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Ask HN: Is resourcefulness undervalued?

4 points by pinkrooftop 11y ago

Places I have worked appreciate resourcefulness but do not reward, encourage, or hire for it. Anyone else experience this? Perhaps I'm just confusing complacency with lack of ability

kat 11y ago
I've usually worked with people who encourage and support resourcefulness. Especially on smaller teams when developers have a wide range of responsibilities, you're frequently working in areas you have little experience in. Everyone on the team team understands that the ability to cope with unusal problems should be rewarded. How are you relating complacency and lack of ability to resourcefulness? I think resourcefulness is more of a mindset (or a soft skill), I don't think it is related to lack of technical abilities.
- apryldelancey 11y ago
  I agree and think it's hard to hire for resourcefulness. I've found that people don't always know what they are really capable of until they are faced with a need. For example, I never knew I could code in JavaScript until I needed to.
- pinkrooftop 11y ago
  I like the idea of it being a mindset I guess by complacency/ability I mean instead of working to create a solution to a problem, offloading the problem to someone else or just suffering with it.
  - kat 11y ago
    Yup, I understand when someone just suffers with the problem instead of fixing it, its a bit frustrating to watch them work inefficiently. I always find someone else's reasoning interesting. Sometimes it is no desire to learn but other times its lack of free time to fix a non-critical issue, no apparent business value (fun task vs fast but ugly task), or they are afraid of how their solution is going to be judged.
gadders 11y ago
YCombinator values it: http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html </obligatory PG essay>
paulcole 11y ago
"Yes" - People who consider themselves resourceful. "No" - People who aren't resourceful and take advantage of those who are-- making them, in a way, resourceful.

4 points by pinkrooftop 11y ago

Places I have worked appreciate resourcefulness but do not reward, encourage, or hire for it. Anyone else experience this? Perhaps I'm just confusing complacency with lack of ability

kat 11y ago

I've usually worked with people who encourage and support resourcefulness. Especially on smaller teams when developers have a wide range of responsibilities, you're frequently working in areas you have little experience in. Everyone on the team team understands that the ability to cope with unusal problems should be rewarded. How are you relating complacency and lack of ability to resourcefulness? I think resourcefulness is more of a mindset (or a soft skill), I don't think it is related to lack of technical abilities.

apryldelancey 11y ago
I agree and think it's hard to hire for resourcefulness. I've found that people don't always know what they are really capable of until they are faced with a need. For example, I never knew I could code in JavaScript until I needed to.
pinkrooftop 11y ago
I like the idea of it being a mindset I guess by complacency/ability I mean instead of working to create a solution to a problem, offloading the problem to someone else or just suffering with it.
- kat 11y ago
  Yup, I understand when someone just suffers with the problem instead of fixing it, its a bit frustrating to watch them work inefficiently. I always find someone else's reasoning interesting. Sometimes it is no desire to learn but other times its lack of free time to fix a non-critical issue, no apparent business value (fun task vs fast but ugly task), or they are afraid of how their solution is going to be judged.

gadders 11y ago

YCombinator values it: http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html </obligatory PG essay>

paulcole 11y ago

"Yes" - People who consider themselves resourceful. "No" - People who aren't resourceful and take advantage of those who are-- making them, in a way, resourceful.