4 ms·

Curious to know your motivation to do this instead of more tactful methods? Were you aware ahead of time how it could come off?

lmilcin 5y ago
I kinda suspected how it will end up. Honestly, I knew immediately when I joined that I made a huge mistake. My patience for bullshit is very short and I am extra infuriated by people who just don't care to do a good job or help the company (that is paying their salary) and are completely fine crippling their own project for some strange power games. I knew that if I was going to do what they (management) wanted of me -- which was to sit quiet and do nothing, I would have to leave anyway. So I decided to give it a shot and it did not work. But it sure was fun to watch these people trying to gather some response before they had a chance to reach their back channels to solve the problem another way.
- noduerme 5y ago
  This is why being a solo dev kicks ass, and why it's incredibly painful for me to read the stories of people who care about doing a good job getting crushed by these managerial hierarchies. First of all, a good CTO would probably fire the lot immediately. But secondly, there's this human dynamic - did you ever have to work on a chem project in high school with 3 randomly assigned classmates? Were you the one who made sure nothing exploded, and then found yourself writing the paper and sharing the grade with them? Sure. Because they knew you would pull the weight. And they would go on to be middle managers just as lazy and work-averse as they were as teenagers. They prey on us... the people who think hard enough to do better. I don't know why you'd ever want to join an organization like that, but it's good you found a booming way out of it.
  - galaxyLogic 5y ago
    I much agree with you. I'm curious, does this apply to pair-programming?
    - noduerme 5y ago
      I tend to pair up with artists where I handle the code and they command the visuals. I find that highly effective and the conversations around UI drive both people to double down on their work. I haven't participated in paired coding but I'd think it would work in a similar way. Really the smaller the team, the more motivated everyone is to pull their weight, but I've even worked on 5-6-person teams where at least one person declared themselves the "marketing" person was living off the fat of the land.
      - lmilcin 5y ago
        I think the most productive teams have people with partly shared, partly complementing skill sets. The shared skill must be important communication enabler. For example, in a development team the shared skill sets could be ability to code (so don't bother with Scrum Masters and Product Owners who can't appreciate coding). But it does not have to be coding, I have also seen teams which were all proficient in financial markets and used it as their language. The complementing could be: - one with long beard who has lots of experience and knows how to and how not to do stuff, can debug the hell out of everything and acts as problem solver of last resort, - one who knows how to make beautiful graphics and UIs, - one who knows how to manage infrastructure efficiently and reliably and knows how to do all the tiny pesky things to make stuff happen, - one who is good at understanding the product side and can be liaison between dev team and clients/management (assuming he understands to use "we" rather than "I"), - one who is not afraid to dirty their hands and do the absolutely most mundane stuff that nobody else wants to touch with 10ft pole, and so on. I think this promotes ownership which is always a good way to get them motivated. On the other hand having people with exactly same skill set (for example due to constant hiring profile) tends to result in people who feel to be exchangeable cogs in the machine and less of ownership. At least this is my subjective feeling.
- catsarebetter 5y ago
  Thanks for sharing, I've been in a similar emotional position, it's a bunch of bad stories to come before the good one, if there is ever a good one. Sounds like there was! Hope you were able to find a better fit!

lmilcin 5y ago

I kinda suspected how it will end up. Honestly, I knew immediately when I joined that I made a huge mistake. My patience for bullshit is very short and I am extra infuriated by people who just don't care to do a good job or help the company (that is paying their salary) and are completely fine crippling their own project for some strange power games. I knew that if I was going to do what they (management) wanted of me -- which was to sit quiet and do nothing, I would have to leave anyway. So I decided to give it a shot and it did not work. But it sure was fun to watch these people trying to gather some response before they had a chance to reach their back channels to solve the problem another way.

noduerme 5y ago
This is why being a solo dev kicks ass, and why it's incredibly painful for me to read the stories of people who care about doing a good job getting crushed by these managerial hierarchies. First of all, a good CTO would probably fire the lot immediately. But secondly, there's this human dynamic - did you ever have to work on a chem project in high school with 3 randomly assigned classmates? Were you the one who made sure nothing exploded, and then found yourself writing the paper and sharing the grade with them? Sure. Because they knew you would pull the weight. And they would go on to be middle managers just as lazy and work-averse as they were as teenagers. They prey on us... the people who think hard enough to do better. I don't know why you'd ever want to join an organization like that, but it's good you found a booming way out of it.
- galaxyLogic 5y ago
  I much agree with you. I'm curious, does this apply to pair-programming?
  - noduerme 5y ago
    I tend to pair up with artists where I handle the code and they command the visuals. I find that highly effective and the conversations around UI drive both people to double down on their work. I haven't participated in paired coding but I'd think it would work in a similar way. Really the smaller the team, the more motivated everyone is to pull their weight, but I've even worked on 5-6-person teams where at least one person declared themselves the "marketing" person was living off the fat of the land.
    - lmilcin 5y ago
      I think the most productive teams have people with partly shared, partly complementing skill sets. The shared skill must be important communication enabler. For example, in a development team the shared skill sets could be ability to code (so don't bother with Scrum Masters and Product Owners who can't appreciate coding). But it does not have to be coding, I have also seen teams which were all proficient in financial markets and used it as their language. The complementing could be: - one with long beard who has lots of experience and knows how to and how not to do stuff, can debug the hell out of everything and acts as problem solver of last resort, - one who knows how to make beautiful graphics and UIs, - one who knows how to manage infrastructure efficiently and reliably and knows how to do all the tiny pesky things to make stuff happen, - one who is good at understanding the product side and can be liaison between dev team and clients/management (assuming he understands to use "we" rather than "I"), - one who is not afraid to dirty their hands and do the absolutely most mundane stuff that nobody else wants to touch with 10ft pole, and so on. I think this promotes ownership which is always a good way to get them motivated. On the other hand having people with exactly same skill set (for example due to constant hiring profile) tends to result in people who feel to be exchangeable cogs in the machine and less of ownership. At least this is my subjective feeling.
catsarebetter 5y ago
Thanks for sharing, I've been in a similar emotional position, it's a bunch of bad stories to come before the good one, if there is ever a good one. Sounds like there was! Hope you were able to find a better fit!