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[ { "answer_id": 102938, "author": "Bluebird", "author_id": 38289, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/38289", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd recommend you to consolidate and narrow down your bullet points for the job at hand. When applying to a developer position, list the responsibilities related to development. A software engineer hiring manager wouldn't be interested in your sales skills. In other words, customize your resume to the job at hand.</p>\n\n<p>At the interview, you are more than welcome to elaborate on your additional experience when you discuss your resume.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 103028, "author": "Daniel", "author_id": 71695, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/71695", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Just do this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Company Name 01/2000 - 07/2007\n Job Title one, Job Title two\n - nth Desc.\n</code></pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 103036, "author": "David K", "author_id": 16983, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16983", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>When you work for a company, you only hold a single position at a time.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Unless you had a formal promotion, or reassignment, or job title change, then your employment span only consists of <strong>one job title</strong>. That job title might be \"Jack-of-all-trades wizard\", but it is still a single position. <em>That</em> is what you list as your job title on your resume. (For help on what that title should be, see <a href=\"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/32053/job-title-job-description-mismatch\">this question</a> and <a href=\"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/22172/how-do-i-choose-an-appropriate-job-title\">this question</a> and <a href=\"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/13494/how-to-label-inaccurate-job-titles-on-resume\">this question</a>.)</p>\n\n<p>It sounds like you covered a lot of roles while you were at that company, but you list those in your description of your job responsibilities. In the end that will be more important than what you actually list as your job title.</p>\n\n<pre><code>Company Name 01/2000 - 07/2007\n Job Title\n - Role 1 description\n - Role 2 description\n</code></pre>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/102936", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/5213/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 105908, "author": "Rob", "author_id": 70590, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/70590", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Q: \"What is the politest way to say?\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You've been that route with him a few times, undoubtedly others have also, likely not only at work but elsewhere. Work is a safe place for him, over a back alley or a bar.</p>\n\n<p>You can try over at IPS.SE for the politest possible method, here at workplace.SE it's more about work and efficiency (along with compliance to company policy and applicable laws).</p>\n\n<p>Simply tell him that he:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Inquires about matters that are not his concern.</p></li>\n<li><p>Interrupts conversations he is not a part of.</p></li>\n<li><p>Inquires about things protected by privacy laws (Visa).</p></li>\n<li><p>Presupposes to know of the working of things he knows nothing of (Visa), and questions such matters to undermine your relationship with your employer.</p></li>\n<li><p>Gives unsolicited advice and questions approved decisions (Tech Store).</p></li>\n<li><p>He invades your privacy (goes into your bags).</p></li>\n<li><p>Interrupts your eating to ask for your food.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I don't hate Tim. I don't want to be his friend. I only want to be his coworker and be as polite as I can.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You should and you've done that; move to the next stage.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How can I make him stop?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>\"Make\", \"ask\", or \"tell\"? [rhetorical question].</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I address this with him? Should I talk about it with my boss?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Whether you want to take another swing at him or rip a strip off your boss is your decision. There are some patient and talented people at: <a href=\"http://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/\">http://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/</a> .</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I don't feel like talking about this with my boss because I feel like we can solve this ourselves. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>We differ in our opinion about that, or you wouldn't involve us.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>And also, I don't want Tim to feel bad. If he feels offended that could change our work \"good aura\".</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No doubt Tim doesn't want your to feel bad, you should embrace Tim's helpful ways and do all you can to promote the needy behavior [sarcasm].</p>\n\n<p>Unless you intend to forgive and forget and Tim is willing to cease and desist there's no \"good aura\"; only bullying and offensive behavior. It also says something about HR and management if they are fully aware of this. </p>\n\n<p>Beware that Tim's not someone's (owner, CEO, large customer) relative and <em>protected</em> from complaints before you risk a confrontation. Is there a reason (irreplaceable) both of you should remain there?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 105917, "author": "user82365", "author_id": 82365, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/82365", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Rob's answer is quite good and if it comes to some kind of direct confrontation, solid advice, but I have something to add:</p>\n\n<p>so far you have actually entertained his questions - you answer them and engage in further discussion about these non-work related questions, which is likely encouraging Tim to continue with this annoying behavior.</p>\n\n<p>So as a first step, you could just stop answering his questions or answer with a \"dead end\" response that leaves him with no traction to move forward.</p>\n\n<p>\"where are you going\" - \"to lunch\" do not say more, just go</p>\n\n<p>\"where are you going to buy electronics\" - \"to the store\" do not say more, just go</p>\n\n<p>\"how did it go at the immigration office\" - \"great\" \"can I see the papers they gave you?\" \"no\" do not say more. go about your business.</p>\n\n<p>You can offer these responses in a friendly tone and even with a smile - there is no need to be rude, just don't open yourself up for further questions. If he keeps asking, just stay silent, walk away, etc.</p>\n\n<p>I think you can take a cue from the coworkers who have no problem with Tim: they ignore him and it's apparently effective. If you refuse to fall for his bait, he may very well get bored with you and you might not have to confront him at all. </p>\n\n<p>eta: if you catch him going through any of your belongings (or new purchases or whatever) I don't think confrontation <em>should</em> be avoided: \"Tim, keep your hands off my stuff.\" Past that, no discussion necessary. If he asks \"why\", just repeat the command perhaps with \"I don't need to explain this to you\" </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 105932, "author": "Dominique", "author_id": 59683, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/59683", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I believe there are two problems here which come together: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You are too nice.</li>\n<li>Tim is rude.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>You can counter problem 2 by solving problem 1:<br/>\nTim : \"Can I try your food?\"<br/>\nYou : \"No.\"</p>\n\n<p>Tim is going through your bags when you buy things:<br/>\n\"Tim, I'v noticed that somebody has gone through my bags while I was absent. I find it particularly unpleasant and if it happens again, I'm seriously considering informing management about it. Do you know who that was?\"<br/>\nI believe Tim won't admit that it was him and he will seriously think twice before doing it again. :-) <br/></p>\n\n<p>Be aware, when dealing with the techstore issue, he has a point: when going to one store would have taken less time, then he's right, so don't go into that discussion.</p>\n\n<p>Next time, when you need to do some shopping (like the Visa place), don't mention it to him. You just get up of your chair and wish him (and the other collegues) a good afternoon or say you'll be back within ±15 minutes, and when he asks what you will be doing, you just answer you're taking care of some personal things. <br/>\nTim: \"What things?\" <br/>\nYou: \"Personal ones.\" <br/></p>\n\n<p>Good luck</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 105945, "author": "Dan", "author_id": 40006, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/40006", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It sounds to me like Tim is just trying to make conversation but doesn't have the social maturity to do so. It sounds like he wants to make conversation, but instead asks what you feel like are personal questions. I'm sure he's doing it to others, or maybe he wants to be friendly specifically to you because you are near him. It's unclear if you are male or female and you may feel like he's trying to get romantically involved.</p>\n\n<p>It's also unclear if English is your first language - or even vice versa, if you co-worker is a native speaker. I found in some situations, people learning English may take terms differently than native speakers.</p>\n\n<p>Since the questions are annoying to you, you should let him know. Tell him you do not wish to discuss person matters and eventually it'll stop. For example, if he asks, \"What you filled out at the visa office.\" Tell him back, \"Why do you want to know that?\" He might answer back that he might need to fill out forms and wanted to know what he needed to fill out. He might be friendly. Or on the flip side, if he's just asking to be annoying, he'll stop or get the clue.</p>\n\n<p>Or in the tech store situation. Maybe he has some tips or knowledge about what's in the store. \"Which store are you going to?\" \"Oh I am going to store A.\" \"Oh yeah, I know X at that store and I got some coupons, let me print them out.\"</p>\n\n<p>Or in the lunch situation, was he sitting by himself? Maybe he wants to ask if he can come with you. \"Where are you going?\" \"I'm going to food place A, would you like to join?\"</p>\n\n<p>Or in the conversation situation, when he says, \"What were you talking about?\" \"Oh, we were talking about the basketball game, do you like basketball?\"</p>\n\n<p>Thus far he sounds friendly and harmless. Don't take things literally or too seriously.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/105928", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/73718/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 106040, "author": "Tim", "author_id": 71738, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/71738", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You're right, you don't want to spend time on a day long interview (especially if you have to use holiday to go to it) without knowing if the salary is appropriate.</p>\n\n<p>Normally you would have an idea from the recruiter/advert what the salary could potentially be, but in this case you do not. I would recommend contacting the internal recruiter you spoke to and asking what the potential salary range is before the interview. I'm slightly surprised there hasn't been a conversation about it already (its not just wasting your time, but theirs too, if their salary offer would have been too low for you to move).</p>\n\n<p>I would be surprised if this caused any negativity, but you can be honest and say that you had an interview recently and then found out the pay was too low for you to make the move, and the last thing you want to do is waste either of your time. This is a reasonable enough request that if you did get any hostility it would be a red flag against the potential new employer anyway.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106046, "author": "Neo", "author_id": 61096, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61096", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>How to know a ball park figure for a salary before going for the\n interview?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Ask the recruiter (whether your working directly with the company or a third party ) </p>\n\n<pre><code>\"What is the salary range for this position?\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>At this point if you get the run around, follow up with:</p>\n\n<pre><code>\"In the interest of not wasting your time or mine, I need to be sure \n\nthe salary being offered is something I can work with\".\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>If they still don't give you an answer then say:</p>\n\n<pre><code>At this point without that information there is no reason to proceed.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>And <strong>finally</strong> if you get to this point, the recruiter will most likely get the information for you, or just give it to you. </p>\n\n<p>At this point using my strategy you have to <strong>be prepared to walk away.</strong> Throughout my professional career, there has only been one case where after being persistent that the information was not given.</p>\n\n<p>There really is no point of interviewing with a company in most cases if you don't know with some certainty that <strong>the opportunity will pay a wage that is right for you.</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>Note</strong>: <em>Ideally these steps would be taken as part of scheduling the initial face to face interview.</em></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/106037", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/82440/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 106243, "author": "Daniel", "author_id": 71695, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/71695", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When you get assigned a task and have trouble fulfilling it, you should notify the person that assigned you that task as soon as possible. You should show a real effort to solve it on your own, though. It also helps to be able to articulate what you need/ where you are stuck. Maybe you can get a Mentor assigned to you, or get additional Research time. </p>\n\n<p>Avoid any indication of \"that's normally not my duty\" kind of thinking. You should concentrate on getting the task done, and if you discover that you you don´t like that as a direction of your career, have that in a different talk.</p>\n\n<p>Side note: If you want to be a good (software) tester, understanding programming is something you will have to learn. So be grateful you get the opportunity to learn it under paid and supervised conditions. Seems like your employer is investing into you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106261, "author": "HorusKol", "author_id": 110, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/110", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Waiting two weeks is too long - especially as that is 25% of the remaining project time.</p>\n\n<p>Ideally, you should have spent one day (maybe two) trying to figure it out alone. Make notes of what you think needs to be done, what you tried to get it done, and what problems you experienced in getting it done. If you succeed, all good - take your work to the person who tasked you and ask for a review.</p>\n\n<p>Now, hopefully you've made notes.</p>\n\n<p>Talk to the person who tasked you as soon as possible - tell them you're having trouble with the task. Run through your notes - this shows them you haven't been sitting on your hands all this time (I'm sure you haven't, but they don't know that). Confirm what you think needs to be done, show them what you tried and where it failed for you and how.</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes, it's simple (missing dependency). Sometimes, not so simple (obscure behaviour of dependency). Sometimes, it needs a lot of thinking. Either way - you taking 15 minutes of their time for a solution or pointer is better than you spending 2 weeks being stuck.</p>\n\n<p>If the tasker is not able to help (too busy) ask if another senior dev can help. If that doesn't happen, talk to your boss and explain the situation.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106267, "author": "BoboDarph", "author_id": 78087, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/78087", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<p>You ask a loaded question, friend. </p>\n\n<p>The way I see it your question is not about what you <strong><em>should do</em></strong>, but about <strong><em>what is expected of you to do</em></strong>. </p>\n\n<p>I would split your question into several sub-questions. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>The first part is about a team leader or project owner asking a team member to <strong>perform a task he hasn't been prepared or hired for</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>Is it moral or normal? </p>\n\n<p>No, it is not, IMO. </p>\n\n<p>Is it usual in a lot of companies to use testers as emergency devs? </p>\n\n<p>Yes. The implications here are mostly ethical and usually financial, but let's not worry about those now, shall we?</p>\n\n<p>Still, in a normal Agile team I would have pushed back against the request and have it formalized as a story or an epic. \nYes you'll get the usual bs that it doesn't add value to the customer, but your stakeholders are not only your customers. \nIf a stakeholder yields value from a story, it's valid effort. </p>\n\n<p>Assuming you work in an Agile team, I would try to build a story around your assignment that can be tracked, assign it valid Acceptance Criteria, split it into sub-tasks, and time box each task. It should be easier to track all your research, implementation and failures/successes in small tasks that are timeboxed. This way your manager can track progress and you can justify time spent with progress to show.</p>\n\n<p>The fact that you struggled on the task alone without anyone asking questions for two weeks tells me that you either don't work in an Agile team or that no one in your team cares about SCRUM meetings. This is bad for you either way.\nI'd try to fix this before it gets worse. And by fixing this I mean making sure I have someone to tell I am stuck somewhere and don't know what to do, so a colleague could help me get unstuck.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>The second issue with your situation is that the person that asked you to perform the task <strong><em>sold it short</em></strong>. </p>\n\n<p>To you, it should have been a relatively simple task, similar to the ones you were performing before, but it turned out not so simple and not so like the ones before. This alone should have prompted you to raise the issue ASAP to the requester. </p>\n\n<pre><code>\"Hello dear manager, you told me this would be nice and simple, a taste of real programming. \nIt's not. What do?\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>This is what should have come out of your mouth (in one form or another) at some point in time. Preferably immediately after figuring out you've been duped.\nI would suggest you make up for lost time and inform your manager that you were both in the wrong about the complexity of the task and do not share a common understanding of the necessary knowledge to complete it. \nObviously he thought you were capable of doing it because he assumed you possess the knowledge or are able to acquire it in a reasonable time frame. Obviously you thought the same. </p>\n\n<p>Obviously you were both wrong.</p>\n\n<p>Fixing this problem is a simple matter of re-aligning knowledge. \nYou already spent two weeks finding out you both are wrong. \nTry to figure out why he was wrong in the first place and then explain it to your manager. Was your manager mistaken about your ability to code? Was he mistaken about your ability to learn? Were you too eager to show yourself? Answer those questions and more like them and you should be able to figure out how you got here in the first place. And what you should do to avoid the situation in the future. And maybe some ideas on how to fix it (assign more time to learning, prepare informal meetings with other devs to explain how they would do it would be a couple of ideas that come to mind).</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Coming to the final part of your question: What should you do. Or more accurately, what do these people expect you to do?</p>\n\n<p>The person that assigned you the task might expect different things than just completing the task within the allotted time frame. She might expect your team leader to evaluate your progress, quality of implementation, ability to learn while under pressure, desire to work with new technologies and current skills. She might want to make a developer out of you, should you choose this path. She might just need an inexpensive dev committing code that will be refactored in a few weeks just to do a demo for a client. </p>\n\n<p>Your team leader might expect other things. She might care about how well you worked within your team while performing the task. If you asked for help when you got stuck. If you were able to recognize possible risks and handle them in a proactive manner. Or she might expect you to fail so she can hire a real dev.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know, these are just speculations. You can find out how true they are by asking either of those persons what is expected of you before you take on the task. </p>\n\n<p>It's not too late to ask now, either IMO.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/106241", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/82576/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 106488, "author": "AthomSfere", "author_id": 8350, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/8350", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think in this instance there are two topics that could be addressed.</p>\n\n<p>1) She often offers a contradictory and correct position on various topics.</p>\n\n<p>This says she is potentially a great asset to the team, that she is:</p>\n\n<pre><code>A) Confident\nB) Intelligent\nC) Competent \n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I would take no actions to stifle this. If other team mates are offended only by the above, I'd work with them to understand the value she is offering and hopefully help them grow slightly thicker skin.</p>\n\n<p>2) Her soft skills / delivery might need a little work.</p>\n\n<p>Really, this is for everyone's benefit. Her coworkers will be more comfortable, she might receive better feedback during conversations, but most importantly she will be able to give the exact same information without other members of the group instantly cringing, recoiling, and becoming defensive.</p>\n\n<p>How I would handle something like this with a peer (it helps to have good rapport, but can also work to build rapport) is wait for a good example of this happening. </p>\n\n<p>Afterwards, ask her if she is aware of how the team members perceive her actions and that they are offended by her delivery of information and counterpoints. </p>\n\n<p>And then follow up with advice on how she can say effectively the same thing but with it seeming less confrontational.</p>\n\n<p>\"Like in that last meeting, where John was talking about how he wanted to sail to the end of Earth just to see it once. Instead of saying 'You can't do that, the earth is round' you could have said something more like 'That sounds like a fantastic time, but have you considered the modern scientific consensus on the shape of the planet?'\"</p>\n\n<p>Finally, I'll admit I personally wish being direct worked as well as it should. Often times though we have to help foster a conversation rather than just give opposing information, regardless of our own degree of competency vs someone else's. It isn't that she is doing anything wrong, just that she could be more effective.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106489, "author": "A.S", "author_id": 29136, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/29136", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Have you tried <strong>talking less</strong> to this person? </p>\n\n<p>When I notice that communicating with someone is a negative experience more often than it is a positive one, I gradually reorganize my communication patterns to reduce the amount of interaction/communication with that person. </p>\n\n<p>It is a natural and sensible response, whereby <em>behavior which yields a negative outcome (think of it as 'punishment') is changed to avoid such outcome</em>. </p>\n\n<p>Another good working assumption is that <strong>people are unlikely to change</strong>, and it is safe to assume you are not going to produce such change -- especially in a colleague, as opposed to a subordinate. </p>\n\n<p>Your best strategy is to reduce your interaction with this individual, in other words, talk less to her. Minimize the source of irritation, and the irritation will be minimized. You can't always win, but you can always at least cut your losses. Good luck!</p>\n\n<p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I am not going to delve into the potential benefits of being told what you (and everyone) are doing wrong, on a regular basis. I am going to assume that whatever you are doing is not as wrong as this person paints it to be, so the source of the problem is not with your and others' behaviors, but with the way this person communications. Other commentators are welcome to explore other perspectives.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106491, "author": "Rob", "author_id": 70590, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/70590", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's well established that 50/50 is a failing grade and \"No!, because ...\" is an approach that is not well received; especially with that score.</p>\n\n<p>Interpersonal skills is handled over at interpersonal.SE, here it's more about the workplace. </p>\n\n<p>She needs to sit in her hierarchy, if she cuts the cheques she might get away with it but as a demoralizer, time waster, and irritant she needs to think before she speaks; spend more time considering if she is correct, whom to approach with her pearl of wisdom, and work on the delivery.</p>\n\n<p>An effective approach I have found (when being spammed) is dismiss the notion of bringing up the matter with me, \"something of this importance should be brought to the attention of management, be certain that they get back to me by the end of the day\". </p>\n\n<p>They know the worth of their ideas and the subject is either brought to the attention of the correct person or their failing is brought to light.</p>\n\n<p>If they simply enjoy interrupting, being corrected or correcting, or simply like to test boundaries (manspacing) and roll roughshod over their colleagues then you need to establish that you'll not be the avenue for this behavior.</p>\n\n<p>She needs to be correct more often, and work on her approach.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106503, "author": "Old_Lamplighter", "author_id": 46894, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/46894", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The way to deal with a difficult person is to address the behavior when it happens.</p>\n\n<p>\"Excuse me, but that came across as a bit rude.\" (for example)</p>\n\n<p>As you pointed out, it is not enough for this person to be right, you have to be wrong. Someone tends to use this tactic to stifle all disagreement by making you pay a social penalty if you dispute her. (Disagree, and I'll embarrass you). </p>\n\n<p>This is usually indicative of someone low in skill and competence. Leadership is convincing not cajoling. </p>\n\n<p>The only way to reign someone like this in is to address the behavior. It doesn't matter if the person is right or wrong if they're being abusive towards the team. What is important is how the ideas are presented.</p>\n\n<p>If you start with an </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"I'm sorry, but that came across as a bit rude\". </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Expect something like </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Well, I'm right!\". </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To which you say:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Right or wrong, that is not the way to address people\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You want to curtail the behavior, but not the input, because as you've said, she puts in some good input (about 50%) but she's wrong often enough that you don't want her ideas accepted because they are just the ones put forth the most forcefully.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/106487", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/82762/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 106533, "author": "DarkCygnus", "author_id": 73791, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/73791", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>but can it hurt your chances if the job isn't software development related?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><strong>If the job is not software development, or related, there is no point in including such information in your resume.</strong> It not only will take valuable space in your resume (which should be as concise as possible) but could lessen the impact of other skills more valuable for that role.</p>\n<p>You should usually want to <strong>tailor your resume for the role(s) you are applying</strong> to, so in this case you may consider leaving such GitHub outside in favor of other more relevant information that could boost your application.</p>\n<p>It's not that it will <em>necessarily</em> harm your application, but surely including such unrelated information won't help your chances. It could even indicate that you were just trying to &quot;fill space&quot; in your resume to make it look &quot;better&quot;, and <em>that</em> is something that could affect your application.</p>\n<p><strong>Edit per update:</strong> If it is just the link, and it does not take valuable space from your resume then I see no problem in including it.</p>\n<p>They may, or may not look at it (in case they do make sure you got some interesting projects at least), and in case they don't then at least it's a <em>&quot;Hey, this candidate has also programming skills&quot;</em>, which could be the tie-breaker when there are other equally-skilled applicants hunting that job.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106553, "author": "Mawg says reinstate Monica", "author_id": 20979, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/20979", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Go for it! If I were recruiting, you are exactly the sort of person I would want to hire.</p>\n<p>You are obviously interested, possibly passionate, about something that relates to your work. That can only be of benefit to the company.</p>\n<p>We all have to pay the rent, so we all have to apply for jobs. But it is people like you who who can make a difference to a company. In my mind, you could be worth two or three &quot;just doing it for the rent&quot;, employees. I would expect you to produce a constant stream of new ideas, which could be of great benefit to the company, and would expect to promote you before long.</p>\n<p>In fact, if you apply for a data entry post and provide such examples, I might consider hiring you for another post straight away.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 187031, "author": "JoseLuis", "author_id": 123441, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/123441", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Now some companies begin to ask people to share their GitHub home page, in purpose of knowing if they keeps studying or not during his off time hour.</p>\n<p>If you have some projects in GitHub, I recommend you to do it.</p>\n<p>If you don't have a GitHub home page, then create one, push some projects and share to companies.</p>\n<p>PS: Take care that you don't upload some sensitive source code like company source code.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/106532", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 106818, "author": "paparazzo", "author_id": 26028, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/26028", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are some incompetent CEOs out there. Unfortunately there is no one above to straighten them out. The board or owner could fire him but they don't see what is going on day by day. </p>\n\n<p>Eventually he will likely bring the company down or be replaced. It might be time to put out your resume.</p>\n\n<p>When he comes up with the next bright idea ask about the status of the last bright idea. Keep a list of the mock ups you created that went no where. You are not likely to change him.</p>\n\n<p>On further thought maybe keep a report of ideas and where there are and status. Kind of like Area 51. </p>\n\n<pre><code>Name Requirements Prelimary Customer Detailed \n Design &amp; Review Design \n Mockup \n\nsliced bread partial complete ymd none killed\n</code></pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106824, "author": "IDrinkandIKnowThings", "author_id": 16, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What your CEO is doing is often referred to as <a href=\"https://www.16personalities.com/articles/tactics-judging-vs-prospecting\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">prospecting</a>. </p>\n\n<p>The idea is that you explore enough of an idea to judge if the idea has merit. But not so much as to lose much if the idea is not worth investing in fully. It seems your CEO trusts you enough that you are his go to person for this task. If this task is not rewarding to you then perhaps you can ask him to take on one of the other members of the team as his primary partner in developing his ideas.</p>\n\n<p>Realize that with that shift away from his trusted partner, you also lose some of your ability to shape the policies and direction of the company. Should your CEO hit the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_lode\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">mother lode</a> of ideas the person that was his partner in the development of that idea is going to be the one that reaps the rewards.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest that if you work at a company that does this type of thing, and you are not comfortable with the prospecting that you return to the world of established corporate policies, and stability and let those hungry for opportunity have a chance to develop the next big thing!</p>\n\n<p>If you think you already have the next big thing in the pipe, then explain that to your boss that you believe that the best thing you can do for the company is to focus on the core product. You may find out that the lack of focus is due to the limited potential of the product you are developing. Sure the product will make the company money but its not going to buy you both(or even him) that private island.</p>\n\n<p>Another tactic to try is to ask him to prioritize the work. It could be that he is expecting you to just make the prospecting the side job and you are putting to much time and effort into each prospect that you should have been directing more energy to the main product. </p>\n\n<p>What ever the case it seems like the big problem here is that you are not in sync with the CEO's expectations of your position. Its a start up, that's probably the job he has for you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106825, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Am I being unreasonable?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, you're not being unreasonable. The CEO is not grasping how much focused effort it actually takes to create software.</p>\n\n<p>Joel Spolsky says <a href=\"https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/07/21/good-software-takes-ten-years-get-used-to-it/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used to It.</a></p>\n\n<p>That's 10 years with sustained effort in a single direction. Never establishing a clear direction and instead bouncing around as new ideas arise prevents even beginning this process.</p>\n\n<p>Some people have a scattered personality. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. In some situations it's useful. At a party for example it's helpful if you can easily bounce from topic to topic and person to person. For building software it doesn't work. You have to maintain an intense focus over weeks or months to produce something valuable.</p>\n\n<p>Developers do engage in this for short times eg when brainstorming. But it always ends in establishment of a clear goal that is then taken as a long term unchanging focus. A software business requires long term focus.</p>\n\n<p>I've dropped clients for behaving this way. Stayed with one of them for longer than I probably should have thinking, oh he'll come to understand after he's seen some successful feature implementations. It never happened. Every success just got him more excited and caused him to try to push for more in less time. I predict this person will behave in a similar way.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106827, "author": "bharal", "author_id": 8146, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/8146", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You are being unreasonable as you are being paid for your work.</p>\n\n<p>Because the CEO pays you, the CEO can also ask you to do whatever his whim might be. </p>\n\n<p>It is unreasonable to, as the paid party, expect to exert influence on the actions on the paying party. This is especially the case as the CEO cares about making money - while you care about whatever task it is that you are being paid to do. </p>\n\n<p>You write</p>\n\n<p><em>I really want to tell him to stop chasing these leads as they never materialise into anything positive and distract our already busy team from improving our current platform (which needs a lot of improving). One of the mantras that respected CEO of Huit Denim lives by is to 'Do One Thing Well'</em></p>\n\n<p>Your CEO is obviously not paying you to read random mantras and then spout them to him. Your CEO is, for all intents and purposes, successful. It is ridiculous to think that your business opinion outweighs the CEOs. To make matters worse, other CEOs will have completely different mantras. </p>\n\n<p>The real crux is that you think the platform needs improving. Why not outline a vision for the platform, create a timetable, and then allow the CEO to see the impact of other projects on this timetable. He can use this to determine his priorities - maybe the core platform is not as important as you think! </p>\n\n<p>This will not change the CEOs behaviour, but it will be useful for him to help him plan. However, I'm afraid your conflicting opinion in business strategy is not relevant, and you are being unreasonable thinking you know better. If you want, start a company yourself - be warned that this is much harder than you realise.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/106817", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/83003/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 110049, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 8, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The solution would be that when you come back and can't read your screen because the blind is opened, you go to your coworker and ask them whether they opened the blind. If yes, you ask them why they did it. Then you ask them to come to your desk, and notice that your screen is not readable. And that done, you close the blind. </p>\n\n<p>Repeat as often as it needs repeating. </p>\n\n<p>It seems your co-worker has this strange idea that you just don't like opened blinds and therefore doing it behind your back is a safe option. Obviously it's not because you inevitably notice.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110053, "author": "WonderWoman", "author_id": 75270, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/75270", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I had a similar problem, in two different offices. That glare on the screen would turn me blind. At the first office, I told the colleague (who would open the blind), upfront that that glare is straining my eyes a lot. She did close it for the first day. Second day, it was back to square one. I repeated it, every single day. One day, she stopped opening it. No cold wars, no passive aggressiveness. Just get straight to the point. </p>\n\n<p>At another office, I had no option; I requested for a cubicle change stating glare as the reason and it was granted. </p>\n\n<p><strong>If you want something, ask, stating the right reasons.</strong> </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110055, "author": "anonymous2", "author_id": 66074, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/66074", "pm_score": 7, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I had a similar problem as well. In my case, the other employee's reason for opening the blinds was to get a bit more light in their corner, where light was somewhat insufficient.</p>\n\n<p>The solution for me was simple: I would close the blind as far as necessary to make me able to see the screen, but it was still open enough let some light through. The next step was obvious: go to management and ask for better lighting.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The main point in this issue is <em>understanding.</em></strong> They need to understand why you close the blind, but ideally, you should know why they open it, too. Presumably, they don't simply open it to spite you, though I <em>suppose</em> that's possible.</p>\n\n<p>Once you understand each others' motivations, you can work out a solution, and if necessary, request better lighting from management or even (very much dependent on work situation) switch work stations.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110060, "author": "Ian Kemp", "author_id": 44593, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44593", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As per your second-last paragraph, you have already explained why you want (need) the blind closed to this coworker, yet they persist in opening it. This implies malicious intent, hence I would recommend escalating this issue to management in the hope that you or the coworker can be moved.</p>\n\n<p>You don't even need to mention the coworker and the blind to management - just say that there is too much glare where you're sitting and that since requests to treat the windows have not had a result, you have no other option but to move as your productivity is impacted in your current location.</p>\n\n<p>You manager may be nosy and/or decide to see the problem for themselves and head over to your desk, at which point they will probably notice the blind and ask about it. At this point you can simply state the fact - in a completely non-accusatory way - that the blind isn't a solution because your coworker keeps interfering with it. If your manager isn't completely useless, they should be aware of previous similarly malicious behaviour from the coworker, in which case they will immediately understand the underlying problem and act to solve it (either move one of you, or reprimand the coworker).</p>\n\n<p>If your manager is one of the wishy-washy types who expects everyone to sort things out between themselves \"like adults\", simply find an empty desk in a better location and move your stuff there. Should your manager object, simply mention \"productivity\" a few times (maybe throw in hints of going to a higher authority regarding the blind issue) and they will either fold and let you keep your new spot, or actually do something useful about this issue. Either way, you're sorted.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110069, "author": "rtaft", "author_id": 78212, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/78212", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Move your monitor. Angle it differently on the desk. Get anti-glare covers or an anti-glare monitor. My coworker complains about this all the time, yet he chooses to place his monitors so they face towards the window when he has the option to have them face away from the window. He throws huge tantrums if someone opens the blinds.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110102, "author": "Sentinel", "author_id": 80269, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/80269", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would just get really riled with the coworker and tell them loud and plain that you can't work with the blind open and to damn well shut it when I come back in the room.</p>\n\n<p>If this doesn't work, get hold of a big mirror, preferably a fresnel lens, and point it so when s/he opens the blind,their monitor melts.</p>\n\n<p>This would be an interim fix until I boot management up the backside with a 'fix this before I call health and safety inspectors' warning.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110105, "author": "usr1234567", "author_id": 75886, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/75886", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is not a problem between you and your coworker. The setup of your screen related to the window is not right. In Europe exists laws against placing screens as you have it. The must be orthogonal to the windows. Not sure whether similar laws exist in your country.</p>\n\n<p>Talk to your company or ask a worker representative, they have to fix this problem.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110106, "author": "Lorenzo Donati support Ukraine", "author_id": 36369, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/36369", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Well, I cannot say if mine could be a viable solution, but since something like that happened to me some 15 years ago...</p>\n\n<p>First of all, this is a management problem. I don't know how is the situation in your country, but here in Italy the work environment must respect some level of ergonomy. That's part of the legislation on workplace safety. Not complying could cost an employer a fine.</p>\n\n<p>At the time I worked as a SW developer for a medium size research institution (~150 employees IIRC). I worked, together with other 5 or 6 colleagues, in an open space area all surrounded by glass walls in a position very exposed to sunshine.</p>\n\n<p>There were blinds but they weren't very effective, even when completely shut. We had been complaining to management for about 6~7 months, but we received only vague answers.</p>\n\n<p>It came the day when even some blinds broke (they were external to the building and somewhat exposed to weather), and the situation got fairly worse. Another month of complaints and nothing happened.</p>\n\n<p>Then I did something you usually aren't entitled to do by usual internal network policy: I sent a mail to the internal broadcast address, i.e. I sent a mail to each and every member of the institution, management included!</p>\n\n<p>This mail was written in a very informal (but neutral) tone, with the classic \"internal info\" format. It explained, citing several scientific and medical articles, the short and long term consequences of eye strain, glare and so on. In no way I mentioned the situation in our office. :-)</p>\n\n<p>Some of those articles were also a bit scary (IIRC, they mentioned chronic retinitis or some other nasty eye-affecting syndrome), but they were very carefully selected and they came from extremely reputable sources (that is, they couldn't be dismissed as \"paranoid\" or urban myths, especially in an institution where almost 100% of the employees had a master degree and 50% a PhD!).</p>\n\n<p>After two hours the IT manager called me in his office and mildly scolded me.</p>\n\n<p>After two days the maintenance manager came to our office to examine the situation.</p>\n\n<p>After a week we had some sort of cubicle walls installed that screened our work area and workstations from direct sunlight and glare.</p>\n\n<p>After 10 days, top management sent us a mail in which they apologized for the \"delays\" in solving the issue and gave each one of us a ticket for a fairly expensive free lunch at the internal restaurant!</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line:</p>\n\n<p>I don't know if this anecdote could help you, but sometimes simple complaints are not enough: you must \"convince\" the management that solving the issue is in the company's best interest.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110108, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Did you ask your coworker or did you tell him or just start closing the blinds without asking? Most people would be a little put-off you they thought you demanded it and didn't have the courtesy to ask. It's obvious when the sun shines through, you can't see your screen. Most reasonable people would have no problem with this request, but do not assume you have some sort of right to have the blinds drawn.</p>\n\n<p>Did you offer to keep them open when the sun isn't an issue? Many people benefit from exposure to some sunlight.</p>\n\n<p>If you're going to be away from your desk for an extended period of time, open the blinds.</p>\n\n<p>Work something out and confront them if they don't meet their end of the agreement. And it is an agreement.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/110047", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/29012/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 114470, "author": "mxyzplk", "author_id": 16695, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16695", "pm_score": 9, "selected": true, "text": "<p>No, this is not usual. You have run across a fairly common beast, however, the Elitist Super Entitled Developer. He's smarter than everyone else in his own mind and is entitled to be rude for the same reason. He has some ax to grind against Morty. Avoid him when possible and move along.</p>\n\n<p>While he's certainly within his rights to want to investigate the problem himself, a civilized response is \"Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it.\" There may be preexisting bad blood between the two or he may just be feral, but in either case while this behavior isn't unknown in tech, it's not acceptable or \"usual.\" </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114471, "author": "Ben Mz", "author_id": 87542, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87542", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Both sides are at fault here.</p>\n\n<p>Morty should have not cc.ed everyone on the initial email. By doing so he embarrassed Rick by pointing out his mistake to everyone. I don’t know if Morty was trying to score points by doing this or if he was simply foolish. However the result was the same from Ricks point of view. Morty would have been better off sending this email only to Rick so that they could fix the issue without anyone having to look bad.</p>\n\n<p>Rick being embarrassed at having his mistake pointed out publicly reacted badly. He shouldn’t have put down Morty. He should not have publicly criticized Morty for trying to help.</p>\n\n<p>One example of an email exchange doesn’t tell us anything about a company culture. However if sending public emails pointing out other people’s mistakes, and sending emails telling people they shouldn’t offer help are common there they you have a toxic culture.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, this kind of toxic culture is common in software companies in the United States. Much as been written<a href=\"https://medium.com/@jgefroh/toxic-developers-considered-harmful-f7ea1494d4c0\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">[1]</a><a href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-women-tech-20150222-story.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">[2]</a><a href=\"https://simpleprogrammer.com/dark-side-software-development-one-talks/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">[3]</a> and said about the way a particular type of software engineers treat others, especially non-software engineers and people who are don’t fit their stereotype of a software engineer.</p>\n\n<p>This culture is not the right way to treat people. Good company, managers and co-workers don’t tolerate this sort of culture. Good employees don’t publicly point other each others mistakes and good employees don’t dismiss help from others.</p>\n\n<p>You need to figure out of this behaviour is acceptable in the culture of your department and company. If you think you are in a company which this is accepted you need to decide if you think you can change the culture and if it is worty the effort. An important thing to figure out is if this culture comes from the leadership or not. If leadership sets a bad example there will be nothing you can do. If this is the grassroots culture they you have some chance of convincing people to change. It will be a long hard job so you better decide that the company is worth fixing.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114474, "author": "Alexander", "author_id": 17813, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/17813", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There <em>is</em> some value to his sentiment. I know of many times where my hunch about a root cause led someone down the wrong path and wasted their time.</p>\n\n<p>With most issues, every person has certain hunches that just \"pop\" out at them. I think it's worthwhile to try to harness this power. When I need help on a bug I'm stuck on, I try to avoid imposing my own hunches on them, so that perhaps theirs might be novel and productive.</p>\n\n<p>But with the way he expressed it... he was being a total asshole.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114479, "author": "Flater", "author_id": 71723, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/71723", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know the question was already answered, and I agree with the accepted answer, but I just wanted to extend this with more information.</p>\n\n<p>What you've seen here is a a potential <a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem\">XY problem</a>. XY problems are, in my opinion, something that every problem solver (not just programmers) needs to be aware of and avoid.</p>\n\n<p>The principle of an XY problem is quite simple:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>X is a problem and needs to be fixed.</li>\n<li>Y is a solution, but not the best solution. Regardless, it is chosen (either through laziness or not understanding that there's a better solution)</li>\n<li>When an issue pops up with implementing Y, people dedicate time on trying to get Y working, as opposed to actually looking there is a Z solution which fits better.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>As a clear example:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>X = I want to sort this Excel data.</li>\n<li>Y = I can write an application to sort the data and save the file.</li>\n<li>Z = I should learn how to use Excel's sort functionality.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This is essentially what has happened in Morty's email. Rick is incapable of labeling the request as either Y or Z, because Morty doesn't explain X. Explaining X is more important than offering the Y/Z solution, since Rick is capable of finding Z when he knows X, but he can't <em>guess</em> X out of nowhere.</p>\n\n<p>This is the X problem:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>a memory leak in some of the platform code</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Note that it is quite vague. What was the issue? Where did it occur? When did it occur? Was it an edge case?</p>\n\n<p>Then Morty proposes an Y solution. Since we don't know the specifics of X, therefore we have no way of gauging if Y is an <em>appropriate</em> solution for X.</p>\n\n<p>This is why Rick pushes back against it. He's asked to change something (and effectively take responsibility for having changed something) <em>without getting any choice</em>. Morty has effectively undermined Rick's responsibility (writing good code) and is replacing it with a request for blind trust that the offered code is appropriate and good.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Think of it this way: You're a police officer. A man comes up to you and say \"I need you to arrest that man\" (Y).</p>\n\n<p>The police officer should not comply, as he is unable to personally confirm that arresting the man is warranted.</p>\n\n<p>However, had the man said \"that man just killed someone in cold blood\", then the police officer is able to actually understand the problem and decide on the solution (arresting the man) himself.</p>\n\n<p>This is basically what Morty did wrong. I do think that Rick could've phrased it more kindly (if this were Interpersonal.SE I would definitely rephrase some of Rick's sentences), but his request is valid.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114483, "author": "hyde", "author_id": 33527, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/33527", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a developer, I find the first report very very useful. No long explanation, no long valgrind trace to read. With that patch, I could immediately see what the issue is, and if I worked on that code recentely, I would probaby know if it is right fix or not even without checking the code. So I would just reply \"Thanks for catching it\", or \"Thanks, that pointer shouldn't be shared, but I know how the issue should be fixed now that you brought it to my attention\" or something like that.</p>\n\n<p>Also I don't detect any feeling of superiority in the message.</p>\n\n<p>Now CC'ing everybody might or might not be bad. The code might be something also others know about, so if CC recipient list is short enough, this is good. The mail is short enough, and everybody can immediately see from the patch if they should be interested or not, wasting only a little time. However, if there are people who aren't involved with that source code base in CC, then it was inappropriate.</p>\n\n<p>Another issue is, if the person should be spending their time debugging an issue like this. However, unless they are falling short from their own goals, then taking responsibility of the whole software like this is generally a very very valuable trait. It shows enthusiasm and caring, rare thing really. These things can go too far, but it is so much more common to see team mates who couldn't care less about a bug in someone elses code, unless it impacted them directly.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>To answer the title question. Morty's tone as presented in question is, to my eye, professional and normal. Ricks tone is... unfortunately not that unusual either, but it is unfortunate. We all have bad days however, so I shall not analyze a single anonymized message further. It could be a bad sign (and looks like it, TBH), or it could be part of quite decent workplace culture you just need to get used to. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114487, "author": "Martijn", "author_id": 19770, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/19770", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Cleary not everybody agrees with this, but IMO <strong>this is a normal response, don't take it personal</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>It's an easy to understand email, he motivates his reasons why he prefers not to hear your solution (not because it's <em>your</em> solution, but because he wants a blank slate to begin with).</p>\n\n<p>It isn't personal towards you, or insulting, or undermining at all, it's an explanation. It's a bit direct for some people, but that's often a programmers quirck, being direct and (too) factual. You could read this whole e-mail in a normal tone of voice, where he explains <em>his</em> prefered method. Just because you're not a fan of it, doesn't mean it's bad practice, you'll encounter many people who'll work different from you.