9 ms·

I keep a WTF notebook (2021)

564 points by fanf2 3y ago

mckn1ght 3y ago
It’s a good idea because not only do you keep a list of things you want to fix, but letting things hang out in there sometimes gives you time to understand why something is the way it is. There will be plenty of times where things were rushed or mistakes were made, but sometimes it really is the case that you just can’t wrap your head around some piece of complexity right away just by looking at a line of code.
- theideaofcoffee 3y ago
  With enough experience one usually can start to differentiate the actual hoo-why-oh-why WTFs from the oh-there's-subtle-complexity-here WTFs. The first are straight up failures, the second usually resolve themselves after steeping oneself in the environment. Still handy to note them down, regardless.
ergonaught 3y ago
That is roughly how I've approached things whenever I'm walking into a pre-existing situation. I spend the first week just reviewing everything and writing down questions/observations, etc. Not only the "WTF" moments, though. I also take note of things that I think work really well or were really great ideas. Then there's some time to review/prioritize/etc before any sort of discussions.
xandrius 3y ago
I love the concept, I had started some time ago something like this but more about things that I wanted fixed/investigated which were creating issues for someone/anyone in the team, so whenever I have some spare moment I can investigate that further. Now I have a fun name for it :D
- arduanika 3y ago
  Totally agreed. I've always liked this concept, and TIL there's a good name! Also, now I know there's a link! Sometimes you have a new hire or team member who's a little too eager to criticize and fix everything they see, and you need to sit them down and explain this strategy. Now thanks to Bennett, you can back it up with a link. I'd caveat that while a "two week" waiting period might work well for Bennett as a senior engineer moving between similar-enough teams, a brand new hire or a junior dev might do better with a longer delay.
marginalia_nu 3y ago
I live by just writing down every idea I have in a list. No particular order, I just append them on a piece of paper or a text file. Ideas rarely appear when you need them, but come throughout the day as you do other things, and at least in my case, I can never remember if I don't jot them down. Then when it's time to get something done, I just cross things off one by one. Never have to wonder what to do next, never run out of ideas, which allows some pretty spectacular bursts of productivity.
- ravenstine 3y ago
  This is essentially my note-taking strategy with Apple Notes and Notally (on Android). Life's too short to organize notes. I'd rather just jot down everything and rely on the reverse-chron and search to find stuff later. The irony is that, while I know I have a treasure trove of amazing ideas, at my age I don't think I care enough to execute them like I would have in my 20s. Oh well!
  - zer00eyz 3y ago
    > I don't think I care enough to execute them You can own this, its totally reasonable to have a good idea and say "meh". > at my age This is a cop out. It's weak at best and you contributing to your own discrimination at worst. You might not like that but I'm not just talking, I'll bring the receipts; https://medium.com/illumination/late-success-is-possible-8ba65e1e9066 https://medium.com/illumination/late-success-is-possible-8ba... I highly recommend you look at the 77th infantry division in WWII: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Su5-_KuDf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Su5-_KuDf8 Is an entertaining summary.
    - ravenstine 3y ago
      > This is a cop out. I see what you are saying, though I find it a bit unfair. I don't think age has to stop anyone, and I was more so using it as a proxy for being a different person with new priorities. In my years approaching 40, I can't say I care at all about sitting in front of a screen for hours on end making some doo-dad when I could be forming relationships that I missed out on earlier in life. I will definiteky check our your video, though.
okamiueru 3y ago
I do something similar, except at one shop where the WTFs outnumbered everything sane by a wide margin.
slimsag 3y ago
I think the concept of a 'WTF notebook' is great, and I think writing down one's thoughts in general is a good idea. I also think that it helps formulate thoughts and communicate them in a more thoughtful not-in-the-heat-of-the-moment way. However, > For two weeks, that's all I do. I just write it down. I don't tell the team everything that I think they're doing wrong. I don't show up at retro with all the stuff I think they need to change. I just watch, and listen, and I write down everything that seems deeply weird. > [...] > Before I started keeping this kind of list, I brought up problem I saw immediately, as soon as I noticed it. The reputation I got was, "Nat's always complaining about things. Nat thinks we're never doing things right." People stopped listening to me. I was personally frustrated, and professionally ineffective. Not bringing up things that you think could be improved in a retro.. that's pretty silly. If you are getting a reputation of 'always complaining', and coming across as 'telling people they are doing things wrong', etc. then you are just bad/unprofessional at communication. Communicate things as 'I was thinking maybe we could do <X> better if <Y>, what do you think?' and make it a genuine discussion with people, rather than 'WTF <x>?' - especially when it is someone else's work and you want to remain on good terms with them. You don't have to wait 2 weeks, compile a secret list and then bring it to your manager - though. You can communicate things that you think can be improved in a polite/respectful manner as they occur. Being on a team is about working together. If you cannot safely do that when communicating effectively, then you are with a terrible team/company.
- lrvick 3y ago
  If the author is anything like me, I get it. I have 20 years of software engineering and infosec experience can fill a few hours talking about all the crazy risks I find in a day of looking around most any company I interact with. The status quo for security in our industry is abysmally bad. Not washing hands while working in a hospital WTF bad, everywhere. Bringing it all up as I go can burn everyone out on interacting with me or trusting me at all if I am not careful, because survivors bias is a hell of a drug. Two weeks to collect information and context is about right. I just usually do it as a contract security auditor now and provide a detailed report at the end.
- al_borland 3y ago
  I think you missed the point. This is about someone entering into a new team. Walking into a team day 1, knowing nothing, and telling everyone they’re doing it wrong, is a horrible way to start things off. By watching and waiting a bit, it gives time to learn why the stupid things are stupid, what is actually being worked on, etc. This helps build trust in the team, because it shows the new person respects the team enough to take some time to learn how things are before trying to change it. I don’t trust anyone in a leadership role that starts changing things before taking the time to learn how and why things are currently done the way they are. A guy on my team now takes your approach. He derails every meeting with the way things “should” be, and he is just saying what everyone already knows, he just lacks the understanding on why the problem is more difficult to fix than he realizes. If he would talk less and listen more, he might understand those things better and stop wasting everyone’s time.
sonicanatidae 3y ago
I call mine a ticketing system. ;)
zer00eyz 3y ago
I dont think this article stresses one point enough. You only get to be "new" once, You only get to have a fresh perspective once. There is a reason that you're a bad judge of the "usablity" of your product. You already know how to use it. your numb to it's mistakes and flaws. New team members dont suffer from this! The bigger lesson here is for the team, and its sadly between the lines! You can get a lot of insight based on what new people ask about, where they stumble and what they need real help with.
- reaperducer 3y ago
