in reply to All I Ever Needed To Know About Computer Programming I Learned In Shop Class

Thanks for the nice post.

The man pictured in my home node (my Pop)* would agree with you 100% with an enthusiastic nod of the head and big smile. Preparation, having a well organized workspace and generally always putting yourself (and your team) in a position to succeed are all things he STILL repeats to me when we visit he and my mother on the weekends. Much like your shop teacher I'm sure, my father practiced what he preached as a mechanic, machinist and, now retired at 74*, the neighborhood mechanic. Admittedly he has proven far better at applying these rules than me but (hopefully) I have another 35+ years to catch up to him.

I've worked with and for people who have let their ego get in the way of successfully completing a project. We start with what would seem like a clear, well planned path only to have it derailed with "What if we did...". Usually all in an effort to stand out for upper management, clients, customers or driven by fear etc. 99.999% of the time it would lead to a badly blown deadline and poorly executed product with features that weren't in anyone's specs at the start.

Be well prepared, organized and ALWAYS put yourself and the people you work with in a position to succeed.

1. Yes I still call my father "Pop" and so does everyone else in our family. :)

2. He actually retired begrudgingly at 71 and was honestly ALWAYS the neighborhood mechanic for as long as I can remember.


"...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote
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Re^2: All I Ever Needed To Know About Computer Programming I Learned In Shop Class
by mpeever (Friar) on Dec 07, 2010 at 17:46 UTC
    Usually all in an effort to stand out for upper management, clients, customers or driven by fear etc. 99.999% of the time it would lead to a badly blown deadline and poorly executed product with features that weren't in anyone's specs at the start.

    I've been a consultant and an in-house resource. There are different challenges in each context, but the single biggest factor I've seen is fear. The concept that "We can't say no to her" is probably the most destructive element in my experience.

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      (Nods...)   Somewhere I stumbled upon an article on:   How to give requirements to a programming team.   It was written specifically for upper management folks in non-computer related areas of an organization.   And one of the cautionary tales given was, basically, how not to be a “her.”

      Outside of the immediate domain of computer hacking, the process of creating computer software is poorly understood, just as much as it is business-critical and extremely expensive.   Many folks in “her” position have realized ex post facto that they unintentionally caused a serious over-run by what they innocently said in an e-mail ... never intending to have done such a thing, but with incomplete understanding of what might happen next in the down-stream authority chains.   (I remember that the article also referred to the classic “whisper a message into the ear of the person next to you, and so-on around the room” communication problem.   And, perhaps slightly irreverently, “at the top of Mount Sinai, God was ‘merely talking to’ his good friend, Moses.   But that’s not how it looked from the valley floor.”)

Re^2: All I Ever Needed To Know About Computer Programming I Learned In Shop Class
by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Dec 08, 2010 at 14:07 UTC

    Warmest regards of the season to your “Pop.”   May he live long and prosper ... and never really “retire.”   (In my experience, such folks never really do, and they are the gems of the earth.)

      “Warmest regards of the season to your “Pop.” May he live long and prosper ... and never really “retire.” (In my experience, such folks never really do, and they are the gems of the earth.)”

      Thank you. :)
      I hope to reach that age and be able to not retire as well.

      "...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote
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