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Given the number of poor product managers and product owners I've encountered in my career - those who don't seem to care at all about end users or people in ge

Given the number of poor product managers and product owners I've encountered in my career - those who don't seem to care at all about end users or people in general - I'm surprised incidents like this don't happen more frequently.

duxup 2y ago
I think for some (not all) folks writing code there is a sort of built in "this should actually work" mentality and that keeps A LOT of things running. Granted not all, I've worked with some widget makers who would rather just take tasks, do EXACTLY what it says, and move on regardless if it works or not. They love the certainty of process and want to just do that. Steve Jobs ran into that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Cz49MLh4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Cz49MLh4o Granted as Steve mentioned, people worried about the end result are more work to deal with.
- mattgreenrocks 2y ago
  Actually building things keeps you humble in a way that’s hard to articulate. You’re constantly contending with reality, not models/processes whose purpose is to smooth over things to present a facade of order.
- pavel_lishin 2y ago
  > Granted not all, I've worked with some widget makers who would rather just take tasks, do EXACTLY what it says, and move on regardless if it works or not. They love the certainty of process and want to just do that. I've been this guy, as a software engineer. It turns out that making widgets feeds my family, whereas pushing back on executives from my position on the totem pole runs a very real risk of being unable to do so.
  - duxup 2y ago
    I think it certainly depends on the organization. Some companies seem to only allow coders to be widget makers. On the other hand, I worked with widget makers at companies where you had more freedom and sometimes it seemed like they were more interested in malicious compliance… it can really shaft coworkers too.

duxup 2y ago

I think for some (not all) folks writing code there is a sort of built in "this should actually work" mentality and that keeps A LOT of things running. Granted not all, I've worked with some widget makers who would rather just take tasks, do EXACTLY what it says, and move on regardless if it works or not. They love the certainty of process and want to just do that. Steve Jobs ran into that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Cz49MLh4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Cz49MLh4o Granted as Steve mentioned, people worried about the end result are more work to deal with.

mattgreenrocks 2y ago
Actually building things keeps you humble in a way that’s hard to articulate. You’re constantly contending with reality, not models/processes whose purpose is to smooth over things to present a facade of order.
pavel_lishin 2y ago
> Granted not all, I've worked with some widget makers who would rather just take tasks, do EXACTLY what it says, and move on regardless if it works or not. They love the certainty of process and want to just do that. I've been this guy, as a software engineer. It turns out that making widgets feeds my family, whereas pushing back on executives from my position on the totem pole runs a very real risk of being unable to do so.
- duxup 2y ago
  I think it certainly depends on the organization. Some companies seem to only allow coders to be widget makers. On the other hand, I worked with widget makers at companies where you had more freedom and sometimes it seemed like they were more interested in malicious compliance… it can really shaft coworkers too.