  There is a reason that you're a bad judge of the "usablity" of your product. You already know how to use it. your numb to it's mistakes and flaws. New team members dont suffer from this! One of the best things my company does is allow me to sit down on a chair next to the people who use my products as they use them. I just sit there with a notebook and write things down, and talk to the users as they're using the product. Once you start doing that, you understand that it doesn't matter how many terabytes of "telemetry" you gather, you will never understand how people use your product as well as actually speaking to them. The tech industry really needs to get over its fear of other human beings.
  - zer00eyz 3y ago
    Early in my work life I had a job on the UI side of things. Watching people use your app behind a 2 way mirror was probably the most illuminating thing ever. Users from outside the tech bubble have a very different take from most of the HN set. It influences how the look at, use and think about applications. You can watch 7 people DO the right thing and then tell you, out loud, that it sucks for the same reason. Every app is filled with problems like this. If you aren't testing with "inexperienced" end users you are likely missing a LOT!!
    - garrickvanburen 3y ago
      Fully agree. Early in my career, I ran these sessions.
    - 3y ago
kh_hk 3y ago
Always a good idea to keep a work journal, but there's something on the tone of this article that bothers me. I would like working with someone that is not a borg and is not following a script that seems taken from How to win friends and influence people. In general I will mistrust anyone that tries to manipulate me, that is, if I catch them doing it.
- spencerchubb 3y ago
  What about the tone bothers you? I've never read How to win friends and influence people. I thought the article is pretty well-written
  - lopatin 3y ago
    Not the parent, but what bothers me is how the author tries to spin the idea of taking notes when you're new as something profound. He even gives it a catchy name "WTF Notebook". And the connection between creating a reputation of a fixer at the company, and taking notes with a WTF journal, is weak. I usually don't like to hate on articles like this and instead ignore them, but since you asked, it mostly sounds like bullshit to me.
    - colonwqbang 3y ago
      Writing things down and thinking them over before acting on them, isn't bullshit. There's other decent advice in the article. I think your review of the article is overly negative. Perhaps these techniques come naturally to some people, and others need to learn it by instruction? I'm in the latter camp. I often need to think about how I sound and make sure I don't come across as too negative.
    - strken 3y ago
      I think there's a strong connection between identifying and fixing problems, and between fixing problems and getting a reputation as a fixer.
  - kh_hk 3y ago
    I will quote specifically some examples of what jumps out to me as manipulative behavior: > I'll ask why things on the list are that way, and how they got to be that way. I'm trying to establish credibility as someone who's genuinely curious and empathetic, who's patient, and who respects the expertise of my coworkers. That's the reputation that's going to let me make changes later. I would not try to establish credibility, but earn it. I will not try to be genuinely curious or empathetic. I either am, or am not. > At this point I'm looking for one or two problems that have been bugging one of my new teammates for a while, and that have relatively simple solutions. I'm looking for something I can put on the retro board and know I won't be the only person who's bothered by that problem. This screams to me as playing the work game. If someone can spend time looking for problems over their coworker shoulders or "something to put on the retro board" it just means they are out of meaningful tasks to do. > Then, during the team conversation about the problem, I'll identify something that teammate suggests as an action item that we could try immediately. That way the team starts to see me as someone who helps them solve their problems. Change the context and this sounds like a pickup artist explaining dating tricks, or a con man telling you how to infiltrate or someone on the secret service trying to enter a gang. > The feeling that I want to create, the association I want people to have with me, is, "Oh, Nat joine [...] Feelings are not something one goes around creating unless they are actively manipulating people around. > There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." That's the reputation that's going to get me the results I want in next year's performance review. I could keep going on, but I think these are enough examples
toss1 3y ago
>>I'll ask why things on the list are that way, and how they got to be that way. I'm trying to establish credibility as someone who's genuinely curious and empathetic, who's patient, and who respects the expertise of my coworkers. That's the reputation that's going to let me make changes later. Seems like an excellent corollary to Chesterton's Fence, about someone who comes upon a fence they want to remove: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it" Or, more explicitly: "Although this looks out of place, we do best to assume that those who came before us were intelligent, and there is a reason for it. That reason may be obsolete, but it must be accounted for or we'll simply repeat a mistake."
ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
Or you could just go to the Daily WTF: https://thedailywtf.com https://thedailywtf.com
- hyggetrold 3y ago
  Don't say you, say we. https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Behavioral-Deficiencies- https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Behavioral-Deficiencies-
neilv 3y ago
The writer gives a very honest-sounding description of their strategizing, and the rationale for that. And there's also some good advice about being judicious about what issues you raise. At the same time, this sounds very political, and not traceable to goals of the business: > There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." That's the reputation that's going to get me the results I want in next year's performance review. That's the reputation that's going to get me a referral a few years from now. I like to be on teams for which, if new to the team, mostly you notice things being done sensibly (in context), and the 3 things you see that you don't understand, you can just ask about them, because everyone on the team just wants to work well together to achieve the genuine goals. Not to have to bank observations as an asset, to be introduced diplomatically and strategically, according to a script, to maximize performance reviews and peer approval ratings.
- throwaway35777 3y ago
  > I like to be on teams for which, if new to the team, mostly you notice things being done sensibly (in context), and the 3 things you see that you don't understand, you can just ask about them, because everyone on the team just wants to work well together to achieve the genuine goals. I've observed this kind of culture mostly at startups. Once places start to make a lot of money -- things become political. So if you want to work at the highest paying jobs, you'll have to deal with politics. Because once they make enough money to afford you, the company also makes enough for savvy gatekeepers to entrench themselves in a core system and carve off a piece of that revenue for themselves.
tombert 3y ago
I sort of did this with the management at a large company I used to work for. Whenever they'd do something that I thought was incompetent and/or sociopathic, I'd just write a bullet point in a file called `bullshit.md`. The file got to about three hundred bullets. I eventually stopped this because it kind of made me feel like a sociopath and/or narcissist myself. I don't really think it's healthy to keep tabs on everything that pisses you off, like some kind of scoring system. It's not like me writing this stuff down helped anything, and it just felt like I was trying to keep score so that if I get in trouble I have a retort. I think it's actually good to occasionally forget stuff and let it slide, because there will always be bullshit management policies at pretty much any company with more than like four people, and writing this stuff down just makes it easier to let stuff continuously bother me. ETA: To be clear, it wasn't my idea to write it down, I was getting in trouble for complaining too much at this job, and my direct manager suggested I write things down. I think he thought it was a way to cool off, even though I don't think that was the effect.
