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Heavens. Is it possible you're reading into it a bit? He's miserable to work with? From this one blog post? A more generous read, or, at least the reading I to

Heavens. Is it possible you're reading into it a bit? He's miserable to work with? From this one blog post? A more generous read, or, at least the reading I took: "once we (think we) know what we're doing, we violently execute." So, "boo" on you. This guy sounds awesome.

kevinkoning 12d ago
I was literally writing almost this exact post but decided to reload the page first.
dyauspitr 12d ago
Developers get triggered about managers breathing down their neck when they read things like this that’s why you get such strong reactions.
thunderfork 12d ago
I disagree, on the principle of "slow is smooth, smooth is fast"
- TeMPOraL 12d ago
  This principle is basically a movie quote, though.
  - magicalist 12d ago
    No it's not, though?
- whateveracct 12d ago
  and similarly, the need for slack in software teams
phoghed 12d ago
How often do people that make this kind of assertion end up themselves being the ones that are miserable to be around I wonder
- cindyllm 12d ago
  [dead]
infamia 12d ago
> Heavens. Is it possible you're reading into it a bit? Perhaps, which is why I hedged with the possibility that it is mere hyperbole. However, I think what did it for me was his statement that he provides and expects feedback to anyone not following this recipe, which is at utterly without nuance. Incidentally, you can execute with focus and intention without urgency and arguably be more effective over the long haul.
saghm 12d ago
If someone literally publishes on the internet that they require their employees to act like every problem is urgent, it's not clear why you think we shouldn't take them at their word. It's a pretty common thing for bad managers to expect people to work full-tilt 100% of the time rather than understanding that tends to burn poorly out. I'm honestly not sure how someone could spend a decent amount of time in this industry and not be able to recognize that pattern and have thoughts about how to avoid it unless they just don't really care about it much, so while you're entitled to disagree, it's hard not to get the impression that being so affronted by the parent comment pointing out that the blog post doesn't seem to address the very real pattern of phrases like the article uses being euphemisms for pretty horrible work cultures that you just also don't particularly care about it. Personally, I've seen far too many talented people in tech be worked too hard for too long by management that either is too clueless or too uncaring to the point where it can take years for their health and happiness to recover not to find it extremely alarming when someone says stuff like "everything is urgent". The likelihood that they mean pretty much exactly what they say rather than mean something more nuanced is high enough that the fact that don't seem concerned about the implication says more than enough.
- tayo42 12d ago
  It's not saying treat every problem as urgent, it's saying go through 5 steps that are defing the problem correctly then treat it urgently.
  - saghm 11d ago
    I don't see the difference. The idea that every task ends up in a state with an urgent problem to solve during its lifecycle is crazy to me.
- fnordpiglet 12d ago
  Interesting what I found objectionable was his expectation that everyone around him follow his internal process, regardless of its steps or urgency. Someone who has an ounce of leadership realizes that a team is a puzzle of different pieces of different shapes. You fit them together in varying ways, by observing how their processes and methods and strengths interlock to be greater than the sum of their parts. You do this fractally as you become more senior, and expect people to follow this meta framework rather than some fixed process or way of perceiving. You see quickly the organization takes on different strengths depending on the puzzle underneath them, composed of nonlinear amalgams of unique individuals. You do create protocols for communicating and decision making that are relatively uniform, but you get your grip off of people’s mojo and let them be people, not one of whom is Boris (unless Boris works for you). But beyond building a Postels law structure for communication and decision making, you expect the meta framework to be the way people evaluate their teams and you evaluate your team in the same way. You eventually need people to shift around and reorg people to the shape of the system (Conways law) based on their strengths and processes that work for them and their teams. If you need the system to be different you organize the people in that way in and expect the system to change to fit (again Conways law). None of what I read reflects a thinking like this, and I’d prefer to not work with someone who feels their role is to mint out clones of themselves. Further someone who posts about how they are frequently wrong is the first sign of a narcissist that believes they’re actually never actually wrong, but admits they might be misinformed at times. For me, it’s a red flag to avoid.
InsideOutSanta 12d ago
> Heavens. Is it possible you're reading into it a bit? He's miserable to work with? From this one blog post? Everything about this blog post makes me think that I don't want to work with him, not just the "act with urgency" claim. The whole idea that he thought this was a blog post he should write and publish makes me not want to work with him. I think there is a worthwhile idea in this blog post, which is that you should generally not strongly commit to any specific solution to a problem because you will learn new information while working on the solution, and that it is fine to say, "I was wrong; let's take a step back and rethink this." But if you were to write a useful post about this, you'd focus on how to decide when to change your approach and when to stick to it, because always rethinking your approach can lead to infinite churn without any releases.

