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The problem is that the management can't tell who's any good. They see "the guru" struggle for several months on a "very difficult project" and then finally com

The problem is that the management can't tell who's any good. They see "the guru" struggle for several months on a "very difficult project" and then finally come through (with an added bonus that only the guru can understand the system afterwards so it MUST be very complicated) and just assume that he's been walking on water. He's young and went to a very good school... But then you find out it's a simple inventory control merging with the UPS API to ship widgets. They took that old saw about only the grandkids being able to make the VCR stop blinking 12 and applied it to the entire frikkin world and they are unable to tell that it isn't even remotely true.

epigramx 10y ago
> the management can't tell who's any good When they don't know what to do, they resort to the basics, i.e. "he will stay alive longer, he is underpaid, get him".
scandox 10y ago
> They took that old saw about only the grandkids being able to make the VCR stop blinking 12 and applied it to the entire frikkin world I see this a lot. Companies where top management are not sure of the difference in skills between a guy they pay 80k and their cousin's nephew who is really smart.
- bilbo0s 10y ago
  To be fair... if the guy they pay 80K is young and inexperienced like their nephew... maybe there isn't as much difference as we'd like to think?
DanielBMarkham 10y ago
There's a lot of truth there. Much of what passes for "management" in IT is nothing more than black magic guesswork. How many people do you need to do X? The answer could vary wildly depending on the actual people involved, yet you don't know the people when you're planning it. So it's decided that X will take 20 people, and guess what? At a minimum it will take 20 people. Magic. Apply this same kind of problem-solving skills to any other problem you're facing. Is this new program going to involve a lot of difficult technology? The groupthink says we should give it to young 20-somethings. They're naturally smarter than the old dogs. Plus they're cheaper to pay and easier to get to work overtime. Their ego is more involved so they'll kill themselves before they'll push back on us for anything we've done wrong. Sweet deal all around.

epigramx 10y ago

> the management can't tell who's any good When they don't know what to do, they resort to the basics, i.e. "he will stay alive longer, he is underpaid, get him".

scandox 10y ago

> They took that old saw about only the grandkids being able to make the VCR stop blinking 12 and applied it to the entire frikkin world I see this a lot. Companies where top management are not sure of the difference in skills between a guy they pay 80k and their cousin's nephew who is really smart.

bilbo0s 10y ago
To be fair... if the guy they pay 80K is young and inexperienced like their nephew... maybe there isn't as much difference as we'd like to think?

DanielBMarkham 10y ago

There's a lot of truth there. Much of what passes for "management" in IT is nothing more than black magic guesswork. How many people do you need to do X? The answer could vary wildly depending on the actual people involved, yet you don't know the people when you're planning it. So it's decided that X will take 20 people, and guess what? At a minimum it will take 20 people. Magic. Apply this same kind of problem-solving skills to any other problem you're facing. Is this new program going to involve a lot of difficult technology? The groupthink says we should give it to young 20-somethings. They're naturally smarter than the old dogs. Plus they're cheaper to pay and easier to get to work overtime. Their ego is more involved so they'll kill themselves before they'll push back on us for anything we've done wrong. Sweet deal all around.