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"My only concern hiring older engineers is that they are stuck in a rut." Wow, better check that bias.
by wai1234 8y ago
"My only concern hiring older engineers is that they are stuck in a rut."
Wow, better check that bias.
- tomc1985 8y agoBiased or not, experienced people fighting change is nothing new
- wrs 8y agoInexperienced people advocating change is not new either. They both have their pros and cons.
- OldHand2018 8y agoExperienced people advocating against good changes is a bad thing. Experienced people advocating against bad changes is a good thing. Inexperienced people advocating for a good change is a good thing. Inexperienced people advocating for a bad change is a bad thing. It's almost like it would be great if we knew what changes were good and what changes were bad before we started arguing about them. Any ideas???
- xyproto 8y agoIdeas just have to be tried out. The problem is when a company have absolutely no process for letting developers, young or experienced, try out a new idea. Many companies have a very random "process", where a few select people can get away with just implementing their ideas, without any testing. Small teams of 2-3 people spending a few days for testing out a new idea, or writing a prototype, may often work out.
- wrs 8y agoOne good filter I’ve found is whether the person arguing has a good understanding of both the old thing and the new thing. If an experienced person doesn’t seem to understand the new thing, or an inexperienced person doesn’t seem to understand the old thing, then they probably aren’t making a good argument. Both of those certainly happen —- the inexperienced will follow fads and the experienced will not want to devalue their knowledge.
- firebones 8y agoAlso known as "Chesterton's Fence". Before you tear down a fence, understand why it was put there in the first place.
- i_made_a_booboo 8y agoAs my old boss used to say "qualify your advisors"
- i_made_a_booboo 8y agoYou articulated this problem perfectly. One of my central theses is 'Its almost impossible for people to determine what's true and equally as impossible to get them to admit it'. Every single case you point out each actor thinks they are doing the right thing. Nobody knows what they are doing aside from one of those cases. The caveat being they have to fight against everyone else who believe they are also correct. This all feeds into another central thesis 'the truth is at the very top of Maslow's hierarchy of "nice to haves"'
- matt_the_bass 8y agoPlease see my other replies for further clarification. Note you’ve assumed that I’m not an older engineer myself. Perhaps that is your bias :)
- mehh 8y agoIt is really quite simple to assess if someone is 'in a rut', even more so when they have more experience, as it becomes more obvious. Even with mid-career developers I check for this. So "My only concern hiring older engineers is that they are stuck in a rut." doesn't come across well, anyone reading this should be very clear that to adopt that thinking when interviewing would be very lazy on your part! Not trying to bash you personally, and I suspect you just didn't express what you meant so well :)
- matt_the_bass 8y agoYes. Thanks. Please see my other replies for clarification.