shouldn't be even started unless they're too important to be micromanaged...
It is, don't start linear return projects...
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#4To me it seems like the author is saying “An important decision is a nonlinear one, where a nonlinear decision is one that might have a big impacts.”
So this whole post boils down to something like: “only debate decisions that might have big impacts.” I don’t really see what’s interesting about that idea.
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#5To me it seems like the author is saying “An important decision is a nonlinear one, where a nonlinear decision is one that might have a big impacts.” So this whole post boils down to something like: “only debate decisions that might have big impacts.” I don’t really see what’s interesting about that idea.
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Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#6To me it seems like the author is saying “An important decision is a nonlinear one, where a nonlinear decision is one that might have a big impacts.” So this whole post boils down to something like: “only debate decisions that might have big impacts.” I don’t really see what’s interesting about that idea.
> So this whole post boils down to something like: “only debate decisions that might have big impacts.” I don’t really see what’s interesting about that idea.
And yet, many people might agree with it but still debate trivial matters
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#7> I would rather implement a self-service e-commerce platform for a company’s merchandising team, rather than make it easier for engineers to service a ticket to build a /products/hat/:id endpoint every 6 weeks.
Sounds like the author is trying to justify building new stuff without being responsible for any of it.
Whatever delusions they have about the "non-linear", the big ideas are almost certainly not going to come from an engineer who doesn't have a seat at the table with the people actually running the business.
If one did they would hear all kinds of stuff that would not only wreck their self-esteem, but not have any obvious technical solutions. Engineers are not smarter than anyone else. Imagine that.
It's not so much about finding the non-linear but about finding what actually matters to the business you work for first. It's almost never going to be more software.
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#8To me it seems like the author is saying “An important decision is a nonlinear one, where a nonlinear decision is one that might have a big impacts.” So this whole post boils down to something like: “only debate decisions that might have big impacts.” I don’t really see what’s interesting about that idea.
> So this whole post boils down to something like: “only debate decisions that might have big impacts.” I don’t really see what’s interesting about that idea. And yet, many people might agree with it but still debate trivial matters
Yes, but when you say "trivial", I think you actually mean "pedantic". This is an important distinction because...
Click to read more (28 min read)
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#9> “optimizing for the first derivative” played well with this approach
That's... still linear? If the concept of non-linearity is supposed to add anything to this article, arguably this should be at least the second derivative!
Re: Only Debate The Non-Linear
#10> “optimizing for the first derivative” played well with this approach That's... still linear? If the concept of non-linearity is supposed to add anything to this article, arguably this should be at least the second derivative!
Only if the first derivative is constant. ;)