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The Sturgeon Filter: the cognitive mismatch between technologists and executives
There’s a rather negative saying, originally applied to science fiction, known as Sturgeon’s Law: “ninety percent of everything is crap“. Quantified so generally, I don’t think that it’s true or...
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Can tech fix its broken culture?
I’m going to spoil the ending. The answer is: yes, I think so. Before I tackle that matter, though, I want to address the blog post that led me to write on this topic. It’s Tim Chevalier’s “Farewell to...
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The tyranny of the friendless
I’ve written a lot about the myriad causes of organizational decay. I wrote a long series on the topic, here. In most of my work, I’ve written about decay as an inevitable, entropic outcome driven by a...
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Why “Agile” and especially Scrum are terrible
Follow-up post: here It’s probably not a secret that I dislike the “Agile” fad that has infested programming. One of the worst varieties of it, Scrum, is a nightmare that I’ve seen actually kill...
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Software’s management problem
Yesterday, I posted a list of the failings of Scrum and the “Agile” fad, and the reviews have been mixed. To be honest, I find the topic of Agile rather boring. I recoil when I encounter it, because it...
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Cool vs. powerful
Early this morning, this article crossed my transom: Why I Won’t Run Another Startup. It’s short, and it’s excellent. Go read it. It brought to mind an interesting social dynamic that, I think, is...
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Continuous negotiation
After reading this piece about asking for raises in software engineering, I feel compelled to share something that I’ve learned about negotiation. I can’t claim to be great at it, personally. I know...
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Technology is run by the wrong people
I have a confession to make: I have a strong tendency to “jump”, emotionally and intellectually, to the biggest problem that I see at a given time. I’ve tempered it with age, because it’s often...
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Anger’s paradoxical value, and the closing of the Middle Path in Silicon Valley
Anger Anger is a strange emotion. I’ve made no efforts to conceal that I have a lot of it, and toward such vile targets (such as those who have destroyed the culture of Silicon Valley and, by extension...
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Employees at Google, Yahoo, and Amazon lose nothing if they unionize. Here’s...
Google, Yahoo, and Amazon have one thing in common with, probably, the majority of large, ethically-challenged software companies. They use stack-ranking, also known as top-grading, also known as...
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Paul Graham: challenge to a rap duel
Paul Graham, We met once in March 2007, and I’m sure you don’t remember me. You seemed like a nice guy but I wasn’t very impressed, and I’m sure I made even less of an impression on you. I’m writing...
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Academia, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and the fate of Silicon Valley
In 2015, the moral and cultural failure of American academia is viewed as a fait accompli. The job market for professors is terrible and will remain so. The academy has sold out two generations...
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Java is Magic: the Gathering (or Poker) and Haskell is Go (the game)
It may be apocryphal, but there’s a parable in the Go (for this essay, I will never refer to Google’s programming language, so I’m talking about the ancient board game) community in which a strong...
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Engineers as clerks? How programmers failed to get the status they deserve.
One of the most interesting essays I’ve read recently is “I Would Prefer Not To”: The Origins of the White Collar Worker, which describes the institution and existence of the 19th-century office clerk....
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Nonzero shit-fan interaction coefficient
I’ve been involved in a few high-profile tech feuds, and the not-surprising conclusion that I’m coming to is that they’re a waste of time. Dan Gackle and Paul Buchheit, both associated with Y...
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What the September 4, 2015 Quora disaster (#QuoraGate) tells us about...
For those who don’t know the back story: under some kind of investor-level pressure, I was banned from Quora on September 4, 2015. No valid reason was given. I was a “Top Writer” and Quora frequently...
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To my supporters at Quora
A dominant topic among employees of Quora, over this weekend, has been whether they’re going to stay with the company in light of its decision on September 4 to ban my account. Quora’s management seems...
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Sorry Quora, but you just did what guilty people do.
I’ve obviously been paying a lot of attention (and “lurking”, although my interest in posting there is pretty much gone for good) to Quora– the site that banned me because I jokingly challenged...
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The brownshirts are out!
If you’re not interested in the ongoing #QuoraGate debacle, just skip this post. You won’t be the worse for it. UPDATE 8:24am CDT: Quora seems to have done the right thing and has deleted the thread in...
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I’ve lost and I’ve won, but Quora seems to be losing. Here’s why.
I have a confession to make. I’m human, and sometimes I get tired, and sometimes I get tired of specific things, and this Quora nonsense is wearing me out. I’m sick of it. In fact, while I’ve enjoyed...
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