OpenDrapery's comments

Is telling AI to do thing, doing the thing?

Definitely. Universities keep asking for money even after you've completed the transaction. We wear the shirt and tout our pride. Win the hearts and minds. Perfect marketing play.

Sports franchises are the ultimate trick, in that they are profit-oriented, yet they somehow play on our tribal nature and fool us into forgetting about the profit part.

I guess you could argue the same for a church.

Being a contractor can be a good play, especially if your spouse carries benefits for your family.

Being a contractor is generally considered low status and temporary, so if you can get over that, then you can thrive.

The upside to this is the understanding that it is transactional and hourly. There is no expectation that you get emotionally invested. Which can actually be a much more health arrangement.

I like to see working software alongside a PR. GitLab has the concept of a Review Environment, and it spoiled me. Ephemeral, dynamically provisioned environments that are deployed from a feature branch, are absolutely amazing productivity boosts.

It gives so much more context to a PR.

Downloading is the problem. Twenty years ago, you would go on the internet and find an installer and just trust it.

Now days, you have to figure out which of the 10 download buttons is the real one. And then you have check hashes if you want to validate that you actually downloaded the installer that the publisher released.

I think that browser based software is a huge step backward in terms of richness of user experience. I can't believe that, in the year 2019, GSuite has usurped Outlook and the traditional native office applications in the corporate environment that i work in. But here we are.

But, there's no denying that any friction for the user getting the software will drastically reduce their likelihood of using it at all.

I can tell that you are an architect from they way that you like to use the terms "right" and "wrong".

There is no right and wrong. There are only opinions and stylistic preference. There are solutions that are better and there are ones that are worse. But when you black box it and look at it from the outside, it either works or it doesn't.

Skill and talent are at odds with process heaviness. Oftentimes I think it's a "pick one" type of scenario. Do you want critical thinkers who just "get it" when it comes to complex technical matters? Or do you want process rigor?

Someone will say "false dichotomy", to which I say, "maybe".

Yes, you just "know" when you've entered an unhealthy employee/employer relationship. It bleeds over into your personal life, and makes it difficult to focus on the actual work.

Exit these relationships.

Conspiracy theory: Follow the money and you will usually find that the staffing firm or consultancy has a "good old boys" relationship with the employer. I've seen it personally, but I don't buy in to the idea that it's pervasive or even occuring more than 20% of the time.

Of course, in the world of sales, those relationships can form quickly. Even if you've never heard of me and my staffing firm, I can present you tickets to a concert or golf tournament, or something similar, and win (buy) favor fairly easily.

Most of these middleman staffing firms are not really differentiated from one another. They find a client and leech on to it.

Yeah, it's fairly gross. Insurance and banking are chock full of corporate cockroaches. They can hide for years without adding any real value. But boy, do they want their fair treatment.

I'm really surprised that so many employers use the middle man to find contractors. How do you tap into that market and skip the middle man? Seems like a win-win to me. (Except for the recruiter who's left out in the cold)

Things that have gotten better in the last 10 years: ubiquity of high speed internet, tools such as voip, screen share, chat, cloud hosting across regions, lower cost of home office hardware like monitors

Things that have gotten worse: traffic and congestion, real estate prices

The needle is moving in the direction of wfh, I definitely believe that those that embrace it will be ahead of the game.

As usual, the workers and managers are playing different games. As a developer, it's easy to assume that productivity is the game. Form a strong team and add business value through execution, right? Wrong.

Management is playing a game of consistency and control. Blanket policies are the name of the game. I don't care if you are 100x more productive at home. I can't have all these other losers asking me why they aren't allowed to work from home. God forbid I consider a stratified policy where some people get privileges that others don't.

This is why small companies move the needle on innovation, because they don't have to cater to lowest common denominator of 5000 people. Large companies are ruled by old men, and are beholden to status quo.

I think the big dirty secret is that even in the office, there is a need for down time. The problem is that my options are limited, so I sit at my desk and look at the same stupid web sites in a clandestine manner. Or I get up and go for a walk, and try to get some fresh air. But my office building sits on an interstate and there are no walking paths or benches in sight.

At home, my breathers are more energizing, which is the point.

I can't believe how ridiculous it is that managers feign surprise when they are told that a task estimated at 4 hours will take a calendar day to complete. That is the nature of the work.

If I want to make a 2 hour task take an entire work day, I will do that whether I'm in the office or not. Sometimes devs need to coast a little. The notion that they will just continue to vigorously attach a backlog of monkey work is silly.

It's ok to treat adults with respect and empathy. Knowledge workers need more latitude to manage their pace.

I think when I was younger, I wanted to believe in it. But, yes, now that I'm older and I reflect, I don't think I've ever been part of one that wasn't fake.

There are the owners/middle management/laborers. To trick the laborers into thinking that they are part of something is pretty brilliant though.

I love the idea that we want to find the smartest people we can find, and hire them. Then tell them they need to drive in to an office every day and fill a seat, on the .01% chance that a client might drop in.

Yeah that makes way more sense than just saying, "hey a client is coming in on Thursday, everyone assume your positions! And for FSM's sake, look like you're collaborating!"

Turds have a way of living on in the software world.

What is the general opinion of CMM these days? I always associate it with UML diagrams for some reason. There was a time when the industry really wanted software to be fully specified. Seems like most people gave up on that dream, when agile came around and said "embrace change", along with the tenants.

But, alas, the pendulum swings. I think it's swinging back toward "I sure wish we didn't have to depend on finding skilled people, and our process was so bulletproof we could plug in any old schmuck and we can just continue to print money".

Damn, the business man is greedy.