4 ms·

A powerful "no man" can be a valuable asset sometimes. I was involved in the design of an ASIC. This was going to be used by people from all different areas o

A powerful "no man" can be a valuable asset sometimes. I was involved in the design of an ASIC. This was going to be used by people from all different areas of the company, and they all had various demands. Most had never worked on a chip before, and didn't realize the cost of what they were asking for. The easy thing to do would have been to ensure that every requested feature was added But that would have burned area, power, and huge amounts of design and verification time. Luckily we had a senior guy who had the clout to say "no". Over and over again, he would tell people how much things would cost in terms of money and time, and ask if the features they wanted were worth that much. Or he'd point out that what they wanted could be done with firmware plus existing features. Overall, he probably saved millions of dollars and caused the project to be delivered on time.

freehunter 7y ago
I have an unofficial board of advisors for my small company, and one of them is a "No Man". I knew that when I asked him to join. Every time the company has an idea, this guy will shut it down immediately. He forces us to defend every single decision. Do we always listen to him? No. Does he always win? No. Is he always right? Absolutely not. But I keep him around because he forces everyone in the company to defend every idea. If you still feel good about the idea after defending it from him, then go ahead. If you've lost faith, then I'm glad we didn't waste any time on it.
- daotoad 7y ago
  Every company really, really, really....really needs someone like that. Imagine how much better the Star Wars prequels could have been if only Lucasfilm had a strong No Person to stop them from doing stupid shit.
  - wincy 7y ago
    George Lucas’ ex-wife was the no-woman on the original trilogy. She was his editor!
    - zik 7y ago
      He needs to remarry her.
- TravHatesMe 7y ago
  What a lovely team member to have. Everything should be questioned. This is how we get smarter. This is how we learn. Vocalizing your arguments helps convince yourself and others and validates (or invalidates) an idea. Arguments put forth should be criticized and challenged. However this becomes difficult when egos come into the picture. There are stubborn engineers that will never accept that the possibility that they might be wrong. With this in mind, the "no man" cannot be the decision-maker, the "no man" should be playing the role of a lawyer.
- shostack 7y ago
  I'll admit to being a semi-frequent "no" person and I'm fortunate to work for someone that values that. I've learned some people can take personal offense to having their ideas challenged, particularly when...ahem... There are some glaring holes in them they frankly should have caught. So over time I've found ways to try and take the people out of it, and also to be enthusiastic about the act of having ideas, because I'd rather have people have a bunch of ideas that mostly don't work, with occasional nuggets of gold than people who aren't capable of or engaged enough to think of new things. Personally, I start considering most ideas, particularly my own, from the standpoint of "why will this NOT work?" It helps me sift through things quicker by identifying potential deal breakers earlier in the process, and helps me make sure I've done my due diligence on important decisions. The net result is that I kind of enjoy poking holes in things all day, even if others see it as "not optimistic enough."
dredmorbius 7y ago
Having someone who will (or can) justify their nos can be quite useful. Having a cadre of people who simply emit a nonending stream of nos for, erm, no reason, and who cannot be reasoned with (see the parallel response by freehunter about the "no" board for a counterexample), is directly harmful. There's also a time and place for experimentation, and a time when it's got to be made clear that there's only so much time (or other budget) for research, and that that's going to be tracked and burned down (though the discretion may be put on the R&D team itself to decide how to allocate that). Much of Rachel's essay is more about management-by-mythology than about the saying-of-nos, specifically.

freehunter 7y ago

I have an unofficial board of advisors for my small company, and one of them is a "No Man". I knew that when I asked him to join. Every time the company has an idea, this guy will shut it down immediately. He forces us to defend every single decision. Do we always listen to him? No. Does he always win? No. Is he always right? Absolutely not. But I keep him around because he forces everyone in the company to defend every idea. If you still feel good about the idea after defending it from him, then go ahead. If you've lost faith, then I'm glad we didn't waste any time on it.

daotoad 7y ago
Every company really, really, really....really needs someone like that. Imagine how much better the Star Wars prequels could have been if only Lucasfilm had a strong No Person to stop them from doing stupid shit.
- wincy 7y ago
  George Lucas’ ex-wife was the no-woman on the original trilogy. She was his editor!
  - zik 7y ago
    He needs to remarry her.
TravHatesMe 7y ago
What a lovely team member to have. Everything should be questioned. This is how we get smarter. This is how we learn. Vocalizing your arguments helps convince yourself and others and validates (or invalidates) an idea. Arguments put forth should be criticized and challenged. However this becomes difficult when egos come into the picture. There are stubborn engineers that will never accept that the possibility that they might be wrong. With this in mind, the "no man" cannot be the decision-maker, the "no man" should be playing the role of a lawyer.
shostack 7y ago
I'll admit to being a semi-frequent "no" person and I'm fortunate to work for someone that values that. I've learned some people can take personal offense to having their ideas challenged, particularly when...ahem... There are some glaring holes in them they frankly should have caught. So over time I've found ways to try and take the people out of it, and also to be enthusiastic about the act of having ideas, because I'd rather have people have a bunch of ideas that mostly don't work, with occasional nuggets of gold than people who aren't capable of or engaged enough to think of new things. Personally, I start considering most ideas, particularly my own, from the standpoint of "why will this NOT work?" It helps me sift through things quicker by identifying potential deal breakers earlier in the process, and helps me make sure I've done my due diligence on important decisions. The net result is that I kind of enjoy poking holes in things all day, even if others see it as "not optimistic enough."

dredmorbius 7y ago

Having someone who will (or can) justify their nos can be quite useful. Having a cadre of people who simply emit a nonending stream of nos for, erm, no reason, and who cannot be reasoned with (see the parallel response by freehunter about the "no" board for a counterexample), is directly harmful. There's also a time and place for experimentation, and a time when it's got to be made clear that there's only so much time (or other budget) for research, and that that's going to be tracked and burned down (though the discretion may be put on the R&D team itself to decide how to allocate that). Much of Rachel's essay is more about management-by-mythology than about the saying-of-nos, specifically.