5 ms·

The Door Problem (2014)

77 points by windsurfer 6y ago

dang 6y ago
If curious see also 2017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16021509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16021509
- Y_Y 6y ago
  If incurious await further instruction.
  - dang 6y ago
    That case is meant to fall through. Is there a bug?
amirmaleki 6y ago
That was quite an insight. But wait, isn't it middle-managers job to address those conflicts and take steps to resolve them?
- muststopmyths 6y ago
  there aren't really conflicts. all the "problems" with the door are things a designer needs to spec out as behaviors of the "door system". The rest is just how each cog in the whole machine deals with implementing the design.
andreareina 6y ago
And here I thought it was about the other door problem, where they're used as a chokepoint, enabling a more timid playstyle.
tjchear 6y ago
I like that the author brings up all the different roles in a company and explains succinctly what each one does with the door. This could be a good way to explain an industry or the roles within a company to newcomers.
LoSboccacc 6y ago
> Character Artist: I don’t really care "I'll have to detail the hand for the door animation"
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
supernova87a 6y ago
If you have a good team, 2/3 of those roles can be avoided, saving you from bloating your company and diluting your value.
- sound1 6y ago
  Reminds me of this Dilbert strip: https://dilbert.com/strip/2011-04-14 https://dilbert.com/strip/2011-04-14
ineedasername 6y ago
I think all jobs have that component in many ways, though not all with the veneer of glamour. In my job, it's not doors. It's "I count things". I'm probably something like a data scientist (my work precedes the popularization of that term) but I'm sort of merging of data/statistical analyst, report writer, occasional programmer, occasional ETL writer etc. An extremely large amount of my work results in output that is a count of some measure or metric or whatever. It might be something that happened, things happening now, things that might happen. But a lot of it comes down to counts. I recently finished a month-long analysis of 10 years of data to validate potential operational changes. The result? Counts of what happened in the past, counts of what might happen if we make changes. The list of questions I have to answer, and ask people, is as long as the "doors". Most jobs are rarely as simple as they appear from the outside. On a novel project, it might take me a week to come up with a single number. I have had a few occasions where I have had to explain in a similar "doors" list why that is often the case. It often ends with me saying something like, "So I can get you a bad number in a day. I can get you something minimally usable in 3 days. Or I can get you the correct answer in a week."

77 points by windsurfer 6y ago

dang 6y ago

If curious see also 2017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16021509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16021509

Y_Y 6y ago
If incurious await further instruction.
- dang 6y ago
  That case is meant to fall through. Is there a bug?

amirmaleki 6y ago

That was quite an insight. But wait, isn't it middle-managers job to address those conflicts and take steps to resolve them?

muststopmyths 6y ago
there aren't really conflicts. all the "problems" with the door are things a designer needs to spec out as behaviors of the "door system". The rest is just how each cog in the whole machine deals with implementing the design.

andreareina 6y ago

And here I thought it was about the other door problem, where they're used as a chokepoint, enabling a more timid playstyle.

tjchear 6y ago

I like that the author brings up all the different roles in a company and explains succinctly what each one does with the door. This could be a good way to explain an industry or the roles within a company to newcomers.

LoSboccacc 6y ago

> Character Artist: I don’t really care "I'll have to detail the hand for the door animation"

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

supernova87a 6y ago

If you have a good team, 2/3 of those roles can be avoided, saving you from bloating your company and diluting your value.

sound1 6y ago
Reminds me of this Dilbert strip: https://dilbert.com/strip/2011-04-14 https://dilbert.com/strip/2011-04-14

ineedasername 6y ago

I think all jobs have that component in many ways, though not all with the veneer of glamour. In my job, it's not doors. It's "I count things". I'm probably something like a data scientist (my work precedes the popularization of that term) but I'm sort of merging of data/statistical analyst, report writer, occasional programmer, occasional ETL writer etc. An extremely large amount of my work results in output that is a count of some measure or metric or whatever. It might be something that happened, things happening now, things that might happen. But a lot of it comes down to counts. I recently finished a month-long analysis of 10 years of data to validate potential operational changes. The result? Counts of what happened in the past, counts of what might happen if we make changes. The list of questions I have to answer, and ask people, is as long as the "doors". Most jobs are rarely as simple as they appear from the outside. On a novel project, it might take me a week to come up with a single number. I have had a few occasions where I have had to explain in a similar "doors" list why that is often the case. It often ends with me saying something like, "So I can get you a bad number in a day. I can get you something minimally usable in 3 days. Or I can get you the correct answer in a week."