</p>\n\n<p>I do agree that it might be phrased a bit more politely, but again, a programmer often just says what he means without all these loaded interpretations (which isn't en excuse, but it could be an explanation).</p>\n\n<p>It's his job to fix problems, not yours. You've just spend time on something, which could've been used otherwise. Don't get me wrong, practising bugfixing is important! But study the applied solution and compare it to yours. Your solution might <em>seem</em> fine, but experience might teach you otherwise.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114491, "author": "Daniel", "author_id": 71695, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/71695", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Ignoring whether there is underlying tension between the two, a general communication problem or the standard tone at your place, I´ll want to concentrate on your question:</p>\n\n<p><em>Is this tone unusual in a tech workplace?</em></p>\n\n<p><strong>No</strong>, this tone is not entirely unusual. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>People in the industry are used to syntactical programming languages and exact technical specs tend to sometimes forget tone in their communication. Often times this is not a problem as long as outsiders are not involved in the communication. Get used to a lot of cut-right-to-the-case messages.</p></li>\n<li><p>It´s a cliche, but yes there are also those nerds out there who just have poor social skills, so you better learn to deal with them and not take it personal.</p></li>\n<li><p>For a lot programmers \"their\" code is their baby. Getting pointed to some undeniable errors is one thing - messing with it can just trigger some defense mechanisms.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>That said, it can be done in a better way. As a rule of thumb, to avoid such problems: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Praise public, criticize private. </li>\n<li>If you have trouble with someone, don´t use e-mail at all for that!</li>\n<li>If you find a bug, report it via a standard mechanism that is accepted by the team.</li>\n<li>Don´t do someone elses work, unless asked to.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114515, "author": "Allan", "author_id": 42686, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/42686", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am writing this with the perspective of a manager with experience that covers multiple aspects of this type of scenario.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>is this normal in tech companies?</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n<h3>This is entirely normal for any company in virtually every industry, not just tech.</h3>\n<p>Broadly speaking, the email that was sent out to all members of a dev team that:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>pointed out a <em>suspected</em> flaw (&quot;I <em>think</em> I found a memory leak...&quot;)</li>\n<li>stated an <em>alleged</em> solution had been found (&quot;I <em>believe</em> I found the source and the issue...&quot;)</li>\n<li>presented a laundry list of fixes to be implemented</li>\n</ul>\n<p>To generalize this, what's happening here is that <strong>a directive is being given to Rick by Morty</strong> establishing a justification of the directive first then itemizing the specifics of said directive.</p>\n<p>It further complicates the matter in that the directive was given in a group setting (cc'd to all members of the team).</p>\n<h3>Rick's and Morty's organizational relationship</h3>\n<p>We don't know the relationship with respect to the two individuals. However, it can be generally summarized as one of three possibilities:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rick is senior to Morty</li>\n<li>Morty is senior to Rick</li>\n<li>Rick and Morty are equal</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Is Rick supposed to be taking directive from Morty?</p>\n<ul>\n<li>No? Then Rick is justified in pushing back</li>\n<li>Yes? Then there's no need to CC everyone. Rick is <em>still</em> justified in telling Morty how he best performs his job.</li>\n</ul>\n<h3>This situation wouldn't be any different if it were....</h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Medical. Dr. Oz tells Dr. No he has diagnosed Dr. No's patient and to do X, Y, and Z without providing the symptoms to Dr. No.</li>\n<li>Automotive. Engineer 1 tells Engineer 2 that a problem was found in Engineer 2's suspension design and the fix is to weld tab A to slot B without providing the test data to show the problem</li>\n<li>Tech Support - Tech 1 tells Tech 2 that that there's a problem with Tech 2's system and the fix is to implement patches A, B, and C without supplying the error messages that indicated the problem.</li>\n</ul>\n<h3>TL;DR</h3>\n<p>Bottom line, the person responsible for doing the actual fixing is telling the person what they need to properly do the job. The only person that is potentially &quot;out of line&quot; is Morty for the passive aggressive behavior of cc'ing everyone.</p>\n<p>This happens every day in every industry. It's nothing new or unusual.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114521, "author": "MonkeyZeus", "author_id": 17532, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/17532", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Normal is quite subjective especially since you have no clue about the history of that workplace.</p>\n\n<p>Either Rick has terrible interpersonal skills or there is some bad blood between those two people.</p>\n\n<p>It is possible that Morty purposefully crafted a \"reasonable\" email hoping to trigger Rick.</p>\n\n<p>Since you are new, you will need to evaluate whether this toxic behavior has spread to others as well or if it is a contained situation.</p>\n\n<p>Whatever happens, just don't let it spread into your personality.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114540, "author": "Joshua", "author_id": 29374, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/29374", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<pre><code>--- a/spaceship/DoBattle.cpp \n+++ b/spaceship/DoBattle.cpp \n vector&lt;part&gt; parts = getSpaceShipParts(); \n+shared_ptr&lt;SpaceShip&gt; p = new SpaceShip(parts); \n-SpaceShip * p = new SpaceShip(parts); \n engageInBattle(p, enemy); \n</code></pre>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, this change does fix the bug (pretending the valgrind test is adaquite), but it's introduced something unwanted, a code philosophy fight. If you're not a regular contributor, don't get into code philosophy fights.</p>\n\n<p>To avoid the philosophy fight, this should have been sent instead. Yeah it's objectively worse but it's in keeping with the style of the code already there:</p>\n\n<pre><code>--- a/spaceship/DoBattle.cpp \n+++ b/spaceship/DoBattle.cpp \n SpaceShip * p = new SpaceShip(parts); \n engageInBattle(p, enemy); \n+delete p;\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>But with this answer from the developer, I take it he wouldn't have liked that either. I hear this tone quite a bit too much, even from people who should know better. It's not normal, but it's enough that you hear it a lot. I am disappointed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114543, "author": "xyious", "author_id": 85908, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/85908", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>1) Communication: OP makes it seem like it's standard practice to cc the rest of the dev team. I don't ever see a reason to not include the rest of the dev team in a problem/solution that affects everyone.</p>\n\n<p>2) Problem/Solution: Don't see anything wrong here. It should be done with a pull request, but assuming that's not possible here, it's fine.</p>\n\n<p>3) Response: So many things wrong with it I don't even know where to start.<br>\na) 'I don't read suggested fixes': This is absolutely terrible. Always read proposed code. There's a decent chance it's better than anything you can come up with....<br>\nb) 'I have to wait a few days before I can come up with a solution': Let me translate that: \"I have to wait a few days before I can completely ignore the work you did and discard your solution. Not only will I waste time to get a solution implemented, I will also waste more time to come up with a solution for a problem that has been solved (by the code you wrote that I will discard)\"<br>\nc) 'see what the real problem is and see what the fix should be': <em>test it</em>. Test it to see if there's a problem. Then test it to see if the problem was solved. You gain nothing by coming up with your own solution <em>that needs to be tested</em> rather than testing the proposed solution to see if it fixes everything. If it doesn't fix the problem <em>then</em> you can try and come up with a fix for the proposed solution or a fix to the problem altogether.</p>\n\n<p>In my company I would have forwarded the response to my manager immediately and without comment. It's simply unacceptable.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/114469", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 114807, "author": "Masked Man", "author_id": 3192, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/3192", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Somehow the company deducted </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The company did not \"somehow\" deduct taxes. They are required by law to collect taxes on the money paid to employees and send it to the government. This is known as Tax Collected at Source (TCS) or Tax Deducted at Source (TDS).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I'd like to return all taxes I paid for this tuition</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The tax money is with the government so <em>you</em> cannot return it, at least not directly. Instead you would have to return the full tuition assistance to the company, and then claim a tax refund if the law allows it.</p>\n\n<p>If tax refund does not apply to this category of reimbursement (tuition assistance), that's too bad, you just spent $1109 to learn an important financial lesson: always understand the tax implications before you get any kind of \"bonus\" reimbursement.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114827, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The company paid $2900, $1800 to you and $1100 to various government places. What should happen is that you pay back $1800, and they ask the various government places for the $1100. Not your problem, you never received that money, so you don’t pay it back. </p>\n\n<p>If the company asks for $2900 then you say “no”. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/114805", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88642/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 114982, "author": "thursdaysgeek", "author_id": 249, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/249", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This will depend by company and culture (and company culture), so the following answer is for my specific company culture.</p>\n\n<p>On my team, we have various job titles: Programmer/Analyst I, Programmer/Analyst II, Sr Programmer Analyst, Business Analyst. But we're all on one team. We work together, and what is important is what we do and how we do it. We mostly don't even think about our titles. What is important is our name and our team. No one includes titles in email signatures.</p>\n\n<p>If titles are important, or if a company wants a standard signature block that includes them, then they will be included. If what you are doing and what team you are on is more important, or if standards are not required, then people will include what they think is important, and nothing more.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114983, "author": "David K", "author_id": 16983, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16983", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>For most of my work emails, I don't include a formal signature at all. I only use a signature if I'm sending an email to someone I don't regularly work with who might not remember me. Even then, I have different signatures depending on whether my email is staying internal or going external, but none of them specify my job title. Here's an example:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>David K<Br>ABC Division<Br>ACME Co.<br>555-555-5555</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't list my actual job title, because I try to avoid a super long signature, and it doesn't really add any useful information. My job title is \"Electronics Engineer.\" Aside from being extremely vague, it isn't very accurate either. I do include my Division, which should give an idea of what I work on, but there are still two section breakdowns below that which I don't call out, mainly because they aren't very useful.</p>\n\n<p>The one time I do use a title is for official communications related to a role I have. I am in charge of maintaining of one of our lab spaces, so anytime I am emailing in regard to that lab I include \"Lab 5 Custodian\" in my signature. This indicates to someone who might not know me why I am the person contacting them and what authority I have in the situation. I would expect managers and other leads to include their title in emails in the same sense - when it is relevant to the email they are sending.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/114981", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/62493/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 116161, "author": "Dan Pichelman", "author_id": 10905, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/10905", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Try not to confuse your customers any more than necessary. </p>\n\n<p>What you propose works, but it makes you look very small.</p>\n\n<p>For the cost of postage, you can send a test letter to </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Good Guys Gaming<br/>\n 900 Silver Lane<br/>\n Engle Cove, CO 12345<br/>\n United States</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and see if it arrives.</p>\n\n<p>If that doesn't work, consider renting a mailbox.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 116163, "author": "Fattie", "author_id": 22844, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/22844", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It's this easy ..</p>\n\n<pre><code>Good Guys Gaming\n1st Floor, 900 Silver Lane\nEngle Cove, CO 12345\nUnited States\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Dan's answer forgot the 1st floor, which I recommend and which is perfectly professional.</p>\n\n<p>(Note, in different countries that format is different, example \"900 Silver Lane, 1st Floor\" .. \"1/900 Silver Lane\" .. whatever is correct locally.)</p>\n\n<p>You simply <strong>don't need to mention</strong> \"Marley Purveyors\". It will find you.</p>\n\n<p>Note however that this sort of thing is perfectly common and acceptable these days:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Good Guys Gaming\nMarley Office Center\n900 Silver Lane\nEngle Cove, CO 12345\nUnited States\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Things like \"distributed offices\" and \"coloc offices\" and so on are common today. And it's fine to state them.</p>\n\n<pre><code>Good Guys Gaming\nSupertrendy Coloc Design Offices\n900 Silver Lane\nEngle Cove, CO 12345\nUnited States\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>That sounds great, no problem there.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/116158", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44342/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 117088, "author": "Joe Strazzere", "author_id": 7777, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/7777", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>My question finally is how do I go about convincing them to fix the\n code quality without alienating my managers or my developer friends?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Since Bob is concerned about code quality, and Alice is concerned with meeting sprint goals, the obvious choice is to define a sprint goal which involves improving code quality.</p>\n\n<p>Then the team can integrate that goal into whichever Sprint they deem appropriate when weighed against all their other goals.</p>\n\n<p>Make sure you have a solid definition of \"code quality\" so that the team can understand it before they have to size that goal and create tasks to meet it. You might also want to seek agreement with Bob and Alice on what \"code quality\" means in your shop beforehand. Finally you need to have an agreed-upon way to measure code quality, so you'll have some way to objectively determine if it has improved or not.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117089, "author": "Joe W", "author_id": 25311, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/25311", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>First and foremost you need to talk with your team and address the problem with them and work with them on what can be done to solve the issue. If you want to solve a problem with a developer team the best method available to to do that is get them involved with the process themselves. They may have to make changes that they don't want to but if they are involved they can better understand the process and bring up issues that you might be missing (such as pressure to deliver code faster regardless of quality).</p>\n\n<p>Second you might also want to remember that management that is not as familiar with the development side might get to caught up in buzz words and not fully understand that what they want isn't what they already have.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117092, "author": "Chan-Ho Suh", "author_id": 2361, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/2361", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>According to you, Alice's team is breaking builds with \"errors that could be fixed with linting and checkstyle\". My understanding of these type of linting checks is that they are generally very fast and individual developers can run them themselves on their work machines within seconds. If, for some reason, that does not hold true in your case (linting is slow or it is buggy or is too noisy), then you have much less of a case.</p>\n\n<p>If Alice and her team are refusing to do something which would literally cost them only seconds to avoid pushing bad code, this reeks of a culture problem and sheer pig-headed-ness on Alice's part. </p>\n\n<p>It's possible Alice has her reasons. That is why she should explain them to Bob with you there, so that you can ask for clarifications (as Bob has never been a developer, it's better you are there too).</p>\n\n<p>But make it clear to Bob that there are good reasons for what you are doing. Make the reasons very clear to him. He should know that it is Alice that needs to provide reasons why she is not doing what is considered best practices by the software development industry.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117096, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd say the way you handled this was very inappropriate. </p>\n\n<p>Your code apparently produces lots of warnings. If you prevent any other work from being done until these warnings are all gone, then you block everyone from doing their usual work. No wonder you got complaints from everyone, including Alice. This is a totally unproductive way to handle this because suddenly <em>everyone</em> is blocked. </p>\n\n<p>If reducing the number of warnings is important, then first you make sure that producing these warnings is in everyone's build process during development, and then you pick a file with say 100 warnings and put a task into your sprint \"remove all warnings produced by file X\", and then another task for the next file and so on. So anyone can pick one of these tasks, and the quality improves bit by bit. </p>\n\n<p>The way you did this, you created a huge amount of work for the developers, which has priority over everything else (because nothing works until everything is free of warnings), which blocks everyone but cannot be shared (because if you have five developers, they can't each fix one fifth of the warnings), and is not recorded anywhere (so the devs look as if they just put their feet up for the time until all warnings are fixed). No wonder they are up in arms and Alice overruled you. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117098, "author": "Mawg says reinstate Monica", "author_id": 20979, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/20979", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From a purely technical viewpoint, lining and style cheeking are two widely different beasts and have different goals (code quality &amp; legibility/maintainability).</p>\n\n<p>If you have not previously linted, then the first time that you turn it on, you are going to have a massive – but one-time – hit. That will have to be planned as effort in to as sprint. After you have lint-error free code, it is easy to keep on top of it.</p>\n\n<p>As for style cheeking, you can use a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prettyprint#Programming_code_formatting_and_beautification\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">code beautifier</a> (if in doubt, ask <a href=\"https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/\">here</a>) to your build process. Perhaps even the threat of one will be enough to enforce voluntary adherence to guideline. Doing so manually will mean a further one-time effort hit, which also has to be planned into a sprint. Be aware that doing so may give problems with file compare pre/post-beautification. Hopefully, moist differences will be whitespace an can be ignored, but not all (for instance, suddenly dis-allowing multiple return statements form a function).</p>\n\n<p>As others have stated, you cannot expect to introduce these with no warning and expect everything to go smoothly – especially if you do not allocated sprint time. It is also important to get the team to “buy in” to these practises, which means explaining how <strong><em>they</em></strong> will benefit (feel free to ask another question about that ;-).</p>\n\n<p>After you get them on board and the first major effort behind you, it is up to you whether to treat infractions as warnings or build breaking errors. A compromise might be to say that more than X infractions breaks the build, whereas less simply emails the malefactors. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Just curios: which language? And do you have automated regression tests in place?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117106, "author": "bharal", "author_id": 8146, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/8146", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><em>In short: make a webpage that shows the lint result for each build, and has a build/lint result graph. This lets Bob see progress, and makes everyone else aware of the problem.</em></p>\n<p>You were asked to improve the code quality:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Our team works in sprints. Last Sprint a senior dev at Bob's level remarked to Bob that the code quality in some of our codebases could be better.</p>\n<p>So Bob asked me to do something to improve it as I'm in charge of the dev infrastructure we use eg:git, code review, computing resources, CI/CD etc.</p>\n<p>So I went ahead and implemented mandatory linting and checkstyle as part of the build process, but I did not condition the builds to fail but rather warn.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This is impossible for you to do, it is the <em>team</em> that needs to improve code quality. Unless you're expected to improve it on your own. (And then that's just a lot of repetitive work fixing the problems the linter shows you.)</p>\n<p>You've added the linting stuff because you've identified that solving that problem will directly address Bob's desire to improve overall code quality.</p>\n<p>So all you need to do is to make the result of the linting analysis for each and every build visible - setup a web page that ties the build number to the lint result.</p>\n<p>Share that link. Add in a graph over time of the lint result and the build date.</p>\n<p>Let Bob and Alice see this metric that is tied to Bob's aim and the problem will become visible. Then Alice will want to solve it and you don't have to worry so much. Of course, doing this also let's you keep the linter at &quot;warning&quot; level.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117137, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've actually done this at some previous company. We had a project that produced about 2,000 warnings. Hidden within these 2,000 warnings were a few dozen bugs. Together with another developer, we started reducing the warnings; often hundred warnings with an hours work. When the number of warnings went down to 500 we turned on more useful warnings. Eventually we were down to zero warnings, and <em>then</em> we turned on a setting \"warnings=errors\" in the build system. </p>\n\n<p>That's how it is done. If our boss had turned on this switch at the beginning, we would have had weeks with several developers doing no useful work. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117140, "author": "Ertai87", "author_id": 88183, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88183", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This situation reads very passive-aggressive. My question to you is: Did you get Alice's input before you turned on CI/CD failure for the linter? Did you consult any of the developers? Heck, did you even consult Bob? The way this reads is \"I decided one day to flip a switch which caused everything to break, without explaining to anyone what I did, why I did it, or why it was important\", which is very passive-aggressive and destructive behaviour. If this is how it went down, I can understand why Alice and Bob are both upset with you.</p>\n\n<p>Here's what I would do: Firstly, document how many issues there are with the code, based on how many CI/CD warnings you get with the linter turned on to warning level. Then you can show Bob and Alice that the code base is crap and something needs to be done. Then Bob and Alice can prioritize how important it is to fix these issues over getting sprint deliverables done. Then, if they decide that delivering results is more important than keeping clean code, you have an out: just say to Bob \"I can't do this because I'm not a developer; tell Alice to get her team in gear to fix these issues\" and drop a pile of documentation on his desk. Conversely, if Alice and Bob decide, jointly, to make finding and fixing issues a priority, then you can provide a list of issues to Alice to have her team prioritize and fix; once the bugs are deemed fixed (you can check this in your CI/CD dashboard), you can turn on the linter to maximum to make sure the issues don't reappear.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117143, "author": "Edwin Buck", "author_id": 2802, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/2802", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The linter should have been in place, as a warning system.</p>\n\n<p>If you were then told that nobody's improving the code according to the linter's benchmark, turning it into a failure based system was the wrong answer.</p>\n\n<p>Instead, you should have submitted small bite-sized tickets to improve the linter output of various modules. Items that could be delivered within a few minutes to an hour of time. This has you tracking their work with the same systems you use to track other bugs / features.</p>\n\n<p>That's apart from the question of \"does a linter actually improve code quality?\" Some linters do, some only enforce a consistent style; but, since you've made this the \"metric of quality\" it seems that you'll have to live with your choice.</p>\n\n<p>I've seen systems that attempt to \"only make them fix code near where they are working\". At first, this seems like a good compromise; but, it really doesn't work in the long run. Most of your code base won't change, and that will be the part with all of the unaddressed linting warnings.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/117087", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87777/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 117876, "author": "Joe Strazzere", "author_id": 7777, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/7777", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Former one definitely looks precise and help grab attention of reader.\n Downside is that reader can't really tell if you did/ achieved that\n stuff in just one project or multiple.</p>\n \n <p>On the other hand, Indian format gives definite idea about number of\n projects the candidate has worked on and what he specifically did or\n achieved in those. Downside is that such resumes become lengthy and\n reader may not even go through whole document.</p>\n \n <p>How to best balance this?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In the US at least, nobody wants to see a lengthy list of project details.\nThe first format is strongly preferred.</p>\n\n<p>If you still feel compelled to communicate the number of projects you worked on, a single line would be more than enough:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Worked on 7 major projects</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117925, "author": "Mawg says reinstate Monica", "author_id": 20979, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/20979", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Write your CV for those who will read it. If they have certain expectations, then meet them. </p>\n\n<p>Give them what they want, rather than what you think they ought to want.</p>\n\n<p>There's not much to say, beyond that.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117933, "author": "aNotSoDeepMind", "author_id": 60218, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/60218", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should always tailor your resume to the company and the position you are applying for. </p>\n\n<p>A good resume is no more than 2 pages long and holds all of your relevant information so that recruiters can get a good overview at a glance. </p>\n\n<p>As for the tailoring aspect: Imagine you are looking to become a Chef. You could highlight and perhaps elaborate on the aspects of your other jobs that directly relate to cooking food. Things on your resume that don't really add any value to you as a chef you could still mention but in a far more condensed form.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Try to relate to the recruiters; add the information that is relevant to them, leave out the clutter. Choose the first option.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/117873", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61300/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 123474, "author": "Emil Vikström", "author_id": 65552, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/65552", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Their formula split the annual salary in 12 equal parts, one per month. But not all months have the same amount of working days so the \"daily rate\" vary between months.</p>\n\n<p>The advantage of their formula is that it will give the same monthly salary every month. If your non-prorated monthly salary will be the same every month, then their formula for the prorated 5 days is correct.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 123485, "author": "motosubatsu", "author_id": 64903, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/64903", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Their calculation is correct - as a <a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-different-types-work/paid-an-annual-salary\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">salaried employee</a> you are considered doing what the government classes as \"Salaried hours\":</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Paid an annual salary\n A worker is doing ‘salaried hours’ work if they’re paid:</p>\n \n <p>a set basic number of hours each year under their contract\n an annual salary in equal weekly or monthly amounts\n Salaried hours workers’ contracts might not state the basic number of hours as an annual figure, but it must be possible to work this out. Workers and employers can then use this figure to make sure the rate of pay is at least the minimum wage.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>And as such you don't have a fixed \"day rate\". You have an annual salary that is split into equal amounts over a set pay period frequency (monthly or weekly) - it sounds as if you're on monthly pay periods.</p>\n\n<p>Given that each pay period doesn't have the same number of working days in it there is no set amount that a working day is paid at - the finest granularity is in terms of pay periods or part thereof.</p>\n\n<p>Since you you've worked one partial pay period and one full pay period they need to pay you the proportional amount of what you worked in that partial period. In this case it's 5 days divided by the total number of working days in the full period. </p>\n\n<p>So for example, if you annual salary was £12000, your salary per pay period would be 12000/12 = £1000. So if you started in September 2018 there were 20 working days (assuming a typical 5-day working week) of which you worked 5 so you should be paid 5/20 * 1000 = £250</p>\n\n<p>If on the other hand you had started in <em>January</em> 2018 there were <strong>23</strong> working days, so you'd get paid 5/23 * 1000 = £217.39</p>\n\n<p>If you were paid <em>weekly</em> then all pay periods would be the same length and therefore any pro-rata day rate would always work out to be the same (even though strictly speaking the same calculations would be run for any part-weeks you worked - it's just that the answer would always be the same)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/123473", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/29812/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 123502, "author": "cdkMoose", "author_id": 3345, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/3345", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Are there things that you would like to see changed? Do other employees feel the same? If multiple(many) employees report the same concerns, they are more likely to be addressed. You may have already spoken to your management about these issues, but individual feedback doesn't carry the weight the consistent feedback across a survey population would.</p>\n\n<p>It comes down to trust, do you trust that your management chain/company leadership are committed to making improvements and not using the data against you? On the other hand, if you don't trust them, I'm wondering why you still work there. I would not work for a company or manager that I don't trust.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 123506, "author": "Affe", "author_id": 10172, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/10172", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Possible downsides to not participating include</p>\n\n<p>1) If it is measuring 'engagement' then low participation will be almost as bad as negative answers. If you work in a satellite office and they're trying to decide which one to close, you don't want to be the one with the worst participation.</p>\n\n<p>2) You empower vocal minorities. Sometimes these things do drive small policies. If there's a choice between flex time and strawberry ice cream in the cafeteria and only people who ride transit and have to arrive at set times answer....</p>\n\n<p>3) Real example of lying on/ignoring these things blowing up in your face: company asked satellite office employees \"Would you be willing to relocate to HQ for a competitive package?\" Everyone says \"yes\" cause they want to sound positive and look like team players, in reality nobody actually has any interest in moving across the country for any price. HQ says \"Awesome, let's close that overpriced out of the way office.\" (Who knows, maybe they would have closed it anyway, but I have seen that scenario play out in person more than once.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/123500", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/3188/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 124197, "author": "HelloWorld", "author_id": 86622, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/86622", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>If I had any pointers they would be:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Frame it as a business concern rather than an ethical concern because I think it makes you look better, although that's probably subjective. </p></li>\n<li><p>Make the focus <em>THEM</em>. It's hard not to come across as self-absorbed. If you say <em>\"<strong>I</strong> think it's unethical\"</em> then the focus is YOUR ethics. Alternatively, if you say <em>\"incase it impacts <strong>your</strong> selection process\"</em> then you make the focus of your attention THEM which looks more helpful.</p></li>\n<li><p>Make the email more constructive by giving a possible way forward. I can't remember the acronym, but there's a template for constructive criticism and it's something like:</p>\n\n<pre><code> - What they did/ what happened\n - What was the impact\n - Why is that bad\n - What to do in future / next time\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>So I would add \"<em>so you might want to think about varying the questions in \nfuture interviews</em>\". In fact, I often try to follow that template.</p>\n\n<p>The problem is if you just point to something and say \"look that's bad!\" \nit doesn't look as professional as it could. So following that template in \ngeneral makes your communications come across as more professional.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>All those things together would look a bit like </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Hi, some people are being informed of the interview questions prior to taking the interview. I wanted to let you know incase it skews your selection process. You might want to think about varying the questions in future interviews.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>And then lastly, sometimes people take badly to be given suggestions like that. They might read \" <em>You might want to think about</em> \" and think \"<em>who are you to tell me what to do?!</em>\" Therefore, I always add a caveat to the end to make it clear it's just a suggestion.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Although I know that's not always possible since you might not have time</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Then it's up to the manager whether he acts on it or not. You could be pushy and kick up more of a fuss but I don't think it's worth it. You did the right thing by not naming names in the email because then it become back stabbing and you'll make enemies.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 124198, "author": "sevensevens", "author_id": 22867, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/22867", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>There is absolutely no way to stop people from sharing questions.</strong></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Did I handle it correctly? What should have I done?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Most interviewers tell the applicants not to share the questions. Glassdoor generally has a list of recent interview questions asked.</p>\n\n<p>No sane interviewer expects their questions to stay secret. By telling people others have shared the question, you've likely given ammunition to the crazy hiring manager that though this was a good idea. <strong>You've also painted yourself as a snitch.</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>Why</strong></p>\n\n<p>Not sharing the question only benefits the interviewer. Furthermore, once the questions are posted publicly, any applicant that doesn't take the time to look at them has put themselves at a disadvantage. There is also no effective way to tell if the question has been shared, or if the applicant is just a really good fit.</p>\n\n<p>Good hiring managers understand this and have a bank of questions they can pull from. By making sure no two interviews are exactly the same, good hiring managers can mitigate the inevitable information sharing. </p>\n\n<p>Asking applicants to explain their answer is also a good way to separate who memorized a couple of problems vs. who really understands the solution. Good interviewers prepare for information sharing.</p>\n\n<p><strong>What to do now</strong></p>\n\n<p>Hope the manager doesn't respond. If he/she does, keep it vague, or just say you're not comfortable talking about it anymore. Disengage as quickly as possible.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 124199, "author": "Fattie", "author_id": 22844, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/22844", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You did</p>\n<h1>Great.</h1>\n<p>Work is not high school.</p>\n<p>However, your next move should be</p>\n<h1>simply leave and get a better job with better pay.</h1>\n<p>The current place sounds like a fiasco on many levels. Dump 'em.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 124201, "author": "Old_Lamplighter", "author_id": 46894, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/46894", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You messed up badly.</p>\n\n<p>You are now going to be seen as either the office rat, or someone who was badmouthing coworkers to advance his or her own career. Worst case, it will be seen as both.</p>\n\n<p>In situations like this, it is best to either remain silent, or report exactly who is doing what. By trying to split the difference, you've wound up with the worst aspects of both.</p>\n\n<p>If you had reported who did what, then you'd be a rat, but seen as trustworthy because you did, in effect put yourself at risk, so while your coworkers wouldn't be too fond of you, your management would.</p>\n\n<p>If you had remained silent, your coworkers would not have a problem with you, and management would be none the wiser.</p>\n\n<p>Now, you are in the unfortunate business of being both a rat, and as someone not willing to stick his neck out. The information you gave to management will be seen as less than useful, as you named no names, they have no idea which interviews were tainted, so it's back to the drawing board, best case scenario. </p>\n\n<p>Worse, if your manager does respond to you, he's likely going to say: <strong>WHO DID IT?</strong> Putting you in the position of either lying, or ratting out your colleagues by name. If you give the names, management will still not be pleased with you as they'll want to know why you didn't say who in the first place.</p>\n\n<p>Another mistake you made was in putting it in an email. Now, there's a paper trail of your mistake as well as well as a formal record that your manager is aware of the situation, now he can get in trouble if he doesn't act. not good.</p>\n\n<p><strong>AS TO THE ETHICS</strong></p>\n\n<p>Anonymous ratting out that \"someone\" did something is not ethical at all. Name the person, or say nothing.</p>\n\n<p><strong>WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE, AND SHOULD DO IN THE FUTURE</strong></p>\n\n<p>Approach your manager and ask him, face to face if he thinks that sharing the questions is a bad idea, or mention to him off the record that the interview questions are getting circulated. He may or may not see it as something that should be addressed. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 124203, "author": "BittermanAndy", "author_id": 87592, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87592", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Did I handle it correctly? What should have I done?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It's a difficult situation, without a single right answer, but <strong>the way you chose to handle it was a valid approach</strong>.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The fact that people's jobs are on the line means that people will be responding to this emotionally. Everyone will want to do well on the interview, because they have bills to pay. It is unsurprising that your colleagues wanted to know the questions early as it gives them a chance to give better answers, and perhaps that might make the difference between whether they can <em>afford to feed their children next month</em> or not. It's cheating, but it's understandable. Similarly, your colleague who shared the questions may have understood this and wanted to help out people he liked - or perhaps he felt pressured into it. We can't know.</p></li>\n<li><p>Of course, that means you may feel unfairly disadvantaged, as you <em>didn't</em> get to know the questions in advance. And, emotion aside, the questions should not be shared as a matter of principle. So, it is also understandable that you raised your concerns with the interview manager. (Perhaps putting the emphasis on the fairness of the process, rather than that <em>you</em> found it unethical, might have served better, but that's a minor point). If the company management have an interest in running the process fairly, they may appreciate knowing that people are trying to circumvent it.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>However, there are some other considerations:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>To truly assess people fairly, interviews should be built around the same questions. The conversation may wander, of course; but if candidate A is asked about one thing, and candidate B is asked about something else, how can they be compared at all? The interviewer may not be able to change the questions asked, even after your tip.</li>\n<li>You all already work for the company. The company has created a new department and will be closing the old department, taking only some of the staff across. It seems very likely that the company <em>already knows</em> which staff they will be keeping, and which they will get rid of, but are running the interviews to give an impression of fairness (again, people respond emotionally in these situations). Maybe they even created the new department for exactly this purpose.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So, reporting the situation was valid. It wasn't <em>necessary</em> to report it, you could have just let things run their course, and it's unclear what difference your report may make; but as described, <strong>you have not done anything wrong</strong>. Good luck in getting/keeping the job, if that's your goal.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 124220, "author": "Gaius", "author_id": 34272, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/34272", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Ethics is a subjective thing but we can examine the facts of the case. Management has contrived a means to justify sacking workers just before Christmas, building a paper trail so it looks performance related, presumably to avoid needing to pay severance. You have taken it upon yourself to actively assist with this scheme, for your own advancement at your peers expense, rather than as your colleague did, showing solidarity against an underhanded plan. I hope this is sufficient for you to reach a conclusion.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/124184", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 127196, "author": "Old_Lamplighter", "author_id": 46894, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/46894", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Since this is going to be for a business, you could go for one of these approaches.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>proprietor@cookiemonster.com</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>or </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>owner@cookiemonster.com</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>or something like that. It will instantly inform anyone that you own the company.</p>\n\n<p>Per the comments: other options are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>info@cookiemonster.com</p></li>\n<li><p>admin@cookiemonster.com</p></li>\n<li><p>information@cookiemonster.com</p></li>\n<li><p>inquiries@cookiemonster.com</p></li>\n<li><p>contact@cookiemonster.com</p></li>\n<li><p>contactus@cookiemonster.com</p></li>\n<li><p>support@cookiemonster.com</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127199, "author": "berry120", "author_id": 57339, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/57339", "pm_score": 8, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Because the domain name contains my first and last name, I'm afraid it might seem unprofessional or redundant.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I disagree. <code>michael@michaelberry.com</code> (not my domain!) strongly hints that you're talking to <em>me</em>, and not some member of staff that I've also hired. That comes across as a positive, a more personal touch.</p>\n\n<p>You could go for something more generic, like <code>support@michaelberry.com</code> sure - but this is a negative IMHO. It comes across as though you're firing it at a generic mailbox where it may or may not get picked up by anyone.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127201, "author": "Ertai87", "author_id": 88183, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88183", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Many owners of companies have their own name as their email address. As an example, the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has his personal direct email address set to jeff@amazon.com (of course this email inbox is screened by his personal assistants and not every email gets to Jeff Bezos himself). It's not unprofessional at all to use your own name as your company email address. If you happen to be Jeff Bezos and your domain happens to be jeffbezos.com, then I don't particularly see anything wrong with your email address being jeff@jeffbezos.com.</p>\n\n<p>If you aren't a fan of that structure, then I defer to Richard U's suggestion.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127226, "author": "Tombo", "author_id": 97621, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/97621", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd do firstname@firstnamelastname.com, but I think most people are too busy (like me) for it to matter a whole lot. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to look like a big company, do first.last@company.com, or firstinitiallastname@company.com. You'll also grow weary of typing a long email address a lot. Mine is 12 characters with the @ and the .com. 3 letter first name @ 4 letter domain.com. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127244, "author": "Laurence", "author_id": 36169, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/36169", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Your name is fine. &lt;Your first name&gt;@&lt;your company name&gt;.com is fine, if you HAVE a company name.</p>\n\n<p>The only thing that looks really unprofessional is a 'cute' or jokey name. Don't. You'll regret it.</p>\n\n<p>(If you insist on calling yourself cookiemonster at least spell it right!)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127248, "author": "Cameron Roberts", "author_id": 75338, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/75338", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Ultimately you are over thinking this, your email address is pretty inconsequential vs providing quality service and delivering good value in your business. People type your email address once, or even never, and then rely on their stored contacts. All that matters is they can recognize which adress belongs to you, in the case that there are multiple Cookie's in their contacts. Your domain already handles that.</p>\n\n<p>In my opinion, any email address that is not expressly unprofessional is inherently professional, you should use whatever you feel has the best 'ring' to it. </p>\n\n<p>Having accused you of overthinking, I should mention I have been freelancing for well over a decade with my domain being my name, I chose 'mail@myname.com' to avoid the 'redundancy' and nobody has ever mentioned anything about it one way or the other. I would estimate the impact of this decision to be virtually nil.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127261, "author": "David", "author_id": 66339, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/66339", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have a domain that has my name in it as well. What I like to do is customize the e-mail to the sender when working professionally. So, for instance, if I'm giving a resume to somebody at <code>AmazingTech</code>, then my email for them will be <code>AmazingTech@FirstLast.com</code>.</p>\n\n<p>When I don't customize it, then <code>contact@FirstLast.com</code> is one of my defaults.</p>\n\n<p>The first technique has the added benefit that if a company has a data breach, and you start getting spam emails to it, you know where the spam is coming from, and you can easily shut it down without affecting any other incoming mail.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/127195", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 127477, "author": "Fattie", "author_id": 22844, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/22844", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>OP, unfortunately it seems you just negotiated poorly on this occasion.</p>\n\n<p>The other person:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Could I know your salary expectation ?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You answer:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>As much as I know about the job at the moment, what about 777? The recruiter mentioned a range of 666 to 888.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>They then say:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Blah blah diddy blah blah blah</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You answer:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>As much as I know about the job at the moment, what about 777? The recruiter mentioned a range of 666 to 888.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Always have a figure ready.</p>\n\n<p>Say it and say nothing else.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127506, "author": "fireshark519", "author_id": 98181, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/98181", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is this really normal this early in the process ? Or did I just get\n strong armed / he pulled a quick one on me ? I know I really can't\n negotiate unless I can walk away, but wanted to make the most of what\n they could offer me.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes completely normal.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I have not quoted a salary then and there?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You were asked a question, you should give an answer...</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The strong arming that I sensed, could be an indication of a bad\n future there?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is an indication that the HM wants you to be prepared. If you attend a meeting, being os...\"wishy washy\" is not good.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The recruitment seem company have posted 2 adverts for the same job\n with 5K difference, ie 55K. Am i just being too suspicious that the\n recruiter really doesn't have my best interest.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>sorry this didn't make much sense to me.</p>\n\n<p>When going for an interview you have to take several things into account, when it comes to the salary:</p>\n\n<p>What is your current position? Do you have a job that pays your bills at the moment? Can you safely \"throw away\" the interview if the salary isn't right? Are you in such a place in your career that this company on your CV would not be beneficial?</p>\n\n<p>If you are trying to climb and your expenses are low, or even if in this case you need it to keep your visa and to pay your bills, then start either middle or low as you need something to hold on to.</p>\n\n<p>If you feel safe, secure, have the time to take an offer YOU want then aim high. You see the average market is 55k but there are offers in the area at 80k. When asked the question go with:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Taking into account the market average and recent hires in this area,\n I would be happy with 70k but...how much do you feel I will be able to\n contribute and what would you be willing to offer?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>this shows negotiation skills, homework done and willing to compromise.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127507, "author": "rath", "author_id": 9549, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/9549", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with Fattie you negotiated poorly and you must keep your lowest acceptable offer in your head. But that's where my agreement ends.</p>\n\n<p>Before you read this answer, or any of the others, do yourself a favour and read <a href=\"https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Kalzumeus' guide to Salary Negotiation</a>. It will be the most valuable 15 minutes of your life, or your money back. No, I'm serious. That thing is gold.</p>\n\n<p>Now there's two bits where it went wrong.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You allowed him to rattle you.</li>\n<li>You fell for his BS.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Why do I think you let him rattle you?</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>That's were the pleasantness ends and the awkwardness began.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Being asked about salary expectations is not awkward, it's part of the game. And it <em>is</em> a game, a very important one, one that engineers like me or you don't really like, because we fundamentally don't like headbutting with people. But sometimes we must.</p>\n\n<p>The second mistake is that you were not in the right mindset. Salary negotiation (well, all negotiation) is inherently adversarial. You'll be playing a game for a bit, going up against each other, and then you'll go back to being friends again. No big deal.</p>\n\n<p>He says</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>Could I know your salary expectation</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You generally want to kick that can down the road as much as possible. When interviewing you want a <em><strong>Yes, if</strong></em> not a <em><strong>No, but</strong></em>. </p>\n\n<p>What do I mean? You want them to think <strong><em>Yes</strong>, I will hire that guy <strong>if</strong> I can afford him</em>. You don't want <strong><em>No</strong>, I don't really like that guy, <strong>but</strong> he's cheap enough</em>. So, stall that discussion for the last stage to give yourself a chance to dazzle them and convince them what a great boost to their business you're going to be.</p>\n\n<p>In that situation it looks like that was the final stage, so it's all good here. But it's an important point to keep in mind.</p>\n\n<p>He says</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>You must have googled the market, how much would you be happy with? I don't want to have discussion later during the yearly review that you are unhappy with the salary.</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Hello there. Another important point is to <em>never give a number first</em> because you might sell yourself short. Now this guy did quote you 10k less than the recruiter told you, so he's starting out low. This is a tricky one; here's how I would answer it. Start with a smile.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Mr. Senior Dev, I'm an engineer. I like to focus on doing good work and letting the chips fall where they may. No one really likes having these discussions and I wouldn't want to have it again in a year either*. Generally it needs to be high enough so that it's not an issue. Of course I've done my research, which is why we're talking, but you're in a much better position to know what I'm worth to you than I am. I understand HR needs a number, so I invite you to write down the one you think. I trust you to be fair. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>He may come back with something like <em>I don't know what's fair to you, blah blah blah</em>. Keep stonewalling with what a great guy he is and how he seems experienced in these matters and how you expect him to be fair, and that you trust his judgement. Another useful phrase is</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I don't feel comfortable dictating to you what you should be paying your employees.