Re: Joy of this, Joy of that

On 26/11/2024 18:57, rbowman wrote:

On Tue, 26 Nov 2024 13:17:08 -0000 (UTC), Rich wrote:
 

Yep, exactly.  If they can be given instructions that match their "lego
brick set" they can snap something together.  Ask them to do anything
that requires creativity or research and understanding, and you get back
a turd that has had hours of polishing applied.

 The holy grail for management is a design methodology that gets adequate
results from a workforce of varying aptitudes. Particularly for larger
corporations you'll get a normal distribution, a few very good, a few
completely useless, and a lot of mediocrity. That's what you have to work
with.
 

I've encountered that in my time in mil spec aerospace.
A very few people analysed the project and broke it down in to circuit board specs.
(Even down to a board the sized of a paperback with gold plated edge connector containing 6 resistors two capacitors and an 8 pin IC)
Then a selection of random monkeys who could solder fucked around with random components *until it met the specification*.
And the whole thing was a closed feedback loop. You went round and round until the whole bloody thing either met the spec, or ran out of government budget,

What I've seen over the years is a company will luck out, get a better
than average distribution, and achieve success. Whatever they're doing is
taken as an example of the right way and copied mechanically. Top down
structured programming, agile, devops, and so forth have their day.
 

Indeed. At top management level, one does not care how they did it, only that they did.

TI lucked out in the '70s and used something they called 'matrix
management' that became the new Wunderkind. The '80s brought 'In Search of
Excellence'.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Excellence
 Good money was made from book sales and training sessions from independent
snake oil salesmen preaching the gospel. The company I worked for had one
of the sessions. Not too many of the 'excellent' corporations are around
today.
 

I was surprised to discover that what I did naturally - coming in in the morning and looking around to see who looked miserable and asking them what was wrong, and then trying to sort it out, was actually known as 'management by walking about'

About 10 years ago the company I now work for had a 'pair programming'
session. That was hilarious. The 'experts' were only familiar with Apple
machines and other than the one they brought there wasn't an Apple in the
building. Having been through required attendance things before my team
carefully stayed to the back of the room where we could slink away and get
back to business.
 I'm sure the next methodology will wrap itself around AI, spin off
training companies, and mostly fail to deliver on the promises.
 

Nothing is worse than a CompSci graduate trying to introduce a whole new language based on its elegance, expect a MBA (Mostly bloody arseholes) trying to implement the latest fashionable management theory with no idea as to why it is fashionable, where it might fit, or what good it might do if any.
--
"What do you think about Gay Marriage?"
"I don't."
"Don't what?"
"Think about Gay Marriage."