- baq 3y ago
  Don't call it 'bullshit.md', call it 'challenges and opportunities.md', s/fuck|shit|cunt// inside and organize a series of coaching sessions about how you fixed one of these and how can they help themselves fix these. or, channel your inner complainer into your promo-seeking behaviors.
  - tombert 3y ago
    I don't doubt that that would have been the most profitable solution to this for me, but that's really not my personality. This is not a joke or sarcasm: I genuinely think I might be slightly on the spectrum, because I have a lot of trouble with corporate dishonesty, and there are plenty of times that I will say things that are apparently controversial and I don't realize it. For example, at that job, during a discussion about them getting rid of a benefit that they used to pay for, I made the mistake of once saying to higher-management that "we all do this job for the money", and I got a bunch of indignant responses about how they believe in the cause and all that shit [1]. I was really confused, because I didn't even realize that that was up for debate; I'm quite confident that if this company stopped signing their paychecks, they'd stop showing up for the job and I really didn't (and still don't) think that there's anything particularly wrong with that. I'm selling my time and expertise, Tombert is a for-profit enterprise. When I tried explaining this to them, I get a private meeting with one of my million managers above me that I have a "bad attitude" and that I'm trying to "stir the pot", and I genuinely wasn't trying to, I was just trying to make a point cutting through some of bullshit flavortext to get to the point that getting rid of a benefit that we liked does affect us because I was under the impression we worked for money, not for fun. I have a million stories like this, and it's why I suspect that I will not be able to grow my career much more than I have right now. [1] To be clear, this wasn't some non-profit, this was a very very large for-profit company that you've definitely heard of that my lawyer/mom has advised me not to directly name.
prakhar897 3y ago
The biggest reason i've seen is because management hasn't prioritized it. It takes a few scars before understanding the importance of these tasks, pushing for them prematurely can be really risky. Letting stuff fail might be a better path for consensus.
- MajimasEyepatch 3y ago
  Yes, the people who set the priorities have to feel the pain in some way. If you as an employee want your boss to do something, you have to communicate it in a way that makes clear how the problem will affect what the boss cares about, not what you care about. Usually that means translating it into dollars or one of the boss's KPIs, like deployment frequency or support ticket volume. Sometimes management doesn't prioritize problems because they're short-sighted or overwhelmed. But sometimes it's because they just don't understand how big a problem it really is, and the team fails to communicate it to them effectively. For example, I've heard devs complain about how "the tests take too long." On one team I was on, a couple junior devs were complaining about this, but it turned out that "too long" meant five minutes. Could they be more efficient? Maybe, but getting that down to one minute would take a lot of work with no impact on our ability to develop and deploy multiple times per day. Once I showed them how to run their tests locally on just the files that changed, the problem was solved. But before that, they thought the problem was "technical debt," when really it was just a training issue. (Or, you know, a lack-of-ability-to-Google issue, but I'm trying to be generous.) On another team, when I heard this complaint, the team explained that the full test suite took almost an hour, and flaky tests meant that they often had to rerun the tests or merge with failing tests. Needless to say, this had a clear impact on our ability to deliver rapidly with high quality, so this was something I prioritized. Managers don't do the same work as you, so they don't feel the pain firsthand. And they're often not incentivized to care about the same things as you, at least on the same scale. As an IC, you tend to be focused on the next task at hand. The manager is thinking about their quarterly OKRs or whether the team is on track to meet their sprint commitment. If you want something to change, you have to connect the problems you have on the micro scale to the problems the manager cares about on the macro scale. And if you can't do that, or your manager won't listen, then yeah: let the problems bubble up until the manager feels the pain, as long as it won't come back to bite you.
BatmansMom 3y ago
The article is good, but as an aside, wow thank you for the introduction to "the bullet journal". Seems like an awesome time management tool.
onthecanposting 3y ago
I wish I had read this a year ago. I kept a mental note of pain points in the workflow, played it cool for four months, researched solutions to the problems, then when I got a shot as a task lead on a fresh project, I jettisoned the rituals and was way ahead of schedule while nobody was looking. Two months later the neurotic hall monitors found out. Oh no, sir. You don't just thumb your nose at practices that were pioneered in the 1990s just because they quintuple the cost of work. You will be made to do it our way to atone for your arrogance. You will use my ancient excel spreadsheet and tell me how much you like it. Now the project is financially a total shit show, I'm besieged by dweebs, and I've been quietly looking for a new job for 6 months. Apparently, this was an avoidable situation.
- l33tbro 3y ago
  Interesting. Why do they want you to do it the old way? Or could you explain more? I've never worked somewhere like this, so curious as to why this would happen?
  - spyspy 3y ago
    Im not saying I don’t believe you, but I’ve never been anywhere that wasn’t at least a little like this. There’s always some power tripping person using “the way we do things” as a club against the newthought people
  - onthecanposting 3y ago
    The short answer is pride and inertia. The immediate cause is lower management can't be assed to learn anything, and nobody makes them. This is in part because at big firms after 5-10 years you can politic or job-hop into management and be an email engineer who does little outside of scheduling meetings and marking up PDFs. Young engineer training is usually informal and in master-apprentice fashion. Your mentor will show you how he or she learned it 10 years ago, which is how his or her mentor learned it 10 years before that. There is little technological progress in civil engineering design that is not externally imposed, and the last big step forward was Excel and replacing hand drawings with CAD in the 90s. Digital delivery will be the next leap, but it's going to take lobbying, fanatical champions, and pure luck that Autodesk and Bentley don't use their billions to suppress it. Procurement laws, client ignorance, and network effects shield engineering consultants from the discipline of the market. Wasteful practice is not punished. That and licensing regulations have created a sort of guild socialism that has allowed backwardness to survive.
Havoc 3y ago
>There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." Managed that...would not recommend. When you're in a large organization and word spreads that you're the guy that can sort out issues...that goes viral and not in a good way. Recently had a guy reach out to me from Serbia for a solution. I didn't even know we had a fuckin office in Serbia let alone some guy there wanting a slice of my time.
- tantalor 3y ago
  Interesting take. Let's just say, one of these approaches sails through the promotion process, and one does not.
  - breckenedge 3y ago
    Only if you’re not pigeonholed. That promotion is going to need a backfill and the organization may decide that it’s best to keep you in your place. Though it could lead to being able to negotiate a raise earlier than normal.
    - jjeaff 3y ago
      This idea, I think, is a huge hole that most organizations have. Which is that salary is too tied to hierarchical structure. If you have someone that is amazing at doing something valuable, they should be able to keep getting raises without necessarily getting promoted out of the role. We have this in some measure with jobs that are easily commission-able, but it's not common for tech roles or HR or whatever.
      - kreetx 3y ago
