5 ms·

upvote, the title alone is pretty spot on. reminds me of jwz's "How will this software get my users laid" (http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html http://www.jwz

by enki 17y ago

upvote, the title alone is pretty spot on. reminds me of jwz's "How will this software get my users laid" (http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html)

karzeem 17y ago
I'm reminded of a tip I heard once. If you want to get phenomenal service in a restaurant, when your waiter's at the table loudly compliment him/her just as the manager walks by. People respond really well to anything that will make them more popular. (I mean, they go after things that will make them money largely because money is a proxy for social capital.)
- patio11 17y ago
  In regards to that last line: someone wrote recently "Japanese companies figure paying people is inefficient since most people will just buy things to increase their social status, so they award social status directly", and when I read that I reached Enlightenment. It is so true its almost painful to think about.
  - karzeem 17y ago
    Indeed. I'm increasingly struck by how much of what people do is driven by the desire to be liked/loved. So do Japanese workers get a much bigger percentage of their income in non-cash forms?
    - patio11 17y ago
      Well, let's see: the boss' desk is made of some expensive wood, mine is plastic. That's just skimming the surface, though. There is a board six feet from my desk which lists every name of regular employees for the two groups closest to us on the org chart, with a plastic marker indicating whether they're in or out of the office. The arrangement of names on that board is important: last time it got shuffled the lady in charge of it literally solicited the opinions of two senior team members as to whether it would be more appropriate to swap CoworkerX and I or not. That's superficial, though, too. To really get a feel for it you'd have to go to the office and watch who talks to who and how (Japanese has multiple different levels for polite language). For example, I work very closely with M-san. M-san is freakishly talented and a good company man -- everyone treats him with more respect than you would have predicted for his age. Except for S-san, our crusty old network admin, who is the 10x engineer to M-san's 10x engineering -- his form of address for M-san is close to "You, boy, I have homework for you". He puts his bare feet on the table when talking to the boss, and gets away with it. On the other hand, we have, say, a particular engineer my age who is not very seasoned yet, who gets talked down to by OLs younger than him.
      - ryanwaggoner 17y ago
        I love Japan, but pretty much nothing about that kind of working environment sounds attractive.
        lsb 17y ago
        Yes, that's why he's leaving to pursue Bingo Card Creator fulltime.
        patio11 17y ago
        Aside from the long hours, low pay, soul-crushing monotony, enterprise Java, cultural issues, and debugging code written in Bangalore by people working from a design document translated by Babelfish, it has been a wonderful experience.
        ryanwaggoner 17y ago
        Why have you put up with it this long?
        patio11 17y ago
        A couple reasons, some of which are personal. One major one reason I'm comfortable talking about is I feel that I owe 3 people who took a chance hiring me. They have been scrupulously fair in all their dealings with me, treated me well, and tolerated those parts of me that are not the perfect salaryman. I promised them 2 ~ 3 years, and they've done nothing to make me consider breaking that.
  - ZachPruckowski 17y ago
    Makes sense. Here in America, we spend a lot of our income just "keeping up with the Joneses". If next-door neighbor Mr. Jones has a nice HD flatscreen, I absolutely have to get one, if not a better one, or else I look relatively less successful[1]. It was this mentality that drove a lot of people into debt over the last decade or two. Everyone's income was basically flat, but they saw neighbors improving their standard of living and buying stuff, and so, afraid to admit weakness, they bought stuff too, using credit beyond their means, which of course caused the neighbors to do the same thing. Ditto for the housing bubble - people took out mortgages they couldn't afford because they looked around and saw their peers doing the same thing and didn't want to be left behind. [1] - "I" here stands for the prototypical American, not just me specifically.

by enki 17y ago

upvote, the title alone is pretty spot on. reminds me of jwz's "How will this software get my users laid" (http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html)

karzeem 17y ago

I'm reminded of a tip I heard once. If you want to get phenomenal service in a restaurant, when your waiter's at the table loudly compliment him/her just as the manager walks by. People respond really well to anything that will make them more popular. (I mean, they go after things that will make them money largely because money is a proxy for social capital.)

patio11 17y ago
In regards to that last line: someone wrote recently "Japanese companies figure paying people is inefficient since most people will just buy things to increase their social status, so they award social status directly", and when I read that I reached Enlightenment. It is so true its almost painful to think about.
- karzeem 17y ago
  Indeed. I'm increasingly struck by how much of what people do is driven by the desire to be liked/loved. So do Japanese workers get a much bigger percentage of their income in non-cash forms?
  - patio11 17y ago
    Well, let's see: the boss' desk is made of some expensive wood, mine is plastic. That's just skimming the surface, though. There is a board six feet from my desk which lists every name of regular employees for the two groups closest to us on the org chart, with a plastic marker indicating whether they're in or out of the office. The arrangement of names on that board is important: last time it got shuffled the lady in charge of it literally solicited the opinions of two senior team members as to whether it would be more appropriate to swap CoworkerX and I or not. That's superficial, though, too. To really get a feel for it you'd have to go to the office and watch who talks to who and how (Japanese has multiple different levels for polite language). For example, I work very closely with M-san. M-san is freakishly talented and a good company man -- everyone treats him with more respect than you would have predicted for his age. Except for S-san, our crusty old network admin, who is the 10x engineer to M-san's 10x engineering -- his form of address for M-san is close to "You, boy, I have homework for you". He puts his bare feet on the table when talking to the boss, and gets away with it. On the other hand, we have, say, a particular engineer my age who is not very seasoned yet, who gets talked down to by OLs younger than him.
    - ryanwaggoner 17y ago
      I love Japan, but pretty much nothing about that kind of working environment sounds attractive.
      - lsb 17y ago
        Yes, that's why he's leaving to pursue Bingo Card Creator fulltime.
      - patio11 17y ago
        Aside from the long hours, low pay, soul-crushing monotony, enterprise Java, cultural issues, and debugging code written in Bangalore by people working from a design document translated by Babelfish, it has been a wonderful experience.
        ryanwaggoner 17y ago
        Why have you put up with it this long?
        patio11 17y ago
        A couple reasons, some of which are personal. One major one reason I'm comfortable talking about is I feel that I owe 3 people who took a chance hiring me. They have been scrupulously fair in all their dealings with me, treated me well, and tolerated those parts of me that are not the perfect salaryman. I promised them 2 ~ 3 years, and they've done nothing to make me consider breaking that.
- ZachPruckowski 17y ago
  Makes sense. Here in America, we spend a lot of our income just "keeping up with the Joneses". If next-door neighbor Mr. Jones has a nice HD flatscreen, I absolutely have to get one, if not a better one, or else I look relatively less successful[1]. It was this mentality that drove a lot of people into debt over the last decade or two. Everyone's income was basically flat, but they saw neighbors improving their standard of living and buying stuff, and so, afraid to admit weakness, they bought stuff too, using credit beyond their means, which of course caused the neighbors to do the same thing. Ditto for the housing bubble - people took out mortgages they couldn't afford because they looked around and saw their peers doing the same thing and didn't want to be left behind. [1] - "I" here stands for the prototypical American, not just me specifically.