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When I see companies build bespoke solutions like this I can’t help but wonder which client paid for that. Don’t get me wrong I would love to spend the time to

When I see companies build bespoke solutions like this I can’t help but wonder which client paid for that. Don’t get me wrong I would love to spend the time to build a system like that, as an engineer it sound fun! No doubt this project came at the cost of someone paying the company for value that was not transferred Sorry for being Daniel Downer here…

marcosdumay 5y ago
Yes, it's called "profit". You can distribute it to shareholders, and you can also use some of it to improve the live of employees. As a rule, every client contributes with something. Probably not at the same rate.
eli 5y ago
Engineers who get dedicated time to work on fun projects are better, happier engineers. Everyone wins. We implement “15% time” for this and other reasons (and we certainly didn’t invent the idea). Some great ideas came out of it that grew into products and features. But mostly it’s stuff that was fun or interesting but didn’t directly lead to any revenue. That’s not just ok- it’s an important part of getting better as an engineer.
yardie 5y ago
All their clients paid for it, does it really matter? Clients aren't concerned with what the consultants does with the money once the invoice is paid. Could you imagine your employer/client involved with your own life like that? "I don't think spending our money on a trip to Maldives is an effective use of our money. Maybe we are paying you too much." Like that would fly, literally, anywhere?
deleted 5y ago
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detaro 5y ago
Curious, if you visit a company you contract with do you apply this to everything? "So, did we pay for this coffee machine? How about this TV?"
- Arrath 5y ago
  I sure do this, if they stock the bathrooms with single ply.
pjc50 5y ago
> The team had a long list of tasks they wanted to transfer over to the control of Raspberry Pi: All those tasks are "home automation" for the office. You can buy solutions for this, e.g. meeting room free/busy, but inherently there's a large amount of customisation and the COTS ones tend to be surprisingly expensive.
HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
Or.... it just comes out of overhead?
parallel 5y ago
Another way to think of it is that the business owners decided not to take some profit out of the business in order to improve the culture of the workplace.

marcosdumay 5y ago

Yes, it's called "profit". You can distribute it to shareholders, and you can also use some of it to improve the live of employees. As a rule, every client contributes with something. Probably not at the same rate.

eli 5y ago

Engineers who get dedicated time to work on fun projects are better, happier engineers. Everyone wins. We implement “15% time” for this and other reasons (and we certainly didn’t invent the idea). Some great ideas came out of it that grew into products and features. But mostly it’s stuff that was fun or interesting but didn’t directly lead to any revenue. That’s not just ok- it’s an important part of getting better as an engineer.

yardie 5y ago

All their clients paid for it, does it really matter? Clients aren't concerned with what the consultants does with the money once the invoice is paid. Could you imagine your employer/client involved with your own life like that? "I don't think spending our money on a trip to Maldives is an effective use of our money. Maybe we are paying you too much." Like that would fly, literally, anywhere?

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detaro 5y ago

Curious, if you visit a company you contract with do you apply this to everything? "So, did we pay for this coffee machine? How about this TV?"

Arrath 5y ago
I sure do this, if they stock the bathrooms with single ply.

pjc50 5y ago

> The team had a long list of tasks they wanted to transfer over to the control of Raspberry Pi: All those tasks are "home automation" for the office. You can buy solutions for this, e.g. meeting room free/busy, but inherently there's a large amount of customisation and the COTS ones tend to be surprisingly expensive.

HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago

Or.... it just comes out of overhead?

parallel 5y ago

Another way to think of it is that the business owners decided not to take some profit out of the business in order to improve the culture of the workplace.