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Thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely cut back on words like talent. I do have a natural tendency to be arrogant (although I hide it better in person). Sadl

Thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely cut back on words like talent. I do have a natural tendency to be arrogant (although I hide it better in person). Sadly, I think the bureaucracy here will be tough to beat. I've already seen a few people try to tackle bureaucratic issues and fail. And I definitely see the value in testing, issue tracking, etc. and even some of the tools I hate. The things that get me are the excessive meetings, keeping in house (and regularly breaking) issue tracking and version control rather than paying a few thousand to outsource, mediocre choice of frameworks and tools, not firing completely unproductive (often senior) devs, etc. Edit: Right now is a good example of my complaints: I've been told not to start something without permission from the product manager or guidance from the team lead because I'm new and might waste time on low priorities (which sounds reasonable). But both of those people are in an unnecessary 90 minute meeting (which they complained about but couldn't prevent). I would have asked for backup work during planning this morning just in case this happened, but our issue tracking system was down so the planning meeting was canceled (we keep this on our servers to save a few dollars but end up costing ourselves huge amounts of time with frequent downtime). I've gotten unhappy looks before for admitting that have nothing to do or for trying to learn stuff not immediately useful. So I'm staring at my computer screen trying to look busy because that's my only idea that will keep everyone happy with me.

ChuckMcM 11y ago
> Sadly, I think the bureaucracy here will be tough > to beat. I've already seen a few people try to > tackle bureaucratic issues and fail. They weren't you right? The point being that don't limit yourself to setting goals that you are sure you can achieve, set goals that you have no idea how you will achieve and work to get there. It is much more satisfying. Bureaucracies have a weak point, self preservation. They will do almost anything to protect their own existence, even change. So the trick to "defeating" one is to put it into an existential crisis and use the uncertainty to drive it into a better place. If you set it up as a game and take notes, you may find it just as much fun as programming (but with people rather than computers)

ChuckMcM 11y ago

> Sadly, I think the bureaucracy here will be tough > to beat. I've already seen a few people try to > tackle bureaucratic issues and fail. They weren't you right? The point being that don't limit yourself to setting goals that you are sure you can achieve, set goals that you have no idea how you will achieve and work to get there. It is much more satisfying. Bureaucracies have a weak point, self preservation. They will do almost anything to protect their own existence, even change. So the trick to "defeating" one is to put it into an existential crisis and use the uncertainty to drive it into a better place. If you set it up as a game and take notes, you may find it just as much fun as programming (but with people rather than computers)