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Now that's a certain strategy that won't work with all employers. Those inclined to underpay will probably not go for it. I recommend following it regardless, and dropping when you can't go any further. The most important point to remember is: Salary negotiation is adversarial (though not hostile), and you must be mentally prepared for it.</p>\n\n<p>One last thing. I said I agree with Fattie that you must keep your minimum acceptable salary in mind, didn't I? So what's with that?</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>This is your promise to yourself. You won't accept anything below that number.</li>\n<li>This is the minimum, not the optimal. If some misfortune befalls you and you must absolutely give a number cause otherwise the world will end, do not disclose your minimum! It will only get lower. And then it's not a minimum.</li>\n<li>Following that, keep your minimum as an internal secret. Use another internal secret, the <em>likely figure</em> and negotiate around that.</li>\n<li>The minimum is secret to you, the <em>likely figure</em> depends on the employer.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>You made it this far? I'm flattered! And I have a gift for you: <a href=\"https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/06/03/kalzumeus-podcast-episode-12-salary-negotiation-with-josh-doody/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Kalzumeus Podcast Episode 12: Salary Negotiation with Josh Doody</a>. Everything I've written here is based on those two links. You can listen to the podcast episode on your way to the interview to prepare yourself mentally. It worked for me.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>*<em>that's a lie, of course you'll negotiate again in a year.</em></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127513, "author": "DigitalBlade969", "author_id": 87734, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87734", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Before applying anywhere, <strong>know</strong><br>\nthe <strong>salary you want</strong> currently.</p>\n\n<p>Add app.5-30% (or more, depending on your <em>need</em> to work) to that for <strong>negotiation.</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>This is your NUMBER.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Someone wakes you up at night or cold calls you while on the loo or watching a movie, you're <strong>ready to throw that number at them</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Make sure your expectation sits well within what you can ask for in your market for your experience and qualifications.</p>\n\n<p>This will give you confidence in negotiations.</p>\n\n<p>Don't let them negotiate you down on the spot unless you're certain.</p>\n\n<p>Especially if different circumstances, options, tasks or responsibilities are added or removed.</p>\n\n<p>Always ask for time(usually up to a few days) to consider their proposal.</p>\n\n<p>Your questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><ol>\n<li>Yes</li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><ol start=\"2\">\n<li>No, you did as you should once asked (someone has to start after all) but you were ill prepared / not with your head in the negotiation game</li>\n</ol></li>\n<li>3.potentially, yes</li>\n<li>4.recruiters have their fee and the happy client (external) or their company(internal) in mind, so they'll push you to sign even if you're uncomfortable and are willing to negotiate you down considerably with all sorts of tactics and psych tricks (that is their profession and mission, especially for internal recruiters)</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/127475", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/98712/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 130200, "author": "solarflare", "author_id": 76870, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/76870", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Does this infer that there is still a possibility that I dont get an\n offer?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes. It is definitely possible you may or may not get the job. They might even probably still be interviewing other candidates and don't want to lose you as an option while a decision is made. Hard to say.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What should my response be?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>A simple \"thank you, I look forward to your response\" type email should suffice. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I was actually waiting for this job without applying to other\n companies. Should I start applying for other companies?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You should have been doing that anyway.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 130203, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should <em>never</em> stop applying for jobs till you have a formal offer in hand. There are many reasons why things can fall through even after a company seems interested in you. In fact, after they truly are interested in you. The market tanks, the company is in sales negotiation, the division might get cut, there is a hiring freeze.. you name it, it can happen. And it needs not get as personal as the boss comes back from vacation and hates your resume. No amount of expressed enthusiasm can compensate for the lack of a signed contract.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 130204, "author": "Joe Strazzere", "author_id": 7777, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/7777", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Does this infer that there is still a possibility that I dont get an\n offer?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, there's still a possibility.</p>\n\n<p>They are hopeful. But they don't have a timeline. That timeline could still be never.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What should my response be?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You should thank them. You should then wait to hear from them while you continue to interview elsewhere.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I start applying for other companies?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes. Start now if you have't already done so.</p>\n\n<p>It's not over, until it's over.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/130195", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 132825, "author": "Keith", "author_id": 100951, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/100951", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>How do the interns feel? If they want more load, give it to them. When I interned I was happy to go home at quitting time. </p>\n\n<p>Personally, I'd ask Bob. Or Alice. They're your go-to people for questions. Get their opinions on it and see if they think you're too nice to your interns. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132826, "author": "dwizum", "author_id": 83999, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/83999", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I don't want the reason the interns I mentored to not be hired to be I did not give them enough work.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I wouldn't look at it that way. Bob didn't meet Alice's interns because she assigned them too much work. He met them because it was a chance encounter. He could have very well walked by your area when her interns were all in a meeting and yours weren't. </p>\n\n<p>Besides - and more importantly - if a company is rewarding/promoting/hiring purely based on who sticks around and works late into the night on a regular basis, <strong>you may be doing your interns a favor by not getting them hired there.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Rewarding employees who \"put in the extra effort\" on a too-frequent basis is often done under the guise of \"rewarding dedication,\" but in reality, it's basically supporting bad management, and/or bad employee performance. Employees should have a <em>reasonable</em> workload which they're able to finish their tasks in their allotted hours (perhaps with occasional, infrequent exceptions).</p>\n\n<p>In other words, if an employee is regularly staying that late in order to finish their work, either they're really slow (and need coaching/training/help) or they've been given too much work and not enough time to finish it (because their boss is bad at work management.) <strong>Neither of those situations should reflect positively on the employee.</strong></p>\n\n<p>To answer your actual question,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I just ride them hard too?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>No.</strong> You should treat them fairly and give them a reasonable workload. You should make sure you're supporting them with training or help as needed. You should make sure they're contributing to the company, but also have opportunities to learn, if possible. If you are given the opportunity to be involved in hiring decisions, you should do it on merit of their work and their ability to contribute in a sustainable manner, not based on who stayed late every night.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132870, "author": "Gregory Currie", "author_id": 59502, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/59502", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you think Bob is reasonable and you get on well, talk to him about it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>If the interns should be striving to meet Bob's expectations, you need to find out what Bob's expectations are.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you think Bob's expectations are not fair, you should discuss them with him. Don't project your own expectations onto the Inters, because that is not what they will be judged on.</p>\n\n<p>I personally wouldn't go to Alice to ask her advice.</p>\n\n<p>If Bob tells you that he is looking for Interns that work deep into the night every night, that's what you should let your Interns know. It's up to them to decide if they think that's fair. You should not be artificially restricting their oppertunity because of your notion about what is, or is not fair. Put the ball in their court.</p>\n\n<p>You do have an obligation to your Interns, and also you have an obligation to your company. Ultimately the best thing for the company to do is give the Interns the same scope to succeed. That's how you find the best people. It's not tooting your own horn.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132925, "author": "Quaestor Lucem", "author_id": 93280, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93280", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Depending on the relationship with Bob or the procedures already in place to evaluate your interns' work, you could do some of the following:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>send reports to Bob regularly (once per week, perhaps?), outlining the tasks assigned to and completed by them</li>\n<li>highlight any problems they may have encountered that may explain a odd bad performance in a given week. including the solutions they found may be also a point</li>\n<li>highlight good behaviors</li>\n<li>highlight contributions - for example, intern A came with a new idea that was implemented and the result was this or that improvement on our project, product or way of working</li>\n<li>highlight points of improvement they may have and outline the actions you intend to do to address them</li>\n<li>see if Bob would like to see demos from the interns</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>btw, nice that you care about them!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 143267, "author": "MauganRa", "author_id": 17622, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/17622", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Currently, I have a few interns at work as colleagues. They are pretty good, but I'd never expect them to have the same performance as a regular employee. And it would sadden me if the manager demands overtime from them. Depending on the job market and on the economy, even the concept of \"voluntary\" overtime is suspect*. If a company demands both stellar performance and overtime from its interns, then they should also be paid like a regular employee.</p>\n\n<p>Ideally, internships are a win-win for both sides: potential employees can showcase their skills, gain experience, and get to know a potential future workplace. Meanwhile, companies can get some work done and evaluate prospective employee's talent along the way. This can be both more efficient than employing someone by luck, and more reliable than a questionable recruitment process.</p>\n\n<p>*: On a related note, I find it important that young people develop sufficient judgement to burn <em>slowly</em>, lest they might contract health problems at some point. But I admit that entrepreneurs, members of startups and other kinds of workaholics might disagree :-)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/132822", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87777/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 132876, "author": "Keith", "author_id": 100951, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/100951", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Sounds like an overzealous QA tester. </p>\n\n<p>That should have been clarified during requirements gathering. Technically, that's the fault of the analyst, or PM, or whomever. But passing blame doesn't get the job done. I'd try to fix it as much as possible, but make it known that those things should have been clarified prior to getting to you. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132878, "author": "Red Mage", "author_id": 95649, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/95649", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a QA tester myself, that last bug you mentioned about String values in Boolean or Number fields is absolutely a legitimate thing that probably needs to be caught and handled. Just because everyone involved KNOWS that a certain field is supposed to be a integer only won't stop some zealous computer system from forgetting to cast a decimal and send those extra digits. Nevermind some dumb user who literally writes out 'Two' in a client system that tries to cast values before sending in a SOAP payload. I'm not saying you need to cast these values on the fly, but there should probably be some failsafe so there aren't cascade failures elsewhere. I'd assume thats what the QA was really worried about.</p>\n\n<p>As for the others .... eh, that is hard to say. I'm inclined to agree with Keith's answer, this QA tester was quite zealous. I'd check with your Project Manager on if you need to worry about them, but I'd assume you're probably fine. If the client and other projects know the inputs, part of their job is to actually provide the correct number of inputs.</p>\n\n<p>Stack Exchange tech aside, back to Workplace</p>\n\n<p>Again as a QA tester, in my experience its always better to err on the side of caution, especially starting out. Part of that learning process was I would occasionally pass up 'bugs' that turned out to either be specifically designed that way as a feature, or were a conscious design ask by the client we just got stuck with. When that happened, dev would just write back in the ticket that 'No, this is working as intended' and maybe give me a few insights into what knowledge I was lacking. I'd then re-QA the item, confirm there was no actual bug, and pass the item. </p>\n\n<p>Is your QA relatively new? It could honestly just be the same thing where he is trying to learn a bit and has never used SOAP before. If your team is comfortable that these are unnecessary fixes, mention why that's so and help provide some knowledge. </p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, he did flag the issues properly as 'Low Priority' meaning this isn't something critical. It could also be possible that QA is sick of seeing failures upstream with clients where silly things CAN occur and are sick of constant training. It sounds like this is everywhere since other projects have this as well, so he might just be trying to get any live ticket into the system so some enterprising dev might fix this in down time. Who knows?</p>\n\n<p>You're Dev, not a PM. Fix the one bug, comment on the others, kick the tickets up the chain. If they come back down, you'll have guidance as to what to do. Good luck!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132880, "author": "Player One", "author_id": 64188, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/64188", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a developer myself, all those sound like they could be issues, or could not be. \"Does not throw an error\" is meaningless without context (it could be bad or it could be good). The key question is <strong>\"What is the impact if we release it like this?\"</strong></p>\n\n<p>If the impact is (for example) that the extra field can be processed by the application and do something unintended, then that is a defect that absolutely needs to be addressed. If the impact is that the field is ignored then it's probably not an issue, but you'll need tests (preferably automated) to prove that.</p>\n\n<p>It's really frustrating when something you're working on is held up to extra scrutiny, but nothing you've said there sounds like an unreasonable thing for a tester to raise, and the way to convince everyone that it's not an issue is to prove it with automated tests (and if the other party is not convinced then to request further automated tests from them that demonstrate the vulnerability. Note that the vulnerability is not \"accepts a string instead of an integer\", it is \"After a user has entered a string instead of an integer then their information is corrupted when they save the form\" for example).</p>\n\n<p><strong>This is a good thing</strong>, and if you work together (rather than as opponents), then it will increase the robustness of both the code and the tests, both now and going forward for new features. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132883, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If what your QA tester is reporting as a bug is \"Does not throw an error\", then I agree with him. <strong>Silent failure is a productivity killer.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If I should misunderstand the requirements of your SOAP format and pass in more fields than it expects, and I don't get an error, then it's reasonable for me to assume that all the fields get saved or processed. Then when later requests show that the fields aren't there, now I don't know whether it was a bad request, or a bad response, or a misfire in the database somewhere, or...?</p>\n\n<p>Be strict about the format you accept, and throw an error on any deviation. Strange as it may seem, that's the most user-friendly way to create an API of this sort. I wouldn't worry about giving specific errors; something like \"bad request format\" is just fine if your expected format is well-documented.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132921, "author": "Chris Stratton", "author_id": 44241, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44241", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's time to throw an <strong>UNDEFINED_POLICY_EXCEPTION</strong> to your mutual boss</p>\n\n<p>This is ultimately an <strong>Architectural Strategy Question</strong> that needs to be resolved by project leadership, not something that can remain at the level of a dispute between an individual coder and QA tester - though it would be entirely appropriate for both of you to present your thinking to those tasked with setting policy for this.</p>\n\n<p>It's certainly a valid concern and philosophy to argue that components should appropriately handle bad input.</p>\n\n<p>But at the same time, you cannot pursue that philosophy all the way down; at some level, there has to be a <em>trust</em> that inputs provided by an earlier stage are valid.</p>\n\n<p>Where that level is, is a very nuanced question - it depends on access restrictions and preceding stages, and it depends on the consequences of failure. History is full of examples where unanticipated responses to bad inputs have caused painful failures and security issues. It is also (commonly if quietly) full of cases where the <em>error and exception mechanisms themselves</em> have propagated as bad inputs or return values to code unprepared to handle them. Many times, it takes quite a bit of strategic thought to decide how a complex system can appropriately respond to failure of an internal stage.</p>\n\n<p><strong>You need to escalate this issue for a determination of what the project's policy is.</strong> . Until you have a requirement, you cannot produce code that meets it, and QA cannot test code against it. Don't wing this; ask for a meeting, present your cases, debate it as a team, and let leadership set policy.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132924, "author": "Omar Martinez", "author_id": 76123, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/76123", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here is the deal, you develop what you are ask to develop, if those \"bugs\" where described as requirements, the QA person is just doing it's work. </p>\n\n<p>If they are not in the requirements, then you have to talk to you manager or product owner and ask why, maybe that is not important or needed and the QA person misunderstood, maybe he forgot to write those on the requirements he gave you.</p>\n\n<p>Is in this part where the problem may be, if your product owner (technical lead, manager or whoever is in charge of the project) gives development and QA different requirements, this is what happen.</p>\n\n<p>As per the other projects, the keyword here is \"requirements\", the software is constructed in a way that fulfills those requirements, read them, understand them, if you not have them, ask for them. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132927, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The job of the whole team is to create a product that is good enough to ship, verify that it is good enough to sip, and ship it. </p>\n\n<p>Job of your management is to define what “good enough” means. And someone ‘s job is to define what issues need fixing, and which ones don’t, while staying good enough. </p>\n\n<p>If you think that fixing the issue that was reported is not a good use of your time, then report it to someone who makes decisions. They should either tell you that the issue needs to be resolved, or they decide that it doesn’t need resolving and tell the QA person not to report issues like this one, since it just creates unnecessary work. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/132871", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/101718/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 134089, "author": "jwenting", "author_id": 3429, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/3429", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>That style of coding is not bad, it's just very verbose. </p>\n\n<p>Depending on the language being used it may also be outside the normal for coding style as is commonly used across the industry.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, unless there are specific style guidelines in use in the company or project that tell otherwise, there is nothing wrong with that code except that you have personal reasons for not liking how it's written, which has nothing whatsoever to do with whether the code is good or bad.</p>\n\n<p>If there are no such guidelines in your company or project, it's overdue to start adopting some, and that should be done in good faith and by talking with everyone involved to get to a set of rules that everyone can live with (or at the very least everyone with any seniority and experience).</p>\n\n<p>If there are such guidelines and the code violates them, THAT's the moment to point it out to him (politely of course). But you may not want to do that for existing code as changing code even to adhere to new coding style guidelines is liable to introduce bugs.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 134090, "author": "gazzz0x2z", "author_id": 44555, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44555", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd like to extend on lucasgb's excellent comment : in the real world, most code is crap.</p>\n\n<p>There are many reasons to that, the main one being the stakeholders panicking when the deadline approaches, transmitting their panick to the developpers, who then enter \"quick and dirty mode\", which they know they'll regret later - but still do it anyways. I've been guilty of this more than once.</p>\n\n<p>There are plenty of other reasons why code can be bad : lack of guidelines, poor training, poor capacity to accept training.....</p>\n\n<p>But your question goes even further. You're not as senior as this developper. There might be good reasons for him to use such a verbose style - or there might not be. The first thing to do would be to explore why he's doing that(I've got a few ideas, which I keep for myself, it's not a coding stack, there). You might think about it, or you might even innocently raise the topic, during a chat. \"Hey, Mr Senior, I never saw this before, can you enlighten me about this design pattern?\"(exact wording to adapt to the senior's personality).</p>\n\n<p>Once you'll have a clearer view of the situation, you'll be able to decide wether it's actually a good practice - or not(my own opinion : if the function is well named, then <a href=\"https://martinfowler.com/bliki/FunctionLength.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">it's worth the hassle</a>. Though your milage may differ).</p>\n\n<p>And only once you've decided that it's actually crap, it might be time to think about coding guidelines. And to discuss about coding guidelines with everyone. Without thinking you're always right. Nobody is.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 134094, "author": "virolino", "author_id": 98881, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/98881", "pm_score": -1, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The sample provided shows that whoever wrote that piece of code <strong>does not understand how programing works</strong>. He does not understand basic data types and basic instructions. (PS: I created real-time embedded software for cars and for robots in the semiconductor industry for more than 15 years, so I know what I talk about)</p>\n\n<p>Coding style usually refers to layout and indentation, but useless verbosity and inefficiency can also be considered \"bad coding style\".</p>\n\n<p>That guy needs to be trained from basic level of programming, in whatever language. Otherwise, he will hurt the project (and the rest of the team) a lot.</p>\n\n<p>Combined with the fact that he is a <strong>senior</strong> developer, there not only a red flag about this guy, but also an entire field full of red flags.</p>\n\n<p>You should first talk (read note at the end) with your manager and explain the overview of the situation. <strong>Offer to create a report</strong> to show how the application:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>will be more expensive;</li>\n<li>will take a much longer development time;</li>\n<li>run slower;</li>\n<li>have more bugs;</li>\n<li>have more customer complaints;</li>\n<li>erode the morale of the team because of the mess.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Just show that this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>public boolean myMethod()\n{\n if(somethingIsTrue==true)\n {\n return true;\n }\n else\n {\n return false;\n }\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>can be written as this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>public boolean myMethod()\n{\n return somethingIsTrue;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>or (if data hiding is not essential) even as:</p>\n\n<pre><code>somethingIsTrue\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>It should be easy to understand by anybody, regardless of education, that the original is uglier.</p>\n\n<p>NOTE 1: if the manager decides in favor of the colleague, then there will not be much more that you can do.</p>\n\n<p>NOTE 2: I underline <strong>\"discuss\", as opposed to \"complain\"</strong>. The discussion should be started like along this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Boss, I am not sure if I noticed something right. I think <em>(this)</em>, and guy X thinks <em>(that)</em>. The simplest example is <em>(this - have it with you, maybe a hard copy)</em> with the negative impact <em>(this)</em>. I need some support, in order to improve my skills, while improving the quality of our product at the same time. If the information is not enough, I can create a short list of examples, so we can discuss more to the point.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>NOTE 3: Sometimes, the best solution is to go find another job. I have done that myself. But that is a defeat for yourself and for your career, if you do not try something else first - with decency, of course.</p>\n\n<p>NOTE 4: \"Installing\" and then \"enforcing\" official coding rules is a long process in itself, and it usually leads to longer development times, and higher development costs (short time). The downsides are balanced (long term) by fewer customer complaints, less time \"wasted\" on debugging etc. Therefore, if there is no management support, coding rule are nothing but a beautiful dream.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 134095, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's probably a bad idea to start criticising the work of senior colleagues, unless you have been specifically asked to do so. There could be plenty of reasons that you're not aware of for something being done a particular way. If you really feel strongly that it's incorrect, rather than just not to your preference, and likely to cause problems the best solution here is to raise the prospect of implementing coding standards for the organisation. This takes personal preference out of the equation and hence reduces the prospect of offending anyone.</p>\n\n<p>You can introduce the idea at standups or other meetings and hopefully you will gain the support of colleagues. You may not get any support for whatever reason (time, money, etc), that will be down to the nature of the organisation. If it still bothers you then you should probably start looking for another job. I've been in a situation with objectively bad code and no appetite to resolve the problem and it's just stress that you don't need. Much better to leave and find somewhere more aligned with your standards.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/134079", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/89241/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 136017, "author": "Donald", "author_id": 593, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/593", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>When describing the degree one has obtained or is pursuing (for example in an email signature), is there a way to include information about a minor in a cleanly abbreviated manner?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>B.S in Mechanical Engineering with minor in Electrical Engineering. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>is there a way to include information about a minor in a cleanly abbreviated manner?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There isn’t a universal abbreviation for a minor degree.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Furthermore, in the situation where one is still pursuing the degree and sending emails primarily to university faculty and potential employers, is it even commonplace or helpful to include this information about pursuing a minor in the signature?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don’t typically think listing unfinished degrees is worth while. I would only list what degrees I was pursuing on a resume. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 136018, "author": "aaaaa says reinstate Monica", "author_id": 45298, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/45298", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>sending emails primarily to university faculty [...], is it even commonplace or helpful to include this <strong>information about pursuing a minor in the signature</strong>?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Signature is the last bit of information anybody going to notice. People do often add \"Joan Smith, PhD\" or \"John Smithsonian, MD\" to their signature, but I have never seen \"Dardeshna Secondname, BS, Physics\" and especially not \"Dardeshna Secondname, BS, Physics, minor in Music\".</p>\n\n<p>In academia, focus on writing good cover letter that clearly explains what you want from the person and why they should care to read your CV. Then, in CV, list your degrees, and degrees in progress:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Academic University (USA) BS Physics, minor in Music ..... 2016-today\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>or</p>\n\n<pre><code>College of Sciences (UK) BS Physics ..................... 2016-today\n</code></pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 136036, "author": "Joe", "author_id": 99653, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/99653", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You posted your signature for reference in an edit to the question, and it looked like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code> --\n First Name Last Name\n University of XYZ ’21 BSME\n email | (xxx) xxx - xxxx\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>When I read signatures in this format, I naturally assume that the name of an organization in the second line would be the organization that the author is <em>employed by</em>, not where they went to school. So, I think it’s confusing.</p>\n\n<p>Plus, part of the point of an email signature is to make it easy for recipients to identify and contact you. If I pick up my phone and dial University of XYZ’s main office telephone number and ask to speak to the name in the signature, is the receptionist there going to be able to transfer my call to you? I’m guessing not.</p>\n\n<p>I would not list anything about your education in your signature. If you haven’t completed a degree yet but are looking for jobs where it is relevant that you are studying something (e.g. internships?), then you can explain that in your cover letter, resume, or CV. Your email signature should contain information that can be used to identify and contact you, e.g. your name, company, phone number, mailing address, etc.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/136016", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/104375/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 137323, "author": "solarflare", "author_id": 76870, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/76870", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>No.</p>\n\n<p>The course has done its intended aim which is to whet your appetite and give you a taste of computer science. But if you are interested in a career in development with long term prospects it will probably not be sufficient to even get an interview with a serious organisation.</p>\n\n<p>You might want to consider the masters degree or try starting out in a smaller company who might see your passion as a positive. Most larger firms unfortunately do want that piece of paper.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137335, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should be able to get a junior position - if you find someone writing a good CV for you, and you are good at interviews. And then you gain experience and get better jobs. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137337, "author": "user3399", "author_id": 77528, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/77528", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As someone who has been in a similar situation, I would say that it depends.</p>\n\n<p>When I entered college I took a course in litterature, I then realized it was not what I wanted to do, and wanted to change to a engineering course, but that was impossible. </p>\n\n<p>So, I learned by myself, I created a few software of my own, to test my abilities, discover the technologies, and build a portfolio. </p>\n\n<p>The problem is that a lack of diploma is going to hinder you a lot when looking for a job, depending on your location this might be more or less of a problem. In my location most companies were looking for someone with a bachelor's degree and a few years of experience. Due to that my CV was usually discarded pretty quickly. </p>\n\n<p>But, if you keep at it, you might eventually find a company that is willing to give you a shot, if you do good in the interview, then you're likely to get the job. Wich in turn will help you get experience, and build a better CV. </p>\n\n<p>So, in short, with a bit of luck, and perseverance, it is possible to find a job even without a diploma, but it is much, much harder than if you had a diploma in the first place.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit :</strong> </p>\n\n<p>I'd also like to note that, while you can pick up a lot of knowledge by yourself, there is also many skills that are looked for in a software engineer that you can't get by yourself. Working with a team is most likely going to be expected of you, that includes knowledge of technologies like svn, past experiences in working on a shared project, and knowledge of methodologies such a SCRUM or AGILE.</p>\n\n<p>So my advice to you would be to take the time to work on open source projects, wich not only looks good on a CV, but allows you to get a concrete experience on working with a team.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137344, "author": "Ben Tels", "author_id": 105125, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/105125", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Only if you are very lucky. As others have mentioned, you may be able to bluff your way into a job with that course. But it will depend on your potential employer and future colleagues being unable to spot your bluff.</p>\n\n<p>And also on their not coming across this question that you asked on a public site...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137346, "author": "O. Jones", "author_id": 15811, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/15811", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The courses you list, including CS50, sound like they offer a decent foundation for working in programming. Get the certificate from CS50. Definitely take the software engineering course. </p>\n\n<p>(The typical university curriculum, which your minor is, has fallen behind the state of the art a little bit. Java is a bit trailing-edge now. But you can still learn a lot about programming by writing programs in it.)</p>\n\n<p>You will be more attractive to a would-be employer if you know Structured Query Language (SQL). Find an online course and learn it (more than the one segment of CS50 can teach you).</p>\n\n<p>A major in econ with a minor in comp.sci is a fine combination. The software industry is always looking for people who know something about the world. The econ curriculum has probably offered some economic modeling, and hopefully a course on research methods. </p>\n\n<p>With that kind of foundation, you might discover a personal interest in data science, for example. That's a field full of opportunity. Or you can shoot for being a wall-street quant. Or a programmer for the finance/treasury department of a corporation or municipality. Or... or...</p>\n\n<p>Keep this in mind: you will need to explain, to at least some hiring managers, why a CS minor with an econ major makes you valuable. As you finish your studies, think about how to tell that story cogently.</p>\n\n<p>Study hard, do the problem sets, look at StackOverflow for answers to your questions. Don't let anybody tell you it's impossible.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137347, "author": "Dragan Juric", "author_id": 86456, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/86456", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>That course is maybe 10%, in the very best case 20%, of what you need for an entry-level junior position.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Can you teach yourself the rest of it? Sure, you can.</strong> Expect to need a lot of studying - through your own work, or someone helping you, or something, but a lot of studying however you organize it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Will companies give you a job?</strong> Well, IF you do learn the remaining 80-90%, those companies that are more oriented toward testing candidates in practical work just might. Or you could try to take part in some easy open-source project to beef-up your resume a bit.</p>\n\n<p>Those companies that stick to the concept of diplomas and degrees, probably won't.</p>\n\n<p>Eventually when you do get a job, and build some 5+ years of professional, paid-for experience, the diploma becomes less important.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The question here is, what exactly are you asking about?</strong>\nAre you asking if this course will, by itself, provide you with enough knowledge and skills to do the job at a junior level? The answer to that is <strong>no</strong>. You will have to learn a lot more. These courses are intended as just an introduction.</p>\n\n<p>Or, are you asking if you can get a job, while not having a diploma as a computer science major? Assuming you do get the skills in some way, yes, although initially it will be harder. </p>\n\n<p>If you are near the beginning of your studies, like, just one or two years, I would even advise to restart in the first year, officially in CS. You will gain in the long run, simply by being able to get jobs easier (as in, also at those companies who pay a lot of attention to official diplomas on paper).\nIf you're near the end of your bachelor's degree studies... well, 50/50. You can just finish it and work as a software dev, but the lack of a formal diploma will hurt you for the first five years or so.</p>\n\n<p>In either case, expect to need a substantial amount of study - by yourself, with friends, with online materials, or in a college/university/something - to get your skills to the level where you can get a job, even at just a junior level.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137355, "author": "BossRoss", "author_id": 43544, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/43544", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you want to be successful in a development career you're asking yourself the wrong question, you should be asking is this what you love doing? Put yourself in a high pressure situation and see if you would do it for an extended period and still love it.</p>\n\n<p>As mentioned in other answers qualifications can be important for most of your career like in Germany. In South Africa it helps to have a qualification to get your foot in the door but experience does out weigh qualifications eventually, in most cases. Qualifications are a bonus almost any where and will most certainly pay off in the long run, if you go it in you, do them all. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137367, "author": "Sascha", "author_id": 49974, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/49974", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Would this, along with self teaching and projects along the way, prepare me for an entry level position and a possible career in programming, specifically software dev and engineering?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, entry level and a possible career.</p>\n\n<p>Nobody knows for sure, some people can take a full CS degree and have years of programming experience and still fail at getting a decent programming career, while other just program a little in college and start. So if you feel ready, give it a try. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137380, "author": "Jesse Reza Khorasanee", "author_id": 105027, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/105027", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Software education gives you a good basis of knowledge for your career, but it only minimally helps for getting a job when compared with experience and who you know. </p>\n\n<p>If you have ideas for apps, you can let that drive your learning process and you will likely end up with an impressive portfolio by the end of the year. </p>\n\n<p>Share your software ideas with your colleagues. If you work with others on projects on the side during your study, you will have professional connections when you leave university. This will both get your foot in the door if they get a job and show companies that you can organise yourself and communicate when you put your projects on your CV. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137409, "author": "dan.m was user2321368", "author_id": 94052, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/94052", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Econ with a CS minor will offer you many, many employment opportunities, especially if you focus on the more math-y courses, take some statistics classes, etc.: Quantitative finance developers (\"quants\") are highly compensated on Wall Street.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137419, "author": "Scoots", "author_id": 91024, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/91024", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've had quite a successful career in web-based software development, starting from when I was 19 years old, and going on for very nearly a decade now.</p>\n\n<p>The only relevant formal education I've had was a week-long HTML course in school when I was about 13 years old. Everything else was self-taught.</p>\n\n<p>I found that a good attitude and knowing a desirable language at a basic to intermediate level can be sufficient to get an entry level position - so you're already at or above the level I was when I started my career.</p>\n\n<p>So yes, this further education you are thinking of pursuing is more than enough to prepare you for a career in software development.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 137422, "author": "Kevin", "author_id": 83339, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/83339", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Our group has hired a few people over the years, and I've been involved in a number of resume exams, and here's what I've come up with:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Actual Code/Experience Trumps Resume/Credentials</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you set two resumes in front of me:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Person A just graduated with a masters in software design</li>\n<li>Person B just graduated with a 2 year degree, but has been\nresponsible for the webapp for the local chess club and has a\ndecent-sized github account.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>... you can bet that I'm going to be <em>far</em> more interested in Person B. I can look at their code, and I know that they can get things done as part of a group.</p>\n\n<p>Keep in mind, from an employer's perspective, they don't actually <em>care</em> about your degree, your credentials, etc - they care whether you can do the job well. A degree and credentials can serve as a <em>proxy</em> for this, but that's all it really is: evidence that the person applying can probably do the job.</p>\n\n<p><strong>So focus on things that will give evidence that you can do the job.</strong> How much code do you have publicly available that prospective hiring managers/programmers can look at? Hiring managers love to be able to look at what sort of work you'd produce. Are there any clubs, volunteer outfits, or such that you can donate your programming time to - in order to demonstrate the ability to function as a worker within an organization?</p>\n\n<p>And when in doubt? Call up some companies. Not to look for a job, but simply to talk to their recruiters. I can't think of a single company who wouldn't <em>love</em> to get a call/email that went like this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Hello! I'm a student that's interested in pursuing computer software\n development when I graduate in [year of grad]. What are some things\n you would look for from a graduate that would make them stand out\n during the application process?</p>\n</blockquote>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/137322", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/105108/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 139803, "author": "Sourav Ghosh", "author_id": 61983, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61983", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>First of all, remember one thing, you are not in charge of reviewing the work (pattern or habit) for the lead - so go ahead raising a flag only if their behavior is a problem and has a direct impact on your work outputs.</p>\n\n<p>In case, due to their work habit, you (and others) are facing difficulties, I'd suggest the following steps:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Try noting down the occurrences where their behavior and involvement (or lack, thereof) creates problem / hindered to your work.</li>\n<li>Try communicating the problems to your lead, in writing.</li>\n<li>In case you don't get a response, or things do not change, involve your manager.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Remember, your manager will only be interested in knowing the matter and getting involved if they see that the behavior is actually affecting the work environment and outcome - so be sure <strong>not to</strong> express / impose your opinions about the lead or the behavior - rather make points on</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How the behaviors are impacting the overall process and work-relationships negatively (Demotivating)</li>\n<li>How the lack of leadership capability is affecting the process (more time-consuming, lesser quality outputs)</li>\n<li>Why the lack of technical skills are problematic (More bugs, more rework etc.)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And have supporting incidents as proofs. Only these things can make your manager believe your version and see the fact through.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 139805, "author": "fypnlp", "author_id": 93903, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93903", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a VERY VERY tricky situation and you have to be very strategic about how you do this. Before you run to any PM with your complaints you need to back everything up with proof. You need: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>dates</li>\n<li>Times</li>\n<li>Type of incident(problem committing a git branch/adding new git branch</li>\n<li>Summary of what was said by either party regarding any disagreements you said</li>\n<li>Any communications (email) between you both.</li>\n<li>Any witnesses to any exchanges (kind of tricky because they may not want to get involved)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>No one cares about the your opinion...they only care about facts. </p>\n\n<p>So make sure you can back up everything you say. Especially if your complaining to your manager's 'boss'.</p>\n\n<p>Then, you have to plan of what you are going to say to the Project Manager as you cannot under any circumstances say \"I think the tech lead is incompetent' it's all about framing what you say and how you say it (for you all know the PM and the TL might be friends). Schedule a 20 min meeting with the PM.</p>\n\n<p>Step 1: Email</p>\n\n<p>Write the PM saying <em>you have an issue and you would really appreciate his objective opinion it won't take long as you know he's super busy but It's a matter of importance. When are you free?</em></p>\n\n<p>Step 2: In the meeting</p>\n\n<p>In the meeting you can say\n something along the lines of: </p>\n\n<p><em>I am concerned about X (Tech lead). Maybe I'm a bit of worrier but I noticed that (then start presenting your evidence to establish a patter that the Tech lead isn't good at his job)</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Then when your done say something along the lines of:</p>\n\n<p><em>This gives me no pleasure in saying this or by having these observations but I would rather tell you for the GOOD of the project than keep my mouth shut. What do YOU as the PM think this issue should be handled?</em> </p>\n\n<p>Thus making this an issue for the PM to solve rather than something for you to fix. Plus it takes it from being about you to something that ensures the project moves forward smoothly. </p>\n\n<p>Then when the meeting is done, write an email thanking the PM for taking the time to speak to you, then if anything goes wrong you have proof that you spoke to the PM and left it for him to handle. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 139807, "author": "Strader", "author_id": 78760, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/78760", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Do you think you would be better fit for Lead Data Scientist?</p>\n\n<p>Because this is what your manager will glean from your approaching him about the current one`s shortcomings.</p>\n\n<p>Even if you mention that you are NOT gunning for the promotion</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 139816, "author": "P. Hopkinson", "author_id": 95494, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/95494", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Are there areas of good practice that you haven't mentioned or are flat out unaware of?</p>\n\n<p>It is unusual for anyone to be great at every aspect of their job, especially one requiring such a complex (and recently developed) knowledge base. Additionally, new hires are sometimes selected to cover known weaknesses.</p>\n\n<p>It is plausible that your technical lead has failings in some of the areas where you are strongest <em>while having other qualities that make them a good technical lead.</em></p>\n\n<p>This might not be the case but you should consider the possibility.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/139801", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/97531/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 152919, "author": "berry120", "author_id": 57339, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/57339", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>There’s a much higher level of complexity that I can understand when it’s code Ive written compared to reading other people.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There's nothing wrong with that - everyone is the same. If it's not obvious to you what this code is doing, it's likely the next person to check it out will have the same reaction. Remember that code reviews can be a dialog, not just the reviewer shouting some fixes at the committer. Talk with him, decide if there's a better or clearer way of achieving the same thing, and see if you can work something out where you understand what's going on.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I’m also dyslexics which makes it hard to remember lots of variable names across multiple files.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If the code requires you to remember lots of variable names across multiple files to understand it, then it sounds like it's potentially rather bad code (possibly too tightly coupled to too much other code.) As such, it's a point you should call out on review, and discuss a clearer approach. I couldn't make head nor tail of code that required me to remember lots of variable names across multiple files either, and I'm not dyslexic.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I also don't know how much care other people are putting into code reviews.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That varies enormously, but I think it's fair to say it <em>should</em> be a lot of care. The code review process is an investment against technical debt - and that is a very worthwhile investment.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 152921, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you review my code, and you say \"I don't understand it\", then there are two obvious possibilities: There's something wrong with my code, or there's something wrong with you.</p>\n\n<p>With the right tools, you will review and add comments where either you think my code is wrong, or where you don't understand it. If my code is right but you think it's wrong, quite likely better comments are needed. Quite possibly it needs changing from \"correct\" to \"obviously correct\". And of course the same if you don't understand it. </p>\n\n<p>I <em>do</em> expect you to be proficient in the language used. I don't write \"smart\" code, but I use what the language offers and expect you to understand it. If you don't, I can explain it to you, but I won't change the code in that situation. For example, we have some Swift code, and if you don't know what \"if let\" means or what a \"defer\" statement is, tough, you'll have to learn it. </p>\n\n<p>So if it's me on the other side, just do your code review the best you can, and we'll sort it out. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 152930, "author": "Kevin", "author_id": 83339, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/83339", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>There's a golden rule of programming: Code is meant to be read by humans, and only incidentally executed by computers.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you can't read the code? Then it's bad code.</p>\n\n<p>\"But maybe it's because I don't have the best memory, and I have to try to...\"</p>\n\n<p>No. Stop. As much as I love Internal Locus of Control, and finding ways to fix issues instead of blaming others... this really is an issue of bad code, because if a human can't easily read it, it doesn't matter how well the computer can execute it. Let me give an example:</p>\n\n<pre><code>// Code File #1:\n\nDeclaration of some variable named execptr;\n\n// Code File #2:\n\nif (execptr == null)\n{\n startSvc();\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>... why is there some variable in code file #1 that's being referenced like that in Code File #2? Why is it named horribly? Why isn't the code in Code File #2 clean and self-documenting?</p>\n\n<p>Compare this with:</p>\n\n<pre><code>// Code File #1:\n\nDeclaration of some variable named GlobalServiceInstance\n\n// Code File #2\n\nbool serviceInstanceIsRunning = (GlobalServiceInstance != null);\nif (!serviceInstanceIsRunning)\n{\n StartGlobalServiceInstance();\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Notice the difference? The second example, I've named the variable better, I've used a temporary variable (serviceInstanceIsRunning) to document what's going on, etc.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Short Story: If you can't read the code, Say So!</strong> Say, \"I don't think this code is very clear - I can't tell at a glance what it's even trying to do. Can you use better variable names, better function names, etc?\"</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/142587", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/28913/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 143783, "author": "rath", "author_id": 9549, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/9549", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Read your contract carefully, or even better, pay a lawyer for one hour of her or his time and get professional advice. These things are usually covered in contracts, and before you do something that costs someone else money, check with a lawyer to see how much they can hurt you in return. Their fee will be a lot less than if there's a ruling against you in the future.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 143784, "author": "Jim Kiley", "author_id": 631, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/631", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I will say that @rath's answer is very true and very important.</p>\n\n<p>With that said, though, there are many cases where the vendor-client can go to the employer directly and say \"Hey, we have had a great time with Ashish and we'd like to hire him as a full-time employee, can we negotiate a placement fee?