3 ms·

I'm not sure I understand you, could you provide an example of what is an 'issue' and what is a 'detail'?

aaronblohowiak 17y ago
I imagine it is something like this: An Issue would be something like a race condition, a detail might be something like a slight inconsistency in naming of attributes. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinsons_Law_of_Triviality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinsons_Law_of_Triviality
edw519 17y ago
Examples are everywhere. In fact, almost every human interaction is an example. Here are a few off the top of my head: Quality control rejected one program because it was indented 4 spaces instead of the standard 5, but accepted another, even though it had enough memory leaks to crash the server under certain conditions. The first was a detail; the second was an issue. It took me 2 days to get Q.C. to understand the difference. A friend recently arrived for a dinner party an hour late and then complained to me that another spoke with her mouth full. As far as I was concerned, the first was an issue and the second was a detail. My friend thought otherwise about both. Accounting recently spent 3 days implementing a new key policy for the private rest rooms (presumably to prevent theft) and then wrote off $50,000 of inventory because no one could find the proper paperwork. IMO, the former was a detail upon which much time was wasted and the latter was an issue that never actually got dealt with. We spent the first hour of a recent meeting trying to determine naming conventions, but ran out of time before we decided if the customer's credit limit should be split between 2 divisions. Again, wasting time on details and not dealing with real issues. (This is a great example. One of the best ways to lose your shirt is to not deal with credit/collection/accounts receivable issues.) My favorite on-line example: A few years ago here on hn, I posted examples of how I found some of my customers. I expected some interesting discussion, but the thread was hijacked because of the presence of 2 concepts in my original post "Bible" and "pawn shop". Lots of issues that could have provided value for people were never explored because the gang preferred to beat a detail to death. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens quite a bit on-line. Funny how I still remember that thread. Here it is: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400
- crux 17y ago
  The unfortunate thing, which your examples actually perfectly illustrate, is that everyone has a different idea of what's important, relevant, or necessary in any circumstance. Your examples are actually all situations where you and someone else DISAGREED on what was a issue and what was a detail. Bikeshedding naming conventions is an easy one, but shouldn't QC have well laid-out guidelines so that they don't have to rely on judgment calls by individuals? Was it as obvious to your friend as it was to you that arriving at a party at a particular time is a major priority, whereas table manners once you get there are trivial? Examples are everywhere because all human beings prioritize and act on their priorities. But we tend to have different ideas of what's important, relevant, necessary, or good. Hence... discord.
  - WalkingDead 17y ago
    I think the parent is implying that while discussing with any second party, it is easier to mutually agree on which one is an issue and which one is details --- compared to discussing on the problem itself and finding a resolution.

I imagine it is something like this: An Issue would be something like a race condition, a detail might be something like a slight inconsistency in naming of attributes. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinsons_Law_of_Triviality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinsons_Law_of_Triviality

edw519 17y ago

Examples are everywhere. In fact, almost every human interaction is an example. Here are a few off the top of my head: Quality control rejected one program because it was indented 4 spaces instead of the standard 5, but accepted another, even though it had enough memory leaks to crash the server under certain conditions. The first was a detail; the second was an issue. It took me 2 days to get Q.C. to understand the difference. A friend recently arrived for a dinner party an hour late and then complained to me that another spoke with her mouth full. As far as I was concerned, the first was an issue and the second was a detail. My friend thought otherwise about both. Accounting recently spent 3 days implementing a new key policy for the private rest rooms (presumably to prevent theft) and then wrote off $50,000 of inventory because no one could find the proper paperwork. IMO, the former was a detail upon which much time was wasted and the latter was an issue that never actually got dealt with. We spent the first hour of a recent meeting trying to determine naming conventions, but ran out of time before we decided if the customer's credit limit should be split between 2 divisions. Again, wasting time on details and not dealing with real issues. (This is a great example. One of the best ways to lose your shirt is to not deal with credit/collection/accounts receivable issues.) My favorite on-line example: A few years ago here on hn, I posted examples of how I found some of my customers. I expected some interesting discussion, but the thread was hijacked because of the presence of 2 concepts in my original post "Bible" and "pawn shop". Lots of issues that could have provided value for people were never explored because the gang preferred to beat a detail to death. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens quite a bit on-line. Funny how I still remember that thread. Here it is: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182400

crux 17y ago
The unfortunate thing, which your examples actually perfectly illustrate, is that everyone has a different idea of what's important, relevant, or necessary in any circumstance. Your examples are actually all situations where you and someone else DISAGREED on what was a issue and what was a detail. Bikeshedding naming conventions is an easy one, but shouldn't QC have well laid-out guidelines so that they don't have to rely on judgment calls by individuals? Was it as obvious to your friend as it was to you that arriving at a party at a particular time is a major priority, whereas table manners once you get there are trivial? Examples are everywhere because all human beings prioritize and act on their priorities. But we tend to have different ideas of what's important, relevant, necessary, or good. Hence... discord.
- WalkingDead 17y ago
  I think the parent is implying that while discussing with any second party, it is easier to mutually agree on which one is an issue and which one is details --- compared to discussing on the problem itself and finding a resolution.