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On day in my previous job our junior support guy started cursing loudly. He had done what he was asked for and did some some small, _almost_ day-to-day support
by trm42 6y ago
On day in my previous job our junior support guy started cursing loudly. He had done what he was asked for and did some some small, _almost_ day-to-day support request which was supposed to do some requested maintenance things for some credit card accounts our company was handling. He by some small accident ended up invalidating the cards with our CC operator and closing the accounts on our end.
He was so wrecked about it and we, the more senior guys started helping him and comforting him that "yeah, this kind of blunders can happen to anyone, no worries. Let's figure this out together.".
The other guys figured how to restore the data into correct setup on our end, and I found some unimplemented badly documented "undo invalidation" endpoint from the CC operator with which we could fix the stuff on the operators end.
So we spent nice and fun evening together figuring out the problem as a team, but damn the guy was so torn up about his small and completely understandable fumble that nobody else needed to critique him about it.
The funny thing is that with this kind of blunders one learns a lot more and a lot faster than usually. People need to make mistakes. It's usually the best way to learn.
- eitland 6y ago> It's usually the best way to learn. There's a Norwegian saying that damage makes you knowledgeable - but not rich. Learning from others mistakes are very often cheaper and/or less painful.
- cpach 6y agoJust out of curiosity: How does that saying read in bokmål? (Or nynorsk) Hilsen fra Sverige (^_^)
- unhammer 6y ago"av skade blir man klok, men sjelden rik" is one variant; there's also the predicative form "klok av skade". (though I'd translate "klok" with "wise")
- eitland 6y agoGood point about the translation og "klok". I was about to use "wise" but ended with "knowledgeable" since it felt like the most literal translation. For anyone still following I think "wise" maps to the Norwegian "vis". BTW: I think old proverbs are really interesting - both local ones as well as international ones. Sooner or later someone should try to create a complete encyclopedia of proverbs :-)
- tremon 6y agoKnowing what it means, I can translate it word-for-word in Dutch: van schade wordt men wijs, maar zelden rijk It seems other European languages only include the first part in their variant: - Door schade en schande wordt men wijs (dutch, "through harm and shame, one begets wisdom") - Durch Schaden wird man klug (german, "through harm one gets smart") - Dommage rend sage (french, "stupidity breeds wisdom") - Quae nocent, saepe docent (latin, "what hurts often teaches")
- anthk 6y agoSpanish: "A hostias se aprende" (By a beat up it's ought to learn), or learning the hard way.
- guytv 6y ago“Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. “No”, I replied. “I just spent $600,000 training him – why would I want somebody to hire his experience?” • Thomas John Watson Sr., IBM