\"</p>\n\n<p>If the contract company (your current employer) is smart, they will often accept something like that, knowing that maintaining a good relationship with the client is better for them in the long term. Then the client/final employer pays the same kind of fee to your current employer that they would have paid to a recruiter, and everyone's happy.</p>\n\n<p>Some places are not keen on this, however, or have circumstances that otherwise prevent it, so this advice may not always be right. Do consider checking with an employment attorney.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 143801, "author": "Anshul Goyal", "author_id": 15748, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/15748", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>me -&gt; employer -&gt; vendor -&gt; client</p>\n<p>employer was taking major cut.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>You say employer was taking major cut, but want to cut the vendor out? That's not possible for you as an employee, as the relation is between employer and vendor, not between you and vendor.</p>\n<p>If you really want to earn more, cut both the employer and vendor out in future jobs and find a <code>client2</code> who is ready to employ you directly rather than via middle tiers.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/143779", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/108746/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 147551, "author": "virolino", "author_id": 98881, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/98881", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is expressing anger prohibited in the American workplace?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Even though it might not be explicitly prohibited, expressing anger violently (even if only verbally) is NOT welcome in any place. Not even inside one's family. Therefore, not even \"in the American workplace\".</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The anger seemed reasonable. Specifically, two co-workers were shouting, not directed at anyone in the room, but at a general frustration for the boss not being there ever to listen and address their serious concerns.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, if I understand correctly, your statement is quite confusing:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>\"The anger seemed reasonable\"</li>\n<li>\"not directed at anyone in the room, but at a general frustration\"</li>\n<li>\"the boss not being there ever to listen and address their serious concerns\"</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>While 1. and 2. might work together, 3. cannot fit with either of them. Why?</p>\n\n<pre><code>Why in the world am I frustrated?!\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>and</p>\n\n<pre><code>Why isn't the boss doing his job?!\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>are definitely two VERY different statements.</p>\n\n<p>And I tend to believe that those colleagues did not use the first statement.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>And they were frustrated that the other lower managers still hadn't gotten around to passing on their concerns.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Now you actually confirm that the anger was not against the frustration, it was against the direct boss AND other bosses as well.</p>\n\n<p>I think it should be useless to say that making public angered statements against your own bosses is never a good idea. Not for the current workplace, not for the future workplaces (especially if they have a chance to find out about it - and they do, if they want).</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>We later began getting memos reminding people to have a \"positive attitude\".</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, I am telling you the same thing, and many other people would tell you the same. While it feels good for the moment to let out some steam, that steam will turn back and burn you later.</p>\n\n<p>So the sensible conclusion is that </p>\n\n<pre><code>The anger seemed reasonable.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>is a false statement, and the anger was not reasonable at all.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>It is always better to solve the things with (apparent) calm, even if it might be (very) difficult.</p>\n\n<p>To reach a \"place\" from where one can deal with such situations better, one needs to actually make an active effort to study and to train for this purpose.</p>\n\n<p>A few ideas:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>reading some books dealing with <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anger_management\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>anger management</strong></a>, <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_resolution\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>conflict prevention and resolution</strong></a>, <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>transactional analysis</strong></a>, etc.;</li>\n<li>attending some trainings / seminars on the said topics;</li>\n<li>asking for some private help from a coach / trainer / psychologist / therapist / ... of one's choice.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>US is a country with a highly diverse mix of cultural backgrounds, as diverse as the ethnicities of the people living there. To make things more complicated, the US had a rather tumultuous history, and that deeply influenced how people think and act.</p>\n\n<p>As a result, they make use of a wide array of rules of \"good behavior\", and because there are so many cultures mixed, these rules do not always work, and sometimes these rules do not even seem to make sense. Not for an \"outsider\", at least.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>From my point of view, the bottom line is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>the US is the way it is; if you want to be there, accept their culture; <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_in_Rome,_do_as_the_Romans_do\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>when in Rome, do as the Romans do</strong></a>;</li>\n<li>violence (even if only verbal) is NEVER the best answer, in any situation, in any place; much better results are possible if things are dealt with (apparent) calm.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>A note: please do not confuse the following two aspects:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>showing one's feelings (including anger);</li>\n<li>being (verbally or otherwise) violent, as a result of the feeling (anger).</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>While 1. is acceptable and even recommended, 2. is definitely not. All my answer above relates to 2.</p>\n\n<p>Showing the feeling without acting on it means to let the feeling be visible on your face and body, and make a verbal statement about it (e.g. \"Now I am very angry!\") in a controlled voice.</p>\n\n<p>Screaming (angered or happy), jumping around, breaking things, shaking colleagues - is definitely NOT the better way.</p>\n\n<p>From <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteria\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>Wikipedia</strong></a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The term <em>hysterical</em>, applied to an <strong>individual</strong>, can mean that they are emotional or <strong>irrationally</strong> upset</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>where the keyword is \"irrational\". Being irrational cannot be acceptable in a civilized society.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 147561, "author": "Kilisi", "author_id": 40669, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/40669", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Specifically, two co-workers were shouting, not directed at anyone in the room, but at a general frustration</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In this situation yes, it would be unacceptable in any sane company. It's potential hysteria which is unpredictable and contagious.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 147583, "author": "MonkeyZeus", "author_id": 17532, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/17532", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>In US workplace culture, is expressing anger not acceptable?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Expressing anger as an emotion is really frowned upon, period. What does an expression of anger solve exactly? It just shows that you are a person that is okay with making people feel really uncomfortable or threatened when your emotions get the best of you. Expressing anger is akin to \"Hey look, I'm a child!\" and will swiftly ruin your reputation assuming you had any to begin with.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately sometimes the anger comes from someone who controls your paycheck so pick your high-horse wisely.</p>\n\n<p>Expressing frustration or disagreement with calm, articulated, and logical speech is wholeheartedly welcome in the correct setting.</p>\n\n<p>Again, pick your battles wisely because if the boss is trying to paint a vision of the company direction to a large group of people then that is absolutely not the time to express disagreement especially if you haven't been invited to present your opinion before-hand.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it room for a reprimand or dismissal?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Anger alone really isn't a reason to reprimand someone. If it was then employees wouldn't be allowed to be quietly angry at their desk.</p>\n\n<p>However, making someone feel threatened or undermining those above you can certainly cause you some great issues.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 147592, "author": "April Salutes Monica C.", "author_id": 99595, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/99595", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In the mandatory safety training (videos with quizzes after) that we have to take as a large contractor at a federal agency, we <em>are</em> supposed to report to management if someone is showing anger. </p>\n\n<p>In theory, that person is at a heightened risk of causing Workplace Violence. So that's one data point. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 147643, "author": "Stephan Branczyk", "author_id": 14577, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14577", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In most of the United States, employment is <a href=\"http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/at-will-employment-states/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">\"at will\"</a>. That means you can be fired for any reason, or no reason, at all (provided they're not illegal reasons). </p>\n\n<p>So yes, you can be fired for acting out your anger (definitely). </p>\n\n<p>And yes, acting out your anger can scare people. Especially if you're big, and/or are male, and/or are more than one person doing it.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, given our climate of zero-tolerance policies this day and age, and the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, you two were very lucky that you just didn't get fired for that outburst.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 147759, "author": "Dan", "author_id": 40006, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/40006", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Specifically, two co-workers were shouting, not directed at anyone in the room, but at a general frustration for the boss not being there ever to listen and address their serious concerns. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'm guessing this meeting is set up to address concerns about the workplace? But the bosses, or decision makers are never there? So the question of why these meetings take place is asked?</p>\n\n<p>At the end of the day, employees have very little control over how or what they do in their work place but they are still being paid. So by being angry or having angry outbursts seem irrelevant in such a case because you are being paid, which is the end result of working. </p>\n\n<p>If anything being angry while being paid might end in you being fired. After all nobody wants to pay some angry person who is prone to yelling and screaming.</p>\n\n<p>The only time being angry is reasonable is if you're 1) not being paid, and 2) being forced to work while #1 is taking effect.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/147550", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/70114/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 147903, "author": "Sourav Ghosh", "author_id": 61983, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61983", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<h2>Show, Don't tell.</h2>\n\n<p>Come up with different set of test cases, one according to your logic and understanding, and another set with that of your boss.</p>\n\n<p>Execute and capture the results.</p>\n\n<p>According to your logic the tests will pass, but since your boss's logic is not correct, it'll fail for the different inputs. It'll be made clear then.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Also note:</strong> Don't make this a personal battle, try to focus on the correct logic, not the person mentioning about the logic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 147920, "author": "Mefitico", "author_id": 85657, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/85657", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Your test does not prove your boss is wrong. Also, for some applications I've worked with, regression on the level of numerical accuracy is unacceptable, I once worked with assertion based on file hashes (where tolerance made no sense), and I've even seen people use \"tolerance\" to claim a failing test was passing (I'm unsure if the person was oblivious to this fact, or if it was a deliberate measure to show progress).</p>\n\n<p>So, unless more information is provided, I would side with your boss in this discussion.</p>\n\n<p>Nonetheless, it seems like both of you might have a communication problem, which can be addressed by making sure both of you can answer the following questions: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>How often and how much extra work for you is it to not use a tolerance? </li>\n<li>Can you actually find tolerance values that you know will continue appropriate in the future? </li>\n<li>Wouldn't that be extra work as well?</li>\n<li>Are there other parts of the code where indeed a tolerance isn't simply \"unnecessary\" but actually \"unacceptable\"?</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>When I say \"both of you\", I mean at least: Can you answer these questions and justify \"why\" your answer is? Have your boss heard you explaining these questions? Can you tell what would he answer for these questions and what is his reasoning? Can you understand his reasoning?</p>\n\n<p>Often people think someone else \"is just wrong\", when actually they've failed to understand this someone else. And even if he/she is wrong, unless you understand the person's reasoning, you won't be able to point out actual mistakes (<em>\"oh you thought we only worked with double precision? Some tests use an emulated hardware with fixed point precision, so the same code yields different results in different tests\"</em>) or misconceptions (<em>\"Oh, you thought it was easier for me not to not use a tolerance? Actually I'm having more work due to not using it...\"</em>).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 147934, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Since you asked on workplace.stackexchange.com and not floatingpoint.stackexchange.com: You are fighting a pointless fight. You know you're right, and you know the boss is the boss, and you know that as long as everything passes everything is fine. so write these unit tests the way your boss wants to write them. </p>\n\n<p>You're not doing it because he is right and you are wrong, but because he is the boss. Your particular example is really not something you want to fight about. Save your breath for arguments that are worth arguing about. </p>\n\n<p>PS. He's the boss, so suck it up if you are arguing about things that don't matter. And this one doesn't matter. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148114, "author": "Chris Stratton", "author_id": 44241, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44241", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You and your boss are viewing this situation through the lens of different goals.</p>\n\n<p><strong>You:</strong> The test should fail if the software does not give a \"suitable\" answer</p>\n\n<p><strong>Boss:</strong> The test should fail if it gives a <em>different</em> answer than it gave in the past</p>\n\n<p>Consider the downsides of each approach:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Tolerance</strong>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You have to figure out an appropriate tolerance for each situation</li>\n<li>If you chose a tolerance not correctly linked to the business need, you might overlook changes in behavior which are problematic for real uses</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Exact Sameness</strong>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A change of computational platform bringing different floating point methods could suddenly cause a massive number of broken tests requiring developer time to evaluate and address</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It sounds like your boss is willing to accept the risk of having tests fail in the case of a sufficient platform change, in return for the benefit of having his or her attention explicitly called to the fact that <em>something has changed</em> - ie, they want to <em>know</em> about the change and have a chance to consider its relevance.</p>\n\n<p>In the example you gave, the boss wins, both in their role and their reasoning. </p>\n\n<p>Now, if you could demonstrate that developer Macs routinely gave different answers than Linux production servers, you'd have a point. But that's probably not the case here - even things like mobile apps aren't as distinct in their behavior as they once were. Though if you can find a platform the company uses or is likely to that does give a different result, that would be a great thing to bring to attention.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148166, "author": "Goose", "author_id": 108482, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/108482", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>How can I convince my developer that ...</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The level of precision is not relevant to what we do</p></li>\n<li><p>No sane developer will type 0.3000000000004 on a unit test on their IDE as a result of 0.2 + 0.1</p></li>\n<li><p>We have bigger fish to fry and we can definitely use his help on those things</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>-His Boss</p>\n\n<p>What I’m saying here is that you’re coming in from a “doing things right” mindset and arguing from that perspective while your boss is coming from a “doing the right things”. </p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, both of you have only so much time in a day so do you focus your efforts on “doing things right” or “doing the right things”.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148307, "author": "selbie", "author_id": 65683, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/65683", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think @rath is correct in telling you to let it go. However, the one thing that could possibly change your manager's mind and cause him to relent is for him to hear the same complaint from additional people.</p>\n\n<p>While I don't think a coding standard for floating point evaluation in unit tests are not worth dying on your sword over, your manager probably wouldn't die for it either. It's just that he's got higher ground at the moment.</p>\n\n<p>I've lost plenty of mini-battles by having my feedback rejected. Then that same person hears similar feedback again from an additional source - sometimes weeks or months later -\nand suddenly they relent. (There's got to be a common name for this principal).</p>\n\n<p>If you have anyone else on the team, especially a Senior Engineer, annoyed that unit tests need to evaluate exact precision of floating point values, have them raise the issue with your manager as well. But don't orchestrate a campaign on this issue, otherwise it becomes obvious what you are doing. One advocate is enough who can broach the issue with your manager at an appropriate time.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/147901", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/22614/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 148228, "author": "sf02", "author_id": 93810, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93810", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I don't know what to do here. It is driving me crazy</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Your best course of action is to simply move on and forget about it. If the task is truly impossible then that is indicative of a company with unreasonable expectations for their employees. You should be thankful that you will not be working for such a company.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148229, "author": "dwizum", "author_id": 83999, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/83999", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>You said,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I don't know what to do here</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The best thing to do is probably to move on. Focus your mental and emotional energy on other opportunities.</p>\n\n<p>Either:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The employer is right - the test is not impossible, and you just screwed it up. But if that's the case, following up won't really get you anywhere, because they've clearly passed you over at this point.</li>\n<li>The employer is wrong - the test <em>is</em> actually impossible. Even if you prove them wrong, they're not going to suddenly change their mind and decide to hire you.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In other words, pressing them for an answer <strong>doesn't change the outcome.</strong> And, ultimately, <strong>job searches are about outcomes.</strong> There's really no point in trying to <em>make a point</em> and nothing to really be gained from any goal other than either getting a job, or not getting a job.</p>\n\n<p>You also said,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I just want some closure, I don't care about the job anymore</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The thing is - as harsh as this may sound - the employer is in the business of filling their vacancy, not granting closure to a random person who they didn't select. Job searches are about filling positions, not about feeling good. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can move on.</p>\n\n<p>If you're worried about potentially missing an opportunity to learn something about how to do the test, or the technical skills required to pass tests, you'd probably be better off in self-directed studies (or enroll in classes or training) versus getting hung up on one single employer's questionable test. And if you really are truly hung up on the actual technical question in the test, and you feel like you need to resolve the technical issues in the question, you would probably be better served working out your frustration in a way that doesn't involve the employer (write a blog post about it, ask questions on a technical forum, etc).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148230, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To pass the test, you had to ignore the line that said DO NOT CHANGE THIS CODE. You didn't do that. </p>\n\n<p>This left you with one declaration that just doesn't compile, and one highly dangerous line of code (google for \"gets dangerous\"). So the right thing to do and to pass the test was to ignore that line, rip out what was there and replace it with something that works safely.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148241, "author": "Mars", "author_id": 88297, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88297", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask\">Open a question on Stack Overflow.</a></p>\n\n<p>You might get some kind of surprise answer and then you'll feel dumb and move on.\nYou might get a million veterans on your side telling you that you were correct and then you can just say \"well, screw that company then\" and move on.</p>\n\n<p>Be sure to give as many details as you can.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Some sort of web-portal mechanism processed your code</li>\n<li>What version of C were you expected to use?</li>\n<li>Etc.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148246, "author": "FooTheBar", "author_id": 94226, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/94226", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the test is valid and you failed it by completely focusing on the irrelevant part. Your task was (only!) to implement the 'functionToWrite'. The 'gets' function is a part of the system that someone else wrote and that you have an (implicit) documentation for. You see that this function gives you a list of numbers (and to compute the length of the list is the first part of your real task) and you should not care about the details of the implementation. </p>\n\n<p>This is very similar to a normal working environment. You focus on your part of the task while using code that others have written. You should definitely not try to understand all of the software your company wrote before working on your job. </p>\n\n<p>To solve the task, you should have treated the part as <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudocode\" rel=\"noreferrer\">PseudoCode</a> that simply gives you the list of numbers you should work on. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148247, "author": "CodeCaster", "author_id": 44316, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44316", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>The test contained invalid code [...] the webpage had glaring issues and refused my answers for one of the other questions [...] How should I help myself move on?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Don't just move on from this, take it as a learning opportunity. When presented with a less-than-ideal situation, your (potential) employer expects you to make the best of it.</p>\n\n<p>There are uncountable professional software developers out there who rage every day against a homegrown \"framework\", left by a predecessor, which is hard to debug, hard to develop new features for and slow and inefficient as hell. Yet their employer can't miss the six months of downtime it's going to take to replace it, so you'll just have to chug along, improving what you can, when you can.</p>\n\n<p>If you're going to be that developer who denies to fix a bug \"because I've told you it's there before\", or who is not going to develop a new feature \"because given the constraints of the framework, I can't implement it in the way I envisioned it\", then you're not going to be employed there for long.</p>\n\n<p>You can make yourself invaluable by documenting what's wrong with a situation and offering improvement suggestions, while doing the actual work that's requested of you. Because that's what they pay you for. </p>\n\n<p>If you want clean room / greenfield / research position where you can do everything the way you want, you'll have to search hard for rare positions that are highly competed for, and prove that you're worth the position.</p>\n\n<p>This was the same situation. The potential employer chose a web application where they can offer their applicants simple tests that get checked by the application. </p>\n\n<p>You probably copied the exercise to your own editor, your own compiler, and that one complained about non-existing functions - because those were specific to the test site! You should've altered the code so it compiled fine on your machine, and altered it back when submitting. </p>\n\n<p>Would your code then have passed, you could have mentioned the problems you encountered along with your application. But by showing that you refuse to go with constraints that are there, you've showed the employer that you probably won't fit well in the way they work. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148248, "author": "Mars", "author_id": 88297, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88297", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Technical answer here, but from the comments by OP:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The web portal used to write the test relies on gets. In fact, I don't believe it actually compiles the code but merely parses it. Changing it caused the test to fail</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So it sounds like your code was actually run in some form and was not merely pseudo-code. </p>\n\n<p>If your answer was meant to be a one-try answer, then I think it's possible that you were given invalid code so that you could not simply compile and run it on your own machine to check your answer.</p>\n\n<p>By recognizing it as invalid code, you're either </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>demonstrating great attention to detail, or</li>\n<li>demonstrating that you tried to run it on an external compiler.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148305, "author": "user111923", "author_id": 111923, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/111923", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is nothing saying do not modify the parameters shown int he function. </p>\n\n<p>I think this represents an answer:</p>\n\n<pre><code>void functionToWrite(int* a){\n puts(a);\n}\n</code></pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148383, "author": "Ranald Fong", "author_id": 108724, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/108724", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>So many great answers here. This sounds to me like a OCD/Autism issue to me. The OP is hung up on the fact that the code cannot compile as is, because he is convinced that the untouchable code is what is actually run. But like others have said, it is more a pseudo stand in code, to get people to understand the gist of what it is doing and what kind of variable it is passing to your code, in this case it looks like an int array.</p>\n\n<p>Basically they are testing your ability to quickly read code and guess/infer what it does vs actually dissecting to see what it actually does. They want you to just understand what you are given and to do what you asked to do with it. As if they are not asking for actual compiling code but pseudo code from you also, so they don't care about the actual language syntax as they are all similar to an extent but also different. They are testing your inference and logic skills...</p>\n\n<p>But you failed by stopping at the first inference part. Sure this kind of test would exclude OCD/Autistic Genius level candidates, which can be a minus. But those are rare enough in and of itself. So my suggestion is to understand that the world sometimes doesn't test you in real life compatible terms, but sometimes in theoretical abstract terms.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/148227", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/94267/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 148635, "author": "Tymoteusz Paul", "author_id": 66740, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/66740", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Legalities aside, as I don't think you want to go that route to solve this anyway.</p>\n\n<p>I understand that you are surprised by the fact that PTO accrues, they probably are as surprised by your surprise, as this is fairly normal thing in tech in many modern countries (US, UK, and Australia from my own experience). But is that actually a problem for you?</p>\n\n<p>What I mean by that is that as long as by end of the year you will get the number of holidays you thought you will get (meaning 10 more than they initially offered) then it's a non-issue for you right now.</p>\n\n<p>It can become one if you want to take a larger holiday than your currently accrued cap. But I have been in this spot myself few times, and so did my friends, and this was never a big deal, and a chat with your manager and HR always allowed taking the holiday which took you into PTO deficit. </p>\n\n<p>This, of course, comes with the caveat that if you were to leave the company before you re-earn the PTO, you will be liable to repay the company money for the deficit.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148636, "author": "dwizum", "author_id": 83999, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/83999", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You've tagged your location as United States.</p>\n\n<p>PTO accrual is typical in the US. PTO is typically quoted annually (X hours or X days per year), but you start with a zero or a near-zero amount, and it is \"earned\" either every paycheck or every month (or some other schedule of a similar scale). In effect, your X days of PTO is never available all at once; you are allowed to take it per policy only after it is earned. PTO earnings are typically shown on paystubs, so you have a reference for how quickly you're accruing it. The HR people you were working with are probably so used to people being aware of this approach that they hadn't thought to call it out explicitly - in my experience as a hiring manager, it's not typically explained in an offer (unless a candidate specifically asks about the policy).</p>\n\n<p>That said, it is also somewhat typical for employers to allow a small amount PTO to be taken before it is earned, or through some exception process with approval from management - this allows for handling of exceptional circumstances (i.e. an employee is just starting a new job, but needs a week off next month for their wedding). So if you do have an exceptional need, it may be worth raising that with your manager.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148637, "author": "Justin Cave", "author_id": 238, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/238", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It sounds like a very normal business practice. Vacation is usually quoted in terms of days per year. Vacation usually accrues over time, generally with each paycheck. It would be very unusual to have an 80 hour vacation balance on day 1 with no restrictions on how you use it. The wording in the offer letter doesn't seem to make any such promise and appears to follow normal conventions.</p>\n\n<p>Often, employers are willing to let new employees take a bit more vacation time than they've accrued, taking their balance into the negative territory for a while. If you are looking to take some time off around Christmas, for example, and that you'll have ~4 days accrued by then, there is a good chance that your employer would let you take 6 or 7 days off and work off the negative balance over the first few months of the next year. Of course, that likely means that you'd be taking less time off in 2020 to make up for it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148638, "author": "dbeer", "author_id": 83083, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/83083", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've known a lot of people who have negotiated some PTO from the outset* when switching to companies that do PTO accrual instead of a flat number of eligible days per year. I have never known someone who was then told that they had to accrue the promised days, because it defeats the purpose of the negotiation. The only way what they're saying makes sense is if you didn't get PTO at all under the original offer, which can't be real.</p>\n\n<p>I would let them know that you expect to have 108 hours of PTO available: the 28 you have accrued plus the 80 you negotiated as part of starting. (Edit: perhaps minus whatever has accrued during the first 30 days.) I would bring the matter up with whomever it is that you negotiated with, provide appropriate proof, and treat it as a mistake that they have to fix.</p>\n\n<p>*In fact, basically everyone I've known who has taken a job at one of these companies has done so. (While time accrual is common, it's hardly universal.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148639, "author": "Ben Barden", "author_id": 77221, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/77221", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Check yourself. You may be getting a better deal than you thought you were.</strong></p>\n\n<p>You thought you were negotiating for a one-time sum of 80 hours of leave. The company appears to be granting you 80 hours of leave per year. If you wind up working there for more than a year, is this not better? Best not to make too big a deal of it, lest they decide to give you what you ask for.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148643, "author": "Joe Strazzere", "author_id": 7777, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/7777", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Several months into the employment I'm now being told, of the 80 hours\n I was promised, I have only accrued ~28.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well you had several months to read and understand the Employee Handbook containing the accrual policy. So it really shouldn't be a surprise now. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I understand that accrual of PTO is a common practice, but having\n received a formal offer of 80 hours (with no stipulations on how that\n time could be used) I am quite upset and considering suing for breach\n of contract.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Talk to your lawyer. I'm confident any good lawyer would explain that you are mistaken and why. </p>\n\n<p>As you said, it's common practice. Frankly, I don't know any company that works the way you seem to have assumed. Imagine if someone was hired with 10 work days remaining in the year - would you expect them to get the rest of the year off?</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>HR admitted via email that the only place I could have seen their\n accrual policy was in the Employee Handbook which they are aware that\n I did not have access to.</p>\n \n <p>Is this an acceptable business practice?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes.</p>\n\n<p>You are trying to catch them on a technicality. That's simply not going to work out for you. </p>\n\n<p>(And technically, the offer letter says only \"10 days paid vacation/personal time\", yet I would assume this means you'll get it <em>annually</em>. Certainly you wouldn't expect the company to stick to exactly what was written in that respect?)</p>\n\n<p>If it bothers you this much, don't sue. Find a new job and leave instead. You won't win a lawsuit over something like this and you will permanently poison your relationship with the company.</p>\n\n<p>If you do leave, don't make assumptions about the offer letter - ask about the details so you won't get upset again. Ask for the Employee Handbook so you can read all the details before accepting their offer, if that's what it will take.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148679, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is how it usually works. You earn a certain amount of holidays over a year. During half a year you earn half that. If you leave the company, they have to pay you for the accrued leave that you haven't taken yet, or you have to pay back the money for leave that you have taken that wasn't accrued yet. (In the USA, you need to be careful because some companies refuse to pay for untaken holiday, so you need to take holiday before you give notice). </p>\n\n<p>The only open question is whether you can go on holiday when the time isn't accrued yet. You accrued 28 hours of holiday; some employers will allow you to take 40 or 80 hours even if they were not accrued yet, meaning that you now have a negative balance. (\"We owe you minus 12 or minus 52 hours of holiday\"), and some won't. Some will allow you to take unpaid time off, say you want to start in June but booked two weeks holiday in July. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/148634", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/38341/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 148941, "author": "berry120", "author_id": 57339, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/57339", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>tl;dr - If you don't want to escalate beyond the CTO, then be proactive about doing all you can to make the right people aware of what they need to know, and document the fact you've done so.</p>\n\n<p>This is really all advice for your PM / ways you can work with your PM rather than something you should do directly. That being said:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>At one point we realize we need to go 30% over the budget and we can not cut features or resources to reduce the scope. [...] the CTO did not present the budget in front of the board, but instead reported all the time \"All is good All is bright\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is definitely, first and foremost, a CYA type scenario. Make sure you've definitely recorded all those emails you've sent saying all is not good &amp; bright. If the CEO demands to know why the project is suddenly months behind and over-budget, you want to point to the email that clearly said this was the case. If you deem it necessary, send and record follow up emails confirming that the project is still going to be behind &amp; over budget.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This creates a ridiculous situation where the CTO asks the PM for something, but requests the information to be funneled via the Chief architect.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Pick your battles. This is ridiculous, but I'd also just let it be. If you want to ask me something, but say \"don't tell me the answer, tell Bob the answer and he'll tell me\" then... ok, fine. I'll probably think you're an idiot who's just employed someone pointless, but it's not really any skin off my nose.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The Chief Architect appears to have no basic clue about what we are doing, more importantly this project is dragging for a year so he has had plenty of time to figure out if he wanted.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, with a CYA mentality - be proactive here. Make it your business to offer to meet with him, talk him through the existing architecture, ask him for suggestions, ask how he wants to be involved, etc. Write all this down, and do your best to follow it and keep him informed at every stage.</p>\n\n<p>If the powers that be still decide to disengage and hide everything going on after that, then you've done all you reasonably can, and have plenty of paperwork to prove it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148946, "author": "Chris", "author_id": 35882, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/35882", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>This is office politics, stay away from it.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Clearly something is going on and you don't know what it is. It doesn't sound like there is anything to get for you by escalating it - especially as a contractor. Write your concerns to the PM to cover yourself against later blaming, but leave it at that. </p>\n\n<p><strong>The CTO</strong></p>\n\n<p>I'm assuming that the information actually made it to the CTO. So he is holding back information. There could be reasons why he is doing it: he's taking a risk to get the project funded because the board doesn't understand the benefit or he will save the money through other ways or he is just not good at his job. The increased budget cannot be hidden forever, so you will find out the reason at some time anyway.</p>\n\n<p>While skipping one or two levels, when something is going wrong, might be a good idea, ignoring the whole management chain up to the top will have unknown consequences. For example the project might be stopped immediately and you don't have a job anymore. </p>\n\n<p><strong>The Chief Architect</strong></p>\n\n<p>That's a minor issue. CTOs in bigger companies often don't have time to get involved in projects personally, therefore they have somebody who makes sure the right information is presented with the right level of detail to save time for the CTO. Normally this person would be a personal assistant, but maybe that company isn't big enough yet and therefore the Chief Architect has to handle this additional task. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148947, "author": "Matthew Gaiser", "author_id": 111291, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/111291", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Contractors are easy to blame within a company</strong></p>\n\n<p>The fact that you are a contractor changes things significantly, especially since you are also the tech lead. I don’t have an explicit answer to your question, but be careful that you aren’t being chosen to take the fall here. </p>\n\n<p>The CTO could just hide the cost overruns until it they hit and then blame you. The PM in his \"reliance\" could just say that \"he trusted you too much.\" </p>\n\n<p>The CTO requiring that information come from the chief architect sounds like a classic \"cover your ass\" maneuver. The less he knows and the more intermediaries, the easier it is to blame the people at the other end. </p>\n\n<p>Fulfill the contract and be careful about venturing into the rest. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 148957, "author": "Software Engineer", "author_id": 48668, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/48668", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You are being uncharitable and ungenerous. </p>\n\n<p>I'm assuming you work for a corporation. </p>\n\n<p>Your chief architect reports to your CTO, not your manager, and the CTO has enough direct reports and doesn't want a middle manager talking to him about a single project, hence the communication channels. </p>\n\n<p>The chief architect knows exactly what your project is about and has no need to understand the details (that's your job), as you are responsible for at most a handful of blocks on his diagram; as long as the blocks are connected to other blocks correctly (according to the standards he is responsible for) then how you do that is, literally, none of his business (it is, rather, the business of the CTO). This guy deals in abstractions rather than concrete implementations.</p>\n\n<p>Your relationship with the PM is entirely proper. You should be supporting him like this. My PM and I are as thick as thieves. We support each other. We invite ourselves to each other's meetings so often that people just automatically invite both of us now. We are in this together, working as a team, to lead an engineering team that we've taken six months to build from 4 people in a single office, to 15 geographically distributed engineers, and get our first release out, all within a highly politicised and conservative bank.</p>\n\n<p>I think what you're missing is a sense of value for the work of others. I've seen plenty of junior engineers like yourself make the same mistake (it's a rookie mistake, hence my assessment of your seniority, forgive me if you're actually more senior and are suffering a temporary lapse of maturity). Your project is an iceberg, and you've only ever seen the bit floating above the waves. Grinders, Finders, and Minders: you're the grinder here and you're seeing approx. 30% of the work. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/148928", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/112305/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 149617, "author": "sf02", "author_id": 93810, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93810", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>How to do code reviews to people whose programming skills are weak?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Your task is to review their submitted code, not to evaluate their competency at their programming language. You should treat each review the same regardless of your personal feelings about the programmer. As long as you are consistent with your comments and corrections among all of the code you review, there should be no fear of \"picking\" on your part. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149618, "author": "Sourav Ghosh", "author_id": 61983, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61983", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Congratulations on your promotion.</p>\n\n<p>Now that you are promoted to a new role, there are new responsibilities which comes with that role, and that is the code review.</p>\n\n<p>From your description, it seems either</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The organization / team does not have a coding guidelines and best practices rule-book.</li>\n<li>The team does not pay any heed to the existing guidelines.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Either way, this is going to end up causing wasted resource-hours, as many of them need to be re-worked.</p>\n\n<p>What I'd suggest is that, instead to trying to correct each individual separately, call for a meeting / discussion / knowledge sharing sessions with the team and provide examples of <em>improper coding practice/conventions</em> that you have encountered during the previous reviews and how they can be improved.</p>\n\n<p>Also, provide them with the references to the company coding guide(if one exists), or create your own guide and make that available to them. </p>\n\n<p>Insist on having peer-review done before raising the pull request to have the code verified against the given rules.</p>\n\n<p><strong>For example:</strong> </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>I was trying to mitigate this by using <code>tslint</code> but they don't run it.</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Maybe they don't use it because they simply don't know how to use it? Why don't you set up a hands-on demo and show them how useful linting can be, and how much back-and-forth communication and time it can save for everyone? </p>\n\n<p>Then, once you have explained them the workings, put forward a rule that all pull requests must have associated lint run results. That way, you're empowering them and also guiding them toward better productivity.</p>\n\n<p><strong><em>Remember, you need not judge the individuals, you only need to judge the quality of the code and attack the problem at root: the lack of knowledge / proficiency.</em></strong></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149619, "author": "Cromm", "author_id": 112421, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/112421", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Start by making a meeting with the team to teach them best practicies, teach them how to code properly, and give them references to improve their skills (a good example is the book Clean Code). Once they have learnt how to be a better programmer, it is more legit for you to review them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149620, "author": "undefined", "author_id": 17396, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/17396", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I, for one, believe it is quite complex, to not say impossible, to make people who know close to no programming to follow coding standards. I'd do the following:</p>\n\n<p>1 - always be friendly in the code review. Never write \"you did this wrong\". Write \"This can be improved by doing X, Y, Z\". When they are more experienced you can even rephrase to something along the lines of \"What do you think about doing X instead?\"</p>\n\n<p>2 - it might happen that they don't even know what is a code review and what it is for. Organize a metting to explain it's goals</p>\n\n<p>3 - Talk to your boss to try to setup programming workshops, so people will improve with time</p>\n\n<p>Then, after they have a good foothold and actually know how to program, I would go strong with the coding standards.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149621, "author": "jlowe", "author_id": 91274, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/91274", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Code reviews are an opportunity for you to provide knowledge and insight on the work that your colleagues have done. This is also an opportunity for you to learn from them. Looking at a review like that, there are three areas that I look for.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Linting/Style issues - </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If you have a style guide in the company, it should be accessible and ideally enforced prior to the review process. If style issues arise at this point, I would kindly remind the developer of the rule and ask them to keep it consistent with the style guide. Highlight that the point of a style guide is to keep the code consistent and easily readable. If the developers are having difficulty with running a linter or what have you, set up a meeting with them and show them. Answer their questions. Part of your job as the review is to make sure that the person is able to fix their mistakes and insure that they do not continue to be problems in the future.</p>\n\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Logical issues -</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>When you encounter something that seems out of place, be kind about it. Double check to see if there's something that you didn't see. Ask them questions instead of demanding changes. When you ask them why they did X instead of Y, they may have insight that you don't. If you do suggest a change, do it politely. Instead of </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>use <code>const</code> instead of <code>var</code></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You could say something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I see that <code>CountryCode</code> was not modified, is this intended? Would it be better as a <code>const</code> to prevent unintended modifications?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This will help you better understand the decisions that went into the code, as well as express your concerns in easily understood terms. If you just say to change things without explaining it, it could be interpreted as picking. By asking questions, you are making an effort to understand their thought process and see how they solved the problem they were tasked with. When suggesting changes in this manner, you're providing the developer with reasons as to why these changes should be made. This helps make the reasons for the requested changes more easily understandable.</p>\n\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Good Ideas -</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>This is an important one. Code Reviews don't always have to be negative. Commend the developer where possible. If you see something good, point it out. Give them credit for the good in addition to the bad. I try to point out something good whenever possible. It helps to reinforce the idea that you're not just looking for bad. That when you're reviewing the code, you aren't just trying to impart knowledge to the developer, you are also learning from them.</p>\n\n<p>Just remember that in the end you're all trying to do the same thing, learn and write better code. You can learn from them, they can learn from you. In the end everyone improves. The best way to help everyone is to explain your thoughts and most importantly, do it <strong>kindly</strong>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149622, "author": "Old_Lamplighter", "author_id": 46894, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/46894", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One thing I did when I became lead was to create a best practices and coding standards document. I included everything right down to naming conventions for variables, objects, and procedures.</p>\n\n<p>Code reviews are useless unless, and until, a well documented set of best practices and procedures have been established.</p>\n\n<p>THIS</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ul>\n <li>use const instead of var</li>\n <li>indent this and that line with 2/4/6 spaces</li>\n <li>variable you created is unused</li>\n <li>some conditions are not needed</li>\n <li>use single quotes instead of double quotes, for consistency and so on</li>\n <li>1787 is not a country code, should be 1</li>\n </ul>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Could be THIS</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>As per our best practices, I've noted the following </p>\n \n <ul>\n <li>use const instead of var <strong>(see page 5)</strong></li>\n <li>indent this and that line with 2/4/6 spaces <strong>(see page 32 on indents)</strong></li>\n <li>variable you created is unused <strong>(see page 15 on variable usage)</strong></li>\n <li>some conditions are not needed <strong>(See page 27)</strong></li>\n <li>use single quotes instead of double quotes, for consistency and so on <strong>(page 11, code consistency)</strong></li>\n <li>1787 is not a country code, should be 1</li>\n </ul>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Having set standards also eliminates your concerns about any perceived biases. So long as you are consistent, maintain high standards for yourself as well, and have set standards and expectations, you should be fine.</p>\n\n<p>Another point, raise by Rhayene: If the entire code base is not yet at the point it should be, increase the set of rules in planned stages over time, to bring everyone under the same standards. You will probably get less pushback that way.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149644, "author": "Dragan Juric", "author_id": 86456, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/86456", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You need to start from understanding:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>What's the cause for the situation</li>\n<li>What is possible for you to accomplish (not what is really good or desirable; if it cannot be done then it cannot be done)</li>\n<li>Your long-term plans</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The cause for the situation is obvious - <strong>the company employed people without sufficient skills to do their job</strong>. The whole recruiting process - interview, testing etc - didn't work as it should, or this problem would not have existed in the first place.</p>\n\n<p>The second cause - well, <strong>99% of the people work based on stick and carrot.</strong> If the company is not willing to apply either or both as needed, there will be no improvement. </p>\n\n<p>Yes, some people are on a higher level and don't need that, but most do, especially at the beginner level.</p>\n\n<p>So, you cannot really get them to improve.</p>\n\n<p><strong>So, what do we conclude from this?\nThe only thing you can accomplish is to cover your rear end.</strong></p>\n\n<p>It's a worthy goal in its own right. I'm merely saying, don't really hope for more than that.</p>\n\n<p>In this light, <strong>having a clear rulebook</strong> about code will help you - in sense that you can tell to the management that you clearly posted the rules, and the rules are unbiased. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Code linting</strong> - well, it will reduce the noise, which will waste less of your time. A good advice. Just don't think that they'll start writing good, working code.</p>\n\n<p><strong>But this works only for very simple issues.</strong></p>\n\n<p>As the problems to be solved in code grow past the beginner stage, there will be a thousand situations that the linter won't recognize... and that a human will instantly recognize as a bad coding practice.\nWhat happens when those (unskilled) developers need to do something with multi-threading? Complex database queries? Client/server stuff? Anything past the basics?</p>\n\n<p><strong>Programmer workshops?</strong> I doubt it would help. If they wanted to learn, they would have learned already, or they would have asked for help. And this is something one learns for years and years. A few weeks of a programmer workshop is not going to turn anyone into a programmer, not any more than a few weeks of a crash course in boxing will turn an average Joe Shmoe into a pro boxer.