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So you do meetings on Tuesday or Thursdays, and rather than doing one thing a day, in fact you do one big task a day and many small tasks. That's all fine and

So you do meetings on Tuesday or Thursdays, and rather than doing one thing a day, in fact you do one big task a day and many small tasks. That's all fine and good, but 1) it's not really what the OP's post says, and 2) it's not really very revolutionary at all. I'm glad it works for you guys, but I'm often irritated by these preachy posts which seem to say that developers should be treated as delicate flowers and suggest all manner of strategies to preserve their preferred ways of working, many of which, if you actually applied them to the real world, would result in clients saying, "Wow, these guys are hard to work with, can we please find someone else?"

spotridge 12y ago
> So you do meetings on Tuesday or Thursdays, and rather than doing one thing a day, in fact you do one big task a day and many small tasks. That's all fine and good, but 1) it's not really what the OP's post says, and 2) it's not really very revolutionary at all. I would go further than saying this isn't really very revolutionary, rather it describes a fairly normal working environment.
- GFischer 12y ago
  Unfortunately, there are a lot of dysfunctional working environments out there, where this wouldn't be considered "normal". Of course, in those environments, developers cannot say "no", they can either keep working under whatever unreasonable constraints they have, or quit. (I've found this a lot more common in companies where the main focus isn't software development) I agree it's not very revolutionary, but I still find it useful to read about how other people organize their teams and how it works, and very especially what tools they use (Slack and a few others are on my to-try list).
cj 12y ago
Appreciate your thoughts! Definitely agree the article doesn't apply to everyone in all cases. As a company we really want to spend time sharing what we learn. This is one of the first posts we've written, so we'll try to improve in the future :)
- mreiland 12y ago
  Here's some more feedback, I cracked open the article, quickly identified it as one of the preachy posts he was referring to, and closed it without reading. I too am tired of people discovering this "blog" thing.
GFischer 12y ago
I've been told that customers actually respect companies that say "no" to them more than the ones that always say "yes" to everything (as long as the rationale is explained and reasonable).
- kyllo 12y ago
  Just like you respect a romantic partner who is firm with you and has boundaries, more than you respect one who's a total doormat and lets you trample all over them.
- flanbiscuit 12y ago
  While this sounds nice to hear, I would actually like to see some hard evidence proving this. If you have any sources backing this comment up I would love to see it. I work in advertising and I would love to tell account execs this because they are notorious for not being able to say no.
EC1 12y ago
My only strategy to working is just to sit there and fucking work. It's not very difficult. You sort of just tell yourself you're going to do something and then you do it. Boom, saved this entire community a blog post.
larrys 12y ago
" many of which, if you actually applied them to the real world, would result in clients saying, "Wow, these guys are hard to work with, can we please find someone else?" Exactly. Totally flies in the face of saying "how high" when someone says "jump". Not only that but a similar attitude of some old timers in a business that I was in (right out of college) was what allowed me to get their clients. We live in a world where people want instant gratification and answers to their questions. While there may be cases where timing doesn't matter when you are dealing with sales and closing deals and keeping away the competition I have always found the early bird gets the worm. And sometimes you get the deal just by showing up because the other party is to busy to service the account.

spotridge 12y ago

> So you do meetings on Tuesday or Thursdays, and rather than doing one thing a day, in fact you do one big task a day and many small tasks. That's all fine and good, but 1) it's not really what the OP's post says, and 2) it's not really very revolutionary at all. I would go further than saying this isn't really very revolutionary, rather it describes a fairly normal working environment.

GFischer 12y ago
Unfortunately, there are a lot of dysfunctional working environments out there, where this wouldn't be considered "normal". Of course, in those environments, developers cannot say "no", they can either keep working under whatever unreasonable constraints they have, or quit. (I've found this a lot more common in companies where the main focus isn't software development) I agree it's not very revolutionary, but I still find it useful to read about how other people organize their teams and how it works, and very especially what tools they use (Slack and a few others are on my to-try list).

cj 12y ago

Appreciate your thoughts! Definitely agree the article doesn't apply to everyone in all cases. As a company we really want to spend time sharing what we learn. This is one of the first posts we've written, so we'll try to improve in the future :)

mreiland 12y ago
Here's some more feedback, I cracked open the article, quickly identified it as one of the preachy posts he was referring to, and closed it without reading. I too am tired of people discovering this "blog" thing.

GFischer 12y ago

I've been told that customers actually respect companies that say "no" to them more than the ones that always say "yes" to everything (as long as the rationale is explained and reasonable).

kyllo 12y ago
Just like you respect a romantic partner who is firm with you and has boundaries, more than you respect one who's a total doormat and lets you trample all over them.
flanbiscuit 12y ago
While this sounds nice to hear, I would actually like to see some hard evidence proving this. If you have any sources backing this comment up I would love to see it. I work in advertising and I would love to tell account execs this because they are notorious for not being able to say no.

EC1 12y ago

My only strategy to working is just to sit there and fucking work. It's not very difficult. You sort of just tell yourself you're going to do something and then you do it. Boom, saved this entire community a blog post.

larrys 12y ago

" many of which, if you actually applied them to the real world, would result in clients saying, "Wow, these guys are hard to work with, can we please find someone else?" Exactly. Totally flies in the face of saying "how high" when someone says "jump". Not only that but a similar attitude of some old timers in a business that I was in (right out of college) was what allowed me to get their clients. We live in a world where people want instant gratification and answers to their questions. While there may be cases where timing doesn't matter when you are dealing with sales and closing deals and keeping away the competition I have always found the early bird gets the worm. And sometimes you get the deal just by showing up because the other party is to busy to service the account.