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I like most of what he has to say, but I have to attack this: It signals loud and clear that if you’re smart enough you choose when you work and what you work

I like most of what he has to say, but I have to attack this: It signals loud and clear that if you’re smart enough you choose when you work and what you work on. What's so wrong with that? In practice, I would prefer that a company use Github/Valve-style open allocation, and extend that sort of freedom to the whole team. People who can't justify their own salaries in an open-allocation environment (noting that a typical engineer is worth 3-5x under closed allocation and 10-20x in open allocation) are those you shouldn't be hiring anyway. Often, brilliant, high-variance people are binary (or, at least, sporadic) in output, not because they have an attitude problem, but because they're neurologically built that way. Environments that favor (or, even, demand) reliable mediocrity shut them down and lose the ability to hit the high notes. The best way to work with such people is to give them an R&D environment where they direct their own work and career. They know what they're doing, and they make more of a profit with the hits than they lose on the misses. But I'm not convinced that anyone who's smart enough to be a decent programmer shouldn't have the same freedom (open allocation).

e28eta 13y ago
I'm coming from a large company mindset, but I disagree. We're working on projects that are too big for a single person, no matter how brilliant. Working well as a team is how we ship features. Being predictable in our output is important to the business, because they have plans for the project/feature that we'll work on next. There are marketing and customer support teams working with us who also value our ability to deliver what we've promised, and when. There are customers who need features by a specific date. I think the best engineers are the ones who improve the output of the entire team. Just like a good manager can improve the productivity of their engineers.
- sheepmullet 13y ago
  A team can absorb the natural peaks and lulls that accompany high performance far better than an individual can. If you need everybody to be operating at 100% week on week in order to hit your deliverables then you have over promised and introduced an incredible amount of risk into your projects. As a manager, if you care about the productivity and general well being of your team then you will be promising a max of around 70% team effort. Managing the expectations of other teams and departments is part of being a decent manager. Spend two weeks sharpening the ax and then another cutting down the tree? No, the average company would rather you spend six, or even twelve, weeks chopping away with your blunt ax.

e28eta 13y ago

I'm coming from a large company mindset, but I disagree. We're working on projects that are too big for a single person, no matter how brilliant. Working well as a team is how we ship features. Being predictable in our output is important to the business, because they have plans for the project/feature that we'll work on next. There are marketing and customer support teams working with us who also value our ability to deliver what we've promised, and when. There are customers who need features by a specific date. I think the best engineers are the ones who improve the output of the entire team. Just like a good manager can improve the productivity of their engineers.

sheepmullet 13y ago
A team can absorb the natural peaks and lulls that accompany high performance far better than an individual can. If you need everybody to be operating at 100% week on week in order to hit your deliverables then you have over promised and introduced an incredible amount of risk into your projects. As a manager, if you care about the productivity and general well being of your team then you will be promising a max of around 70% team effort. Managing the expectations of other teams and departments is part of being a decent manager. Spend two weeks sharpening the ax and then another cutting down the tree? No, the average company would rather you spend six, or even twelve, weeks chopping away with your blunt ax.