        It's the law of people being "promoted to incompetence" - the Peter Principle.
  - Havoc 3y ago
    >promotion process That's the thing. You don't get credit for those death by a thousand cuts queries that come with a universal X is the person with the answers rep. None of my superior knew we had an office in Serbia either...let alone crediting me with "yes havoc is totally flooded but he helped serbia guy anyway". Note that I'm talking general corporate here. Things may be different in a pure SWE eng context. My observation is strictly corporate life...may or may not extrapolate to SWE context.
AdrianB1 3y ago
"There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." That's the reputation that's going to get me the results I want in next year's performance review. That's the reputation that's going to get me a referral a few years from now." This works for a referral, but it is a career killer. I did this for 20 years in different departments. Every time they wanted to keep me there to solve their problems, but this never puts you on the promotion list. I had a colleague that retired after 40 years, he was the go-to person for any problem, but he was never promoted, he was way more competent than any of his managers and their peers. He was the ace in everyone's sleeve, rarely recognized (it was considered to be "normal" that he solves any problem) and never rewarded; his performance was considered an expectation, while the rest of the people at the same level had a much lower bar. In the last performance review, his manager said that his performance is compared with his goals and targets, not with peers. I was told the same by a different manager, so it is not an accident.
officialchicken 3y ago
I've kept a series of notebooks for my career starting prior to dot com 1.0. Looking back, over all that time, all of my notebooks tend towards WTF.
havelhovel 3y ago
I've never been on a team where we've needed a new IC to come in and assess our inefficiencies, question priorities, and lengthen meetings with debates we've already had. There are plenty of management consultants available for that. What we wanted was for an IC to come in and help us meet our goals by churning out more code. There's lots of talk about reputation but no mention of value.
- marcofiset 3y ago
  Removing technical debt and improving tooling is often a good way to add value. Sharpening your tools makes you work faster.
  - havelhovel 3y ago
    These things can add value, but no one needs a new hire to point that fact out. I'm also skeptical that a freshly hired IC's values will align with business values, even though the latter is what shapes the tech debt and tooling you're referring to.
    - marcofiset 3y ago
      The point being is that new hires will bring fresh eyes to an organization, whereas the team in place might be numb to some of the issues. You don't need a new hire to fix those problems, but it certainly helps shed new light on some problems. Especially if you are hired as a senior dev or a team lead, you will be expected to fix some of those things.
- karmajunkie 3y ago
  I've seen plenty of teams who didn't think they needed someone to evaluate what they're doing and just thought they needed someone churning out code. If they'd had someone do the former, most of the time they'd not have needed the latter quite so much.
  - havelhovel 3y ago
NiagaraThistle 3y ago
Wow. I was just telling 2 co-workers this week that I keep a "How the F" file on my machine. It is not exactly what the author describes, but it's very similar and includes all the "how th f do i do this thing again?" every time I run into a problem when I'm new to a team. I don't bring it to management's attention like the author suggests, but it gives me a perspective on what sticking points the team and company have that I need to work through over time.
helloiloveyou 3y ago
I also always think this way. I Summarize it as be a doer not a complainer
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  Well...I have found that we should be careful, when considering "solutions." Here's my take on it: https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/problems-and-solutions/ https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/problems-and-solutio...
progmetaldev 3y ago
When I work with new hires, or I'm working in an area a teammate is unfamiliar with, I will often have them sit with me to watch and ask questions of me. I always encourage them to bring in a notebook and take notes for anything that they might have difficulty remembering, or may need more clarification on at a future time. So far, I've found that every new hire or teammate that decides not to bring a notebook and write anything down, never lasts for long. I'm happy to answer questions and help when I'm able to, but when I start getting the same questions we've already covered multiple times, and I've already told them to write it down and they don't, my confidence in their skills starts to dwindle. In contrast, the ones that use the time wisely, and take notes end up getting fast tracked to architecting systems on their own (with my oversight and code reviews). Those are the teammates that I love to work with, the ones hungry for knowledge and aren't afraid to make mistakes (assuming they aren't hiding them). I'd say I get almost as much knowledge out of mentoring as the new new hires do from learning new techniques and technology. It can be extremely rewarding.
cratermoon 3y ago
I've learned to do this as well, and as a consultant it's become part of my job, so I've picked up a couple of extra tricks. One kind of WTF that isn't usually obvious from looking is when doing what looks like a simple thing takes excessive time and effort. Sometimes, after a couple of weeks, you can see something that has been in progress but not completed for no clear reason. Oftentimes these extra effort things don't show up because the team avoids doing them unless absolutely necessary. It's worth asking a team member for a tour around something you know from past experience in similar situations should be easy and quick. A big tell is when the response to your request for a demonstration or explanation involves a need for someone to block out extra time or involve a specific individual who knows it best.
markus_zhang 3y ago
Sounds good. I decided to create two WTF notebooks, one for the team and one for myself. I, for one, am definitely not one without errors -- plenties of them, actually. My first note would be: - WTF! I ate five Lindt chocolates (they tasted so good) during a intermittent fasting session. I should burn in hell.
hi_hi 3y ago
> Before I started keeping this kind of list, I brought up problem I saw immediately, as soon as I noticed it. The reputation I got was, "Nat's always complaining about things. Nat thinks we're never doing things right." People stopped listening to me. I was personally frustrated, and professionally ineffective. This should be near the top of the article, not buried at the bottom. This level of self awareness is a real skill that is worth mastering. The ex astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about a similar approach he used when joining new missions and teams in his book. Basically being in observation mode first to learn if these WTF moments are valid, and not annoying new team members. Its worth a read.
- PiotrVonKleve 3y ago
  > The ex astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about a similar approach ... Its worth a read. Interesting, is it in a book authored by Chris Hadfield, could you point which one?
  - hi_hi 3y ago
    It's one he wrote, titled "An astronaut's guide to life on Earth" He's also written a children's book, which is great.
- circadian 3y ago
  Definitely agree with this comment. I've been in my position for a long time and this approach does work, to give yourself somewhere to filter the noise into, where it at least isn't present in your mind. It's not just about working out if things are valid, as I'm finding it's about being able to let things go.
buescher 3y ago
Also, when you hear real WTFs, try to keep a straight face.
Betta01_Agata 3y ago
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urbandw311er 3y ago
I like this article because it’s surprisingly humble. The author has learned from previous mistakes and now has a solid process that prevents him trying to fix everything unnecessarily while annoying people as he does so.
cchi_co 3y ago
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564 points by fanf2 3y ago

