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> How are people actually learning new stuff? You just do it. On the job. Without asking for permission. This doesn't work for all skills, unfortunately, and
by crispyambulance 9y ago
> How are people actually learning new stuff?
You just do it. On the job. Without asking for permission.
This doesn't work for all skills, unfortunately, and some people have jobs where they are project-managed to a degree that every minute needs to be accounted for. But mostly, there's some slack to pick up new skills.
- maxxxxx 9y ago" You just do it. On the job. Without asking for permission." That's what I generally do and I recommend doing it to others. But there are limits to the size of things to learn that way.
- dabockster 9y ago> You just do it. On the job. Without asking for permission. And hope your boss is forgiving.
- crispyambulance 9y agoPerhaps, but I have NEVER heard of somebody getting fired for "up-skilling" while still getting work done.
- maxxxxx 9y agoI have seen people squeezing in a whole new stack just because. Like instead of adding two new web APIs to the existing server suddenly you have that weird beast that's half Node and half .NET.
- jaggederest 9y agoI think that's one of the gaping flaws to that method of skill acquisition. It's a great way to introduce politics and negative-sum-games to the workplace. Suddenly people are picking projects and stacks based on personal aggrandizement rather than professionalism. Maybe companies should start hiring a chief behavioral (economic?) officer to go with the chief culture officer.
- maxxxxx 9y agoI don't blame this on the people doing it. There are some idiots but in general it's mainly because a lot of people don't feel challenged and therefore look for something interesting. Managers should encourage innovation but control it. I see so many projects where management rejects every kind of change without discussion. Either only losers will stay in that environment or you get this kind of underground projects. If management looked at something more than only deadlines and budgets the whole climate would improve.
- crispyambulance 9y agoThat's hilarious. But that's what people do when there's no "boss-sanctioned" way to up-skill and learn new things. I think lots of smart folks get started by cargo-culting an oversized solution/platform onto their sad boring projects, then gradually step into bigger and better things at other employers. The two-headed monstrosities are a necessary evil to get started for many people.
- JBReefer 9y agoI'm literally working one something that's exactly that, right now. Connected by HAProxy joining APIs from both sides. Weird.
- logfromblammo 9y ago> jobs where they are project-managed to a degree that every minute needs to be accounted for Having been in such a job, I can say without reservation that the manager demanding such precise accounting has no idea what you do or how you do it, and is ultimately relying on you to be both honest and supernaturally accurate with respect to estimates. What ends up happening is that you pad an hour of actual work out to a week, because you can justify any amount of delay by pointing at the spaghettified, debt-riddled code base, and start looking for a new job immediately. That boss will make a show of keeping an eye on you, but you quickly learn that they have no idea whether you are working or slacking just by looking at you, or looking over your shoulder at your screen. The incumbent lead developers have already developed a system for maintaining the status quo indefinitely. You can follow them down the primrose path, to the complete destruction of your professional ethics, or you can become the squeaky wheel that gets fired. Even if you can't generate some slack yourself, you can certainly pick up new skills at your next job, which you should be seeking without further delay.