4 ms·
Here's a story that explains this concept. A programmer goes to his manager, presenting a paper with a lengthy problem for the manager to solve. The manager l
by derekp7 5y ago
Here's a story that explains this concept. A programmer goes to his manager, presenting a paper with a lengthy problem for the manager to solve. The manager looks over the paper, thinks for a few minutes, then writes down the answer. The employee then tells the manager "What were you doing for the last 5 minutes? It didn't look like you were working at all". The manager responds saying "I was thinking about the problem before coming up with the solution".
The programmer then informs the manager that this is what it is like to write code all day. But since programming looks like you are just sitting there not doing anything for much of the time, then you have to pretend to be doing something whenever someone walks by so it doesn't look like you are just goofing off (otherwise they feel that they can interrupt you breaking your train of thought). And that makes programming less efficient.
The manager was then enlightened.
- rizzaxc 5y agoevery manager worth their salt climbs from being an engineer, so they should already know this
- changxi_hn 5y agoI'm a software manager and this isn't what happens in practice at all. The more comfortable they are, the sloppier and lazy their resulting code as they feel no pressure to take their work seriously. I can, and will, stand behind devs for hours to keep them determined and on-task.
- Trasmatta 5y agoSurely this post is parody, right?
- alecbz 5y agoI think maybe this is some kind of local optimum, but a poor one. Like if your devs already don't give two shits about anything, pressure from you watching over them might improve things somewhat. But like the real fix is a path to a much better optimum, which is giving employees autonomy, trusting them, rewarding them adequately, getting them to actually care, so that they don't need to be watched over as individual code monkeys.
- changxi_hn 5y agoNo. I'm the manager, they're the dev. If they want autonomy, become an artist.
- toomanydoubts 5y agoSmall wiener energy.
- alecbz 5y agoDo you want to feel powerful or to have productive devs?
- toomanydoubts 5y agoI'm not a psychic, but I sense your software manager career is not going very far.
- _9omd 5y agoI seriously hope this is sarcasm. The best devs I know are the ones that goof off the most, because they're the ones that know they're good at what they do. The crappy devs are the ones who sit quietly at their desks all day and pretend to get work done. I think you should seriously reconsider your management style.
- khazhoux 5y agoIt's sarcasm
- unobatbayar 5y agoThis is exactly what I've seen and experienced. The best devs that are goofing off, are the bedrock of a great work environment.
- TheGigaChad 5y ago