It’s a good idea because not only do you keep a list of things you want to fix, but letting things hang out in there sometimes gives you time to understand why something is the way it is. There will be plenty of times where things were rushed or mistakes were made, but sometimes it really is the case that you just can’t wrap your head around some piece of complexity right away just by looking at a line of code.

theideaofcoffee 3y ago
With enough experience one usually can start to differentiate the actual hoo-why-oh-why WTFs from the oh-there's-subtle-complexity-here WTFs. The first are straight up failures, the second usually resolve themselves after steeping oneself in the environment. Still handy to note them down, regardless.

ergonaught 3y ago

That is roughly how I've approached things whenever I'm walking into a pre-existing situation. I spend the first week just reviewing everything and writing down questions/observations, etc. Not only the "WTF" moments, though. I also take note of things that I think work really well or were really great ideas. Then there's some time to review/prioritize/etc before any sort of discussions.

xandrius 3y ago

I love the concept, I had started some time ago something like this but more about things that I wanted fixed/investigated which were creating issues for someone/anyone in the team, so whenever I have some spare moment I can investigate that further. Now I have a fun name for it :D

arduanika 3y ago
Totally agreed. I've always liked this concept, and TIL there's a good name! Also, now I know there's a link! Sometimes you have a new hire or team member who's a little too eager to criticize and fix everything they see, and you need to sit them down and explain this strategy. Now thanks to Bennett, you can back it up with a link. I'd caveat that while a "two week" waiting period might work well for Bennett as a senior engineer moving between similar-enough teams, a brand new hire or a junior dev might do better with a longer delay.

marginalia_nu 3y ago

I live by just writing down every idea I have in a list. No particular order, I just append them on a piece of paper or a text file. Ideas rarely appear when you need them, but come throughout the day as you do other things, and at least in my case, I can never remember if I don't jot them down. Then when it's time to get something done, I just cross things off one by one. Never have to wonder what to do next, never run out of ideas, which allows some pretty spectacular bursts of productivity.

ravenstine 3y ago
This is essentially my note-taking strategy with Apple Notes and Notally (on Android). Life's too short to organize notes. I'd rather just jot down everything and rely on the reverse-chron and search to find stuff later. The irony is that, while I know I have a treasure trove of amazing ideas, at my age I don't think I care enough to execute them like I would have in my 20s. Oh well!
- zer00eyz 3y ago
  > I don't think I care enough to execute them You can own this, its totally reasonable to have a good idea and say "meh". > at my age This is a cop out. It's weak at best and you contributing to your own discrimination at worst. You might not like that but I'm not just talking, I'll bring the receipts; https://medium.com/illumination/late-success-is-possible-8ba65e1e9066 https://medium.com/illumination/late-success-is-possible-8ba... I highly recommend you look at the 77th infantry division in WWII: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Su5-_KuDf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Su5-_KuDf8 Is an entertaining summary.
  - ravenstine 3y ago
    > This is a cop out. I see what you are saying, though I find it a bit unfair. I don't think age has to stop anyone, and I was more so using it as a proxy for being a different person with new priorities. In my years approaching 40, I can't say I care at all about sitting in front of a screen for hours on end making some doo-dad when I could be forming relationships that I missed out on earlier in life. I will definiteky check our your video, though.

okamiueru 3y ago

I do something similar, except at one shop where the WTFs outnumbered everything sane by a wide margin.

slimsag 3y ago

I think the concept of a 'WTF notebook' is great, and I think writing down one's thoughts in general is a good idea. I also think that it helps formulate thoughts and communicate them in a more thoughtful not-in-the-heat-of-the-moment way. However, > For two weeks, that's all I do. I just write it down. I don't tell the team everything that I think they're doing wrong. I don't show up at retro with all the stuff I think they need to change. I just watch, and listen, and I write down everything that seems deeply weird. > [...] > Before I started keeping this kind of list, I brought up problem I saw immediately, as soon as I noticed it. The reputation I got was, "Nat's always complaining about things. Nat thinks we're never doing things right." People stopped listening to me. I was personally frustrated, and professionally ineffective. Not bringing up things that you think could be improved in a retro.. that's pretty silly. If you are getting a reputation of 'always complaining', and coming across as 'telling people they are doing things wrong', etc. then you are just bad/unprofessional at communication. Communicate things as 'I was thinking maybe we could do <X> better if <Y>, what do you think?' and make it a genuine discussion with people, rather than 'WTF <x>?' - especially when it is someone else's work and you want to remain on good terms with them. You don't have to wait 2 weeks, compile a secret list and then bring it to your manager - though. You can communicate things that you think can be improved in a polite/respectful manner as they occur. Being on a team is about working together. If you cannot safely do that when communicating effectively, then you are with a terrible team/company.

lrvick 3y ago
If the author is anything like me, I get it. I have 20 years of software engineering and infosec experience can fill a few hours talking about all the crazy risks I find in a day of looking around most any company I interact with. The status quo for security in our industry is abysmally bad. Not washing hands while working in a hospital WTF bad, everywhere. Bringing it all up as I go can burn everyone out on interacting with me or trusting me at all if I am not careful, because survivors bias is a hell of a drug. Two weeks to collect information and context is about right. I just usually do it as a contract security auditor now and provide a detailed report at the end.
al_borland 3y ago
I think you missed the point. This is about someone entering into a new team. Walking into a team day 1, knowing nothing, and telling everyone they’re doing it wrong, is a horrible way to start things off. By watching and waiting a bit, it gives time to learn why the stupid things are stupid, what is actually being worked on, etc. This helps build trust in the team, because it shows the new person respects the team enough to take some time to learn how things are before trying to change it. I don’t trust anyone in a leadership role that starts changing things before taking the time to learn how and why things are currently done the way they are. A guy on my team now takes your approach. He derails every meeting with the way things “should” be, and he is just saying what everyone already knows, he just lacks the understanding on why the problem is more difficult to fix than he realizes. If he would talk less and listen more, he might understand those things better and stop wasting everyone’s time.

sonicanatidae 3y ago

I call mine a ticketing system. ;)

zer00eyz 3y ago

I dont think this article stresses one point enough. You only get to be "new" once, You only get to have a fresh perspective once. There is a reason that you're a bad judge of the "usablity" of your product. You already know how to use it. your numb to it's mistakes and flaws. New team members dont suffer from this! The bigger lesson here is for the team, and its sadly between the lines! You can get a lot of insight based on what new people ask about, where they stumble and what they need real help with.

