4 ms·

It has happened twice during my career that a colleague got actually, literally hit by a bus. Both of them were back at work after a week, one of them had prob

It has happened twice during my career that a colleague got actually, literally hit by a bus. Both of them were back at work after a week, one of them had problems with their arm for a while longer but this risk is way overblown.

speedgoose 6y ago
It's a metaphor to illustrate than someone can suddenly disappear. It can be a bus, a plane crash, a murder, jail time. It happens once a while.
- bregma 6y ago
  We have been instructed to use the phrase "lottery factor" during our cynical rants. Everyone feels much better. I guess it's because of the "if I won the $70 million jackpot I'd just come back to work" meme. I'd buy a bus with my winnings and put the lottery factor into effect for my former coworkers.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    The problem with the "lottery factor" is that if someone wins the lottery, you can still theoretically go to their new mansion with a wrench and beat the information out of them.
- Scarblac 6y ago
  Of course. I just thought it was funny how it turned out in reality. Don't get hit by a bus, you'll be the butt of programmer jokes for years.
  - squiggleblaz 6y ago
    I think you would have got a different reception if you didn't include the "the risk is way overblown" bit. Up till that point, yeah it's morbid but funny. After that point it seems even confusing - how can this person not realise the bus number is not meant to be taken literally? But yeah, I don't even walk out in front of vehicles that I'm not certain will stop when I have a green light and they have a red light. This surely pisses some drivers off when I stop in the middle of the road waiting for them to stop. They seem to be like "I'm not going to kill you and I'm offended you act like I will".
- gwd 6y ago
  When I'm creating hypotheticals which test our project's resiliency, I prefer to imagine my colleagues suddenly deciding to retire early and travel the world or something like that. But "sudden early retirement factor" doesn't quite have the same punchiness as "bus factor".
- jleahy 6y ago
  Unfortunately jail time has an outsized effect, look at Hans Reiser. That incident pretty much killed reiser4, which was on track to become a very popular filesystem for Linux, despite having 10s of developers working on it.
  - ajuc 6y ago
    It didn't helped that the system was named after him.
- arusahni 6y ago
  > a murder, jail time Obligatory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser
- nly 6y ago
  Or, more commonly, and at my work, they leave the company with 1 months notice and there isn't time to do proper handover of the plethora of projects they babysit. Whoever picks it up ends up learning everything from scratch and stale documentation

speedgoose 6y ago

It's a metaphor to illustrate than someone can suddenly disappear. It can be a bus, a plane crash, a murder, jail time. It happens once a while.

bregma 6y ago
We have been instructed to use the phrase "lottery factor" during our cynical rants. Everyone feels much better. I guess it's because of the "if I won the $70 million jackpot I'd just come back to work" meme. I'd buy a bus with my winnings and put the lottery factor into effect for my former coworkers.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  The problem with the "lottery factor" is that if someone wins the lottery, you can still theoretically go to their new mansion with a wrench and beat the information out of them.
Scarblac 6y ago
Of course. I just thought it was funny how it turned out in reality. Don't get hit by a bus, you'll be the butt of programmer jokes for years.
- squiggleblaz 6y ago
  I think you would have got a different reception if you didn't include the "the risk is way overblown" bit. Up till that point, yeah it's morbid but funny. After that point it seems even confusing - how can this person not realise the bus number is not meant to be taken literally? But yeah, I don't even walk out in front of vehicles that I'm not certain will stop when I have a green light and they have a red light. This surely pisses some drivers off when I stop in the middle of the road waiting for them to stop. They seem to be like "I'm not going to kill you and I'm offended you act like I will".
gwd 6y ago
When I'm creating hypotheticals which test our project's resiliency, I prefer to imagine my colleagues suddenly deciding to retire early and travel the world or something like that. But "sudden early retirement factor" doesn't quite have the same punchiness as "bus factor".
jleahy 6y ago
Unfortunately jail time has an outsized effect, look at Hans Reiser. That incident pretty much killed reiser4, which was on track to become a very popular filesystem for Linux, despite having 10s of developers working on it.
- ajuc 6y ago
  It didn't helped that the system was named after him.
arusahni 6y ago
> a murder, jail time Obligatory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser
nly 6y ago
Or, more commonly, and at my work, they leave the company with 1 months notice and there isn't time to do proper handover of the plethora of projects they babysit. Whoever picks it up ends up learning everything from scratch and stale documentation