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Strictly locked repository where no one can push a commit until it both passes the review and passes unit tests</strong> - this will help both you and the project in the long run. It will also cause the bad-code-authors to scream.</p>\n\n<p>The rest is up to the company. Yes, it can and should organize some sort of learning and help, since it employed them in the first place. But it will be pointless unless there are consequences for not learning.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149648, "author": "Stephan Branczyk", "author_id": 14577, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14577", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A couple of points:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Your colleagues should not be doing the same mistake more than once. Tell them to use spaced repetition learning with <a href=\"https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/use-spaced-repetition-with-anki-to-learn-to-code-faster-7c334d448c3c/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Anki</a>. If they make the same mistake more than once, ask to see their Anki card dealing with the error they just made. At first, their Anki cards probably won't be good enough, but that's ok, focus on how they can improve those cards. On a side-note, do not allow them to copy the Anki cards of other people. </p></li>\n<li><p>The same goes for code that doesn't run or doesn't lint. Teach them how to lint their own code. And better still if you can automate that process for them.</p></li>\n<li><p>Forbid them to cut and paste code. If they want to copy code from someplace, they must type it out manually. If they don't do that, muscle memory is never going to kick in.</p></li>\n<li><p>Chances are that you are being too nice. If they're committing code before it's running. Or if they're coming to see you every time there is a minor issue, it means that you're rewarding their lack of effort with an answer each time. In other words, you are training them to be the way that they are. Instead, you should teach them how to rectify their own mistakes and teach them how to rectify their own learning, not give them the answer every time they come to you.</p></li>\n<li><p>And finally, consider letting go of the ones that are not progressing over time. Talk to your management about that. It's not pleasant, but it's something that every business has to do eventually, especially if your recruitment process wasn't very selective to begin with. </p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149651, "author": "Lightness Races in Orbit", "author_id": 7260, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/7260", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Put it exactly the way you did to us, as that was a great review (except maybe for the \"use single quotes\" bit; that's nitpicking).</p>\n\n<p>If the people who cannot program properly accuse you of racism, that's their problem. You're not being racist. You're literally doing your job. They'd need to learn to separate their shortcomings and their potential for learning how to do better at their work, from the colour of their skin.</p>\n\n<p>Be factual and kind. That's it.</p>\n\n<p>End of story!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149652, "author": "Rhayene", "author_id": 87377, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87377", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are already very good answers here describing what you can do but I want to add some points to the how, from own experience (not as the lead but as a team member).</p>\n\n<p>First, increasing the code quality to a new standard is not a sprint but a marathon. Suddenly setting up 100 linter rules in your CI won't get you to your goal. It will get people mad at you and/or they are getting very creative in circumventing your rules.</p>\n\n<p>You have to cook the frog by increasing the heat gradually or it will leap out of your pot.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Automate</strong></p>\n\n<p>As others have said - everything that can be fixed automatically like formatting should be done so. Doing this manually is a waste of time. So set up a wiki site and document what steps are to be done to automate this in your IDEs on save or pre-commit scripts (whatever your team is more comfortable with). Documenting this has the advantage, that new members of your team are faster up to speed using this.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Rules</strong></p>\n\n<p>Here it gets trickier. Everyone has a different perspective and preferences - even when they are not bloody beginners. So write down the practices you like to see implemented. Sort them into groups <strong>must</strong>, <strong>should</strong> and <strong>nice to have</strong>. Write down, why these practices are good - what are the benefits and what can happen if you don't do this. I say write down, because you will be forced to think about and reevaluate them. Refreshing your understanding of these practices is good and you can drop rules you followed dogmatic until now without understanding them (if there are any), until you understand them yourself.</p>\n\n<p>Take from the <strong>must</strong> group the ones that are easiest implemented and get your team into a meeting to discuss and explain these. And then listen. Programmers aren't always the best communicators, so what sounds like \"meh, I don't wanna\" first, may have an underlying issue that can be fixed. Be open for compromise. The benefit should stand in relation to the cost that is needed to implement each rule. Drop rules you can't implement without severely disrupting the workflow and killing productivity. This may be different between languages and their ecosystems.</p>\n\n<p>This meeting should result in a documented standard that everyone is ok with.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Different measures for old and new code</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you have a project with 0% code documentation and add then a plugin like checkstyle, configured to break the build, you'll have hundreds of errors. This is frustrating because it is too much to fix in a reasonable time resulting in results like code comments alá <code>todo</code>. This is not what you want.</p>\n\n<p>Enforce that new code has to meet the standard you all agreed upon. </p>\n\n<p>Every old function touched, needs to look better than before, if possible. I say better, because refactoring to mint condition can take time you don't always get/have. Again, start here with the low hanging fruits.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Make it a team effort</strong></p>\n\n<p>What can work well is gamification. If you get points for each test you write and get the first place on the team score list - it may motivate the team member, that is now on place 2 to write a new test in response (of course, don't get carried away).</p>\n\n<p>If you see a team member that implements the practices well - let them review too. Peer pressure can motivate to work more disciplined.</p>\n\n<p>Do not - if you happen to have the power to decide that and can avoid it - let anyone work alone for prolonged periods. Even the most disciplined people will write better code if someone else can give immediate feedback, ask questions and clear misunderstandings.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Add new rules to your standard</strong></p>\n\n<p>After a while - get your team together again and discuss the next set of rules. Having a plan about when this happens avoids surprises. If, and how many new rules you all add is, of course dependent on how well the team copes with the last set. In this meeting you also have the chance to adjust existing rules to better portray reality.</p>\n\n<p><strong>New team members</strong></p>\n\n<p>As a new member it can be very intimidating to be confronted with a huge set of rules. Don't throw them into the cold water alone.</p>\n\n<p>Edit:</p>\n\n<p>I just reread the question and OP said that the less skilled members still come to them despite other members being able to review as well. If this happens often, then there is a reason. Maybe your reviews are better or there is an issue of trust with the other team member.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149655, "author": "Nate Diamond", "author_id": 47694, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/47694", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A lot of the answers above seem to be cautioning against nitpicking, which is understandable. Additionally, your writing seems to also want to caution against nitpicking.</p>\n\n<p>Our development house takes a different approach. We appreciate nitpicking, but we lampshade it a bit. That is, when making a comment about a nit, we call it out as such.</p>\n\n<p><code>nit: extra space</code></p>\n\n<p><code>nit: unused variable</code></p>\n\n<p>This includes things that linters often won't find, counter to the suggestions above:</p>\n\n<p><code>nit: These two lines could instead be one, and it's more readable way.</code></p>\n\n<p>or the opposite,</p>\n\n<p><code>nit: This line is pretty long. It'd be more readable to split it into two.</code></p>\n\n<p>This calls out to the person in question, \"Hey, this is a minor thing, but is a change I think you should make.\" Note that this does not mean that nits can be ignored; they should be fixed. It just means that you're acknowledge that it's a minor deviation that may have only minor value, but is still for the betterment of the codebase.</p>\n\n<p>Now, the suggestion of automating the running of linters is still a good one because picking nits may not be a good use of your time! But IMO it's an incomplete answer and doesn't get to the heart of how to give constructive, non-adversarial nitpicking feedback.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149657, "author": "teego1967", "author_id": 7572, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/7572", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's kind of disturbing that much of these answers are trying to interpret a serious <em>pedagogy</em> problem as a technical issue about <em>linting</em>.</p>\n\n<p>If the submitters are scraping together code that barely even works, putting that through a code review is only slightly better for them then reading compiler error messages. </p>\n\n<p>You should see this as a coaching role and that means communicating with the submitters collectively and individually. It's A LOT MORE WORK than just coming up with the right comments for your code review. For one thing, you'll need to actually demonstrate over and over how to put together code that will pass a review. It will take time and practice with repetition.</p>\n\n<p>If you're not up to the task, you will need to push for proper training to get these folks up to speed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149658, "author": "timpone", "author_id": 12950, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/12950", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In addition to linters and other mentioned items I'd add.</p>\n\n<p>If a new developer, instead of doing straight PR reviews, I'd do pair programming (maybe for a month or 6 weeks) especially if the remainder of the code base is in bad shape or there are not clearly defined standards. I'd this because people react very differently to the process of being criticized (ie being told that they are stupid is how they interpret it) for their code and, to be honest, it ensures that they understand what is being told to them (because it's done in person). Also, linters only have one correct answer and this allows trade-offs to be seen. </p>\n\n<p>If the developer doesn't want to do this, he / she would be off the team. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149669, "author": "Lawnmower Man", "author_id": 105198, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/105198", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Automation</h1>\n\n<p>Linting and automated checks are beneficial, but you are likely to get push-back from the team, as the checks will slow them down until they learn all the rules. Even so, I would even take it to the next level and make whatever IDE your team uses treat all warnings as errors, so your devs are forced to pay attention to everything the IDE notices.</p>\n\n<h1>Multiple Reviewers</h1>\n\n<p>Ask your team to support a policy that every change have at least <em>2</em> reviewers. That way, even if you end up looking at most of the reviews, you know someone else will also have to review the code. Also, publish the reviewer metrics, so the team sees who is pulling their weight on reviews and who is slacking. Even if someone is a bad coder, reviewing other code is a teaching experience for them. Teach your coworkers that it's just as important to ask questions on a code review as it is to suggest improvements. In this way, each review is an opportunity for bidirectional learning, which is why everyone needs to participate.</p>\n\n<h1>Pairing</h1>\n\n<p>I agree with the answers which identify this fundamentally as a teaching opportunity. I especially agree with the suggestion to pair program. It sounds like you basically need to train your entire team. If this isn't your cup of tea, then time to look for a new job. Otherwise, pairing is probably the most effective way to skill them up.</p>\n\n<h1>Team Reviews</h1>\n\n<p>Instead of doing code reviews by yourself, you should do at least some of them as a team. That is, schedule a meeting, invite several devs, and ask <em>them</em> to review the code, adding your comments and suggestions until everyone is on the same page. This lets you teach several people at once. Alternate between reviewing the worst code, which should fetch lots of comments, and <em>your</em> code, which should raise lots of questions (\"Why did you do it that way? What does that line do?\").</p>\n\n<h1>Books</h1>\n\n<p>If you have a favorite book containing best practices for your dev languages, ask your boss to buy a few copies for your team, and ask them to read it. For C++, Scott Meyers is a very good authority. For Java, you have Joshua Bloch, etc.</p>\n\n<h1>User Groups</h1>\n\n<p>It could be that your teammates see programming as a necessary evil, rather than their primary passion. There isn't a whole lot you can do about that, besides change companies. But if you feel they are on the fence, and they could be inspired to learn more, then you should try to see if there are relevant user groups that meet in your city, and invite them to join you there. They won't necessarily learn things that are directly useful to their daily work, but they should at least see the excitement of other devs about the language and libraries and frameworks. If you're lucky, some of that excitement will rub off onto your coworkers and motivate them to improve their skills.</p>\n\n<h1>Role Change</h1>\n\n<p>It could be that some of them would really rather be doing something else, like Program/Project Management, or even people management. Have a talk with each team member to gauge where they are at, what their ambitions are, where they see themselves in a few years, etc. If one of them expresses an interest in a different role, and you think they are hopelessly far behind on coding, then gently encourage them to explore that role, and do what you can as far as recommendations to managers to make that happen. Then tell your manager that you want to be on the hiring loop for any new coders on your team, and that you are going to raise the bar significantly. Really, this is something that the manager should be doing, but they may lack the experience or motivation to do so. If this helps you get better coders on your team, then it's worth getting your hands dirty.</p>\n\n<h1>Team Change</h1>\n\n<p>If your company has multiple dev teams, then you should either try to join the team with the best devs, or <em>make your team that team</em>. That means trying to manage the weakest coders onto a lesser team, and poach the good coders from other teams. Ideally, you should be working on the most impactful team (the one which delivers the most business value for the company). If so, then poaching good coders is actually beneficial for the company, up to a point. If you are not on that team, you should first try to get onto that team, and then build up your all-star squad.</p>\n\n<p>You should, of course, recruit your manager into this task, as they will likely have much more influence and leverage than you do. You should explain that your team is actually delivering less than they would if you got rid of the weakest coders, because you spend so much time reviewing/fixing/undoing really bad code. But that they might be net positive on a different team, and so the company would benefit from a better alignment of devs with business projects. I.e., a little musical chairs. Of course, you want to scope out the work devs on other teams are doing, so you know which ones your manager should try to poach.</p>\n\n<p>Naturally, the politics of this strategy can get quite messy, and it is not something everyone is willing to try. But at the end of the day, your company gets paid to deliver a product/service, so everyone who gets a paycheck should want the optimal configuration of workers + projects. Sometimes that means you need to make an all-star squad to work on the most important projects, and it may be that you are in the best position to help discover that.</p>\n\n<h1>Management</h1>\n\n<p>Don't forget that the all-star squad also needs the best managers, too. So if you get your hands dirty with trying to reshape the org chart, make sure you know how good each of the managers are. It seems likely that your team has weak coders because your managers is not a good judge of skill, and there is perhaps a better manager on another team that you would rather work for. That is a pretty important thing to consider, especially when it comes to further advancement.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149679, "author": "vikingsteve", "author_id": 48723, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/48723", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Senior I.T. guy here (20 years experience), I have been both on the \"giving\" and \"receiving\" end of code reviews, and what I can say is that language, approach, manners and praise can be very important to the person being reviewed.</p>\n\n<p>Imagine you are a junior programmer, with good intentions, trying to code and learn and be better.</p>\n\n<p><strong><em>Reviewer A says</em></strong>: x is wrong, y is wrong, z is wrong.</p>\n\n<p><strong><em>Reviewer B says</em></strong>: thanks for the progress you made on this task, there's some really good work here, but may I suggest to you some improvements? x can be improved upon, let's look at it together... if I make this change, what do you think, do you agree it is better now? etc etc...</p>\n\n<p>In other words, how you frame it, and whether you give positive reinforcement along with the review, the things you suggest can much more easily be interpreted as <em>helpful suggestions</em> rather than <em>blunt criticim</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes as I.T. people we are very detail-oriented and less concerned about people-skills, tone, friendliness towards and emotions in our co-workers.</p>\n\n<p>It sounds like a more patient approach, where you also always give praise along with review, can help here. :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 149715, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It seems you are nowhere near the point where code reviews make sense. I looked at the JavaScript code, and it is godawful. When you write code, you make it work, then you clean it up to the point where you think it's Ok, and <em>then</em> you submit it for a code review. </p>\n\n<p>The person who wrote this cannot possibly have thought this code is Ok. Or at least I hope they didn't. So with code like this your response shouldn't be a code review, it should be \"make it work, clean it up, and <em>then</em> you can get a code review\". </p>\n\n<p>I don't think you should tell this person what's wrong with the code. Sit down with him and ask him \"how could this code be improved\". And see what happens. If it looks like he can't see what's wrong, then maybe you have someone here who should not be employed at your company. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/149615", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/112683/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 150011, "author": "sf02", "author_id": 93810, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93810", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Should I re-negotiate or just ignore and start looking elsewhere?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You have this to consider:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You were given extra responsibilities but told there is not enough budget to properly compensate you</li>\n<li>The company incorrectly calculated your salary ( don't mess with an employee's money )</li>\n<li>Your employer is known to be cheap.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You can try to re-negotiate, but given the above information it doesn't seem likely that you will get very far. If you are not compensated what you feel you deserve and your current company cannot ( or will not ) compensate you then it is time to start looking elsewhere.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 150012, "author": "Tymoteusz Paul", "author_id": 66740, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/66740", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I was offered a decent amount of raise initially(5k), but turned out,\n they did the math wrong when calculating my current salary. So a week\n later I had a second conversation to clarify, and I was told it was a\n mistake and the raise is only half (2.5k).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That's a very weak move, whether intentional or an actual mistake. You do not toy with employee salaries like that, and if somewhere a mistake was really made, they should've honored the original raise. All said and done 2.5k over a year is not that much, and going back on this will be shattering for morale. Mistakes happen, don't punish employees for them.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I re-negotiate or just ignore and start looking elsewhere?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Both. On one hand explain to them that while you appreciate that they may have only budgeted for 2.5k your contributions are greater than that, around the five kay mark. They will have a choice to either counter offer somewhere in between, agree or outright refuse, though they will likely expect you to leave if this will end in refusal, even if you won't say that you will. Which you absolutely should not do, let the implication hang in the air without speaking the words.</p>\n\n<p>Meanwhile, update your cv and start hunting. Finding a better job takes time, and if they would rather save 2.5k than stay true to their initial promise, you have no future with that company.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 150013, "author": "SemiGeek", "author_id": 99671, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/99671", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It’s really up to you to say whether or not this is a fair raise. Would you have been fine with it had they originally told you the correct number?</p>\n\n<p>If you like the job overall and have a relationship with your manager/whomever to have the conversation, I suggest framing the discussion of a larger raise in the context of a promotion or recognition that your role has grown. Before you have that conversation, be prepared to leave. If they are as cheap as you indicate and have already said, “no,” it sounds unlikely they’ll do better. And once you’ve raised the point, you’re announcing you are dissatisfied. It does not guarantee they’ll seek to get rid of you, but it at least opens the possibility that you are a flight risk.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/150010", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/108739/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 150718, "author": "aaaaa says reinstate Monica", "author_id": 45298, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/45298", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>That is a bad idea. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>mitigate possible discussions about company's economy problems</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The discussion will not be <code>We don't have enough money to give you a raise</code>. What they are trying to say is:</p>\n\n<pre><code>You are not worth as much as you think you are\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Money is not abstract, it is relative to the value. If your company doesn't value you at the level you think you worth, they won't find money.</p>\n\n<p>What you are proposing is something like \"Give me more money and fire X because they suck at their job\" or \"Let's switch to cheaper toilet paper and give me more money\". How do you think that will go?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 150725, "author": "mxyzplk", "author_id": 16695, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16695", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is definitely a bad idea.</p>\n\n<p>First of all, “how much money the company has” isn’t what they pay you. “What you’re worth to them” is what they pay you. Your value has not improved by someone else being fired and replaced.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, it’s in bad taste, and marks you as a scavenger. There’s always people picking over the goods of the fired, trying to get whatever other perks they had - you may as well be an old style rag picker off the dead, like in A Christmas Carol. If I were the manager seeing this behavior I would definitely hold it against you as a character flaw.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 150728, "author": "Koenigsberg", "author_id": 97743, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/97743", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<h3>Pragmatic view</h3>\n<p>You do not provide more value, based on the fact alone, that someone in your department left and is not being replaced. If that was the case, then any department losing people should ask for raises.</p>\n<p>In any case, reading the question I was expecting to hear, that you now took the leading role and hence look to leverage this for a raise, as this role comes with higher responsibility. Apparently this is not the case, your colleague occupies that role, if anything, they should have received an according raise.</p>\n<p>As is frequently pointed out on this SE, your salary does not depend on your market value or any perceived factors that you encounter in the workplace. It depends on what value you provide to the company. Has that value increased and you can show that using data? Then this is a good argument in raise negotiations. Mere changes to the department structure w.r.t. is not, in my opinion.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 150745, "author": "Edward_178118", "author_id": 16243, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16243", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you truly want a raise, update your resume and apply for a job in another company. You have already been shown that you are only worth what they are paying you now by staying there.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/150716", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/110739/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 151567, "author": "Stephan Branczyk", "author_id": 14577, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14577", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Actually, nothing is preventing you from sending an email saying:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Hey Bob, this project is becoming more urgent for our team.</p>\n<p>Could you guys please commit to a date for us?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>And maybe you could give the other team a quick phone call as well in addition to the email.</p>\n<p>Then, if they send a date back, you quickly forward it to your boss, and you tell him as well in case he doesn't see the message in time.</p>\n<p>Of course, it's possible that you'll be too late, or that the other team responds too slowly. Sometimes, there are just too many variables out of your control.</p>\n<p>PS: Thanks to <a href=\"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/111679/obscureowl\">ObscureOwl</a> for finding the better turn of phrase.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 151570, "author": "Tymoteusz Paul", "author_id": 66740, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/66740", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>How do I warn them they're probably going to get hit by a torpedo\n without them thinking I'm in on it?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>By not getting involved in the first place. It doesn't seem like it is in your place to manage the other team, or that you are responsible for their (lack of) delivery, and as such, you should've stayed away from it in the first place. If you know someone personally on team X then you could mention the tension in private, but for sure not send them an unsolicited mass email.</p>\n\n<p>As it is I would just leave it alone. I don't think there is anything you can say to change the mind of those who will think you caused the call-out, and right now, at least, they cannot be sure that you knew about the upcoming bomb. Once you start apologizing/retracting/whatever, there will be no denying that you knew about it and some people may resent it for not warning them, for example (I know, it's ironic). While you cannot undo your previous actions, now it's time to just stay quiet and not get involved more than that. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 151571, "author": "Sourav Ghosh", "author_id": 61983, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61983", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<h2>My suggestion: Don't do anything at this stage.</h2>\n<p>Your boss has already intervened, and decided to send the email. Let them figure it out - do not try to do anything <em>now</em>.</p>\n<p>If you <em>wanted</em> to do something, you could have asked your boss at the time when they were expressing their dissatisfaction and announcing to send the email, that, you can try to check with the other team before direct escalation, as you had interaction with them previously. However, now once the discussion is over (and maybe your boss has already sent the email as we're discussing here), there is nothing you can or should do. If you try to intervene in a parallel communication, there are two risks:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>To your manager / team:</strong> You may come off as someone trying to belittle or stepping on the toes of your manager. They may not take this in a very good way.</li>\n<li><strong>To the other team:</strong> You risk of being seen as someone who has created the trouble and now making an attempt to be <em>in the good books</em> trying to appear as friendly.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Take this as a learning, and next time, whether you are on the sender side or receiver side, insist on agreeing on exact dates for any requirement and delivery. The problem started with the fact that you did not have an agreed upon date for completion / delivery. Even if the timeline cannot be met (which is not very uncommon, specially in the software industry for example), the timeline will help to decided how much deviation is there and the amount of work still needed to get the target achieved.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 151584, "author": "Old_Lamplighter", "author_id": 46894, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/46894", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>TLDR: DO NOTHING</strong></p>\n\n<p>Longer answer:</p>\n\n<p>You didn't give them any solid dates, so you do have some responsibility in this, but do not compound that responsibility by getting further involved. Take a step back and let the higher-ups duke it out. This battle is going to go on way above your pay grade.</p>\n\n<p><strong>IN THE FUTURE</strong> </p>\n\n<p>Don't leave timelines open ended. Even an unreasonable goal is better than no goal at all. Anything that is not given a specific date will have no delivery date at all.</p>\n\n<p>If you have any dependencies, come up with an expected date, run it by your manager, and then include it in any emails. CLEAR COMMUNICATION IS THE WAY TO AVOID THIS IN THE FUTURE</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 151605, "author": "John Wu", "author_id": 27262, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/27262", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Don't tell them. Tell your boss.</strong></p>\n\n<p>It's not your place to warn them about your boss, and it could tend to undercut him, so don't do it.</p>\n\n<p>Instead, explain to your boss your concerns. Tell them what you just told us-- that you only recently sent them an email, and that you're concerned that your boss's actions will be tied back to you and that they will feel ambushed. He may take a slightly different approach, or at the very least should be able to word the email in such a way that you will not be accountable for your boss' actions. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/151573", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/53196/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 151971, "author": "DarkCygnus", "author_id": 73791, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/73791", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Have any of you been in a similar situation? Essentially what they want to do is go behind my ExBoss's back...not that I care about that, but what I don't want is for this to potentially backfire.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As this person is not your boss or manager anymore, you should not do what they say, and instead carry on the tasks assigned by your current manager.</p>\n\n<p>There is no \"going behind my ExBoss's back\" as that person is not your boss anymore.</p>\n\n<p>This could backfire if you decide not to follow your actual boss's indications.</p>\n\n<p>If ExBoss directly says to you not to work on something, politely redirect them to your PM, so they can process this request and take action on it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 152389, "author": "MvZ", "author_id": 97033, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/97033", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have, and I'm firmly of the opinion that you should not go behind ExBoss's back, even if you don't report to that person anymore. Tackle it head-on by talking to BigBoss.</p>\n\n<p>It doesn't matter where BigBoss and ExBoss are relative to you in the organization. The central issue is uncertainty about ExBoss's mandate. Whether it is malice, incompetence or a misunderstanding, ExBoss has directly countermanded a decision made by BigBoss. And this has created confusion. Given that your colleagues are suggesting workarounds, they either report to ExBoss directly, or ExBoss has a lot of influence.</p>\n\n<p>Somebody (you, Sr or PM) needs to ask BigBoss to sort this out with ExBoss and to inform all parties (including ExBoss) of the decision they make, and who has what mandate.</p>\n\n<p>If you (<strong>and</strong> Sr <strong>and</strong> PM) ignore this, you're trading a short-term solution for a long-term problem:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The same thing will happen with different decisions.</p></li>\n<li><p>ExBoss will find out at some point. That will be fun.</p></li>\n<li><p>You'll be unable to communicate with stakeholders, for fear of ExBoss finding out.</p></li>\n<li><p>Sr is going to look really productive, you'll look really unproductive. Your team may understand, but the rest of the org may not.</p></li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/151970", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/100090/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 152850, "author": "Stephan Branczyk", "author_id": 14577, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14577", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>However, the job does seem to be a good job because the owner is\n really friendly and seems to be a good person.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, that's not the sign of a good job. That's the sign of a good salesman. </p>\n\n<p>I think your friend shouldn't sign anything and should look for another job. Anything else would be better than this. </p>\n\n<p>He should also contact the Department of Labor for his State and ask for advice. Most likely, they'll recover his back wages for him. </p>\n\n<p>They promised him pay during the training. They're not paying him. He can no longer continue to train because he's not getting paid. And without completing the training, he can't earn his commission. </p>\n\n<p>It's not his fault his employer isn't following through and is trying to alter the terms of the contract midway through. </p>\n\n<p>As a rule of thumb, he should stay away from employers that only pay sales commission and not even a base salary. </p>\n\n<p>He should also stay away from any employer that suddenly wants to adversely alter the original contract after 2 weeks of training. If he signs that piece of paper. It will progressively get worse over time. Two weeks later, his employer might demand that he starts buying his own inventory. Two weeks after that, it will be the commission percentage that will be revised down. </p>\n\n<p>Trust me on this one. I've seen it before. It's just the beginning. The owner most likely has excellent charisma and probably promised him the world, but this is starting to look like a predatory business. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 152851, "author": "berry120", "author_id": 57339, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/57339", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What is more disconcerting is that my friend then received an email the next day asking them to sign a document which is revised to include clauses like \"there is no guarantee of the draws\" and \"commission is not guaranteed\".</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So your friend is on 100% commission pay, but (according to this revised document) the commission isn't guaranteed - and while during training he's on $15 an hour, but that isn't guaranteed either? That sounds dodgy as anything to me.</p>\n\n<p>If it were me, I'd refuse to sign this document (as it seems to waive all rights to any reasonable level of compensation at all) and then look elsewhere.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>However, the job does seem to be a good job because the owner is really friendly and seems to be a good person.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Lots of owners / bosses / conmen seem like great, friendly people, then reality hits when they refuse to pay their staff.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/152846", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/114433/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 153261, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a rule of thumb, the annual salary should be 120-150 daily rates. If your annual salary is £37,000 then your daily rate should be £250 to £300. </p>\n\n<p>How do you re-negotiate: “It seems I was very naive with my daily rate. You took advantage of that for a year. So the rate will be £300 per day. You take it or leave it.” If they don’t agree: “Also, if you leave it, you will have to pay my tax and NI for the last year since I worked as an employee”. The last bit is the nuclear option, but call it revenge for ripping you off. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 153265, "author": "Justin", "author_id": 93518, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93518", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm going to leave aside that fact that you negotiated poorly in the first place; you already know that. Learn from it and move on.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>And also, how would you suggest re-negotiating based on this?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Make sure you have enough money to walk away from your client. Being able to say \"No\" because you have enough money to pay upcoming bills for at least the next 2 months (better 6 months+) gives you enormous leverage.</p>\n\n<p>Now - the hard part. You need to figure out what it is they need, and sell them that. Your costs are <em>your</em> problem, not theirs. </p>\n\n<p>If they think they need a cheap \"resource\" - walk away. You won't get much more than you're already on. Or negotiate a shorter notice period so you can keep working whilst you look.</p>\n\n<p>Ideally the're looking for someone competent who can do the job. You've been there a year; sell that. They won't need 3 months for someone more expensive to get up to speed.</p>\n\n<p>The amount you charge also depends upon how niche the work is (how likely they will find someone else, at any price) and where you are based. Even a in small pond like the UK, the rates vary considerably across the country. You might be happier trading a lifestyle for a lower rate.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I hate the term \"resource\", but in many cases it's entirely apposite, as many companies really do think that knowledge workers are interchangeable parts.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 153271, "author": "Robin Bennett", "author_id": 101891, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/101891", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>which of these things is it reasonable for me to account for in calculating my day rate?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>All of them, plus the biggie - at the end of the contract they won't have to pay you any redundancy money. As a contractor, you need to factor in the time it'll take to find the next contract, which could be a month or two every six months.</p>\n\n<p>All these things mean that contractor rates are 2 to 2.5 times permanent rates.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>how would you suggest re-negotiating based on this?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Start by looking at other contracts in your area. Call the agents if you're not sure. Negotiation is much easier when you can just ask for the market rate, and have a good alternative if they say no (i.e. you could take one of the other contracts instead).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 153291, "author": "John R. Strohm", "author_id": 321, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/321", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The usual rule of thumb in contracting in the US is to take your annual salary and divide by 1000, and that gives your hourly rate. Multiply that by 8 and you have a day rate.</p>\n\n<p>If you were working FULL-TIME, that would appear to be a 2x increase. Since, as a rule, contractors will typically have a significant amount of unpaid \"on the beach\" time, and will typically have significantly higher expenses, this averages out. If relocation is involved, this must be adjusted for cost-of-living differences.</p>\n\n<p>If, for example, you live in, say, Dallas TX, and the job is in New York or San Francisco, your expenses will be a lot higher than they would be in Dallas. Years ago, while living in Dallas, I was approached about a job in San Francisco. After running the numbers, it was clear that I would need a 50% increase JUST TO BREAK EVEN.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 153337, "author": "kpollock", "author_id": 88309, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88309", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As an ex-UK contractor, I second the \"roughly twice your permanent salary\" and the Ltd Co. Get PI insurance for the company as well. Your accountant will do payroll for you and can also offer all sorts of decent advice. Expect to pay about 100 GBP / month for accountant. But I think you will have to save that for next time.... for this contract you are stuck with what you have negotiated.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/153260", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/114675/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 153639, "author": "O. Jones", "author_id": 15811, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/15811", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Been there, messed that up. Got past it.</p>\n\n<p>This unfortunately is very common when high-energy \"individual contributors\" take on supervisory roles. When I made these mistakes, it was because.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>I believed I could do the work faster than I could explain it.</li>\n<li>I was sure that my solution would be better than anybody else's.</li>\n<li>The new job put a lot of pressure on me and I retreated to my comfort zone rather than facing up to the challenges of the new job.</li>\n<li>I didn't really understand how different the new job was from my old job. Training for new supervisors? What's that? </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Guilty on all charges. And, I was dreadfully insecure about it all. It was unpleasant for the people who worked for me. </p>\n\n<p>Hindsight is wonderful, eh? </p>\n\n<p>Your problem is this: the new supervisor is denying you the chance to do interesting work. And, he's not challenging his team to work together to solve problems. Instead, he's subverting your planning system so some of the problems get solved as if by magic. It's demotivating.</p>\n\n<p>The business's problem is this: your team isn't performing to capacity, isn't growing in technical capability, and is having some morale problems. </p>\n\n<p>If your manager asked me for advice, I would go all Yoda on him and say in a pompous voice, <strong>\"the only way you can do enough is by doing nothing.\"</strong> In other words, treat the people who work for you as if they're much smarter than you. (And, BTW, only hire people who are smarter than you.) For your first year in the job, give the work you like the best to other people to do, to build their skill and confidence. Supervisors succeed when their teams succeed and fail when their teams fail. </p>\n\n<p>But you're the one asking for advice. There's no magic formula to address this. Here are some suggestions.</p>\n\n<p><strong>First</strong>, try to see things from the new supervisor's point of view if you possibly can. He's obviously concerned about the problem or he wouldn't have overreacted to your co-worker's snarky remark. He could use a bit of empathy right about now.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Second</strong>, if you decide to intervene, first put aside any resentments you have about his behavior. Make it about business, not personalities. The point is to have a rational conversation.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Third</strong>, ask for a personal and private conversation. In that conversation, speak only for yourself. Ask him to give you the responsibility you want. If he asks why, say something about how you're committed to giving your professional best to the company, and challenging work helps you do that. </p>\n\n<p>You could speak for the team if you had permission from all the team members. But getting that permission would require talking about the new boss behind his back. It's very hard to do that and keep everything at a professional level.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Fourth</strong>, if you want to bring up his working around your team scheduling setup, use the classic approach. Name the unwanted behavior. State its effect on you. Ask for a change. Use a real example. Something like this.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Boss, when you pushed stuff to production last night without telling us, It made me feel like I was wasting my time planning the next release. Is there any way you can loop me and my co-workers in on that kind of change in future?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>One more thing: don't expect him to smack his forehead and say, \"you're right, I'm wrong, I will change my ways.\" It takes time for people to absorb this kind of input.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 153652, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know this doesn't answer your question, but it may help to know people can find themselves in weird work situations. I was a contractor once, very inexperienced, when contracting was possible as a junior developer, which these days isn't possible. I joined a team and found myself working on the most complex aspect of the project, even though the architect in the team had no work of his own, this architect just spent his day researching whatever he liked to do and had no direct input into the main objectives of the organisation, no input whatsoever and no, we were not a software company, doing anything innovative it was all BAU for a home loan company. I became stuck trying to make this work and there was no compulsion whatsoever in this team for the architect to step in and assist. I thought the situation was bizarre and couldn't wait to get out of it as I was too inexperienced to work it out for myself </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/153623", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/70078/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 159184, "author": "EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine", "author_id": 61906, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61906", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This will likely depend on the job and the company (and even the specific hiring team). I can tell you that I've known several programmers who had degrees in electrical engineering, so many employers will likely consider it related.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, the only way to know for sure is to apply - if they don't think it's related enough, they'll just reject you.</p>\n\n<p>With that said, I'd make sure that you're <em>extremely</em> well-prepared for the technical interview. It could also help a lot if you had some kind of certificates.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 159185, "author": "Greg", "author_id": 110957, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/110957", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Fields as defined in academia can be quite large, as to accommodate the varied interests of faculty and researchers. Job roles as defined in industry can be very narrow, because companies are (almost always) looking to solve a specific business problem by filling that role. Correspondingly a degree in ECE could be solid preparation for a dev role, but it depends on the overlap between what you did in your studies and what the role requires.</p>\n\n<p>If you spent most of your ECE studies writing code, like a lot of folks with Computer Hardware or Computer Software specializations, then you have a plausible case at being from a \"field\" related to Computer Science. Someone hiring for a dev role would be interested to know about what programming projects you have undertaken in your studies that could be relevant to that role.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand if you mostly designed circuits during your ECE studies you'll have a tough time convincing someone you're qualified for a dev role on the basis of those studies.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.eecs.psu.edu/students/undergraduate/EECS-Students-Undergrad-EE-Specialization.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Here's just one example of different specializations in ECE</a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/159183", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/105136/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 162431, "author": "sf02", "author_id": 93810, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93810", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The standard way to professionally address an unknown recipient is with:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>To whom it may concern</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Of course, you should always attempt to determine the name of the person receiving the email. That way, you can send a more personalized email.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 162439, "author": "thieupepijn", "author_id": 115746, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/115746", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Disclaimer, I am not a native English speaker as well.</p>\n<p>I always use &quot;Dear Sir/Miss&quot; in these situations. Although there is a lot to do nowadays about people not falling in either of those two categories, I still think it is a safe choice in more than 99 percent of the cases.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/162430", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/82950/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 164633, "author": "Kate Gregory", "author_id": 102, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/102", "pm_score": 8, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I did a series of talks on what makes code simple and readable. There is no absolute answer. Much depends on the vocabulary the reader brings. Take for example:</p>\n<pre><code>bool retval;\nif (x &gt; 0)\n{\n retval = true;\n}\nelse\n{\n retval = false;\n}\nreturn retval;\n</code></pre>\n<p>Compare this to</p>\n<pre><code>return (x&gt;0);\n</code></pre>\n<p>To the complete beginners it's possible the first seems simpler, more straightforward, more readable. It's actually super error prone and hard to read. The most important thing (what controls whether this returns true or false) is surrounded in a sea of much less important things. A person could accidentally set <code>retval</code> to <code>true</code> in both places, or <code>false</code> in both places, or return an unrelated variable that happens to be kicking around. I can explain at great length why the single line is, in my expert opinion, simpler and more readable.</p>\n<p>None of that will help a junior who is not used to boolean expressions and has little or no experience writing in whatever language you're using. Thus, you have a problem. The solution to your problem is not to say &quot;well, whatever, I know my way is better, these developers are just not good enough to know that.&quot; You've been told to write differently, and you don't want to, so you're going to need to get them up to the level you need them at.</p>\n<p>There are lots of ways to do this, but a nice one is to pair on refactoring (or even to mob) every once in a while. Say on a Wednesday afternoon. Find a piece of code you find hard to read, decide how you would make it better, and then walk them through it. Point out things like &quot;if you change the tax rate, you'll have to edit here, here, and here. I want to make it so that we don't ever change just two of the three places.&quot; Walk them through why it's better to do X than Y. Focus repeatedly on the benefits. For example, in a typical C++ <code>for</code> loop there are SO MANY places to make a mistake: did you start at 0, are you checking the right end-condition (<code>&lt;</code> vs <code>&lt;=</code>), are you incrementing properly, etc etc. If you use a range-based <code>for</code>, much of this falls away and you can't get it wrong. If you want to touch every element of the collection, the range-based <code>for</code> is just flat out easier. <strong>Be nice</strong> - start with &quot;this code works, and the tests all pass. It's not broken. I want to show you how to adjust it so that it's more maintainable.&quot; (Or whatever.)</p>\n<p>I expect you'll be working at a higher level than replacing verbose if/else statements and using modern loops, but you can take a similar approach to whatever abstractions and patterns you're using in your code that people can't understand on sight. Show them how to transform their code into something that has benefits like being easier to modify, or more clearly expressing intent, or whatever. Where you can, prepare resources where obvious experts say to do it your way. (For example, in C++, you could cite the <a href=\"https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines\" rel=\"noreferrer\">C++ Core Guidelines</a>, co-authored by the inventor of the language and the convenor of the <a href=\"https://isocpp.org/std/the-committee\" rel=\"noreferrer\">standards committee</a>.) Teach them the vocabulary that you're using in your code and they will be able to read it -- and eventually to produce it.</p>\n<p>When you teach juniors how to write better code, you not only make your day-to-day life easier, you make the world better. But stay focused on the first part, your day-to-day life. Get them up to speed and you won't have to spend time wading through their spaghetti code, or arguing about whether your stuff is too complex. You'll save time overall, and instead of being seen as a grumpy over-engineering fan who writes things no-one else can read, you'll been seen as a generous teacher who lifted your coworkers skill level dramatically.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164634, "author": "Tymoteusz Paul", "author_id": 66740, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/66740", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>My code is “complex” because it’s well engineered.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Failing that, my code is generally well commented and documented, so\nif all else fails, my colleagues have the means to help themselves.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>And yet what you call well engineered and documented code is being considered as hard to work with.</p>\n<p>Those are contradictory statements, as code that is well engineered and documented, even if solving a very complex problem, is going to be relatively easy to follow and understand. The domain knowledge it captures may not be so easy to understand, but code representing it certainly can be (with some exceptions but they do not seem to apply to your problem).</p>\n<p>The fact that you have an outstanding occurrence of needing to explain your work is a great indicator that your code is not as well engineered (possibly over engineered) and documented as you may think, or that while it's detailed enough, it's written for the wrong audience.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Until I pointed out that the techniques I use are best practice and\nthere for a reason, it was even suggested that I “dumb down” my code</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I'm going to guess that by &quot;dumb down&quot; you mean &quot;simplify the engineering&quot;. Dumbing down would mean removing/reducing functionality.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What else can I do?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Since this now went up to the management who took side of the juniors start by taking a deep breath as whether you like it or not, there is a problem with your work and it's not meeting the expectations of the team and your manager.</p>\n<p>You will likely have to compromise, and arrange for more time to train those juniors (though this takes months to train up a junior) while making your code more accessible at the same time. This can be done in code itself by breaking it down into more digestible chunks/wrappers, or by writing a documentation that targets the correct audience - junior, not senior, developers.</p>\n<p>I would also take a good honest look at your own work to see if it's really well engineer, or simply over engineered and too complex for what another solution could do. While it's tempting to always use the technically &quot;best&quot; approach, often enough it doesn't make much business sense, and something much easier and simpler will do just fine while also making the codebase much more approachable.</p>\n<p>As the old adage say, perfect is the biggest enemy of done, and it seems to me that your strive for engineering perfection is getting in the way of juniors done.