reaperducer 3y ago
There is a reason that you're a bad judge of the "usablity" of your product. You already know how to use it. your numb to it's mistakes and flaws. New team members dont suffer from this! One of the best things my company does is allow me to sit down on a chair next to the people who use my products as they use them. I just sit there with a notebook and write things down, and talk to the users as they're using the product. Once you start doing that, you understand that it doesn't matter how many terabytes of "telemetry" you gather, you will never understand how people use your product as well as actually speaking to them. The tech industry really needs to get over its fear of other human beings.
- zer00eyz 3y ago
  Early in my work life I had a job on the UI side of things. Watching people use your app behind a 2 way mirror was probably the most illuminating thing ever. Users from outside the tech bubble have a very different take from most of the HN set. It influences how the look at, use and think about applications. You can watch 7 people DO the right thing and then tell you, out loud, that it sucks for the same reason. Every app is filled with problems like this. If you aren't testing with "inexperienced" end users you are likely missing a LOT!!
  - garrickvanburen 3y ago
    Fully agree. Early in my career, I ran these sessions.
  - 3y ago

kh_hk 3y ago

Always a good idea to keep a work journal, but there's something on the tone of this article that bothers me. I would like working with someone that is not a borg and is not following a script that seems taken from How to win friends and influence people. In general I will mistrust anyone that tries to manipulate me, that is, if I catch them doing it.

spencerchubb 3y ago
What about the tone bothers you? I've never read How to win friends and influence people. I thought the article is pretty well-written
- lopatin 3y ago
  Not the parent, but what bothers me is how the author tries to spin the idea of taking notes when you're new as something profound. He even gives it a catchy name "WTF Notebook". And the connection between creating a reputation of a fixer at the company, and taking notes with a WTF journal, is weak. I usually don't like to hate on articles like this and instead ignore them, but since you asked, it mostly sounds like bullshit to me.
  - colonwqbang 3y ago
    Writing things down and thinking them over before acting on them, isn't bullshit. There's other decent advice in the article. I think your review of the article is overly negative. Perhaps these techniques come naturally to some people, and others need to learn it by instruction? I'm in the latter camp. I often need to think about how I sound and make sure I don't come across as too negative.
  - strken 3y ago
    I think there's a strong connection between identifying and fixing problems, and between fixing problems and getting a reputation as a fixer.
- kh_hk 3y ago
  I will quote specifically some examples of what jumps out to me as manipulative behavior: > I'll ask why things on the list are that way, and how they got to be that way. I'm trying to establish credibility as someone who's genuinely curious and empathetic, who's patient, and who respects the expertise of my coworkers. That's the reputation that's going to let me make changes later. I would not try to establish credibility, but earn it. I will not try to be genuinely curious or empathetic. I either am, or am not. > At this point I'm looking for one or two problems that have been bugging one of my new teammates for a while, and that have relatively simple solutions. I'm looking for something I can put on the retro board and know I won't be the only person who's bothered by that problem. This screams to me as playing the work game. If someone can spend time looking for problems over their coworker shoulders or "something to put on the retro board" it just means they are out of meaningful tasks to do. > Then, during the team conversation about the problem, I'll identify something that teammate suggests as an action item that we could try immediately. That way the team starts to see me as someone who helps them solve their problems. Change the context and this sounds like a pickup artist explaining dating tricks, or a con man telling you how to infiltrate or someone on the secret service trying to enter a gang. > The feeling that I want to create, the association I want people to have with me, is, "Oh, Nat joine [...] Feelings are not something one goes around creating unless they are actively manipulating people around. > There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." That's the reputation that's going to get me the results I want in next year's performance review. I could keep going on, but I think these are enough examples

toss1 3y ago

>>I'll ask why things on the list are that way, and how they got to be that way. I'm trying to establish credibility as someone who's genuinely curious and empathetic, who's patient, and who respects the expertise of my coworkers. That's the reputation that's going to let me make changes later. Seems like an excellent corollary to Chesterton's Fence, about someone who comes upon a fence they want to remove: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it" Or, more explicitly: "Although this looks out of place, we do best to assume that those who came before us were intelligent, and there is a reason for it. That reason may be obsolete, but it must be accounted for or we'll simply repeat a mistake."

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago

Or you could just go to the Daily WTF: https://thedailywtf.com https://thedailywtf.com

hyggetrold 3y ago
Don't say you, say we. https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Behavioral-Deficiencies- https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Behavioral-Deficiencies-

neilv 3y ago

The writer gives a very honest-sounding description of their strategizing, and the rationale for that. And there's also some good advice about being judicious about what issues you raise. At the same time, this sounds very political, and not traceable to goals of the business: > There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." That's the reputation that's going to get me the results I want in next year's performance review. That's the reputation that's going to get me a referral a few years from now. I like to be on teams for which, if new to the team, mostly you notice things being done sensibly (in context), and the 3 things you see that you don't understand, you can just ask about them, because everyone on the team just wants to work well together to achieve the genuine goals. Not to have to bank observations as an asset, to be introduced diplomatically and strategically, according to a script, to maximize performance reviews and peer approval ratings.

throwaway35777 3y ago
> I like to be on teams for which, if new to the team, mostly you notice things being done sensibly (in context), and the 3 things you see that you don't understand, you can just ask about them, because everyone on the team just wants to work well together to achieve the genuine goals. I've observed this kind of culture mostly at startups. Once places start to make a lot of money -- things become political. So if you want to work at the highest paying jobs, you'll have to deal with politics. Because once they make enough money to afford you, the company also makes enough for savvy gatekeepers to entrench themselves in a core system and carve off a piece of that revenue for themselves.

tombert 3y ago

I sort of did this with the management at a large company I used to work for. Whenever they'd do something that I thought was incompetent and/or sociopathic, I'd just write a bullet point in a file called `bullshit.md`. The file got to about three hundred bullets. I eventually stopped this because it kind of made me feel like a sociopath and/or narcissist myself. I don't really think it's healthy to keep tabs on everything that pisses you off, like some kind of scoring system. It's not like me writing this stuff down helped anything, and it just felt like I was trying to keep score so that if I get in trouble I have a retort. I think it's actually good to occasionally forget stuff and let it slide, because there will always be bullshit management policies at pretty much any company with more than like four people, and writing this stuff down just makes it easier to let stuff continuously bother me. ETA: To be clear, it wasn't my idea to write it down, I was getting in trouble for complaining too much at this job, and my direct manager suggested I write things down. I think he thought it was a way to cool off, even though I don't think that was the effect.

