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I feel this so much. I feel like most of my job is playing politics to make sure people are happy and let them feel like they're adding value. Rather than shipp

I feel this so much. I feel like most of my job is playing politics to make sure people are happy and let them feel like they're adding value. Rather than shipping things to users to improve the product. It's honestly so depressing. Strongly considering going back to work at a small startup, to avoid having to work with these layers of middlemen that really add little to no value.

agumonkey 2y ago
the one who solves this problem will flood the world with a neverending wave of light.. every day I wonder how come I do so few now that I'm paid compared to when I was jobless and hacking prototypes for $0 finding the recipe for creating goal driven, high speed, high quality, frictionless teams is a difficult quest
- Micoloth 2y ago
  A difficult quest indeed, but not impossible. Sometimes teams like this do exist. You know the ones. They founded the trillion-dollar companies you hear about and became billionaires themselves
  - Vilian 2y ago
    Nah, it's usually luck and robbing someone else work, windows apple Facebook etc
    - bryanrasmussen 2y ago
      I'm going to say it is efficiency and the ability to implement ideas well, even if they are stolen ideas, that account for more of the success for anything else. I also bet they did come up with some small things here and there themselves, in the process of implementing stolen ideas, because often things become apparent at the moment of implementation.
      - agumonkey 2y ago
        yeah there's always something a bit special in success, even if they took the idea, you can't just copy paste or you just produce shallow shiny stuff
- travisgriggs 2y ago
  Lobby your government to tax management hours. That’ll fix things. I often wonder how some open source projects manage to be so successful/productive with so little of what looks like corporate management.
  - pineaux 2y ago
    How would you implement this though? Wouldn't things just be renamed?
- Aeolun 2y ago
  > every day I wonder how come I do so few now that I'm paid compared to when I was jobless and hacking prototypes for $0 Salary is inversely proportional to how much you actually (need to) do.
motorest 2y ago
> I feel this so much. I feel like most of my job is playing politics to make sure people are happy and let them feel like they're adding value. Rather than shipping things to users to improve the product. Why do you feel your way of shipping things to users to improve the product is something that makes your team members unhappy and not able to add value?
- rizky05 2y ago
  [dead]
sensanaty 2y ago
I remember in a prior job that I had just joined when I was still new to the field, they had a bug board where they collected all the most common bugs users were experiencing. I decided to, in the middle of the sprint when I was done with the sprint work and had some small downtime, take care of some of the smaller bugs that were easy to fixup in a day's notice. My PM at the time immediately questioned why I'm working on "irrelevant" tickets and not focusing on the wider project we were working on, the senior I was working under had the same stance, and the PR never ended up being merged. It was like 20 lines of very easy to comprehend code that was fixing one of the most reported bugs our users had, like 6 figure number of reports since the bug card was created. When I left that company a year and a half later, that bug card was still open, with my now-rotting PR sitting there with a "closed" status. It really jaded me on all of these bullshit processes, sprints, AGILE, whatever you want to call it. It was obvious that nobody gave a shit about what we were building and how, it's all just a game to pad yourself up and to look good to the higher ups who control if you get a raise or not. If someone above you can't somehow gain a lot by boasting about the work done, then you might as well not do it. I fucking despise the mindset and how prevalent it is in the industry.
- seadan83 2y ago
  I feel this. The zero-sum pendulum of time is a bitch. I wonder, are you under 35? This story reminds me of my experience. When I was younger, all the problems could be solved - all at once. I'd throw time at just about everything - cleaner code, fewer bugs, features delivered. Later, the scope of what I was working on grew. No amount of time could be thrown at all the problems - it was zero sum. I had mentors try to guide me, to focus on solving what you need to, to focus on areas of impact and let the other things slide. If you don't, then the areas of impact never get done. On the other side of the coin, the really frustrating part - is the bullshit processes you speak of. Time is zero sum. Yet, here was the team wasting time on another status meeting and time estimation; not getting the things done. Small quick wins, which do have impact, are not small quick wins because - did you fill out the TPS report regarding user impact? Did that get approval and story pointing? Is it a strategic initiative? No, then why are you working on it? Those are unhealthy orgs. Places like that I think are filled with folks that can't do the job and ride the coat tails of those that get shit done. These are also places where people want to go, clock in, and just not think that hard about their job - just do it and get home to their families. Though, I've come to also appreciate that mentality too. I've never been a true owner at any place I've worked at. I've cared, I've been tricked into caring - but the long hours only went to enriching the person that had 1M shares, while I had just 2000. They were an owner, I was pawn.

