Comments on: The Single Most Important Rule for Retaining Software Developers

By: engtech

engtech — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:03:09 +0000

I’m really feeling this one. I just spent two weeks hacking a workaround because we’re stuck using a crappy vendor EDA tool instead of One That Works. It was one of those jobs where I kept on referring back to their documentation because I couldn’t believe I had to go through such a complicated process to do an elementary task. Did I learn anything from doing that? Nope.

By: http://

http:// — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:57:25 +0000

You make a great point, Anonymous! =) So right, Rob. Since beginning at my current post roughly a year ago, I’ve had to deal with more and more of the “bad” kinds of problems (retrofitting screwily designed systems, “enhancing” old systems with largely incompatible but cool-sounding features — let’s add some Ajax to the such-and-such Web app we built back in 2001! — and the like) and it’s systematically whittled away at my ability to keep positive about the place. Shame how those in power understand and largely agree with the concepts you and Mr. Graham address so rightly, but ignore them so regularly in practice.

By: Adnan Masood

Adnan Masood — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 02:04:40 +0000

When Albert Einstein said “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer”, he definitely meant good problems. There needs to be a certain degree of balance between mundane support chores and creativity, I say 15%-85% probably. The disturbance in this balance can create choas. Very well said Rob, “bad problems teach you nothing” therefore you spend all this time solving them in vain. Not Good!