baq 3y ago
Don't call it 'bullshit.md', call it 'challenges and opportunities.md', s/fuck|shit|cunt// inside and organize a series of coaching sessions about how you fixed one of these and how can they help themselves fix these. or, channel your inner complainer into your promo-seeking behaviors.
- tombert 3y ago
  I don't doubt that that would have been the most profitable solution to this for me, but that's really not my personality. This is not a joke or sarcasm: I genuinely think I might be slightly on the spectrum, because I have a lot of trouble with corporate dishonesty, and there are plenty of times that I will say things that are apparently controversial and I don't realize it. For example, at that job, during a discussion about them getting rid of a benefit that they used to pay for, I made the mistake of once saying to higher-management that "we all do this job for the money", and I got a bunch of indignant responses about how they believe in the cause and all that shit [1]. I was really confused, because I didn't even realize that that was up for debate; I'm quite confident that if this company stopped signing their paychecks, they'd stop showing up for the job and I really didn't (and still don't) think that there's anything particularly wrong with that. I'm selling my time and expertise, Tombert is a for-profit enterprise. When I tried explaining this to them, I get a private meeting with one of my million managers above me that I have a "bad attitude" and that I'm trying to "stir the pot", and I genuinely wasn't trying to, I was just trying to make a point cutting through some of bullshit flavortext to get to the point that getting rid of a benefit that we liked does affect us because I was under the impression we worked for money, not for fun. I have a million stories like this, and it's why I suspect that I will not be able to grow my career much more than I have right now. [1] To be clear, this wasn't some non-profit, this was a very very large for-profit company that you've definitely heard of that my lawyer/mom has advised me not to directly name.

prakhar897 3y ago

The biggest reason i've seen is because management hasn't prioritized it. It takes a few scars before understanding the importance of these tasks, pushing for them prematurely can be really risky. Letting stuff fail might be a better path for consensus.

MajimasEyepatch 3y ago
Yes, the people who set the priorities have to feel the pain in some way. If you as an employee want your boss to do something, you have to communicate it in a way that makes clear how the problem will affect what the boss cares about, not what you care about. Usually that means translating it into dollars or one of the boss's KPIs, like deployment frequency or support ticket volume. Sometimes management doesn't prioritize problems because they're short-sighted or overwhelmed. But sometimes it's because they just don't understand how big a problem it really is, and the team fails to communicate it to them effectively. For example, I've heard devs complain about how "the tests take too long." On one team I was on, a couple junior devs were complaining about this, but it turned out that "too long" meant five minutes. Could they be more efficient? Maybe, but getting that down to one minute would take a lot of work with no impact on our ability to develop and deploy multiple times per day. Once I showed them how to run their tests locally on just the files that changed, the problem was solved. But before that, they thought the problem was "technical debt," when really it was just a training issue. (Or, you know, a lack-of-ability-to-Google issue, but I'm trying to be generous.) On another team, when I heard this complaint, the team explained that the full test suite took almost an hour, and flaky tests meant that they often had to rerun the tests or merge with failing tests. Needless to say, this had a clear impact on our ability to deliver rapidly with high quality, so this was something I prioritized. Managers don't do the same work as you, so they don't feel the pain firsthand. And they're often not incentivized to care about the same things as you, at least on the same scale. As an IC, you tend to be focused on the next task at hand. The manager is thinking about their quarterly OKRs or whether the team is on track to meet their sprint commitment. If you want something to change, you have to connect the problems you have on the micro scale to the problems the manager cares about on the macro scale. And if you can't do that, or your manager won't listen, then yeah: let the problems bubble up until the manager feels the pain, as long as it won't come back to bite you.

BatmansMom 3y ago

The article is good, but as an aside, wow thank you for the introduction to "the bullet journal". Seems like an awesome time management tool.

onthecanposting 3y ago

I wish I had read this a year ago. I kept a mental note of pain points in the workflow, played it cool for four months, researched solutions to the problems, then when I got a shot as a task lead on a fresh project, I jettisoned the rituals and was way ahead of schedule while nobody was looking. Two months later the neurotic hall monitors found out. Oh no, sir. You don't just thumb your nose at practices that were pioneered in the 1990s just because they quintuple the cost of work. You will be made to do it our way to atone for your arrogance. You will use my ancient excel spreadsheet and tell me how much you like it. Now the project is financially a total shit show, I'm besieged by dweebs, and I've been quietly looking for a new job for 6 months. Apparently, this was an avoidable situation.

l33tbro 3y ago
Interesting. Why do they want you to do it the old way? Or could you explain more? I've never worked somewhere like this, so curious as to why this would happen?
- spyspy 3y ago
  Im not saying I don’t believe you, but I’ve never been anywhere that wasn’t at least a little like this. There’s always some power tripping person using “the way we do things” as a club against the newthought people
- onthecanposting 3y ago
  The short answer is pride and inertia. The immediate cause is lower management can't be assed to learn anything, and nobody makes them. This is in part because at big firms after 5-10 years you can politic or job-hop into management and be an email engineer who does little outside of scheduling meetings and marking up PDFs. Young engineer training is usually informal and in master-apprentice fashion. Your mentor will show you how he or she learned it 10 years ago, which is how his or her mentor learned it 10 years before that. There is little technological progress in civil engineering design that is not externally imposed, and the last big step forward was Excel and replacing hand drawings with CAD in the 90s. Digital delivery will be the next leap, but it's going to take lobbying, fanatical champions, and pure luck that Autodesk and Bentley don't use their billions to suppress it. Procurement laws, client ignorance, and network effects shield engineering consultants from the discipline of the market. Wasteful practice is not punished. That and licensing regulations have created a sort of guild socialism that has allowed backwardness to survive.

Havoc 3y ago

>There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." Managed that...would not recommend. When you're in a large organization and word spreads that you're the guy that can sort out issues...that goes viral and not in a good way. Recently had a guy reach out to me from Serbia for a solution. I didn't even know we had a fuckin office in Serbia let alone some guy there wanting a slice of my time.

tantalor 3y ago
Interesting take. Let's just say, one of these approaches sails through the promotion process, and one does not.
- breckenedge 3y ago
  Only if you’re not pigeonholed. That promotion is going to need a backfill and the organization may decide that it’s best to keep you in your place. Though it could lead to being able to negotiate a raise earlier than normal.
  - jjeaff 3y ago
    This idea, I think, is a huge hole that most organizations have. Which is that salary is too tied to hierarchical structure. If you have someone that is amazing at doing something valuable, they should be able to keep getting raises without necessarily getting promoted out of the role. We have this in some measure with jobs that are easily commission-able, but it's not common for tech roles or HR or whatever.
    - kreetx 3y ago
      It's the law of people being "promoted to incompetence" - the Peter Principle.
- Havoc 3y ago
  >promotion process That's the thing. You don't get credit for those death by a thousand cuts queries that come with a universal X is the person with the answers rep. None of my superior knew we had an office in Serbia either...let alone crediting me with "yes havoc is totally flooded but he helped serbia guy anyway". Note that I'm talking general corporate here. Things may be different in a pure SWE eng context. My observation is strictly corporate life...may or may not extrapolate to SWE context.