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164635, "author": "speciesUnknown", "author_id": 38021, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/38021", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<h2>You have junior teammates, and your organisation needs your code to be comprehensible to them.</h2>\n<p>This is critical. You've been given an unwritten requirement - your code must not only do the job, but it must also be maintainable by others.</p>\n<p>This is a very difficult balance to play. Compare the abstract factory pattern with a simple hash table of factory callbacks. Both do the same job. But the former is much harder to explain and takes additional training.</p>\n<p>There are further issues if you're using a complex language or framework.</p>\n<p>You mentioned in a comment that you are using python, and not using any complex frameworks. So it sounds like your code itself is the problem. I say problem, mainly because (although this depends on how many opinions you have sought here) several people are having a hard time understanding your code.</p>\n<p>Your only way forward may be to dumb it down. Don't take this to heart - a great thing which only you can appreciate is not as useful as an Ok thing which anybody can appreciate.</p>\n<p>You'll thank me in the long run when people stop asking for help with your code!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164637, "author": "Old_Lamplighter", "author_id": 46894, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/46894", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>TLDR: IF nobody else can follow your code, it is you who is the one who is in the wrong, PERIOD</strong></p>\n<p>When I was a noob, first year of programming professionally, the company had hired three contractors, myself, and two others. One of them was an absolute genius.</p>\n<p>Two full-time jobs were offered, and the genius didn't get it. Know why?</p>\n<p>Not even the other two full-time employees could follow his code.</p>\n<p>A programming team is like a choir. If you're the one with perfect pitch, and the entire rest of the choir is flat, guess who is wrong?</p>\n<p>Yes, YOU understand YOUR code. Virtually every coder can make that claim. If you are in a team environment, that doesn't help anyone.</p>\n<p>Assuming you are the team genius, it would be easier for you to do it THEIR way than for them to learn yours.</p>\n<p><strong>WHAT YOU SHOULD DO:</strong></p>\n<p>Get a feel for where your team is, skill wise, and bring them up SLOWLY to your level. Teach them ONE technique at a time, and watch as they come up, then bump it up a notch.</p>\n<p>You can turn a bad thing into a good one by becoming a mentor, and lead to the less skilled, and instead of being the proverbial millstone around the team's neck, you can be a leader. Very useful on a resume, BTW/</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164639, "author": "Helena", "author_id": 99412, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/99412", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>My code is “complex” because it’s well engineered. It’s like that for many good reasons, which make it easier to read, refactor, test and maintain. In my opinion — at the risk of getting defensive about it — it’s actually easier to work with than the piles of spaghetti that my colleagues churn out.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>From the feedback you got, your code is not easier to work with.</p>\n<p>I have seen it a couple of times, when colleagues develop their own frameworks and code styles and claimed their approach was easier to understand, only that it wasn't.\nAs somebody who didn't know their frameworks and code-patterns, I first had to reverse engineer what their framework does, before I actually could start understanding what the actual business logic does.</p>\n<p>This is isn't specific to homebrewed frameworks, this is true for all frameworks. If you know Spring, it appears convenient and simple, if you only know Java but not Spring, understanding Spring code is not straight-forward.</p>\n<p>This doesn't mean that you cannot have good code in your company, but it means that you cannot just assume your code is &quot;easier&quot;, but you have to make sure it is.\nYou can achieve this by:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>if there is indirection (for example by using dependency injection) make sure it is easy to find the right code quickly</li>\n<li>don't make code that is easy to write, make it easy to read</li>\n<li>prefer explicit code and configuration over convention</li>\n<li>have junior developers review your code, if they don't understand what you are doing, explain it to them and ask them what confused them and what you could have done differently to make them understand the code in the first place</li>\n<li>don't optimize prematurely (whether for performance or changeability)</li>\n<li>make it easy to grep for code</li>\n<li>Follow the Open/Closed-principle so that there is less need to modify your code</li>\n<li>document your interfaces, so there is less need to read your code</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164642, "author": "HenryM", "author_id": 44013, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44013", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Yes, you are an awesome coder. {{<strong>applause</strong>}}. But it doesn't matter.\nWhere you've gone wrong - and all of us have at some point - was thinking that this job is about you impressing people with the quality of your code. Right now you are sitting in a high tower looking down on people but the people who run the company are down there too. This isn't good for you.</p>\n<p>Ask yourself why your company has only hired people who can't understand your code. It probably has to do with budget. The people running the company aren't going to increase that budget just because you decided to write some new code that needs higher quality developers to maintain it. So the only way anyone is going to understand what you've done is if you teach them or you &quot;dumb it down&quot;.</p>\n<p>It's going to be in your interest to solve problems in ways that the business side values. The more problems you solve the better. And as you solve a lot of those problems and make the business leaders happier you will get more freedom to introduce changes that you feel are good.</p>\n<p>But you have to do it as a mentor/friend. Not coming from a place of anger/loathing. Or move to another company.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164643, "author": "P. Hopkinson", "author_id": 95494, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/95494", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Do you have unit testing in place?</p>\n<p>Unit testing, especially if automated, might help your colleagues to grapple with sections of the code.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164647, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are two possible reasons why working code is hard to read: Either because something easy is written in a much too convoluted way, or because something complex is written in the best possible way. (Being a difficult problem AND written in a much too convoluted way AND working isn’t possible simultaneously).</p>\n<p>I’ll give you two examples of complex problems: 1. Optimal limited length Huffman codes. Quite simple. Given a set of symbols with probabilities find an optimal Huffman code with the additional restriction that no code has a length &gt; n, for example with n = 15. 2. Modify the heap sort algorithm so that it runs significantly faster for a sorted or almost sorted array. (I think Edsger Dijkstra did that). The solutions for both these problems are <em>hard</em>. Understanding them is about at my limit. Writing these algorithms would have been beyond me. And creating a solution _that is easy to understand _ is something nobody has managed yet.</p>\n<p>If the cause of complexity is indeed that the problem is hard, then you tell your boss that, tell him you can’t simplify it because the problem is hard, and if he doesn’t believe you, then he can feel free to find someone else to do it. I did that once, someone rewrote my code making it a lot easier to understand, and of 15 well-documented edge cases, not a single one worked after the change.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164655, "author": "Joe Johnson", "author_id": 121771, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/121771", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would suggest moving to another company. In my (not so humble) opinion (I've had similar discussions at past workplaces), if your manager isn't supporting you and providing the opportunity to hire better or more seasoned engineers, then you're working for a company that's trying to get by with the minimal bottom-line. But, that's not an attitude you share. Find an oranization which encouragees excellence and provides the environment to foster it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164657, "author": "Gintas", "author_id": 101879, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/101879", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would propose a few things to ease the situation between you (a more experienced developer) and the juniors:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create a code-style guide and make everyone to follow it. This way junior developers can learn way faster. They can start to understand things because some explanation already exists (be it a broad one, but still).</li>\n<li>Like people mentioned, have some sessions with your junior or other colleagues discussing code in general, maybe even telling them to write questions before hand and asking them during that session, so you would save time.</li>\n<li>Best practices and so on are good, but when they start to obscure code, this is the time to consider if they're worth it. Again code-style guide for your team and or company would help.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164659, "author": "Yuropoor", "author_id": 73150, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/73150", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Disclaimer: this answer will be written as if OP's coding style really is as complex as necessary (not over-complicated) and it's really good, efficient code (not something that could be done easier and in a more understandable way with the same result).</p>\n<p>I think I was in your position before. I was the &quot;expert&quot; guy working on integrating and developing various systems in my company. It was a complex task, really pushing my limits of understanding. So when we got 3 new juniors to help me with the workload (I was working alone before), I quickly noticed that they struggle to understand what I've written or even what problem I (well, now WE) am trying to solve.</p>\n<p>My solution was going to my boss and explaining him the following: for the next 3 months my personal output will be reduced, probably to near 0. I will use this time to make sure we have 4 skilled people on board, not 1, as this will ensure any of them can pick up my work if a certain bus would run me over. I prepared a plan, got it accepted (you need to have your managers onboard with you on this one, he will be able to explain it better to the higher ups as well as have more pull for your plan to be accepted).</p>\n<p>I then set up the following scenario:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>I would assign a task <em>I</em> would normally do to one of the juniors. I would invite him for 1-on-1 with me, as I know some people may have hard time to focus and perform when they are watched by others and failing (and fail they did, but it was expected, it wasn't anything bad).</li>\n<li>I would take a similar piece of solution, delete it, and work my way up explaining every step: what I'm doing, why I'm doing, what I am trying to achieve. I did not provide documentation. Instead, the juniors task was to make notes how <em>he/she</em> understands what I'm saying.</li>\n<li>After that, I would pass the keyboard, we would go back to original problem the junior was assigned. Using instructions he wrote and my help, he would now try to recreate the solution, now his turn to explain me what, why and how he/she is doing the things.</li>\n<li>After that, the next one would come for 1-on-1 with me. The previous one would have a task to redact and post his version of the documentation over the next 2 days so that we have a second version of it from a juniors perspective.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>The result was the following:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>The team was not intimidated by tasks, they knew they were learning,\nnot being put to the block so to speak.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>I (think) set up an environment they could comfortably learn with no judgement or\nanything. Even if they had absolutely no understanding of what they\nare looking at first, after the first month they could work\nreasonably well on their own, I would barely need to interject during\ntheir time to code.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>We now had 2 versions of documentation: their version, being &quot;If you\nsee it for the first time, here's the beginner version for you to\nunderstand, with everything in simple terms&quot; and mine, being &quot;if you\ngrasped the basics, here's some interesting details and advanced\ninformation&quot;.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>After those 3 months, I had a team of employees able to work on their own, collaborating on documentation, helping each other understand the last bits of missing info (as they wrote their own docs, they were the best people to explain them), not afraid to tell me they need help with something.</p>\n<p>And above all else, I had trained people that by the time I left could equal me in in my work.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164676, "author": "Ian Kemp", "author_id": 44593, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44593", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The answer entirely depends on the type of company you're working for.</p>\n<p>If you're working for a consultancy, AKA a body shop, your value is measured in the amount of work you get done, not how well you do it. Once the work for their current client is complete, a consultancy simply moves on to the next client's work. The end result is software that mostly works but will probably have a few bugs here and there, which is great for the consultancy since it guarantees future work. It's all about getting software out as fast as possible.</p>\n<p>Despite the fact that the result is subpar software, the client will take it and happy or not, move on. This is because the type of client that uses a consultancy is generally the kind that doesn't understand that software is core to their business, and as such doesn't want to pay for software as they view it an unnecessary and wasteful expenditure - so again, speed is most important to them.</p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management_triangle\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">project management triangle</a>, therefore, cost and time are minimised - with the result that so is quality. This has a knock-on effect in all aspects, particularly in the consultancy's hiring practices. The consultancy doesn't want rockstar developers, because it doesn't need rockstars to churn out Yet Another eCommerce Website and it sure isn't going to pay them rockstar rates - a consultancy wants plodding donkeys who can generate code at a reliable rate for a minimum amount of pay. As a result, consultancies tend to attract and keep developers that are, shall we say, near the bottom rung of the ladder in terms of competence and willingness to learn.</p>\n<p>Standard software development patterns and practices are of course aimed at increasing developer output, but many of them require a developer who is able and willing to engage their brain. The latter is a problem for many consultancy developers.</p>\n<p>In short, attempting to introduce good engineering to the average software consultancy is likely to cause more problems than it fixes. And things that cause problems, and hence delays, in consultancies are viewed in a very negative light, because they directly impact the amount of money being made.</p>\n<p>A product-driven company that develops its own software, to sell to clients, has entirely different concerns. Cost and time are less important and quality moreso, because they have a reputation and a good track record to build and uphold (otherwise their clients will go to a competitor). Such a company is therefore inclined to hire better developers and pay them more, because they generate better-quality code, and allow them to implement best practices that ensure that quality.</p>\n<p>If you are working for a consultancy, your first priority should be to escape (I use that word intentionally). Your attempts at helping your colleagues to build better software are going to confuse them, infuriate management, and make you desperately unhappy. Try to find another position elsewhere (that's not with a consultancy!) as soon as possible.</p>\n<p>If you're working for a product-driven company, then your company has some very poor management and/or hiring practices. This could be due to many things, but you need to decide whether the company and product are compelling enough for you to stay and try to make a positive change, or find greener pastures. If you're intent on staying, then you need to figure out who makes the technical decisions there, and have a conversation with them explaining your viewpoint and how it benefits the company in the long run. Whether they listen to you or not will be the sign as to whether you should stay there or not.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164679, "author": "James", "author_id": 34374, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/34374", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is really hard to answer, as you're asking us to judge whether you are writing good clean code and the other devs are not as skilled to be able to understand it, or if it's you writing over-engineered or unnecessarily complex code.</p>\n<p>Without seeing lots of code examples of yours and theirs this is really hard to help with.</p>\n<p>Perhaps instead of debating the code and explaining your actions and why yours is clean etc, start discussing why they find the code hard to read. You may be justified in explaining why your code is good, but I think this doesn't matter, all discussions need to be around why they find it hard, and how they'd have written it.</p>\n<p>Focus on small pieces of code so the debate is more about small structure than architecture (that's a different, bigger problem I think than you have).</p>\n<p>And remember, devs can be fickle beasts at times, and invariable at others, and as most things are subjective to a specific scenario (not one approach fits many scenarios) this combination means there's always going to be discussions about &quot;the best way&quot; and what is right.</p>\n<p>Maybe all parties are correct and have valid points? And you just need to find some middle ground?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164686, "author": "akostadinov", "author_id": 44500, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/44500", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This questions can't be answered generically without code samples and without project description. Also likely can't have an objective single answer.</p>\n<p>I like @gnasher729's answer. But below you can find another spin.</p>\n<p>I had a team member for short that was claiming best practices mandate implementing things in a very different way. In my opinion though his understanding of said best practice was misguided and didn't make the code simpler or more maintainable while it was introducing additional external dependencies.</p>\n<p>Another thing is indirection. While you may consider that project is going to develop in some future direction and implement indirection beforehand (which is often found as a best practice in the books), that makes code much more complicated and this future direction may never manifest. I am personally inclined to this. While my guess is often correct, sometimes it is not and results in a harder to understand code.</p>\n<p>Now we can't write perfect code and have our predictions always manifest. You might be right that your code is so good (I doubt it btw, because I haven't met a good programmer that likes the majority of their code), but for a change and for experiment, you can try going with simpler approaches. You can keep track of places where you did so, and later validate whether that was a good or bad idea. I guess a few months will be enough for you for a perspective.</p>\n<p>wrt good programmers not liking their code, I think it is related to the fact that you usually you are under time pressure to deliver something working, project changes make another approach now more effective, production usage doesn't match expected usage, but also critically thinking you always find better ways to do things.</p>\n<p>I personally find myself tuning and commenting my own old code I have forgotten about when I have to fix/extend it, because while writing, my line of thinking looks easy to follow. When I have forgotten about the code though, I have also lost this inherent understanding of what I was thinking at the time. So I tune code for readability or add comments where beneficial to make understanding it another time hopefully easier.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164692, "author": "TripeHound", "author_id": 37140, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/37140", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Other answers cover the main points: in a nutshell, you've got to <strong>(a)</strong> decide to what degree your code has to be this &quot;<em>complex</em>&quot; to get the job done, or is, perhaps, being &quot;<em>a bit too clever</em>&quot;; and <strong>(b)</strong> to what degree you should &quot;<em>come down to their level</em>&quot; or <em>they need to get more training</em>. (In reality, it's probably not a binary <em>either-or</em>: there's probably a bit of give-and-take on both sides).</p>\n<p>What I <em>will</em> do is a suggest a way to help answer these questions... try posting some code^{<strong>1</strong>} to the <a href=\"https://codereview.stackexchange.com/\"><strong>Code Review</strong></a> stack. While the responses may not be totally <em><strong>objective</strong></em> (everyone seems to have their own definition of what makes &quot;good code&quot;), the responses should, at least, be <em><strong>detached</strong></em> from you and your team, and shouldn't share their, and your, biases^{<strong>2</strong>}.</p>\n<p>Specific responses and suggestions are probably less important than the overall tone of the (collective) responses. If you can read them with as open a mind as possible, they may help indicate to what degree you and your colleagues need to adapt. I suspect it will be a case of &quot;<em>meeting in the middle</em>&quot;: the question is where exactly &quot;<em>the middle</em>&quot; is!</p>\n<hr />\n<p>^{<strong>1</strong>} It's likely that you won't be able to post your real project code, either due to copyright issues or not being able to take a &quot;representative sample&quot; of an appropriate size in isolation. If you can't post existing code, tackle a &quot;Code-Review-size-problem&quot; and try to write the code to solve it in as close to your normal style as possible.</p>\n<p>^{<strong>2</strong>} For example: are they saying it's too complicated <em>because it is too complex</em>, or because they don't want to spend time learning more complex techniques? Are you saying &quot;it has to be this complex&quot; because <em>it does have to be</em>, or because you are, perhaps subconsciously, trying to be &quot;too clever&quot;?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164704, "author": "WoJ", "author_id": 25229, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/25229", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>What else can I do?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><strong>You can teach.</strong></p>\n<p>I am an amateur dev and my code is not nice. It is readable (at least while I have it in front of my eyes) and does the job.</p>\n<p>Then a guy who knew how to develop joined my team (we are not developers, but we generate some code for various tasks). He had all these CRUD structures which were simply horrible - code all over files and whatnot.</p>\n<p>I told him to &quot;dumb down&quot; his code so that I do not need to get a degree in CS to understand it.</p>\n<p>He showed me <strong>why</strong> he does this. Not how the code works, but <strong>why</strong> it is structured this way.</p>\n<p>I agreed with him and let him write code the proper way. This does not change my code (though I agree that what he does makes sense but I do not develop enough to make the effort to refactor).</p>\n<p>I think that your coworkers do not understand the &quot;why&quot; of your code structure.</p>\n<p>Note: I am assuming that your code is indeed good, clean, correctly architectured etc. and that theirs is bad, spaghetti, etc. Just make objectively sure that this is really the case.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 164706, "author": "brenzo", "author_id": 88040, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88040", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't know the specifics of your situation but I would advise trying to educate your peers about why you're things this way.</p>\n<p>Consider talking to your manager about setting up a 60-90 minute learning session on a weekly basis. Make it an open invitation for anyone on the team to attend, and optional. This is also helpful if someone has an unfounded complaint you can say &quot;I went over this in the last learning session and the team came to the conclusion it was ok. I can explain it to you now, but you might consider to start attending them.&quot;</p>\n<p>Present on a piece of code they've had an issue with and explain why the way you've done it is more maintainable, scalable, or whatever. If the solution you've designed is actually superior you should be able to come up with legitimate reasons why, and also to show legitimate reasons their proposed &quot;easier/simpler&quot; solutions might cause problems.</p>\n<p>This should all be done on a non-confrontational way. e.g. don't say &quot;Here's my solution and it does X. Your solution is bad because Y.&quot; Try something more like &quot;Here's my solution and it does X. If your solution needs to do X, what happens?&quot; Let them walk through it with you and find the issue of Y themselves. These are teachable moments and you can take advantage of that to help everyone improve their skillsets.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/164632", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 166408, "author": "Mikesplace", "author_id": 121801, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/121801", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If other people got promoted, they may have provided more business value than you above their salary. You may have delivered value to the business on par with your salary. You may already be well paid(I don't know) and you have delivered exactly the value typical of you salary level. BTW I am speculating because I don't know your salary, what I do know is you have delivered the kind of value that would get an annual salary a bit over 100k outside of Sydney Australia in a capital city in Australia. The point I am trying to make is it is hard to quantify without more information. You can quantify it yourself by applying to better paid jobs and seeing if you can get them</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 167356, "author": "teego1967", "author_id": 7572, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/7572", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The key phrase, as you noticed, was &quot;8-5 job person&quot;. This phrase explains everything.</p>\n<p>In any corporate organization, the nature of the work can be divided into two camps.</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Line Work</strong>: Bringing in the money, customers, or designing and determining the product &quot;lines&quot; of the business. The people who do this are sometimes called &quot;rain-makers&quot;</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Cost-center Work</strong>: Support for the line work. The people in cost-centers perform the functions needed to sustain line work, but don't perform the actual line work. An IT person (unless the org supplies IT services) is very much in the Cost-Center camp.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<p>You can think of the Line work vs Cost-center work as a quotient where Line work provides value and cost-center work is a cost. so...</p>\n<pre><code>value\n-----\ncost\n</code></pre>\n<p>It's reductive to think this way, but that's how many business people see the two types of work. They want to &quot;maximize&quot; the numerator and &quot;minimize&quot; the denominator. If you happen to be in the denominator, you're constantly facing an impulse to reduce costs, reduce head-count, to do things faster and cheaper. If you're in the numerator, you're constantly facing pressure to bring in more, find new markets, new revenue streams, more customers.</p>\n<p>There's a strong incentive to reward line work, because it's seen as direct way to encourage &quot;bringing home the bacon&quot;. As such, bonuses and raises are easy to justify to money people because the ROI is obvious.</p>\n<p>On the other hand, cost-center work like IT is seen as a target for cuts and outsourcing. If you do your job &quot;too well&quot;, you can easily precipitate the termination of co-workers because &quot;they're not needed&quot; and your reward is more work. Raises/bonuses are seen as a necessary evil to keep you from jumping ship at the worst possible time.</p>\n<p>If staying in the org and getting promoted is important to you, I think it's important to frame any argument for your raise/promotion in terms of &quot;bottom-line&quot; financial vocabulary and your market value. That's what they understand. That's why they see you as an 8-5 worker and not a rain-maker. Alternatively, you might be happier in a place where your services are the line work of the business.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/166396", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/122271/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 167858, "author": "DarkCygnus", "author_id": 73791, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/73791", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>But I'm also worried that doing so would make Sam look bad and he might take offense to it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>The truth is that <strong>Sam already made himself look bad</strong> by not abiding to the game rules and dynamic in general, and by leaving a intern without a gift while taking the gift from the intern... talk about Christmas spirit huh...</p>\n<p>Based on your description of what happened, seems that the intern told you about this personally. <strong>Given that you are covering for your coworker who actually supervises the intern, I would suggest that you make him aware of this situation ASAP.</strong> This person (Joe?) will then have to decide what to do with this information. <strong>If Joe is not available in any way, then you should tell about this to Alice</strong>, whom will then decide how to handle this.</p>\n<p>I'd also suggest to tell the Intern to give their address to Sam, regardless that they haven't asked for it. If this is not done then Sam will have an excuse for not having sent the gift.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I am also unsure if I should approach him to make him see why what he did is wrong. I also don't know if I should talk to Alice or Bob about it and risk talking about something that could be construed as silly to someone's manager.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Based on the diagram you drew, seems you are <em>not</em> Sam's manager, so technically it's not your job to manage him or to approach him to talk. That should be up to Alice to handle.</p>\n<p>Also, I would not suggest escalating this to Bob, unless you are willing to take the consequences (creating &quot;drama&quot;, damaging your relationship with Sam, doing Alice's job unsolicited, etc.).</p>\n<p>Finally, even though what you intend to do and your reaction to this situation is quite understandable and kind from your part, you are in no obligation to buy the intern a gift... If you want to do it, or you want to buy this intern a coffee or something &quot;in compensation&quot;, go for it, you'll surely make this intern's day and perhaps mend Sam's fault.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 167859, "author": "AffableAmbler", "author_id": 73580, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/73580", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The fact that Sam would promise a gift and not follow through is clearly distasteful and, frankly, strange. The point of having a gift exchange should be to build comradery between peers and to have fun, not so much to make off with cool stuff. This is especially true with White Elephant, which according to the link you shared is meant &quot;to entertain party-goers rather than to gain a genuinely valuable or highly sought-after item.&quot;</p>\n<p>I don't know why Sam would engage in such ridiculous behavior but it's not your place to discipline him or make things right with the intern. I would make Alice aware of the situation if she isn't already and let her handle it. If you really feel obliged to make things right by getting a gift for the intern, wait until next week when the internship is over and then send him whatever you want. Since he'll no longer be an employee of the company, there shouldn't be any office politics or ethical constraints for you to worry about. You'll just be a person buying a gift for an acquaintance.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 167862, "author": "joeqwerty", "author_id": 60072, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/60072", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>I don't want to create office drama and I have half a mind to just buy the intern something.</strong></p>\n<p>Yes. Do this.</p>\n<p><strong>But I'm also worried that doing so would make Sam look bad and he might take offense to it.</strong></p>\n<p>Sam made himself look bad. If he takes offense it's because he recognizes his poor behavior. He should be embarrassed (and personally I'd be ashamed of myself for such behavior).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 167864, "author": "Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight", "author_id": 345, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/345", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Who was in charge of running the exchange?</p>\n<p>That person should be responsible for dealing with anyone exploiting another participant.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 167866, "author": "Chris", "author_id": 35882, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/35882", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Talk to Sam in private and give him feedback</strong></p>\n<p>Even though the game was played in your work environment, several facts suggest that this is a private event: participation was optional, employees bought gifts with their own money, ... As for other non-work problems that happen in a work environment (e.g. somebody ate your lunch), I would handle this on my own. Therefore I explicitly disagree with other answers which suggest to report it to Sam's manager. Only if this behaviour is shown more often and is affecting the office mood, I would take it to the manager. Reporting it could create exactly the drama you want to avoid.</p>\n<p>I would talk to Sam one to one and tell him that I got aware that the intern didn't receive any gift from him. First ask if he forgot about it, so he could fix it to avoid the blame. If not, I would make Sam aware that I feel this is unfair and in my opinion he should either return his gift or send the one he promised. If you do this, ensure that he recognizes this as your personal opinion and that you will not bring it up again if he decides to do nothing, especially not at work. Based on the outcome decide if you want to compensate the intern and never bring it up again.</p>\n<p>In the end this is Sam's private decision and you can't force him.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/167856", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/87777/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 169177, "author": "JW at Flavia", "author_id": 114978, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/114978", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Not necessarily complete, but you want to:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Convey contact details.</li>\n<li>Show that you can write a formal letter without fucking up formalities (which you will do implicitly by writing it).</li>\n<li>If you had prior communication, mention it: &quot;thank you for our wonderful conversation when we met at xyz.&quot;. Same if you have a contact within the company who has recommended you (or the company).</li>\n<li>Give <em>them</em> a (key-)reason why they want to hire you. This can be explicit (&quot;Due to my my experience in xyz, I will be a perfect fit for...&quot;) or implicit (by them noticing what a gem you are, or by writing a cover-letter that fits any unusual company-culture they might have).</li>\n<li>Mention why you are interested in them. Give them the feeling that you will stay with them even if a competitor offers you a few bucks more one day.</li>\n<li>Mention anything special that you need to convey. In your case that might be that you are looking for a position/team/teamlead that provides you with clear requirements and structure (frame that nicely and positive, though).</li>\n<li>Show that you can keep it short. Write to much, and the person having to read all of it will already be annoyed with you.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169179, "author": "jwsc", "author_id": 34255, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/34255", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A cover letter is not a CV, where you itemize hard facts. The cover letter is your sales pitch, where you try to sell yourself (or at least your skillset).</p>\n<p>You want to convey WHY YOU want to work for that company and WHY THEY should hire you.</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why do you want to work for that company?</strong> (many developers don't care too much about that, they go on and on about the used technology and how awesome it is, but don't convey why the company is awesome, too. This doesn't sit well with managers, who most of the time think that the company is much more important than the technology)</li>\n<li><strong>Why do you want that specific job?</strong></li>\n<li><strong>Why are you the perfect fit for the company?</strong> (research company culture, the way they work and how they want to be seen in public)</li>\n<li><strong>Why are you the perfect fit for the job?</strong> (special skills and experience others may not have)</li>\n</ul>\n<p>What I see often in cover letters is stuff like that:\n&quot;I am awesome. I am very good at Foo. I have experience with Bar. Will you hire me already?&quot;</p>\n<p>Better:\n&quot;I am awesome, see stellar review in appendix. I am a certified Foo specialist from FooAcademy. I worked extensively with Bar for 3 years at xyz company.</p>\n<p>Don't just tell, show!</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/169175", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/122465/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 169481, "author": "neubert", "author_id": 9236, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/9236", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One unintended consequence: sometimes you need to submit paycheck stubs as proof of income. Like some apartments may require you make 2-3 times the rent on an apartment. So if you get paid weekly then, using that calculation method, February would result in higher income than in January. So, if you're close in income to the 2-3x limit, already, then maybe you'd qualify for an apartment in February that you wouldn't qualify for in January.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169482, "author": "Andrew Leach", "author_id": 17837, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/17837", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's unusual, but ordinarily has no effect: your monthly salary is fixed at 10000, and you get that regular amount each month, and pay the same amount of deductions (tax, insurance, pension...) each month.</p>\n<p>It <strong>may well</strong> have a bearing on overtime payments. Four hours' overtime in January would be 0.5 × 476 on your calculation in the question. In February 2021, there are 20 working days which works out at 500 per day and four hours' overtime is 0.5 × 500. In March, there are 23 working days and the daily rate is lower than January. (So, actually, February is the month which definitely doesn't have a downside here!)</p>\n<p>It <strong>almost certainly will</strong> have an effect for unpaid leave. An unpaid day in January will cost you 476; an unpaid day in February will cost 500. A day in March is worth 434. February does have a downside here.</p>\n<p>The employers I've worked for have set an annual salary which is simply divided by 12 for monthly payments or 13 for four-weekly payments. The <strong>annual</strong> rate is then divided by a notional number of working days in a <strong>year</strong> (365 − 104 = 261) to get a daily rate, and the hourly rate which is used for overtime is 5 × (daily-rate) ÷ (weekly hours). Because the notional number of working days is close to the actual number, the calculated daily rate is reasonable, and it doesn't vary through the year. It makes calculations easy for everyone.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169602, "author": "LLlAMnYP", "author_id": 50512, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/50512", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is standard practice in, e.g. Russia. If you work the entire month without paid or unpaid leave, you get your monthly fixed salary. However, if you, e.g. take paid time off, you do not get the salary for the missed working days, but you get — for lack of a more accurate term — &quot;vacation money&quot;. Since the latter is a fixed rate averaged over the entire year, taking vacation in a month with lots of public holidays will incur a net loss for the employee.</p>\n<p>For example, in Russia this year Jan 1st thru 10th were public holidays. Extending the holiday for one more week by taking the week 11th thru 17th off would reduce your monthly salary by 33%. Sure, you would get the aforementioned vacation money, but that would amount to just under 25% of your regular monthly salary.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/169480", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/124202/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 169659, "author": "anotherdave", "author_id": 25746, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/25746", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>When I broached the issue with my boss, he hired contractors to support me, with whom I work a few hours a week.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Your boss is only solving for one aspect of the problem here: the amount of work that can be done in a time period (to reach the deadline) rather than helping you improve on how to better estimate in the future.</p>\n<p>You say that you're bad at planning, but to be honest most software developers are to some degree. &quot;Project management&quot; has developed as its own job field to specifically account for this type of work outside the &quot;hands-on&quot; development work.</p>\n<p>Some suggestions I would have are:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ask your boss to hire a project manager specifically — someone who will manage the delivery and can help the team refine estimates, highlight where there is risk to meeting target dates and add contingency and fallbacks\n<ul>\n<li>You might need to make the case for this role if your boss isn't aware of the need or the benefit it could bring (e.g. less customer frustration, if target dates are more reliable). Since he's been open to bringing in temporary contractors, you could suggest a contract role here — e.g. someone to join for 6-12 months to see if it provides an improvement.</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li>Ask for training around software estimation (or at least a good book) so that you can give estimates that you're more comfortable with in the future. Sometimes people underestimate how long something can take if things go wrong (e.g. focusing more on the best case scenario) or fail to factor in work outside of development (meeting/communication overhead etc).</li>\n</ul>\n<p>It is good to get better at estimation and planning, especially as you move into leadership, but it doesn't all have to be on your shoulders.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169662, "author": "Kaz", "author_id": 31777, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/31777", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My personal story has a lot of similarities with yours.</p>\n<p>What you need is exposure to better and more experienced/senior developers and managers. And exposure to industry best practices.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>You can get it in multiple different ways:</p>\n<p>You can try to persuade your boss to hire an actual Project Manager/Senior Developer.</p>\n<p>You can participate in relevant stacks:</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://codereview.stackexchange.com/\">CodeReview</a></p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pm.stackexchange.com/\">Project Management</a></p>\n<p>CR also has a very active set of chatrooms full of helpful developers.</p>\n<p>You can study and go on training courses</p>\n<p>You can read and subscribe to blogs and mailing lists</p>\n<p>You can join and contribute to Open Source projects</p>\n<p>You can adopt a mindset of <strong>deliberate practice</strong>. Where you identify goals and metrics you want to improve, design and create ways to measure your performance, and then deliberately practice/experiment, record your results, and use that to improve yourself.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>You can and should do all of the above. Failing that, you can always start over at a bigger/more established company, maybe at a lower level/salary than you are now, where they are actually set up to train and develop you.</p>\n<p>You might take an early salary hit but if you're good at what you do, given your business experience, you should be able to rise back to your previous level within a couple of years, with the skills and experience to take it even further.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169664, "author": "Tom Sawyer", "author_id": 59622, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/59622", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I feel what you describe is normal and seems to lean toward the imposter syndrome where there are similar asked questions on this site. You seem to evaluate your skills by focusing on estimate, may be the hardest thing in IT.</p>\n<p>Personally, I no longer believe in &quot;hard&quot; estimates in the development fields: there are a lot of dependencies with other resources, scope creep, unknown technical challenges, specification and priorities changes, etc.</p>\n<p>Additionally, estimates from popular development methodologies are very rough: 1 to 4 weeks.</p>\n<p>I was in a similar situation in the past, I did change job for the salary increase but this emotion came back. I got this feeling fade away by participating at various hackathon, meetups, etc. Learn a lot and learned that I also knew a lot: IT is a large field.</p>\n<p>Here some propositions:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p>Get exposure like @Kaz answer suggested: volunteers to an open source project, participate to hackathons and meetups, to exchanges with other peoples in the same fields at popular events.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Subscribe to live training, books, online platforms, forums, management certification, etc. to know more about estimates, the good and the bad.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>For a short period, write a diary of your days: tasks description with duration and information (business and technical) you had at the moment. Then at the end of a delivery, try to identify the delta between your estimate and the delivery. Repeat for a few deliveries.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Theoretically, you should get a picture of why the estimates were off and be able to improve them when the issue is on your end. Depending of your organization, it may not be possible to improve them by far:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>there are some unrealistic deadline because of somebody promise something to somebody else;</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>there are some managers prefer to get an answer &quot;next week&quot; four times instead of the true estimate: 4 weeks.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>A job you love is very important and hard to find. I take you love your current job because you are there for 5 years and your employer seems to appreciate you by the salary increase.</p>\n<p>I really suggests to try this before changing job because the vibe I get from your questions is you are under evaluating yourself and you may quit a job that fit you personally while your financial situation may impact your family.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169666, "author": "q-compute", "author_id": 54808, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/54808", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Do you keep explicit track of the time it actually takes to complete tasks (for yourself and other team members)? If not, that's one small step that should help.</p>\n<p>I had similar issues when I was trying to stop doing my homework in college at the last minute. Occasionally, I underestimated the time it took and turned things in late. So I started actually keeping of log of how long it took me to get tasks done. I would categorize it into things like, &quot;reading a chapter&quot; or &quot;writing a lab report&quot;. Eventually, I started to see a pattern and could plan ahead.</p>\n<p>I eventually applied this to my current job, which is as lead engineer of a tech product. I handle the project management of all technical work (largely software engineering) while the actual product manager handles the marketing and customer relations side of things.</p>\n<p>I track the time to finish every key task in the project. At first, I went off of whatever I could find of the previous engineer in my place (which was very minimal to say the least). I made a goal for the time to complete a certain project, and it took longer than I thought, so I adjusted the next one based on that data. Each project might be different, but it's likely that certain types of tasks will repeat, so find your own way to break it up.</p>\n<p>It took a few tries for me to get this repeating project to a reasonable time frame that doesn't go overdue. So don't be ashamed, no one is perfect when they start. And there are certain other organization priorities that can blunt even the best plans.</p>\n<p>Ask your manager for access to a program like Monday.com or Smartsheets. That can help you visualize and distribute tasks to other team members (if Jira doesn't already have a feature like that, I don't use Jira).</p>\n<p>Finally, if you really are doing a lot of project management, see if you can take an introductory class on Project Management. It seems simple, but there's a lot to project management and it takes practice and experience (which is why something like the PMP requires years of experience, not just an exam).</p>\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169684, "author": "Karl Bielefeldt", "author_id": 180, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/180", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>No one is good at estimating software. Some people who seem good at estimating are actually good at managing scope and expectations. When it starts to look like a deadline will be missed, they start negotiating to pull things out that weren't really that important. People who are really good at it, start that negotiation when they're first given the task, and try to partially deliver in small chunks as early as possible, instead of all at once.</p>\n<p>Even when you work somewhere with good mentors or colleagues that help you improve, eventually you hit a point where you are the go to guy, not only for yourself, but for helping others on your team improve. Your resources mostly become external at that point, like books and conferences.</p>\n<p>Thanks to the pandemic, more conferences are online now, both live and for viewing the recording after the fact. Search YouTube for <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=software+estimation\" rel=\"noreferrer\">software estimation</a> and you'll get a ton of ideas. Use it to set a goal, try something out for a while, then evaluate and adapt. When you get a chance to attend a conference in person (which your employer might pay for), the best part is often the conversations in the halls. Tell people your concerns, and you'll find a lot of people with the same concerns, and some ideas they've tried to varying degrees of success.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169687, "author": "bta", "author_id": 26208, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/26208", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You really do learn a lot by working with other people. I have worked both on solo teams as well as with larger groups, and there is definitely an advantage to having people to learn from.</p>\n<p>I had the same sort of concerns as you do. Someone once explained it to me like this. When you work on a team, your teammates all have different skillsets. Where one person is weak, another is stronger. You can think of the team's combined skill at something as sort of like the average of each team member's individual skill. When you work solo, you don't have that load-sharing ability so any weaknesses appear much more severe than they would on a larger team. You could actually be much <em>better</em> at planning than the average developer but it can <em>seem</em> that you're not, simply because your talents are directly visible and not aggregated with a bunch of teammates.</p>\n<p>Don't let this discourage you. How things appear does not always reflect reality. There's also another side to the coin. Working solo also allows your <em>talents</em> to become more visible. People tend to focus on their own faults so they don't always pay attention to what they're good at doing, but other people see it. Take an inventory of the things that you're really good at doing, and use those as much as possible to compensate for your weaknesses.</p>\n<p>On the other hand, being on a large team makes it easy to overcome your weak points by leveraging others instead of by improving yourself. Managers don't like to spend extra time giving you a chance to learn how to do something better when they can just assign it to someone else who can finish it quicker and easier. Working by yourself can give you more opportunities to practice skills that you might need some work on. It sounds like your manager is really going out of their way to support you. That's fantastic! Take advantage of that by talking with your manager about where you think your weak spots are and ask where <em>they</em> think your weak spots are (spoiler alert: it's common for these lists to be completely different). You manager is usually in a better position to evaluate your skills based on their impact to broader business goals, and they may have some insight into what sort of improvements would have the largest impact.</p>\n<p>When it comes to estimating and planning in particular, here's something helpful that I've learned over time. When you ask me for an estimate for how long it will take to complete something and I tell you 4 days, that means 4 days of uninterrupted work on just that one task. When you're working solo, you almost never get that luxury. You're having to handle support requests, meetings, and all other manner of unrelated tasks. These are unpredictable and are not part of your estimate. If you're not done in 4 day's worth of calendar time, that doesn't mean you missed your estimate. It means you've been doing unrelated things that will <em>unavoidably</em> force your timelines to slip. Make sure your management understands the difference between an estimate in <em>work time</em> and an estimate in <em>calendar time</em> and be clear as to which type of estimate you're giving (this was the cause of many of my own scheduling struggles). It can help to keep an informal log of how much time you spend each day working on different things. When management complains about how long something is taking, you can show them that you've only been able to spend 20% of your calendar time working on that task so it will take roughly 5x as long as anticipated. This can also be a good tool for encouraging managers to keep some of that unrelated work off of your plate.</p>\n<p>Also, missing an estimated deadline isn't a bad thing. It's actually <em>expected</em>. Don't forget what an estimate actually means. An estimate of 4 days doesn't mean that you'll have that task finished in 4 days. It means that if you did that task 1,000 times, the average length of time required to finish would be 4 days. A graph of completion time would look like a bell curve with &quot;4 days&quot; at the center. This means that 50% of the time, you'll take longer than your estimate. That's not a failure on your part, that's simply how estimates and statistics work. Many managers forget this and like to treat estimates as deadlines (especially managers that don't come from a technical background).</p>\n<p>There are some things you can do numerically that can help as well. Keep track of your estimates vs. the actual time taken to complete the associated tasks. If you're going over your estimates more than 50% of the time, start padding your estimates more. Your goal is to get that &quot;under-the-estimate completion rate&quot; as close to 50% as possible. Also, keep track of how far off your estimates are from your actual completion times. I saw that my completion times were fairly consistently about 50% above my estimates, so I started padding my estimates by 50% to adjust for the inaccuracy of my &quot;gut feelings&quot;. If your data has a lot of outliers (where <code>actual-estimate</code> is more than a standard deviation away from the mean), than that's a hint that there's something with high variability that you're not taking into account when you make your estimate. Sometimes it helps to break down the task into as many small sub-tasks as possible. These can be easier to estimate, and can help identify what parts of the project are taking longer than anticipated.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169692, "author": "Boris Joffe", "author_id": 29671, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/29671", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Is there a culture on the &quot;business&quot; side of the company demanding or expecting estimates to be small?</p>\n<p>I know I've worked at a place where there was a lot of pressure for smaller estimated times, and it only caused a larger gap between estimated completion times and actual completion times.</p>\n<h1>Plan</h1>\n<p>What I do now (as an independent contractor) is take a feature, break it down into very small steps (about half hour to several hour chunks). Breaking tasks down into as many small tasks as possible will generate much more accurate estimates and will give you more tasks to explain why a feature will take long to your boss.</p>\n<p>Make sure to include research and planning/re-planning time (people often forget those). The more uncertainty there is or the more research needs to be done, the larger the estimate must be padded. Also make sure to add items for unit testing, cross browser testing, documentation, deployment, demos, code review, a task for changes that may need to be done after completion (look at how long change requests usually take and apply it to this feature), management, meetings/communication, etc.