Re:Being Slow to Criticise
by BeetleB on Monday May 11, 2020 @11:18AM
(#23143066)
> When someone calls my work garbage, I can sit there and try to come up with excuses, or I can say "yes it is!" and we can move on towards a solution.
When someone calls my work garbage, but isn't willing to sit and discuss what is garbage about it, nor willing to discuss the cost of fixing it, I will ignore him/her.
Talk is cheap. It's trivial for someone to come up with a surface reason to complain. It's harder to take all factors into account.
I was once doing a project where I was solving something in a brute force, inefficient way, but it was simple to code and we had the computer time available. One developer kept loudly complaining in meetings about how crappy and dumb my method was. I finally set up a meeting with him and asked him how we would do it. His solution was far more efficient, but would also take up to a week to implement. I asked "Given our deadline, do you think it is worth losing a week of computer time to implement your method?" He thought about it and said "No, my method won't make up for the time lost."
If you're not willing to sit in the trenches with me, your feedback will have lower weight. I'm in the business of solving problems, not in the business of perfection. At some level, my software is always going to be garbage. You want it not to be? You better have a stake in the outcome, then.
When someone calls my work garbage, but isn't willing to sit and discuss what is garbage about it, nor willing to discuss the cost of fixing it, I will ignore him/her.
Talk is cheap. It's trivial for someone to come up with a surface reason to complain. It's harder to take all factors into account.
I was once doing a project where I was solving something in a brute force, inefficient way, but it was simple to code and we had the computer time available. One developer kept loudly complaining in meetings about how crappy and dumb my method was. I finally set up a meeting with him and asked him how we would do it. His solution was far more efficient, but would also take up to a week to implement. I asked "Given our deadline, do you think it is worth losing a week of computer time to implement your method?" He thought about it and said "No, my method won't make up for the time lost."
If you're not willing to sit in the trenches with me, your feedback will have lower weight. I'm in the business of solving problems, not in the business of perfection. At some level, my software is always going to be garbage. You want it not to be? You better have a stake in the outcome, then.