kevinkoning 12d ago

I was literally writing almost this exact post but decided to reload the page first.

dyauspitr 12d ago

Developers get triggered about managers breathing down their neck when they read things like this that’s why you get such strong reactions.

thunderfork 12d ago

I disagree, on the principle of "slow is smooth, smooth is fast"

TeMPOraL 12d ago
This principle is basically a movie quote, though.
- magicalist 12d ago
  No it's not, though?
whateveracct 12d ago
and similarly, the need for slack in software teams

phoghed 12d ago

How often do people that make this kind of assertion end up themselves being the ones that are miserable to be around I wonder

cindyllm 12d ago
[dead]

infamia 12d ago

> Heavens. Is it possible you're reading into it a bit? Perhaps, which is why I hedged with the possibility that it is mere hyperbole. However, I think what did it for me was his statement that he provides and expects feedback to anyone not following this recipe, which is at utterly without nuance. Incidentally, you can execute with focus and intention without urgency and arguably be more effective over the long haul.

saghm 12d ago

If someone literally publishes on the internet that they require their employees to act like every problem is urgent, it's not clear why you think we shouldn't take them at their word. It's a pretty common thing for bad managers to expect people to work full-tilt 100% of the time rather than understanding that tends to burn poorly out. I'm honestly not sure how someone could spend a decent amount of time in this industry and not be able to recognize that pattern and have thoughts about how to avoid it unless they just don't really care about it much, so while you're entitled to disagree, it's hard not to get the impression that being so affronted by the parent comment pointing out that the blog post doesn't seem to address the very real pattern of phrases like the article uses being euphemisms for pretty horrible work cultures that you just also don't particularly care about it. Personally, I've seen far too many talented people in tech be worked too hard for too long by management that either is too clueless or too uncaring to the point where it can take years for their health and happiness to recover not to find it extremely alarming when someone says stuff like "everything is urgent". The likelihood that they mean pretty much exactly what they say rather than mean something more nuanced is high enough that the fact that don't seem concerned about the implication says more than enough.

tayo42 12d ago
It's not saying treat every problem as urgent, it's saying go through 5 steps that are defing the problem correctly then treat it urgently.
- saghm 11d ago
  I don't see the difference. The idea that every task ends up in a state with an urgent problem to solve during its lifecycle is crazy to me.
fnordpiglet 12d ago
Interesting what I found objectionable was his expectation that everyone around him follow his internal process, regardless of its steps or urgency. Someone who has an ounce of leadership realizes that a team is a puzzle of different pieces of different shapes. You fit them together in varying ways, by observing how their processes and methods and strengths interlock to be greater than the sum of their parts. You do this fractally as you become more senior, and expect people to follow this meta framework rather than some fixed process or way of perceiving. You see quickly the organization takes on different strengths depending on the puzzle underneath them, composed of nonlinear amalgams of unique individuals. You do create protocols for communicating and decision making that are relatively uniform, but you get your grip off of people’s mojo and let them be people, not one of whom is Boris (unless Boris works for you). But beyond building a Postels law structure for communication and decision making, you expect the meta framework to be the way people evaluate their teams and you evaluate your team in the same way. You eventually need people to shift around and reorg people to the shape of the system (Conways law) based on their strengths and processes that work for them and their teams. If you need the system to be different you organize the people in that way in and expect the system to change to fit (again Conways law). None of what I read reflects a thinking like this, and I’d prefer to not work with someone who feels their role is to mint out clones of themselves. Further someone who posts about how they are frequently wrong is the first sign of a narcissist that believes they’re actually never actually wrong, but admits they might be misinformed at times. For me, it’s a red flag to avoid.

InsideOutSanta 12d ago

> Heavens. Is it possible you're reading into it a bit? He's miserable to work with? From this one blog post? Everything about this blog post makes me think that I don't want to work with him, not just the "act with urgency" claim. The whole idea that he thought this was a blog post he should write and publish makes me not want to work with him. I think there is a worthwhile idea in this blog post, which is that you should generally not strongly commit to any specific solution to a problem because you will learn new information while working on the solution, and that it is fine to say, "I was wrong; let's take a step back and rethink this." But if you were to write a useful post about this, you'd focus on how to decide when to change your approach and when to stick to it, because always rethinking your approach can lead to infinite churn without any releases.