</p>\n<p>I use a personal wiki / outliner software called zim-wiki (similar to Evernote/Onenote/Notion/Obsidian/etc) and create an outline of tasks and subtasks multiple levels deep. I start the outline by copying/pasting a checklist template with common tasks like the above that I often forget to include. This is in addition to project management software like JIRA and is your personal plan for a JIRA task (you can add the outline or a summary of it to JIRA if you want).</p>\n<h1>Sort</h1>\n<p>Next, sort the tasks from highest risk/unknowns/difficulty to smallest. There have been so many times when I've went through a feature completing items in the &quot;logical&quot; order, sometimes doing easy/medium tasks first, and when I got to the hard parts, I realized that I had to completely redo the previous steps. This was because while working on the hard/unknown parts, I realized my approach was incorrect. Doing the hard/unknown parts first (to the extent this is possible for a given feature) is crucial. The easy parts will practically take care of themselves as you slide into finishing the feature.</p>\n<h1>Estimate</h1>\n<p>Estimate every task at the lowest levels of your outline. Remember that you have a bias to be overly optimistic and estimate best case scenarios. Remember that your boss most likely treats your estimates as a deadline (i.e. close to worst case scenario). Use estimates that are about halfway between the average case and the worst case (adjust this as needed). Over enough tasks, this will even out to give you enough padding to complete features on time almost all the time. Round up each task to the half hour or hour. The only exception is that if I'm confident that a few tasks will take less than about 5 minutes, I might group them into one half hour chunk.</p>\n<p>Then, sum up the hours at each higher level of the outline and after every summation, gut check the estimate - does this sound like a realistic estimate to do this ENTIRE task? If it doesn't, add some padding to the subtasks until it seems like you will have more than enough time to complete them. Add extra subtasks too if you come up with them. Tasks often take up more time than you expect and giving yourself a very comfortable amount of time to do them is important.</p>\n<p>Common padding amounts range from doubling to quadrupling the time if you haven't done this task in this environment before. Consider padding even more if there's research or many unknowns involved. Whether to use specific multiplier(s) or not is a personal choice that you should experiment with for yourself and decide whether it works or not. I just use my gut feeling about whether I'm comfortable with the estimate. But the gut check must be from <em>your</em> gut, not your boss's gut.</p>\n<p>If you think your boss will complain about how long it will take, look at your task breakdown and write down a few notes explaining why it will take this long - the cross browser testing for this feature will be tricky, the algorithm may need to be optimized, there are multiple possible solutions that must be researched and tested, etc. Have these ready when you tell your boss the estimate.</p>\n<h1>Track</h1>\n<p>Then track your time as you work and adjust future estimates as needed repeating this process (add a half hour to an hour for re-planning/re-estimating when you do this). For time tracking, you can use a spreadsheet or software like Toggl, but also add actual times to your planning outline e.g. here's a sample task that took 3 hours even though it was estimated at 2 hours (I use a slash between them):</p>\n<pre><code>[*] (3/2) research library A for feature X\n</code></pre>\n<h1>Communicate</h1>\n<p>If it's taking longer than expected, <em>communicate</em> this to your boss as soon as you can. Do another estimate-gut-check and give your boss the updated <em>realistic</em> estimate. Don't give them a smaller estimate hoping you can catch up - in fact, consider adding additional padding so that you deliver on or before your new estimate. If your previous estimate was too low, it's almost certain that this one will be as well, so account for that with padding. Track this time re-estimating and communicating with your boss.</p>\n<h1>Review</h1>\n<p>As you work, review your estimates and planning outline regularly. Repeat this process for every feature you work on until you get better.</p>\n<p>I've noticed that using the estimate gut check and padding tasks until you feel very comfortable that you can complete them in that time has really helped me. And taking notes on why a task will take long and reviewing those before you speak to your boss has also helped.</p>\n<p>At the end of the day, remember that accurate estimates will make your boss's life easier and if you can deliver on that, they should be happy.</p>\n<p>I would stay with your current job and work on getting better at estimates. You're clearly valuable to the company and deserve the salary you're getting paid. Just keep improving your skills.</p>\n<p>P.S. Here's an approach to padding estimates by multiplying them by a historical velocity ratio: <a href=\"https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/10/26/evidence-based-scheduling/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/10/26/evidence-based-scheduling/</a></p>\n<p>Other things you might consider doing:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ship smaller features for more accurate estimates (what is the smallest independent unit of a feature you can ship?).</li>\n<li>Shift to a shorter sprint cycle like a 1 or 2 week cycle (if you do this, make sure sprint overhead is low enough to accommodate this).</li>\n<li>At the beginning of a project and also if it's running late, cut scope, not time estimates whenever possible. It's almost always better to ship fewer higher priority features on time than to ship more lower priority features late. Scope can be much more flexible than it seems.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169697, "author": "Cap Barracudas", "author_id": 111711, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/111711", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Dude relax . Yes, you are probably falling behind but for being hired by google . There are tons of companies out there and each of them has different requirements . No, you are probably not in the mainstream software technology track but you are not far from it either. Whom are you comparing with? Plus I am sure you job has a lot of communication in it . It is just of a different nature . Define your life goals and if your track does not align with them then make the change .</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169709, "author": "user3067860", "author_id": 25601, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/25601", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with others that you need someone to help you, but I disagree that it should be a project manager.</p>\n<p>Traditionally a project manager does things like come up with estimates about how long a project will take, distribute tasks across the team, create status reports, &quot;command and control&quot;. Firstly, this doesn't work very well (the person making the estimates isn't the person actually doing the work, which leads to bad estimates). Second, even if the PM makes good estimates for you, you still haven't learned how to make good estimates yourself.</p>\n<p>Instead you need someone to improve your processes, preferably by coaching you rather than managing you. An &quot;Agile Coach&quot; or &quot;Scrum Master&quot;, although not all people using those job titles are actually any good at it: 45% think they are actually a Project Manager/&quot;boss&quot;, 45% don't do anything useful at all, the remaining 10% is what you want.</p>\n<p>But basically someone who's job is to help you work on <em>how</em> you make decisions, or <em>how</em> you make estimates, or <em>how</em> you organize work. The team is still responsible for actually making decisions, estimates, etc., but the coach will help you improve.</p>\n<p>For example, you mention consistently having wrong estimates for how long things will take. The coach might work with the team on a number of strategies here. (&quot;You&quot; refers to the whole team.)</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Examining why you were wrong in your estimate. Did it actually take much longer, or were you failing to include outside interruptions (those Jira tickets)?</li>\n<li>If you were just wrong in your estimate, why was that? Are you only thinking about &quot;coding&quot; time and not testing? Do you get requirement changes where you have to rework stuff? Is there a lot of uncertainty, surprise technological hurdles?</li>\n<li>Will it be easier to estimate if you use a different technique? Breaking things into smaller pieces, using relative sizing (t-shirt sizes or story points), iterative improvements in estimates (Scrum-style).</li>\n</ol>\n<p>A <em>good</em> agile coach will guide the team through this kind of analysis so subtly that you hardly realize they are there, so that the team creates and owns their new process...and then the coach will follow up, gently reminding people when they start to fall back into old habits. And finally, you will have iterative improvement. After some time, the team gets back together and decides if the new process is working well or still needs improvement, or what the next process to improve is.</p>\n<p>They might also suggest starting from some framework, such as Scrum, and then help modify that over time to suit the team.</p>\n<p>As hard as it is to find a good agile coach, a really good one is a multiplier who improves every person on the team.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169741, "author": "frIT", "author_id": 45772, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/45772", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Software development is a field that is changing constantly, more than most. I see 2 paths to follow down that line:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Constantly stay up-to-date with the newest tech (I don't think &quot;fads&quot; is too inaccurate in most cases, but let's give the benefit of the doubt). <strong>Problems:</strong> you may often feel like the &quot;perpetual junior&quot; (I remember a blog post about the problem from a few years back, can't find now) because you'll meet younger people that know more about something than you. You may also have a hard time guessing the next best thing to brush up on, sometimes spending time on something that does not pan out. <strong>But:</strong> slowly but surely you will gain more experience: you will know the business better (domain knowledge), you will get experience with pitfalls (higher-level than just programming language, e.g. architectural, performance, etc.) And you will maintain your employability as more and more employers shift to newer tech.</li>\n<li>Get deeper into what you are using now. This depends on your current employer staying with the same tech and be adverse to change. Are you happy to stay with (say) Java version 7 until you retire? <strong>Problems:</strong> this presumes your employer is in a stable economy and can virtually guarantee your employment for the next 30 or so years. But I think this is not a very safe bet, since you will probably get in new staff, hardware and software that will in a few years simply not work with current tech any more. And by that time you are stuck. So my feeling is that the previous fork to take is the safer bet.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>The next issue is that you have been a generalist. &quot;Full Stack&quot; already implies comfort with multiple technologies. Now to that add things like project management, team leading, maybe business analysis. You should consider specializing a little bit more (choose area/s that are your forte). Now is a good time. Plan with your management and team how the other areas will be addressed: maybe hire another colleague, upskill one of the more junior people and assign more responsibilities, etc. I've seen options like the following among fellow developers:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Stay in development. There's no shame in it, and I chose it myself because I like building things. But then do focus and become the best developer you can be.</li>\n<li>Some move into project management/SCRUM master etc. And we developers value someone like that that knows what developing software is about, who does not think of it as some kind of magic.</li>\n<li>Or a Business Analyst/Product Owner or similar roles. Requires more focus on the domain and less on the tech.</li>\n<li>Architecture/Systems analysis etc.?</li>\n<li>Leadership/management if you are keen on the people side. Again, someone who knows development is often appreciated by the underlings.</li>\n<li>etc.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>It is always difficult to find out what you really want to do. Money-earning potential, not letting down the team, status, etc. tends to bend our focus. I found some online selftests useful for my own purposes: e.g. <a href=\"https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">a Myers-Briggs based</a> and/or <a href=\"https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/strengthsfinder.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the Gallup StrenghtsFinder</a> - use at own discretion and/or find others. But try to get a good picture of what you want to do, then set up <strong>goals</strong> for yourself for the short and longer term - and work towards those goals, even of it means a new position or a new employer, and it will probably mean more work/learning, even outside of work. And steer away from things you are not good at.</p>\n<p>And you are not limited to your current career. You could also choose to become things like</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Entrepreneur: develop your own product and company</li>\n<li>Contractor: provide valuable services to many companies (often self-employed/independent)</li>\n<li>Save money and retire early</li>\n<li>Change career to a completely different field (even part time, e.g. write a novel)</li>\n<li>etc.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>So there are many options. But <strong>be aware</strong> that things will change constantly and you need to plan ahead. If your employer is helpful in that regard, as yours may well be, do pull their input in. But in the end you are responsible for your way forward.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>To discuss 2 more points:</p>\n<p><strong>Impostor syndrome</strong> has been mentioned by others. It's quite common and much has been written on it on the web. Realize that you may in fact do valuable work even if you feel like an impostor. But, as said above, realize that you can't rest on your current laurels, they will wilt sooner or later.</p>\n<p><strong>Time management</strong> has also been mentioned by many. For some personalities time is just of less importance than for instance doing good work. I think a lot of such personalities actually prefer IT work (e.g. Adult ADHD or autism spectrum, or just plain perfectionists). Find coping strategies if you can't avoid (e.g. adding your 30% to the estimate). One premise I liked about the Gallup StrengthsFinder linked above is that they exhort people to rather develop/enhance their strengths than try to work on their weaknesses - but that works better if your workplace allows people to use their strengths and let their weaknesses be caught by others whose strength is that area. So, make a gradual move towards such arrangements a part of your personal development.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/169657", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/124303/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 169659, "author": "anotherdave", "author_id": 25746, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/25746", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>When I broached the issue with my boss, he hired contractors to support me, with whom I work a few hours a week.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Your boss is only solving for one aspect of the problem here: the amount of work that can be done in a time period (to reach the deadline) rather than helping you improve on how to better estimate in the future.</p>\n<p>You say that you're bad at planning, but to be honest most software developers are to some degree. &quot;Project management&quot; has developed as its own job field to specifically account for this type of work outside the &quot;hands-on&quot; development work.</p>\n<p>Some suggestions I would have are:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ask your boss to hire a project manager specifically — someone who will manage the delivery and can help the team refine estimates, highlight where there is risk to meeting target dates and add contingency and fallbacks\n<ul>\n<li>You might need to make the case for this role if your boss isn't aware of the need or the benefit it could bring (e.g. less customer frustration, if target dates are more reliable). Since he's been open to bringing in temporary contractors, you could suggest a contract role here — e.g. someone to join for 6-12 months to see if it provides an improvement.</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li>Ask for training around software estimation (or at least a good book) so that you can give estimates that you're more comfortable with in the future. Sometimes people underestimate how long something can take if things go wrong (e.g. focusing more on the best case scenario) or fail to factor in work outside of development (meeting/communication overhead etc).</li>\n</ul>\n<p>It is good to get better at estimation and planning, especially as you move into leadership, but it doesn't all have to be on your shoulders.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169662, "author": "Kaz", "author_id": 31777, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/31777", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My personal story has a lot of similarities with yours.</p>\n<p>What you need is exposure to better and more experienced/senior developers and managers. And exposure to industry best practices.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>You can get it in multiple different ways:</p>\n<p>You can try to persuade your boss to hire an actual Project Manager/Senior Developer.</p>\n<p>You can participate in relevant stacks:</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://codereview.stackexchange.com/\">CodeReview</a></p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pm.stackexchange.com/\">Project Management</a></p>\n<p>CR also has a very active set of chatrooms full of helpful developers.</p>\n<p>You can study and go on training courses</p>\n<p>You can read and subscribe to blogs and mailing lists</p>\n<p>You can join and contribute to Open Source projects</p>\n<p>You can adopt a mindset of <strong>deliberate practice</strong>. Where you identify goals and metrics you want to improve, design and create ways to measure your performance, and then deliberately practice/experiment, record your results, and use that to improve yourself.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>You can and should do all of the above. Failing that, you can always start over at a bigger/more established company, maybe at a lower level/salary than you are now, where they are actually set up to train and develop you.</p>\n<p>You might take an early salary hit but if you're good at what you do, given your business experience, you should be able to rise back to your previous level within a couple of years, with the skills and experience to take it even further.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169664, "author": "Tom Sawyer", "author_id": 59622, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/59622", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I feel what you describe is normal and seems to lean toward the imposter syndrome where there are similar asked questions on this site. You seem to evaluate your skills by focusing on estimate, may be the hardest thing in IT.</p>\n<p>Personally, I no longer believe in &quot;hard&quot; estimates in the development fields: there are a lot of dependencies with other resources, scope creep, unknown technical challenges, specification and priorities changes, etc.</p>\n<p>Additionally, estimates from popular development methodologies are very rough: 1 to 4 weeks.</p>\n<p>I was in a similar situation in the past, I did change job for the salary increase but this emotion came back. I got this feeling fade away by participating at various hackathon, meetups, etc. Learn a lot and learned that I also knew a lot: IT is a large field.</p>\n<p>Here some propositions:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p>Get exposure like @Kaz answer suggested: volunteers to an open source project, participate to hackathons and meetups, to exchanges with other peoples in the same fields at popular events.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Subscribe to live training, books, online platforms, forums, management certification, etc. to know more about estimates, the good and the bad.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>For a short period, write a diary of your days: tasks description with duration and information (business and technical) you had at the moment. Then at the end of a delivery, try to identify the delta between your estimate and the delivery. Repeat for a few deliveries.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Theoretically, you should get a picture of why the estimates were off and be able to improve them when the issue is on your end. Depending of your organization, it may not be possible to improve them by far:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>there are some unrealistic deadline because of somebody promise something to somebody else;</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>there are some managers prefer to get an answer &quot;next week&quot; four times instead of the true estimate: 4 weeks.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>A job you love is very important and hard to find. I take you love your current job because you are there for 5 years and your employer seems to appreciate you by the salary increase.</p>\n<p>I really suggests to try this before changing job because the vibe I get from your questions is you are under evaluating yourself and you may quit a job that fit you personally while your financial situation may impact your family.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169666, "author": "q-compute", "author_id": 54808, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/54808", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Do you keep explicit track of the time it actually takes to complete tasks (for yourself and other team members)? If not, that's one small step that should help.</p>\n<p>I had similar issues when I was trying to stop doing my homework in college at the last minute. Occasionally, I underestimated the time it took and turned things in late. So I started actually keeping of log of how long it took me to get tasks done. I would categorize it into things like, &quot;reading a chapter&quot; or &quot;writing a lab report&quot;. Eventually, I started to see a pattern and could plan ahead.</p>\n<p>I eventually applied this to my current job, which is as lead engineer of a tech product. I handle the project management of all technical work (largely software engineering) while the actual product manager handles the marketing and customer relations side of things.</p>\n<p>I track the time to finish every key task in the project. At first, I went off of whatever I could find of the previous engineer in my place (which was very minimal to say the least). I made a goal for the time to complete a certain project, and it took longer than I thought, so I adjusted the next one based on that data. Each project might be different, but it's likely that certain types of tasks will repeat, so find your own way to break it up.</p>\n<p>It took a few tries for me to get this repeating project to a reasonable time frame that doesn't go overdue. So don't be ashamed, no one is perfect when they start. And there are certain other organization priorities that can blunt even the best plans.</p>\n<p>Ask your manager for access to a program like Monday.com or Smartsheets. That can help you visualize and distribute tasks to other team members (if Jira doesn't already have a feature like that, I don't use Jira).</p>\n<p>Finally, if you really are doing a lot of project management, see if you can take an introductory class on Project Management. It seems simple, but there's a lot to project management and it takes practice and experience (which is why something like the PMP requires years of experience, not just an exam).</p>\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169684, "author": "Karl Bielefeldt", "author_id": 180, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/180", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>No one is good at estimating software. Some people who seem good at estimating are actually good at managing scope and expectations. When it starts to look like a deadline will be missed, they start negotiating to pull things out that weren't really that important. People who are really good at it, start that negotiation when they're first given the task, and try to partially deliver in small chunks as early as possible, instead of all at once.</p>\n<p>Even when you work somewhere with good mentors or colleagues that help you improve, eventually you hit a point where you are the go to guy, not only for yourself, but for helping others on your team improve. Your resources mostly become external at that point, like books and conferences.</p>\n<p>Thanks to the pandemic, more conferences are online now, both live and for viewing the recording after the fact. Search YouTube for <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=software+estimation\" rel=\"noreferrer\">software estimation</a> and you'll get a ton of ideas. Use it to set a goal, try something out for a while, then evaluate and adapt. When you get a chance to attend a conference in person (which your employer might pay for), the best part is often the conversations in the halls. Tell people your concerns, and you'll find a lot of people with the same concerns, and some ideas they've tried to varying degrees of success.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169687, "author": "bta", "author_id": 26208, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/26208", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You really do learn a lot by working with other people. I have worked both on solo teams as well as with larger groups, and there is definitely an advantage to having people to learn from.</p>\n<p>I had the same sort of concerns as you do. Someone once explained it to me like this. When you work on a team, your teammates all have different skillsets. Where one person is weak, another is stronger. You can think of the team's combined skill at something as sort of like the average of each team member's individual skill. When you work solo, you don't have that load-sharing ability so any weaknesses appear much more severe than they would on a larger team. You could actually be much <em>better</em> at planning than the average developer but it can <em>seem</em> that you're not, simply because your talents are directly visible and not aggregated with a bunch of teammates.</p>\n<p>Don't let this discourage you. How things appear does not always reflect reality. There's also another side to the coin. Working solo also allows your <em>talents</em> to become more visible. People tend to focus on their own faults so they don't always pay attention to what they're good at doing, but other people see it. Take an inventory of the things that you're really good at doing, and use those as much as possible to compensate for your weaknesses.</p>\n<p>On the other hand, being on a large team makes it easy to overcome your weak points by leveraging others instead of by improving yourself. Managers don't like to spend extra time giving you a chance to learn how to do something better when they can just assign it to someone else who can finish it quicker and easier. Working by yourself can give you more opportunities to practice skills that you might need some work on. It sounds like your manager is really going out of their way to support you. That's fantastic! Take advantage of that by talking with your manager about where you think your weak spots are and ask where <em>they</em> think your weak spots are (spoiler alert: it's common for these lists to be completely different). You manager is usually in a better position to evaluate your skills based on their impact to broader business goals, and they may have some insight into what sort of improvements would have the largest impact.</p>\n<p>When it comes to estimating and planning in particular, here's something helpful that I've learned over time. When you ask me for an estimate for how long it will take to complete something and I tell you 4 days, that means 4 days of uninterrupted work on just that one task. When you're working solo, you almost never get that luxury. You're having to handle support requests, meetings, and all other manner of unrelated tasks. These are unpredictable and are not part of your estimate. If you're not done in 4 day's worth of calendar time, that doesn't mean you missed your estimate. It means you've been doing unrelated things that will <em>unavoidably</em> force your timelines to slip. Make sure your management understands the difference between an estimate in <em>work time</em> and an estimate in <em>calendar time</em> and be clear as to which type of estimate you're giving (this was the cause of many of my own scheduling struggles). It can help to keep an informal log of how much time you spend each day working on different things. When management complains about how long something is taking, you can show them that you've only been able to spend 20% of your calendar time working on that task so it will take roughly 5x as long as anticipated. This can also be a good tool for encouraging managers to keep some of that unrelated work off of your plate.</p>\n<p>Also, missing an estimated deadline isn't a bad thing. It's actually <em>expected</em>. Don't forget what an estimate actually means. An estimate of 4 days doesn't mean that you'll have that task finished in 4 days. It means that if you did that task 1,000 times, the average length of time required to finish would be 4 days. A graph of completion time would look like a bell curve with &quot;4 days&quot; at the center. This means that 50% of the time, you'll take longer than your estimate. That's not a failure on your part, that's simply how estimates and statistics work. Many managers forget this and like to treat estimates as deadlines (especially managers that don't come from a technical background).</p>\n<p>There are some things you can do numerically that can help as well. Keep track of your estimates vs. the actual time taken to complete the associated tasks. If you're going over your estimates more than 50% of the time, start padding your estimates more. Your goal is to get that &quot;under-the-estimate completion rate&quot; as close to 50% as possible. Also, keep track of how far off your estimates are from your actual completion times. I saw that my completion times were fairly consistently about 50% above my estimates, so I started padding my estimates by 50% to adjust for the inaccuracy of my &quot;gut feelings&quot;. If your data has a lot of outliers (where <code>actual-estimate</code> is more than a standard deviation away from the mean), than that's a hint that there's something with high variability that you're not taking into account when you make your estimate. Sometimes it helps to break down the task into as many small sub-tasks as possible. These can be easier to estimate, and can help identify what parts of the project are taking longer than anticipated.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169692, "author": "Boris Joffe", "author_id": 29671, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/29671", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Is there a culture on the &quot;business&quot; side of the company demanding or expecting estimates to be small?</p>\n<p>I know I've worked at a place where there was a lot of pressure for smaller estimated times, and it only caused a larger gap between estimated completion times and actual completion times.</p>\n<h1>Plan</h1>\n<p>What I do now (as an independent contractor) is take a feature, break it down into very small steps (about half hour to several hour chunks). Breaking tasks down into as many small tasks as possible will generate much more accurate estimates and will give you more tasks to explain why a feature will take long to your boss.</p>\n<p>Make sure to include research and planning/re-planning time (people often forget those). The more uncertainty there is or the more research needs to be done, the larger the estimate must be padded. Also make sure to add items for unit testing, cross browser testing, documentation, deployment, demos, code review, a task for changes that may need to be done after completion (look at how long change requests usually take and apply it to this feature), management, meetings/communication, etc.</p>\n<p>I use a personal wiki / outliner software called zim-wiki (similar to Evernote/Onenote/Notion/Obsidian/etc) and create an outline of tasks and subtasks multiple levels deep. I start the outline by copying/pasting a checklist template with common tasks like the above that I often forget to include. This is in addition to project management software like JIRA and is your personal plan for a JIRA task (you can add the outline or a summary of it to JIRA if you want).</p>\n<h1>Sort</h1>\n<p>Next, sort the tasks from highest risk/unknowns/difficulty to smallest. There have been so many times when I've went through a feature completing items in the &quot;logical&quot; order, sometimes doing easy/medium tasks first, and when I got to the hard parts, I realized that I had to completely redo the previous steps. This was because while working on the hard/unknown parts, I realized my approach was incorrect. Doing the hard/unknown parts first (to the extent this is possible for a given feature) is crucial. The easy parts will practically take care of themselves as you slide into finishing the feature.</p>\n<h1>Estimate</h1>\n<p>Estimate every task at the lowest levels of your outline. Remember that you have a bias to be overly optimistic and estimate best case scenarios. Remember that your boss most likely treats your estimates as a deadline (i.e. close to worst case scenario). Use estimates that are about halfway between the average case and the worst case (adjust this as needed). Over enough tasks, this will even out to give you enough padding to complete features on time almost all the time. Round up each task to the half hour or hour. The only exception is that if I'm confident that a few tasks will take less than about 5 minutes, I might group them into one half hour chunk.</p>\n<p>Then, sum up the hours at each higher level of the outline and after every summation, gut check the estimate - does this sound like a realistic estimate to do this ENTIRE task? If it doesn't, add some padding to the subtasks until it seems like you will have more than enough time to complete them. Add extra subtasks too if you come up with them. Tasks often take up more time than you expect and giving yourself a very comfortable amount of time to do them is important.</p>\n<p>Common padding amounts range from doubling to quadrupling the time if you haven't done this task in this environment before. Consider padding even more if there's research or many unknowns involved. Whether to use specific multiplier(s) or not is a personal choice that you should experiment with for yourself and decide whether it works or not. I just use my gut feeling about whether I'm comfortable with the estimate. But the gut check must be from <em>your</em> gut, not your boss's gut.</p>\n<p>If you think your boss will complain about how long it will take, look at your task breakdown and write down a few notes explaining why it will take this long - the cross browser testing for this feature will be tricky, the algorithm may need to be optimized, there are multiple possible solutions that must be researched and tested, etc. Have these ready when you tell your boss the estimate.</p>\n<h1>Track</h1>\n<p>Then track your time as you work and adjust future estimates as needed repeating this process (add a half hour to an hour for re-planning/re-estimating when you do this). For time tracking, you can use a spreadsheet or software like Toggl, but also add actual times to your planning outline e.g. here's a sample task that took 3 hours even though it was estimated at 2 hours (I use a slash between them):</p>\n<pre><code>[*] (3/2) research library A for feature X\n</code></pre>\n<h1>Communicate</h1>\n<p>If it's taking longer than expected, <em>communicate</em> this to your boss as soon as you can. Do another estimate-gut-check and give your boss the updated <em>realistic</em> estimate. Don't give them a smaller estimate hoping you can catch up - in fact, consider adding additional padding so that you deliver on or before your new estimate. If your previous estimate was too low, it's almost certain that this one will be as well, so account for that with padding. Track this time re-estimating and communicating with your boss.</p>\n<h1>Review</h1>\n<p>As you work, review your estimates and planning outline regularly. Repeat this process for every feature you work on until you get better.</p>\n<p>I've noticed that using the estimate gut check and padding tasks until you feel very comfortable that you can complete them in that time has really helped me. And taking notes on why a task will take long and reviewing those before you speak to your boss has also helped.</p>\n<p>At the end of the day, remember that accurate estimates will make your boss's life easier and if you can deliver on that, they should be happy.</p>\n<p>I would stay with your current job and work on getting better at estimates. You're clearly valuable to the company and deserve the salary you're getting paid. Just keep improving your skills.</p>\n<p>P.S. Here's an approach to padding estimates by multiplying them by a historical velocity ratio: <a href=\"https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/10/26/evidence-based-scheduling/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/10/26/evidence-based-scheduling/</a></p>\n<p>Other things you might consider doing:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ship smaller features for more accurate estimates (what is the smallest independent unit of a feature you can ship?).</li>\n<li>Shift to a shorter sprint cycle like a 1 or 2 week cycle (if you do this, make sure sprint overhead is low enough to accommodate this).</li>\n<li>At the beginning of a project and also if it's running late, cut scope, not time estimates whenever possible. It's almost always better to ship fewer higher priority features on time than to ship more lower priority features late. Scope can be much more flexible than it seems.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169697, "author": "Cap Barracudas", "author_id": 111711, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/111711", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Dude relax . Yes, you are probably falling behind but for being hired by google . There are tons of companies out there and each of them has different requirements . No, you are probably not in the mainstream software technology track but you are not far from it either. Whom are you comparing with? Plus I am sure you job has a lot of communication in it . It is just of a different nature . Define your life goals and if your track does not align with them then make the change .</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169709, "author": "user3067860", "author_id": 25601, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/25601", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with others that you need someone to help you, but I disagree that it should be a project manager.</p>\n<p>Traditionally a project manager does things like come up with estimates about how long a project will take, distribute tasks across the team, create status reports, &quot;command and control&quot;. Firstly, this doesn't work very well (the person making the estimates isn't the person actually doing the work, which leads to bad estimates). Second, even if the PM makes good estimates for you, you still haven't learned how to make good estimates yourself.</p>\n<p>Instead you need someone to improve your processes, preferably by coaching you rather than managing you. An &quot;Agile Coach&quot; or &quot;Scrum Master&quot;, although not all people using those job titles are actually any good at it: 45% think they are actually a Project Manager/&quot;boss&quot;, 45% don't do anything useful at all, the remaining 10% is what you want.</p>\n<p>But basically someone who's job is to help you work on <em>how</em> you make decisions, or <em>how</em> you make estimates, or <em>how</em> you organize work. The team is still responsible for actually making decisions, estimates, etc., but the coach will help you improve.</p>\n<p>For example, you mention consistently having wrong estimates for how long things will take. The coach might work with the team on a number of strategies here. (&quot;You&quot; refers to the whole team.)</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Examining why you were wrong in your estimate. Did it actually take much longer, or were you failing to include outside interruptions (those Jira tickets)?</li>\n<li>If you were just wrong in your estimate, why was that? Are you only thinking about &quot;coding&quot; time and not testing? Do you get requirement changes where you have to rework stuff? Is there a lot of uncertainty, surprise technological hurdles?</li>\n<li>Will it be easier to estimate if you use a different technique? Breaking things into smaller pieces, using relative sizing (t-shirt sizes or story points), iterative improvements in estimates (Scrum-style).</li>\n</ol>\n<p>A <em>good</em> agile coach will guide the team through this kind of analysis so subtly that you hardly realize they are there, so that the team creates and owns their new process...and then the coach will follow up, gently reminding people when they start to fall back into old habits. And finally, you will have iterative improvement. After some time, the team gets back together and decides if the new process is working well or still needs improvement, or what the next process to improve is.</p>\n<p>They might also suggest starting from some framework, such as Scrum, and then help modify that over time to suit the team.</p>\n<p>As hard as it is to find a good agile coach, a really good one is a multiplier who improves every person on the team.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 169741, "author": "frIT", "author_id": 45772, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/45772", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Software development is a field that is changing constantly, more than most. I see 2 paths to follow down that line:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Constantly stay up-to-date with the newest tech (I don't think &quot;fads&quot; is too inaccurate in most cases, but let's give the benefit of the doubt). <strong>Problems:</strong> you may often feel like the &quot;perpetual junior&quot; (I remember a blog post about the problem from a few years back, can't find now) because you'll meet younger people that know more about something than you. You may also have a hard time guessing the next best thing to brush up on, sometimes spending time on something that does not pan out. <strong>But:</strong> slowly but surely you will gain more experience: you will know the business better (domain knowledge), you will get experience with pitfalls (higher-level than just programming language, e.g. architectural, performance, etc.) And you will maintain your employability as more and more employers shift to newer tech.</li>\n<li>Get deeper into what you are using now. This depends on your current employer staying with the same tech and be adverse to change. Are you happy to stay with (say) Java version 7 until you retire? <strong>Problems:</strong> this presumes your employer is in a stable economy and can virtually guarantee your employment for the next 30 or so years. But I think this is not a very safe bet, since you will probably get in new staff, hardware and software that will in a few years simply not work with current tech any more. And by that time you are stuck. So my feeling is that the previous fork to take is the safer bet.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>The next issue is that you have been a generalist. &quot;Full Stack&quot; already implies comfort with multiple technologies. Now to that add things like project management, team leading, maybe business analysis. You should consider specializing a little bit more (choose area/s that are your forte). Now is a good time. Plan with your management and team how the other areas will be addressed: maybe hire another colleague, upskill one of the more junior people and assign more responsibilities, etc. I've seen options like the following among fellow developers:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Stay in development. There's no shame in it, and I chose it myself because I like building things. But then do focus and become the best developer you can be.</li>\n<li>Some move into project management/SCRUM master etc. And we developers value someone like that that knows what developing software is about, who does not think of it as some kind of magic.</li>\n<li>Or a Business Analyst/Product Owner or similar roles. Requires more focus on the domain and less on the tech.</li>\n<li>Architecture/Systems analysis etc.?</li>\n<li>Leadership/management if you are keen on the people side. Again, someone who knows development is often appreciated by the underlings.</li>\n<li>etc.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>It is always difficult to find out what you really want to do. Money-earning potential, not letting down the team, status, etc. tends to bend our focus. I found some online selftests useful for my own purposes: e.g. <a href=\"https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">a Myers-Briggs based</a> and/or <a href=\"https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/strengthsfinder.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the Gallup StrenghtsFinder</a> - use at own discretion and/or find others. But try to get a good picture of what you want to do, then set up <strong>goals</strong> for yourself for the short and longer term - and work towards those goals, even of it means a new position or a new employer, and it will probably mean more work/learning, even outside of work. And steer away from things you are not good at.</p>\n<p>And you are not limited to your current career. You could also choose to become things like</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Entrepreneur: develop your own product and company</li>\n<li>Contractor: provide valuable services to many companies (often self-employed/independent)</li>\n<li>Save money and retire early</li>\n<li>Change career to a completely different field (even part time, e.g. write a novel)</li>\n<li>etc.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>So there are many options. But <strong>be aware</strong> that things will change constantly and you need to plan ahead. If your employer is helpful in that regard, as yours may well be, do pull their input in. But in the end you are responsible for your way forward.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>To discuss 2 more points:</p>\n<p><strong>Impostor syndrome</strong> has been mentioned by others. It's quite common and much has been written on it on the web. Realize that you may in fact do valuable work even if you feel like an impostor. But, as said above, realize that you can't rest on your current laurels, they will wilt sooner or later.</p>\n<p><strong>Time management</strong> has also been mentioned by many. For some personalities time is just of less importance than for instance doing good work. I think a lot of such personalities actually prefer IT work (e.g. Adult ADHD or autism spectrum, or just plain perfectionists). Find coping strategies if you can't avoid (e.g. adding your 30% to the estimate). One premise I liked about the Gallup StrengthsFinder linked above is that they exhort people to rather develop/enhance their strengths than try to work on their weaknesses - but that works better if your workplace allows people to use their strengths and let their weaknesses be caught by others whose strength is that area. So, make a gradual move towards such arrangements a part of your personal development.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/169669", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/54808/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 170189, "author": "sevensevens", "author_id": 22867, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/22867", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Bring these charts and ask questions using the charts. Based on my experience you'll get 20k a year in vested stock through year 4, then 0 for year 5 (similar to chart 1).</strong></p>\n<p>Based on experience, I'm betting it's chart 1 (20k a year each year) for 4 years. Make sure you get anything after the fourth year, as the my experience suggest a total of 80k then you'll get 0 for the fifth year unless you renegotiate.</p>\n<p>It's a quick chat with HR to clarify all of this. I've written the example chat below to chart 2 since it's a bit more involved. Either way, substance is the same. It never hurts to ask.</p>\n<p>You've already done most of the work for this. Most people have a general understanding of vesting/cliffs, but nothing beats an example. You can say something like</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. After the 1 year cliff I'm vested 20k in stock - correct? (point at that line), Then after 2 years I'm vested for 40k in stock a year - correct? (point at the next line). For 3 years, it's 60k a year (point at line), then finally after 4 years I cap out at 80k a year in stock options (point at line). Is all that correct?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Finally ask what happens if you leave a few days shy of your yearly anniversary.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What happens if I leave 1 day before my 3rd year. Will I get a\npro-rated amount of stock, or do I always have to stay the full year?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Be sure to bring the other chart too. My guess is chart 1 is correct. Unless you earn several hundred thousand a year, it looks like the stock payout will be a large portion of your yearly income by year 4 using chart 2 (80k). Even industries such as sales that have large bonus payouts, that's usually cold hard cash. Just ask people at Enron how holding a lot of company stock worked out for them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 170190, "author": "bharal", "author_id": 8146, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/8146", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's this</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Year 0 (day 0): $0.00 ($0.00 paid to date)</p>\n</blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Year 1 (day 365): $20,000.00 ($20,000.00 paid to date)</p>\n</blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Year 2 (day 730): $20,000.00 ($40,000.00 paid to date)</p>\n</blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Year 3 (day 1095): $20,000.00 ($60,000.00 paid to date)</p>\n</blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Year 4 (day 1460): $20,000.00 ($80,000.00 paid to date)</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>And then it ends. And that's it. You don't keep getting stock. You <em>might</em> get stock as part of your overall compensation package later, or you <em>might</em> not. If it isn't in the contract, then the answer is you won't get it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 170196, "author": "mustaccio", "author_id": 10923, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/10923", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is probably how it will work (from personal experience):</p>\n<p>At the beginning of the employment contract you are awarded X &quot;virtual&quot; shares, based on the opening/closing/average share price on that day, to the total of $80K, but you can do nothing with them, they sit in a &quot;holding&quot; account.</p>\n<p>After the first year one quarter of those shares, minus the number required to cover the withholding tax, at that day's price, are transferred to a brokerage account that you designate by the broker that manages the entire scheme. You are free to do with these shares as you please.</p>\n<p>Thrice more the event repeats, each time landing 1/4 of the original number of shares, minus those that cover the applicable tax, in your brokerage account. Then the process ends.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/170188", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/124604/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 174344, "author": "Hilmar", "author_id": 5418, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/5418", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The key question here is &quot;what's the problem with this employee being late?&quot;.</p>\n<p>If the meeting goal can be achieved without them, then who cares if they are late or not? If the meeting fails, than the consequences of the fail should be obvious and it's perfectly ok to ask employee responsible for the fail to fix it or at least what they are planning to do about it.</p>\n<p>Things are more complicated if the meeting has no stated goal or agenda. Then it may be worth revisiting the purpose of the meeting and who really needs to be there. Make sure that all attendees agree that it is a good use of their time to be there.</p>\n<p>You can always elevate but that should always be done about the &quot;consequences&quot; of the behavior and not the behavior itself. &quot;Bob was late&quot; is not good. &quot;We couldn't get the SW drop out of the door on time because Alice was late to the release meeting&quot; is better.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 174345, "author": "BoboDarph", "author_id": 78087, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/78087", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This looks like a you problem.</p>\n<p>Has this person's tardiness affected the results of her work? Has it upset the team's results in any meaningful way? Does anyone's work output suffer if this person is several minutes late?</p>\n<p>If the answer to all those questions is no, then this is a you problem. You have a problem with this person, not the company, not the team.</p>\n<p>The fact that you mentioned your frustration with the fact they are not punished for being late makes me believe you consider yourself this person's manager. Since you stated there are no formal managers in the team outside the &quot;boss&quot;, I would refrain from making such remarks within the team, as you are not tasked with monitoring people and doing so might result in frictions within the team.</p>\n<p>Again, what this person does is none of your damn business as long as it's not directly affecting you or the team you work in and it's not your job to monitor them. I would be wary of letting my employer know I took on the liberty to monitor my coworkers without their consent.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 174363, "author": "thieupepijn", "author_id": 115746, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/115746", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<pre><code>&gt; The real gripe is that this employee still gets all the benefits of the other employees; pay rises, bonuses, meals out paid for by the company etc.\n</code></pre>\n<p>So the real problem is not that the occasional lateness of this person causes any actual issues for you, your colleagues or the company. But that his/her lateness is &quot;unfair&quot; for you and your colleagues. Well so much things are unfair in life, for example.</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>some people have/had rich parents and can spend their life drinking marguerita's in the pool, while you have to actually work to support yourself.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>while you probably pay an income tax of 30 percent or more, very rich people and big corporations pay far less due to the shrewd accountants, lawyers and other such people they can employ.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>while you probably do some useful work for a modest salary, some people will earn more than you in a lifetime with a silly cat video.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>In light of these things is this &quot;injustice&quot; this tardy collegue is doing to you and your colleagues really that important? So summarized, if you are not the boss/manager of this person and the occasional lateness is not affecting your work just let this one go. If you do want to fight unfairness and injustice in this world get involved in politics and choose a more worthy cause.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/174341", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/119693/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 177904, "author": "Justin Cave", "author_id": 238, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/238", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>You need to list your actual employer, the university. If someone wants to do a background check based on your resume, they'd need to contact the university to confirm your dates of employment. If they contact the industry company, they'll say they have no record of ever employing you since, well, they didn't employ you.</p>\n<p>You're in basically the same position as anyone that works for a contracting company. Your employer is the contracting company but you're actually doing work for various client companies. Generally that looks something like</p>\n<pre><code>Contracting Company - Software Engineer - Start - End\n Client Company Start - End\n Polished widgets using Widget Polisher 2000\n\n Client Company 2 Start - End\n Stamped widgets using Widget Stamper 2005 and polished using Widget Polisher 2010\n</code></pre>\n<p>That makes it clear that you were working for the contracting company (or in your case the university) when background checks happen but shows what you were actually working on at the different client companies.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 177913, "author": "joeqwerty", "author_id": 60072, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/60072", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You were employed by the university. The fact that the work you performed was for another company that contracted with the university for this work is immaterial.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/177902", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/129137/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 180111, "author": "mxyzplk", "author_id": 16695, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16695", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When you get pre-IPO equity, you are getting lottery tickets. They have no effective valuation.</p>\n<p>In most cases, shares never turn into anything - you have to have an IPO or other exit, <em>AND</em> they have to not rip you off in the transition (commonly done regardless of anti-dilution clauses).</p>\n<p>First, make sure that $40,000 is at current valuation not at liquidation. Otherwise you’re taking, say, a $20k a year pay cut to get 40k in 5 years.</p>\n<p>Then, you can say that if the company successfully exits, and if it’s done in a way you actually get money and not new options or other wooden nickels, then it should be worth a multiple equivalent to the change between current and exit valuation. At seed that’s at least 10x but could be more.</p>\n<p>In my experience with startups (many, at various stages), you have an 80% chance of getting nothing, 18% chance of getting “new car rich”, and 2% chance of getting “new house rich.” The founders have a chance of getting “new life rich” but you don’t.