AdrianB1 3y ago

"There's a very specific reputation I want to have on a team: "Nat helps me solve my problems. Nat get things I care about done." That's the reputation that's going to get me the results I want in next year's performance review. That's the reputation that's going to get me a referral a few years from now." This works for a referral, but it is a career killer. I did this for 20 years in different departments. Every time they wanted to keep me there to solve their problems, but this never puts you on the promotion list. I had a colleague that retired after 40 years, he was the go-to person for any problem, but he was never promoted, he was way more competent than any of his managers and their peers. He was the ace in everyone's sleeve, rarely recognized (it was considered to be "normal" that he solves any problem) and never rewarded; his performance was considered an expectation, while the rest of the people at the same level had a much lower bar. In the last performance review, his manager said that his performance is compared with his goals and targets, not with peers. I was told the same by a different manager, so it is not an accident.

officialchicken 3y ago

I've kept a series of notebooks for my career starting prior to dot com 1.0. Looking back, over all that time, all of my notebooks tend towards WTF.

havelhovel 3y ago

I've never been on a team where we've needed a new IC to come in and assess our inefficiencies, question priorities, and lengthen meetings with debates we've already had. There are plenty of management consultants available for that. What we wanted was for an IC to come in and help us meet our goals by churning out more code. There's lots of talk about reputation but no mention of value.

marcofiset 3y ago
Removing technical debt and improving tooling is often a good way to add value. Sharpening your tools makes you work faster.
- havelhovel 3y ago
  These things can add value, but no one needs a new hire to point that fact out. I'm also skeptical that a freshly hired IC's values will align with business values, even though the latter is what shapes the tech debt and tooling you're referring to.
  - marcofiset 3y ago
    The point being is that new hires will bring fresh eyes to an organization, whereas the team in place might be numb to some of the issues. You don't need a new hire to fix those problems, but it certainly helps shed new light on some problems. Especially if you are hired as a senior dev or a team lead, you will be expected to fix some of those things.
karmajunkie 3y ago
I've seen plenty of teams who didn't think they needed someone to evaluate what they're doing and just thought they needed someone churning out code. If they'd had someone do the former, most of the time they'd not have needed the latter quite so much.
- havelhovel 3y ago

NiagaraThistle 3y ago

Wow. I was just telling 2 co-workers this week that I keep a "How the F" file on my machine. It is not exactly what the author describes, but it's very similar and includes all the "how th f do i do this thing again?" every time I run into a problem when I'm new to a team. I don't bring it to management's attention like the author suggests, but it gives me a perspective on what sticking points the team and company have that I need to work through over time.

helloiloveyou 3y ago

I also always think this way. I Summarize it as be a doer not a complainer

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
Well...I have found that we should be careful, when considering "solutions." Here's my take on it: https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/problems-and-solutions/ https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/problems-and-solutio...

progmetaldev 3y ago

When I work with new hires, or I'm working in an area a teammate is unfamiliar with, I will often have them sit with me to watch and ask questions of me. I always encourage them to bring in a notebook and take notes for anything that they might have difficulty remembering, or may need more clarification on at a future time. So far, I've found that every new hire or teammate that decides not to bring a notebook and write anything down, never lasts for long. I'm happy to answer questions and help when I'm able to, but when I start getting the same questions we've already covered multiple times, and I've already told them to write it down and they don't, my confidence in their skills starts to dwindle. In contrast, the ones that use the time wisely, and take notes end up getting fast tracked to architecting systems on their own (with my oversight and code reviews). Those are the teammates that I love to work with, the ones hungry for knowledge and aren't afraid to make mistakes (assuming they aren't hiding them). I'd say I get almost as much knowledge out of mentoring as the new new hires do from learning new techniques and technology. It can be extremely rewarding.

cratermoon 3y ago

I've learned to do this as well, and as a consultant it's become part of my job, so I've picked up a couple of extra tricks. One kind of WTF that isn't usually obvious from looking is when doing what looks like a simple thing takes excessive time and effort. Sometimes, after a couple of weeks, you can see something that has been in progress but not completed for no clear reason. Oftentimes these extra effort things don't show up because the team avoids doing them unless absolutely necessary. It's worth asking a team member for a tour around something you know from past experience in similar situations should be easy and quick. A big tell is when the response to your request for a demonstration or explanation involves a need for someone to block out extra time or involve a specific individual who knows it best.

markus_zhang 3y ago

Sounds good. I decided to create two WTF notebooks, one for the team and one for myself. I, for one, am definitely not one without errors -- plenties of them, actually. My first note would be: - WTF! I ate five Lindt chocolates (they tasted so good) during a intermittent fasting session. I should burn in hell.

hi_hi 3y ago

> Before I started keeping this kind of list, I brought up problem I saw immediately, as soon as I noticed it. The reputation I got was, "Nat's always complaining about things. Nat thinks we're never doing things right." People stopped listening to me. I was personally frustrated, and professionally ineffective. This should be near the top of the article, not buried at the bottom. This level of self awareness is a real skill that is worth mastering. The ex astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about a similar approach he used when joining new missions and teams in his book. Basically being in observation mode first to learn if these WTF moments are valid, and not annoying new team members. Its worth a read.

PiotrVonKleve 3y ago
> The ex astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about a similar approach ... Its worth a read. Interesting, is it in a book authored by Chris Hadfield, could you point which one?
- hi_hi 3y ago
  It's one he wrote, titled "An astronaut's guide to life on Earth" He's also written a children's book, which is great.
circadian 3y ago
Definitely agree with this comment. I've been in my position for a long time and this approach does work, to give yourself somewhere to filter the noise into, where it at least isn't present in your mind. It's not just about working out if things are valid, as I'm finding it's about being able to let things go.

buescher 3y ago

Also, when you hear real WTFs, try to keep a straight face.

Betta01_Agata 3y ago

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Betta01_Agata 3y ago

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deleted 3y ago

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urbandw311er 3y ago

I like this article because it’s surprisingly humble. The author has learned from previous mistakes and now has a solid process that prevents him trying to fix everything unnecessarily while annoying people as he does so.

cchi_co 3y ago

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