agumonkey 2y ago

the one who solves this problem will flood the world with a neverending wave of light.. every day I wonder how come I do so few now that I'm paid compared to when I was jobless and hacking prototypes for $0 finding the recipe for creating goal driven, high speed, high quality, frictionless teams is a difficult quest

Micoloth 2y ago
A difficult quest indeed, but not impossible. Sometimes teams like this do exist. You know the ones. They founded the trillion-dollar companies you hear about and became billionaires themselves
- Vilian 2y ago
  Nah, it's usually luck and robbing someone else work, windows apple Facebook etc
  - bryanrasmussen 2y ago
    I'm going to say it is efficiency and the ability to implement ideas well, even if they are stolen ideas, that account for more of the success for anything else. I also bet they did come up with some small things here and there themselves, in the process of implementing stolen ideas, because often things become apparent at the moment of implementation.
    - agumonkey 2y ago
      yeah there's always something a bit special in success, even if they took the idea, you can't just copy paste or you just produce shallow shiny stuff
travisgriggs 2y ago
Lobby your government to tax management hours. That’ll fix things. I often wonder how some open source projects manage to be so successful/productive with so little of what looks like corporate management.
- pineaux 2y ago
  How would you implement this though? Wouldn't things just be renamed?
Aeolun 2y ago
> every day I wonder how come I do so few now that I'm paid compared to when I was jobless and hacking prototypes for $0 Salary is inversely proportional to how much you actually (need to) do.

motorest 2y ago

> I feel this so much. I feel like most of my job is playing politics to make sure people are happy and let them feel like they're adding value. Rather than shipping things to users to improve the product. Why do you feel your way of shipping things to users to improve the product is something that makes your team members unhappy and not able to add value?

rizky05 2y ago
[dead]

sensanaty 2y ago

I remember in a prior job that I had just joined when I was still new to the field, they had a bug board where they collected all the most common bugs users were experiencing. I decided to, in the middle of the sprint when I was done with the sprint work and had some small downtime, take care of some of the smaller bugs that were easy to fixup in a day's notice. My PM at the time immediately questioned why I'm working on "irrelevant" tickets and not focusing on the wider project we were working on, the senior I was working under had the same stance, and the PR never ended up being merged. It was like 20 lines of very easy to comprehend code that was fixing one of the most reported bugs our users had, like 6 figure number of reports since the bug card was created. When I left that company a year and a half later, that bug card was still open, with my now-rotting PR sitting there with a "closed" status. It really jaded me on all of these bullshit processes, sprints, AGILE, whatever you want to call it. It was obvious that nobody gave a shit about what we were building and how, it's all just a game to pad yourself up and to look good to the higher ups who control if you get a raise or not. If someone above you can't somehow gain a lot by boasting about the work done, then you might as well not do it. I fucking despise the mindset and how prevalent it is in the industry.

seadan83 2y ago
I feel this. The zero-sum pendulum of time is a bitch. I wonder, are you under 35? This story reminds me of my experience. When I was younger, all the problems could be solved - all at once. I'd throw time at just about everything - cleaner code, fewer bugs, features delivered. Later, the scope of what I was working on grew. No amount of time could be thrown at all the problems - it was zero sum. I had mentors try to guide me, to focus on solving what you need to, to focus on areas of impact and let the other things slide. If you don't, then the areas of impact never get done. On the other side of the coin, the really frustrating part - is the bullshit processes you speak of. Time is zero sum. Yet, here was the team wasting time on another status meeting and time estimation; not getting the things done. Small quick wins, which do have impact, are not small quick wins because - did you fill out the TPS report regarding user impact? Did that get approval and story pointing? Is it a strategic initiative? No, then why are you working on it? Those are unhealthy orgs. Places like that I think are filled with folks that can't do the job and ride the coat tails of those that get shit done. These are also places where people want to go, clock in, and just not think that hard about their job - just do it and get home to their families. Though, I've come to also appreciate that mentality too. I've never been a true owner at any place I've worked at. I've cared, I've been tricked into caring - but the long hours only went to enriching the person that had 1M shares, while I had just 2000. They were an owner, I was pawn.