That seems like a much more diplomatic (and work-appropriate) way of framing it rather than just saying "hey, if I don't hear from you by x date i'm gonna do something"

Hey, we need to do XYZ by April 1st. Let me know if you think that's a problem.

That’s still ambiguous. There’s no default action listed if no response is given. Listing the default action is your CYA that a non response is approval of the default

Well, the CYA in less healthy workplaces could be to leave things vague, if the person doesn’t respond then do what you want when the time comes, and if anything goes wrong you can pin it on the person who ghosted you on a response. Bonus points if you send that first email and immediately seek an in person response. The other person will then figure an email response is unnecessary, thus guaranteeing your ability to play things however you want.

After you’ve been on the wrong side of this dynamic you learn to always confirm things in writing. And to wait for the other person to go to the bathroom and unplug their desk phone so it looks like they’re ignoring phone calls. At the same time, you use your personal vpn to try a few dozen failed logins to their email from 2 or 3 other continents, then drop a hint to their boss alluding to a vague but urgent problem in their domain so the boss will want to get in touch with them immediately.

I never would do what you suggest but I always had the network room door codes. Scotch tape and a thin plastic needle to rub it down to blend the colors on the copper part of the cable, then into the patch panel.

I once playfully threatened a helpdesk senior manager: if you dont tell your team to shut to coffee pot off in the evenings I'm gunna start putting your LTO tapes into the carafe whenever Im forced to be here at 2AM cleaning a coffee pot so I don't take a box cutter to the entire patch panel.

Hey, we will do XYZ by April 1st. Let me know if you think that's a problem.

Our team currently relies on thingamajig's responsiveness and cannot tolerate a change in performance. We will setup a temporary replica of thingamajig. Can you please hold off until our thingamajig replica is stable. My team expects this to be done by March 8th.

If I don't hear back from you by lunchtime, I WILL eat your leftovers.

That's a bit long.

"We're planning on defragging the thingamajig on March 1st unless objections are raised. Please send objections to [email protected]"

Honestly, I've been doing this for decades with legal stuff: "Please confirm that my next pickup date for $CHILD is March 1st." often resulted in the other party just remaining silent and, when complaints against her not allowing the child out were made, she responded with "I never objected to that specific visit".

Using "Unless objections are received, I will fetch $CHILD on March 1st" stopped her from using that excuse.

It's a great way to deal with a difficult party who just wants to have as much creative misunderstandings as possible.

In pearl or php, $variable is standard syntax.

Also used in Bash, ruby, R when referencing elements of a list…

I’m going to guess the GP didn’t want to give their kid’s name here and decided not to insert a generic Billy in its place. So this being a forum with lots of people experienced in $programming_language it’s common to reference a generic placeholder in variable syntax.

Personally, I think comments on HN should use properly type safe syntax, in which case $CHILD is replaced by:

    with Ada.Strings.Unbounded;
    use Ada.Strings.Unbounded;

    Name : Unbounded_String;

Sure it’s more verbose but, while there are tradeoffs, the comment is likely to avoid certain types of bugs when executed on readers’ brains, a notoriously bug-prone hardware platform.

I would have expected the downvotes for not being funny. But i would have never thought to be taken serious on this. But thank you for taking the time to explain. (Un-?)fortunately, i have been writing php for years. And my bash/zsh setup is slightly insane. But truly appreciate your sincere response (except the last sentence, which makes me think, the sincerity of your comment is equal to the on of my first comment...).

I just love HN, no downvote can stop me! Ever!

On desktop I vouch for stuff that's flagged like this. Can't on materialistic. Someone else should, though.

I vouched it. Dunno if it makes a difference unless others do it too.

It used to be one could say, "but what about abortion!?" And that world set people alight.

Today it's anything anti-Musk or pro-Musk it seems.

In Common Lisp, it's common for special variables' names to have "earmuffs" (i.e., asterisks at each end), so Luke's sister could be *princess-leia*.

(edit: added formality)

I am also wondering this , how can we do this without being confrontational and also not being too wordy that you lose interest

‘Going to do thing but wanted to get your input and any impacts you face before this date’

Confrontation turns into a collaboration request.

“After looking at all the options I think XYZ is the best path forward. Our team will implement that on June 3rd. If anyone has any concerns about this approach, please reach out before then. Thanks!”

I often use: "I'm open to input as we move forward on this" to suggest it's already happening, with a clear and kind invitation for feedback.

What often happens if my manager objects is the urgency of "it's already happening" will result in him wanting to pause on it, if it's important to him.

Most of the time it's "ok, sounds good" where there's a clear trust between us. Or it might result in a "ok, sounds good -- just make sure so-and-so is aware too".

This is crazy good , thanks a lot

Everything can be considered confrontational if receiving party is unreasonable.

Maybe receiving party should also take active part in understanding the communication so we don’t put whole burden on sender.

Because that’s causing people to stop communicating which is the worst outcome.

I already had couple team mates - that people didn’t want to communicate with.