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Management training, maybe. Why you shouldn't train your technical startup workers: 1. They will learn on their own. 2. They will train each other. 3. Th
by dkarl 16y ago
Management training, maybe. Why you shouldn't train your technical startup workers:
1. They will learn on their own.
2. They will train each other.
3. They will learn by training each other.
4. They will often have to learn skills for which no training is available.
Maybe I've been lucky, but my coworkers have always been extremely generous with their time, and I've tried to be the same way. These days there's also a huge amount of information on the internet: tutorials, technical presentations, and so on. Anything that's common enough to have in-person training available, there's a multitude of articles in addition to the official documentation.
If there's professional training available but a lack of free or reasonably priced documentation, then it's a scam anyway and you might as well save your time and just give all your money to the nearest consultant.
- eru 16y agoAren't your four bullet points arguments in favour of training? Just not in favour of hiring a dedicated in-person trainer. But setting up a system to disperse knowledge and allocate time for helping each other out seems useful.
- dkarl 16y agoManagement doesn't call it "training" unless it's organized and restricted in some way. One developer going to another and saying, "Hey, I need help with this," and the two of them going through it with a terminal or a whiteboard is not "training" unless it done on management's schedule or recorded in some training web site. From management's point of view, if they can't track and report it, it doesn't exist. So if you want informal training run by developers, you tell management you don't need any training at all.
- eru 16y agoI am glad my workplace is a bit less pathological.
- dkarl 16y agoYou did say "setting up a system to disperse knowledge and allocate time." That's management talk. Nobody should need to get time "allocated" so he can use the "system" to disperse knowledge. There's your pathology right there: the idea that developers can't or shouldn't manage their own time, not to mention the idea that developers don't know how to teach each other or write documentation without management setting up a system to help them.
- eru 16y agoOh, my talk may sound strange because English is not my first language.