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 180166, "author": "Gabe Sechan", "author_id": 66714, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/66714", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Just FYI, that's a harsh cliff and a long vest. 1 year cliff is standard (with monthly or quarterly beyond that) and 4 years vest (although that's negotiable, what matters is how much you get per year). As for the salary- I get regular approaches at 160-200K from series C startups based in New York, as a senior engineer (20 years experience). An earlier series obviously pays less and location matters, but that's a really meh salary unless you're in the middle of nowhere. The percentage of the company you're being offered is low as well- see <a href=\"https://www.holloway.com/g/equity-compensation/sections/typical-employee-equity-levels\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.holloway.com/g/equity-compensation/sections/typical-employee-equity-levels</a> Generally a series A senior engineer should get closer to .5-1%. I'd pass or at least negotiate.</p>\n<p>The reality is you can't ask the questions you need to know. Even to know the current, if things were to end today value, you'd need the full cap table. That means not only how many shares are owned, but all of the conditions (first money out, multipliers, all that good stuff) and all the potential shares (things like convertible notes and whether they're likely to be converted). Your closest estimate would be to ask how many shares there are, and how many you're getting and that would give your percentage ownership. Then multiply that by like .2 to account for the schenanigans above. Also watch out for anything that allows them to reclaim your vested shares if you quit (I've seen that bs being pulled).</p>\n<p>More accurately you'd need to be able to see into the future and see what will occur in terms of dilution. Of course that's impossible to even guess at.</p>\n<p>I view pre-IPO shares as lotto tickets. They're worth 0 until they aren't. Do the other advantages of working at the startup plus a tiny chance of making good money outweigh the extra money you'd make at BigCorp? That's the question you should ask.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/180110", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/48146/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 180279, "author": "aaaaa says reinstate Monica", "author_id": 45298, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/45298", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What are you trying to convey?</p>\n<p>I am <strong>guessing</strong> you want to say something like:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>i am a manager at company X for 7 years, and my manager likes me so much he asked me to step in the similar role in other division to save their behinds and the whole business</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I am not sure if CV is the right place to do it. I would just say &quot;Manager - 2014-current&quot; and use this as an example answer to &quot;what challenging situation you faced at work and how you managed it?&quot;</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 180282, "author": "DWGKNZ", "author_id": 12541, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/12541", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I have done a few secondments and I think it's important to show clearly that you continued in your substantive position while completing the secondment. The format I use is:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Manager Type 1 2014 - current</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Company X</li>\n<li>Responsibilities</li>\n<li>Achievements in the role</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n<p>And then below that:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Manager Type 2 (<em><strong>Secondment</strong></em>) 2021 - current</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Company X</li>\n<li>Responsibilities</li>\n<li>Achievements in the role</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This simple format has worked for me for the past 15 years without any confusion.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/180274", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/8497/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 180314, "author": "Ertai87", "author_id": 88183, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/88183", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This sounds a lot like my experience when I worked at a F<strong>A</strong>ANG (emphasis on the one that I worked for; there are 2 of them so it's ambiguous as to which one it was, but I think you can figure it out), and so I would say that it is normal for a FAANG, but not normal in general. The particular one that I worked for is notorious for overworking its employees, often with little guidance, and having very bad internal documentation so it takes forever to do anything unless you have been doing it for a while; the learning curve is upsettingly difficult and the assistance is woefully lacking.</p>\n<p>If this was a normal company, I would say it is your manager's responsibility to give you the resources you need to do the job you need to do. That is what it means to manage. You should be able to go to your boss and say, &quot;hey, I know we need to pick up Joe's slack since they left the company, but also I'm swamped with the stuff I'm already doing&quot; and leave it to the boss to figure out the best way to go about figuring out that problem. That said, at this company in particular, I'm not sure if that's a practicable answer without making a really bad impression and possibly getting yourself fired or put on a PIP (as was my experience when I tried something similar at this company).</p>\n<p>My advice is, if you're working for the same FAANG I was, is to quit and find a different job, perhaps at a different FAANG, if you want that experience.</p>\n<p>EDIT: Addendum after OP confirmed it was the same company: Whether or not you had 24 hours notice that your coworker was leaving, doesn't mean your boss did. When I was terminated from this company (I did not leave by choice, and certainly not 5 days before my stock options would be coming due! Yes, they did that!), my coworkers had no idea what was going on; I was on a PIP for abut a month before I was terminated, so my boss well and truly knew what was going on for a while, although my coworkers did not. Just because you were blindsided by your coworker's departure does not mean in any way that your manager was (and likely means the opposite), so take that into account when planning your next steps.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 180318, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Your colleague probably couldn't take the pressure of Pivot, the Performance Improvement Plan: she/he either quit altogether, or accepted the package with a few weeks of pay and a clean cut.\nIt's not easy to be fired in the first 12 months, but it happens. Go on Inside and find out the KPIs for your role and level. The only thing that matters is hitting those KPIs. More than any other company in that group, KPIs are fundamental, and come before LPs. You can breach any and all LPs, but your KPIs are the bottom line. New project? Map it against those KPIs. And NO, you are not missing out by leaving that company for another. Your experience is typical.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/180312", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/37999/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 181657, "author": "Stephan Branczyk", "author_id": 14577, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14577", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Personally, I bought a really cheap camera on a stand which swivels and which allows me to capture my writing on my own little whiteboard (or on a piece of paper). A second option is to buy a cheap Wacom tablet knockoff that connects to your computer (in case the platform supports a shared whiteboard, or in case the platform allows the candidate to share their screen).</p>\n<p>Eventually, I've even stopped using my camera. Following the lead of <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/EChanTech\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this developer</a>, I've learned to draw most of my diagrams using ascii text. This takes some <a href=\"https://www.pramp.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">practice</a>, but it's definitely possible.</p>\n<pre><code>+ \n +\n +\n +\n +\n\n +\n[7, 1, 5, 3, 6, 4] \n</code></pre>\n<p><a href=\"https://leetcode.com/explore/interview/card/top-interview-questions-easy/92/array/564/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Best time to sell and buy stock</a></p>\n<pre><code> +\n +\n + \n[1, 2, 3]\n\n +\n + \n + \n[3, 2, 1]\n</code></pre>\n<p>But in your case, since you're the interviewer, when you see that an interviewee is struggling, you could just tell the interviewee that he can take a few minutes to draw the diagram on a piece of paper (even if you can't see the piece of paper yourself). This is not ideal, but it's better than nothing. Drawing things out can indeed be extremely useful in solving these types of problem.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 181658, "author": "Kevin Arlin", "author_id": 106195, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/106195", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Zoom has facilities to share an iPad or other tablet screen. This is how all the college instructors I know have been replacing our whiteboards for virtual lectures. If a candidate doesn’t own a tablet, I suppose you can fall back on hackier solutions, but I suspect it could be worth the company buying a couple of tablets and actually shipping them to candidates who need them, at least in later stages, if you really want the whiteboard experience.</p>\n<p>Interestingly, this is about the first time I’ve ever heard anybody say anything nice about whiteboarding. Plenty of programmers mainly think in actual code, and feel disabled by the lack of access to syntax highlighting, documentation, and such, let alone the Internet, in a whiteboard interview. Such coders may not be disadvantaged by virtual interviews with no whiteboard access.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 181665, "author": "Sukti Sen", "author_id": 128931, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/128931", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The candidate can always draw using pen/pencil on a white paper, and show in the video, or you can ask him/her to share screen, and draw using whatever application (s)he is comfortable with. Most of the meeting applications like Zoom and Google have a whiteboard facility too.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 181673, "author": "Justas", "author_id": 71170, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/71170", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can use online whiteboard like <a href=\"https://www.mural.co/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Mural</a> or <a href=\"https://miro.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Miro</a>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/181656", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/48146/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 182838, "author": "paulj", "author_id": 71168, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/71168", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Entering keywords:\ncomputational biology , data analysis, and Python in popular job website yielded dozens of hits.</p>\n<p>Data Scientist:</p>\n<pre><code> Master's degree in a *quantitative discipline* (e.g., Statistics, Operations Research, **Bioinformatics**, Economics, Computational Biology...\n 2 years of work experience in data analysis related field.\n Experience with statistical software (e.g., **R, Python**, ...\n PhD degree \n</code></pre>\n<p>May need to get a cert, probably R, to move toward Data Scientist. Probably an online mini-degree, Udemy or such, course in Data Science.\nNote, above is not in anyway a medical field/biology position.</p>\n<p>I would search for statistic, data scientist, type postions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 182839, "author": "Hilmar", "author_id": 5418, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/5418", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a difficult transition to make.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Is there a market for ... ?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>If you mean &quot;do hiring managers actively look for life scientist to fill regular SW dev positions?&quot;, the answer is &quot;no&quot;.</p>\n<p>Hiring managers look for</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Technical skills required by the specific role</li>\n<li>Culture fit between candidate and org</li>\n<li>Organizational awareness &amp; experience in the specific type of business as needed by the role.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>The better you map to these requirements, the higher the chance that you get a foot in the door. The key to making a significant career transition is to land the first job in the field leveraging as much of your existing skills and experiences as possible.</p>\n<p>Things to consider:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Look for jobs that use some of your relevant skills\n<ol>\n<li>Something in academia or something that frequently interacts with academia</li>\n<li>Something that works with data or topics from life sciences</li>\n<li>Something that with data with similar properties or features where the algorithms you already know may come in handy</li>\n<li>Leverage your existing network as much as possible: Who reads the publication you write? Who shows up at conferences and meetings? Who is active on message boards and societies you are part of, etc.</li>\n</ol>\n</li>\n<li>Make sure you learn about &quot;professional&quot; dev practices. Code architecture and structure, unit testing, nightly builds, release processes &amp; life cycle, tools like Jira &amp; Confluence, schedule and delivery management, requirements capture, scrum, etc. Any real examples of your work you can point to here would be quite helpful.</li>\n<li>Have a good story to tell about the reason you want to change.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>The better you can hit these points, the easier it will be to land the first job. Once you are &quot;in&quot; things get a lot easier: you start accumulating relevant experiences and skill and build a network in your new field.</p>\n<p>This may take some considerable effort and time (and could be frustrating at times). You are competing with people at the same skill level who are considerably younger and fit most target profiles a lot better. Patience and diligence is the key here.</p>\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n<p>P.S. I did a similar transition (post doc to industry at 34) and it worked out great. My &quot;way in&quot; was the network that I had and finding a company that had strong business interest in my field of research.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 182841, "author": "DJClayworth", "author_id": 886, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/886", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is always a market for good computer scientists. However if you switch to just being 'a software developer&quot; you will be up against people with degrees in the subject, possibly advanced degrees, and with five years of experience. Five years is a lot in the CS world. With the skills you have listed you will be looking at entry level and intern positions at best. That will involve a pay cut, and that cut will trail you for a long time.</p>\n<p>However you will find that particular industries are always looking for people with adequate software development skills but also the skills needed in their industry.\nTwo examples:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>I worked for a company writing complex mathematical software, which recruited people with math doctorates to write their core algorithms. Those people didn't need excellent software skills, but the core of their work was writing software. Regular software engineers couldn't do the job. (I know because I was one of the regular software developers in the next door team - my Math Bachelors was enough for me to sometimes understand what these people were doing, but not to do it myself).</li>\n<li>A friend of mine finished his doctorate in physics of microwaves (not the ovens!) and couldn't get an academic position, so he got a job with a firm that made microwave devices (again, not the ovens). He had little software experience, but he is doing a job which mostly involves software development. His knowledge of the field outweighs his software inexperience.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>So my advice is <strong>there are always people looking for software development positions where your non-software development skills are valuable</strong>. They are not always easy to find, because they don't advertise in the same places where regular software firms advertise. Instead look at firms that are active in your industry, and look to see if they are advertising for software-related jobs.</p>\n<p>One likely place is universities. Researchers often want people to write software for them, and an understanding of the field really helps.</p>\n<p>It's perfectly possible to make this transition gradually, finding a position where you are doing <em>some</em> software development related to your field and gradually increase the amount that is software development.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/182835", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/132993/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 182973, "author": "Philip Kendall", "author_id": 14388, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14388", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've said it before and I'll say it again: <strong>You're not at work to do what you want to do, you're at work to do what your employer wants you to do</strong></p>\n<p>It's clear your company (I'm guessing some kind of outsourced consultancy?) wants you to work on each of these skills for a short time. If you want to work on one skill for a longer time, you have two options:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Talk to your manager and have a discussion about your goals. Maybe there are other projects you can work on which focus on one skill for a longer time.</li>\n<li>Find a different job which does let you work on one skill for a year or more.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 182993, "author": "Xavier J", "author_id": 13470, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/13470", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you're paying for these course on your own <strong>and</strong> doing the coursework at night, you are allowing yourself to be abused.</p>\n<p>You sound, with all due respect, young and inexperienced. If the company values these skills they want you to learn, they'll make an investment by allowing you to learn them during work hours, and <em>maybe</em> paying for training if there's not enough material online for you to learn from in an efficient manner. But they're betting on your inexperience, and this is <em>why</em> they can make demands such as you learning all these skills at once.</p>\n<p>The technologies you've mentioned are far enough to learn <em>separately</em> but as you're sensing, you're not going to gain any real proficiency in the way the company wants you to proceed.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/182972", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/124301/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 183464, "author": "FooTheBar", "author_id": 94226, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/94226", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>His proposal is wrong, but that's quite obvious.</p>\n<p>The even weirder part is the vesting. Vesting makes sense if you get the shares on top of your normal salary and lose that Bonus if you leave early. You'd however pay the normal market price for the shares so why should you even lose this money when you leave? (or worse, when they decide to fire you?)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 183469, "author": "Gregory Currie", "author_id": 59502, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/59502", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Nobody is right or wrong. There are no rules regarding what needs to happen. It just comes down to what is written in the contract. If Bob is being clear exactly how the maths is going to be worked out, you can hardly say he is working in bad faith.</p>\n<p>If equity is part of your <strong>salary</strong> (e.g. ongoing) you'd get it every year. But each equity &quot;package&quot; would be spread out the next 3 years.</p>\n<pre><code>Year 1: $120 Salary, $40 Equity. ($40 Year 1)\nYear 2: $120 Salary, $80 Equity. ($40 Year 1, $40 Year 2)\nYear 3: $120 Salary, $120 Equity. ($40 Year 1, $40 Year 2, $40 Year 3)\nYear 4: $120 Salary, $120 Equity. ($40 Year 2, $40 Year 3, $40 Year 4)\nYear 5: $120 Salary, $120 Equity. ($40 Year 3, $40 Year 4, $40 Year 5)\n...\n</code></pre>\n<p>If the equity is a <strong>signing bonus</strong>, or <strong>one-off payment</strong>:</p>\n<pre><code>Year 1: $120 Salary, $40 Equity. ($40 Signing Bonus)\nYear 2: $120 Salary, $40 Equity. ($40 Signing Bonus)\nYear 3: $120 Salary, $40 Equity. ($40 Signing Bonus)\nYear 4: $120 Salary, $0 Equity.\nYear 5: $120 Salary, $0 Equity.\n...\n</code></pre>\n<p>Whatever you figure out, you need to probably spend the couple of hundred dollars and speak with your accountant, or some expert in this area and get their opinion.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/183461", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/133617/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 185436, "author": "sf02", "author_id": 93810, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/93810", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>For a night job however, would it feel natural for people to specify their due hours of work to the day the shift starts, or would that be confusing?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Forget about &quot;day&quot; and &quot;night&quot; jobs, concentrate on shifts. The employee will presumably be required to work X hours during their shift regardless of what time in the day ( or night ) that the shift starts.</p>\n<p>Any hours worked over the X amount during their shift is their overtime. Whether the shift started at 10 AM or 10 PM, just attribute the hours to the date that the shift started.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 185444, "author": "Xavier J", "author_id": 13470, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/13470", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is bordering on silly. In the United States, Canada, and likely other countries, the word &quot;overtime&quot; has a clear definition in both federal and state/provincial laws. You don't get to magically redefine what it means or how it's calculated. The calculation can actually vary with each state or province, and it's inscribed into law so that every business is working by the same set of rules.</p>\n<p>I suggest you go back to whoever assigned you this work you're doing and clarify the goal you're trying to achieve, but first you should research the actual overtime law for your location, and walk into the meeting more informed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 185445, "author": "motosubatsu", "author_id": 64903, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/64903", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From how I understand this your aim is to provide a tool for people to use to track their contracted and overtime hours - the problem is there's no single &quot;correct&quot; answer to this - how overtime hours are attributed potentially depends on many factors. Company policies, local laws, union agreements, the workers individual employment contract and work pattern.</p>\n<p>I've worked in organisations that have literally <em>hundreds</em> of different work patterns - many of which calculate things like &quot;overtime&quot; very, very differently. And those that work patterns involving overnight work can be the most complicated, dare I say arcane.</p>\n<p>So while</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>For the purpose of this question I will therefore define overtime to be:</p>\n<p>overtime = actual_hours_of_work - due_hours_of_work</p>\n<p>with actual_hours_of_work: the time one actually spend working and due_hours_of_work: the contractually agreed hours of work.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><em>sounds</em> nice and simple - it's actually far too simplistic to be useful, at all.</p>\n<p>So if you want to calculate overtime for someone you need to know how overtime hours are calculated for that person, in that job, at that company and in that locale. Anything else is going to be a pretty rough approximation at best.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 185448, "author": "Steve", "author_id": 117355, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/117355", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I think the general balance of opinion is that, if there is a need (or desire) to attribute the working hours of a shift to a single calendar day, then as a starting point you should treat the hours as falling into the calendar day when the shift started.</p>\n<p>You may however have specific reasons to vary from this.</p>\n<p>Also, it shouldn't be assumed that this principle would apply to payroll calculations.</p>\n<p>A payroll calendar will be defined by a company to apply to a specific group of workers, and there is no general standard that can be assumed.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/185433", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/135123/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 186089, "author": "Joel Etherton", "author_id": 10553, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/10553", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Your resume is obviously not the problem. You're getting looked at for roles. You're making it through interviews, and you're getting offers. I would say your &quot;work ethic&quot; needs work.</p>\n<p>Showing up on time or early isn't work ethic. Getting your job done as it's expected to be done is work ethic. Some questions to ask yourself:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are you learning what they need you to learn?</li>\n<li>Are you learning it within expected timeframes?</li>\n<li>What feedback did you get? How did you respond to it?</li>\n<li>Are you able to absorb information in a self-sufficient manner?</li>\n<li>Is the mentorship you require a drag on the people around you?</li>\n<li>What is your bug return rate on code you delivered?</li>\n<li>What level are common comments in code reviews you've received?</li>\n<li>How much of your code has gone to production?</li>\n<li>Does anyone ask YOU any questions?</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Very few people care about your certificates or that you went back to school. They want to know one thing: Can you deliver? You need to be a value add to any team you join regardless of your level, and judging by your results you have not been that. Reading this post, I see a lot of excuses, and I don't see any accountability. As @JoeStrazerre asked: Have you tried reaching out to former coworkers to ask them what you could have done better?</p>\n<p>Have you tried cataloging previous feedback and think about how you responded to it? Did you argue and make excuses or did you buckle up and focus on the change? Think about what you did to make a change regarding that feedback. You should be able to list the specific actions you took that were expected to lead to that result.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 186090, "author": "Hilmar", "author_id": 5418, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/5418", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As Joel already pointed out, the resume it's not your problem. The problem is that you have no clue what's happening and why.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&quot;not a skills match&quot;</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>That's just a non-committal phrase that doesn't mean anything. If you got terminated multiple times in short order it's unlikely to be related to actual technical skills (or lack thereof). Skills typically are the easiest things to vet during the interview process and while a major gap can fall through the cracks once, it's very unlikely to happen consistently.</p>\n<p>It's more likely that there is a problem with your communication style, behavior, work or collaborations style, quality or timing of deliverables, planning/tracking, etc. Unless you figure out what that is and address it, you are prone just to repeat the cycle.</p>\n<p>Next time around I would recommend</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Make sure you ask a lot of question during the interview process. Make sure that you understand what skill level is required. Be open, honest &amp; accurate about your own skill set: don't oversell, don't undersell.</li>\n<li>Ask for a regular check in meetings. Once a week is good. During the check in meeting ask for feedback &quot;What's working, what's not?&quot; &quot;What should I be doing differently?&quot; &quot;How can I improve?&quot;</li>\n<li>Track your own work, deliverables and progress formally (if your employer doesn't do it anyway). Make sure there is a written plan that's agreed upon up front by all parties involved. Look for employers that use Scrum, Sprints, Jira etc and if they don't, just do it yourself. You want to make sure that you know when you are falling behind</li>\n<li>Ask for feedback after each deliverable. &quot;What could I be doing better next time?&quot;</li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/186088", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/135742/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 186602, "author": "Philip Kendall", "author_id": 14388, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14388", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You've done everything right. Personally, I would send one last mail to the client along the lines of</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As I have previously stated, I cannot help you with this project - you should contact some.person@your.previous.company</p>\n<p>Please do not contact me about this again.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>but the other option would just be to ignore them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 186604, "author": "Sourav Ghosh", "author_id": 61983, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61983", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p><em>But, the client kept insisting that the people associated &amp; server management team, etc. are not helping them and that I would help them.</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Well, to look at it from a professional angle - <strong>not your problem</strong>.</p>\n<p>The client is not of yours, but to the organisation. If the organisation is not capable enough to handle their own problem (in terms of client questions), the client should find a new vendor. You really cannot do anything about it.</p>\n<p>Even with all the good intentions, if you try to communicate with the client on the technical side of the work/ project, you might be very well violating some form of NDA or confidentiality clause (yes, even if you do not have access to the code / design / deployment and you know them by heart), and you do not have the authority anymore (example - you don't know the status of the contract, or whether they even have a running contract at all).</p>\n<h3>Do not engage.</h3> \n<p>Just keep repeating the refusal statement, along the lines what <a href=\"https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/186602/61983\">Philip said in the other answer</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 186605, "author": "gnasher729", "author_id": 16101, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/16101", "pm_score": 7, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Send an email to the client and CC'd to your old employer, stating that you don't work for the old employer anymore, that according to the old company's guidelines you retained no relevant information, and that even if you did it would be a huge violation of the old company's confidence to pass any such information on.</p>\n<p>Add that you do not know what the relationship between the client and the old employer is, and that as far as you are concerned, the client might not be entitled to any of that information at all. Then add that you will send any further correspondence directly to the old company's legal department.</p>\n<p>PS. You definitely wouldn’t have any login credentials unless your employer explicitly told you to take that kind of information with you. In writing, obviously. If you had, you wouldn’t admit to it. (I did though have the phone once that was used for two-factor authentication for a forgotten account. To recover the account, the company had to enter all kinds of information that was stored in a safe place, then a six digit code was sent to my phone, which I gave over the phone to an ex-colleague, who was then able to change the number for 2FA. )</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 186628, "author": "akhmeteli", "author_id": 25694, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/25694", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am not sure what <strong>you</strong> think about the past project. You explain that you don't have any right to do anything on this project, but if there were no such problem, would you be inclined to help the past client? If yes, then maybe you could tell the client that you might help him if (1) you have authorization from your previous company and (2) if you are paid - by the client or by the company. If the client cannot get the authorization for you from the company, it's his problem.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 186631, "author": "ghellquist", "author_id": 82169, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/82169", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You have good answers already on what to do if you do not want to help.</p>\n<p>But if, for your own personal reasons, would like to help out?</p>\n<p>Stop one would be to inform your new employer about the situation (you are loyal to them) and ask for guidance.</p>\n<p>In the larger picture there are four parties involved that need to be aware of each other and in agreement:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p>The client should contact your old company as the work has to go through them or at a minimum be allowed. This is the only way you can get a release to actually work on the product (as you have signed agreements to not do it). The client needs to be clear on how to compensate you and/or the old company and/or your new company.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>The old company should give you an assignment / contract work or at a minimum a written release to do the work.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Your new company will have to give you a permit to work &quot;on the side&quot; on your own time, or if you do consulting time they could charge for your time. Asking for guidance from them is probably a plus for you as it shows that you are willing to help your old company as well as abiding by your agreements both with your old and your new employer.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>You will do anything only if both the old company and your new employer are happy and has expressed this in writing. And if you feel that you get the compensation (monetary or other) that makes it worth doing.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/186601", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/124301/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 187479, "author": "Philip Kendall", "author_id": 14388, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/14388", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Option 2, &quot;tell the truth&quot;. Always tell the truth. Anything which involves weaving a web of lies around stuff unravels in the end and leaves you worse off than you started, because now people know the truth and also know you're a liar.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 187480, "author": "Hilmar", "author_id": 5418, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/5418", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>That depends a bit on your country and the local norms around the resume and the cover letter.</p>\n<p>In your case it's probably best to keep the resume factual: list all activities you did in chronological order. Include the coops, the work for a friend period etc. Put the &quot;why&quot; in the cover letter to the extent that it's relevant to the specific position you are applying to.</p>\n<p>You can maybe split the CS bachelor into two slots</p>\n<pre><code>2012-2016 studied CS Software Engineering Specialization \n20??-present. Resumed CS studies. 45/46 courses completed. B.Sc. expected in Summer 2023. \n</code></pre>\n<p>You will most likely get some questions around that. Something like &quot;Why didn't you finish your B.Sc. in 2016? Why did study urban planning if you want to work in Computer Science? Why did you go work for your friend? etc.&quot;. It good for you to anticipate as many question as possible and prepare good answers for them.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/187478", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/124964/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 188472, "author": "Anon", "author_id": 64859, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/64859", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Teams inside teams is a pretty common thing.</p>\n<p>Sometimes this happens cause of same field inside a project, sometimes just because we are human beings and is easier to relate to someone we better align as a person.</p>\n<p>That said, is not basically good or bad, this just happens as we are human.</p>\n<p>Seeing as you divided the stake of the StartUp , you two taking decisions in mathematically enough to make the things work out, and that could be an issue with the other 2 person , that can lead them to perceive themselves as just people who put money in the project without possibility to add something.</p>\n<p>If you really want them to be part of the &quot;decisional team&quot; you can schedule 2 meeting per week in which any decision should be made , and stick to it as an unbreakable rule.</p>\n<p>This way you can still talk with the other founder and discuss 1 on 1 about what you want, but any crucial decision is made in an environment in which the other 2 founders can &quot;use&quot; their stakes and give feedback without the idea of being left behind.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 188474, "author": "Hilmar", "author_id": 5418, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/5418", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>What could be some productive steps we could take in our situation to ensure that our chances for success are maximized?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Clarify roles and responsibilities. Make sure you clearly spell out how gets to decide what and who needs to be in the loop as &quot;decision maker&quot; or &quot;to be informed&quot; or &quot;not at all&quot;. Ask for feedback on how this works for everyone on a regular basis.</p>\n<p>The whole point behind having multiple people is so you work on different things simultaneously. Having everybody involved in every discussion and decision defeats the entire purpose and doesn't scale.</p>\n<p>So just set clear rules of how things should work and adjust if necessary.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 188508, "author": "Sebastian Dahl", "author_id": 137284, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/137284", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I do not see this as harmful. As long as you do not spread rumours, it is not a big deal. Because I have a quite negative experience on that topic in my past job. This actually was the reason why I got fired(((</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/188471", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 189374, "author": "keshlam", "author_id": 12989, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/12989", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general the school will reply correctly to inquiries from companies even if the paper hasn't yet been printed.</p>\n<p>If the concern is that the school may answer more accurately than you would prefer: Employers are very used to handling applications from students who are in &quot;candidate for degree&quot; status rather than technically having been granted the degree. They're going to look at the transcript anyway; if you have decent grades they'll see that. I have many friends who were hired before getting their sheepskin, had a hang-up of some sort and never technically graduated (*), and it wasn't a problem since they were already demonstrating that they had the skills. And once you have a few years of real experience, an incomplete degree really makes no difference; again, it's a matter of whether you can do the job, not how you learned to do so.</p>\n<p>I wouldn't worry about it.</p>\n<p>(*: <em>ABD</em>: All But Degree)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189387, "author": "TheDemonLord", "author_id": 135652, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/135652", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would start sending out applications, I wouldn't say I have a Masters degree, but I would put something like 'pending' or put an explanation in my Cover letter that you've completed all the course work and waiting on validation.</p>\n<p>Key point is not to lie that you have a validated degree, but there's nothing to stop you from applying - if they do a phone interview - you can discuss this point - perhaps talk about what sort of marks you were getting for course work (e.g. if you were nailing all the other aspects of your degree and give them the impression that the validation is a mere formality at this stage) - and if they absolutely need a degree - then you can give them time frames - they may be okay to wait, they may not - they may talk with the University, they may not.</p>\n<p>I would apply and then see how far I get.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189389, "author": "Job_September_2020", "author_id": 119348, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/119348", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>Should I wait for said degree to be validated to start searching for work?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>You should search for jobs now.</p>\n<p>You should also update your resume to indicate that you are <strong>expected</strong> to get your degree in October 2023.</p>\n<p>For example, you can add the following info to your resume:</p>\n<pre><code>University ABCD\nMS in Computer Science (Expected October 2023).\n</code></pre>\n<p>Then, during the job interviews, you can explain in more details to the recruiters or hiring managers to make sure that everything is transparent.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/189371", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/95733/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 189666, "author": "rhoonah", "author_id": 101258, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/101258", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>First you need to accept that you cannot keep everyone happy given that you moved from a job that you clearly no longer wanted to do to a job that you want to do and you have someone dragging you back to the job you do not want to do. So either you are left unhappy by helping with a job you do not want to do or the new person is left unhappy by you refusing to assist in the old job.</p>\n<p>So the question becomes, who do you want to leave more unhappy? You or the new person? Has management provided you with any expectation of you assisting the new person?</p>\n<p>At the end of the day you are the only person who can decide how much time and energy you are willing to put into training the new person to do your old job. I find it reasonable to answer the occasional general question but that can quickly escalate into feeling like you are back in your old role. Given that you want to be helpful, then establish some boundaries for yourself and offer assistance up to those boundaries. If the new person attempts to cross them then let him/her know that you are not able to assist in more in-depth questions and possibly point them in the right direction to another resource, etc.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189668, "author": "keshlam", "author_id": 12989, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/12989", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What you need to know is how much time your own management wants you to spend on that vs your other obligations. The only way to determine that is to ask your manager, I''m afraid, sensitive or not. It's up to them to negotiate that with the other person's manager.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189670, "author": "motosubatsu", "author_id": 64903, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/64903", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Since A &amp; B are both part of the same overall organisation the answer is essentially - help A as much as you can so long as doing so doesn't detriment B.</p>\n<p>If the amount of support A needs is reaching the point where it's starting to impact on your work for B then you'll need to make a call as to whether you approach your manager at B to say that you need to do some additional knowledge transfer to A and you're going to need to take X hours time to do that or you have to decline to help A further and cite that you've got to focus on your work at B.</p>\n<p>The third option would be to explain to your replacement at A that you'd be more than happy to help but since you are now working for B you suggest that they ask <em>their</em> manager at A to seek approval from <em>your</em> manager at B to spare you for additional training time. Doing this gets you off the hook of having to ask your manager to allow you to do the work - but it increases visibility of these issues which your counterpart at A might not want to do. It also adds an additional bureaucratic overhead, which if the support you need to give is small might be excessive.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/189665", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/43680/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 189918, "author": "virolino", "author_id": 98881, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/98881", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The world is full of systems similar (one way or another) with the system you describe. Most of the times, they have these 2 faces:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>The face visible to the developers: it is an unmaintainable time bomb, it has to be rewritten.</li>\n<li>The face visible to management and customers: it does what is needed, it already fixed all the bugs found in the past.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Additionally, there is never enough documentation describing all the requirements, all the bugs, all the <em>fixed</em> bugs etc.</p>\n<p>It means that re-writing the application from scratch with all the benefits and none of the problems is largely impossible.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>everything needs to be rewritten in modern technology</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Adobe Flash was once a &quot;modern technology&quot; which is now dead beyond doubt, with mostly no chance for revival. A lot of technologies went (and will go) the same way. &quot;Modern&quot; does not necessarily mean better.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I will be of course on the chopping block</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>That sounds highly exaggerated, in the context:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>new employer</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>So, if you are the new guy, why is your head in danger? If they are even remotely reasonable and intelligent, they already know what they have. If they are not, then you should run away as soon and as fast as possible.</p>\n<hr />\n<blockquote>\n<p>New employer's code is a timebomb of epic proportions. How to deal with this accordingly?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>There is only one way to do it: <strong>evolution, not revolution</strong>. Re-write the code one &quot;bug&quot; at a time. Each time make sure that the behavior did not change for the final customer. To guarantee that, get the final customer in the loop - after you have the agreement of your employer.</p>\n<p>With enough time and with enough patience, peace will come. Either you will accept and embrace the facts, or you will change the facts for the better. The world can indeed be better.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>Note: you say there:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I got a new employer</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>That makes me understand that you are not the right person to re-write that application. A properly-minded person would have written something like:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I just started a new job</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>or</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I am new at this job</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>But you moved your &quot;new-ness&quot; on the shoulders of your employer.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>Additionally you wrote:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>everything needs to be rewritten</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>and</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>How can I make this absolutely clear to my non-coder employer...</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>The tone of your statements are quite on the offensive side. You already consider that your <em>&quot;4+ years of experience under my belt though&quot;</em> gives you the right to be the boss of your employer and make decisions for him. He might have made some bad decisions in the past, but on the other hand those bad decisions pay for your bread today. You should have a constructive attitude, instead of a dominant one. Just saying.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189919, "author": "JayZ", "author_id": 86696, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/86696", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Security is never an issue. The risk, outcome of breach X probability, is the issue.\nMaybe someone can make the application crash and so what? Do you need 5 nines uptime? Can sensible data be accessed? Can an invader remote control?</p>\n<p>The first thing to do is to casually talk about this to people in charge or on the project from a long time and dissociate the topics. Examples:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Security: &quot;Hey (Project) Manager. I found a few thing in the code or the infrastructure that may be exploited by hackers. Are you aware of this? What is the stance of the project/client/company on cybersecurity&quot;</li>\n<li>Outdated stack: &quot;Hey X. Do you know why we are still using framework 4.5 that is not supported anymore? Is there a migration plan?</li>\n</ul>\n<p>On the security aspect: Maybe people are not aware of the risks. Or maybe they decided it was not worth to do. Is they are not aware you can offer to discuss with them about the risks (probability and outcomes) of leaving it at it is and work with them the potential financial loss. If they already decided the cost is too high, you will just have to accept it.</p>\n<p>On the outdated technology aspect: Unfortunately it more often the case than not that companies work with outdated technologies, software or practices. Often the upfront cost to train people or change technology is seen as &quot;too high&quot; when the accumulated cost of maintaining such technology and the loss of productivity is much higher. My experience is that it's a lost cause. Bring it up once, then keep it to yourself of leave if you don't want to lose your skills on up to date stacks. If you are lucky you may be able to talk with someone that both agree with you and have the power to direct the changes.</p>\n<p>In both cases it doesn't mean you can't code properly and securely. Just do it for any new code you introduce or old code you have to update but don't try to do more than what you are expected.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189920, "author": "Benjamin", "author_id": 101432, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/101432", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In your message, you are mixing up 3 concerns:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>security</li>\n<li>usability</li>\n<li>maintenance</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Managers need 2 things:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>What does this mean?</li>\n<li>How do we solve it?</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Example:\nOnce Users are logged in, their permissions aren't checked anymore, which means they can read/write stuff they are not supposed to. For example: (Insert the most horrible concrete example you can think of).\nE.g. users might see that PayPal account of others, including passwords, and steal money.</p>\n<p>The concrete example is important. I once worked on a project which all developers objected to. We told the PMs that the partner company can see all the users data. They said it's fine, the users agree to this via contract.\nOnce a PM found out that all the data included PayPal passwords, the project was shortly thereafter cancelled and never saw the light of day^^\n(No, we didn't save PayPal passwords, that partner company did some shopping proxy thing.)</p>\n<p>Example Solution:\nUsers permissions must be checked against database every time they do something, and get a permission denied if their permissions aren't sufficient.\nEstimated effort: 4 weeks (or whatever)</p>\n<p>2nd example:\nOutdated framework -\nIs it actively maintained with bugfixes?\nIs there are clear update path?\nAre there security issues with the old version?\nThere's a difference if we're talking 2 years old version that still gets security fixes, or a 10 year old version that's completely unmaintained.</p>\n<p>Same thing:\nFramework X is used in version 4.5.\nIt doesn't get any security updates anymore.\nSince there are 4 known security bugs that wont get fixed anymore, we are currently at risk for any hacker who looks at us longer than a few hours.\nSince a lot of details changed between versions 4.5 and 10, we would need to change a lot of code.\nThis means the whole effort is an estimated 4 months.</p>\n<p>Do this for each and every thing you find.\nMake sure to highlight any uncertainties you have, so that people know 4 months estimate is an estimate, and not a magical solution to fix all problems that 100% wont take a single day longer than 4 months.</p>\n<p>After you written all this down, make sure to have a meeting with your appropriate manager, and that this is understood. Take meeting notes.</p>\n<p>This does several things:\nYou cover yourself, because you have in writing that you raised this issues.\nYour managers now have actionable decisions to make.\nThese things can be individually evaluated and prioritised.\nOther developers can chime in, and propose different solutions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189929, "author": "EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine", "author_id": 61906, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/61906", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You have several separate issues here.</p>\n<p>First, you have the security issues, which seems like it may be the most pressing issue. Make sure you document, in writing, what those are and what the risks are.</p>\n<p>Second, the fact that errors are just &quot;swallowed.&quot; This is actually several problems: first, the usability issues for end users. Secondly, the lack of logging makes later debugging difficult or impossible. Third, is there any chance that this could result in inconsistent data?</p>\n<p>Third, the lack of separation between QA and Production. It's not clear to me exactly what the problem is here; are you saying that this causes performance problems, that it's a potential security issue, or that you could accidentally introduce problems into Production while you're developing? Make sure that you're as specific as possible about which one it is.</p>\n<p>When communicating it, I strongly recommend not communicating it as &quot;the guys who wrote this are incompetent morons.&quot; Even if it's true, doing so won't win you any friends. If you can't communicate this to management in a way that they're able to be receptive to, knowing this won't do you any good. Overt hostility is rarely, if ever, helpful to any situation (even if not directed at the listener).</p>\n<p>Be sure to explain this to management in a way that they can understand. Deal with each issue separately, and explain why it's an issue. Don't conflate all of the problems you're seeing.</p>\n<p>Also, I strongly recommend against a complete rewrite. Complete rewrites are rarely a good idea. Also, you don't need to switch frameworks - just migrate to a newer version of the same framework. You appear to be using .NET; .NET 6 and .NET 7 are available now. I just migrated a .NET Core 3.1 app to .NET 7 and didn't have any problems doing so - it was a simple process that probably took half an hour or so. Be sure to document why you're doing the change (in my case, I just created a Jira task to do the migration, which stated that it needed to be migrated because .NET Core 3.1 went out of long-term support in December 2021).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 189930, "author": "David Fass", "author_id": 77494, "author_profile": "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/77494", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can't do EVERYTHING...you might not be able to completely start over from scratch using a newer code framework, because the management might decide that's too expensive/time consuming.</p>\n<p>You definitely can bring the issues up and explain WHY things need to be done.</p>\n<p>Definitely, you could go function by function and log into your tracking system your 'issues' with the functions and business logic. E.g. permissions are not checked, so somebody could do something.</p>\n<p>One thing you could do is set 'logging' function/service and log errors/exceptions and possibly set logging levels. So, production services might only log 'critical errors' (e.g. crash level errors) while developers could log 'debugging' messages (e.g. I am here calling this function with these values), which would be useful. Then you could track in your system, &quot;I added a logging system&quot; and while you might still be &quot;Doing nothing with exceptions/errors&quot;, you would at least be able to say that it was Raised--so if a customer couldn't find their business object and called the help desk/productions support -- maybe the 'issue' could be found faster and resolved, especially if you could find what went wrong.</p>\n<p>And adding logging could be a fast/cheap bandaid thing you could justify doing, just to say we want to see what's going on in the code.</p>\n<p>Do log / track EVERYTHING wrong...just so you can later say &quot;I told you that this would be an issue and don't blame me if it does, I warned you&quot;...\nYou may not be allowed to do everything you want to, but, at least it'd be documented.</p>\n<p>You could try to slowly fix the most egregious issues using the current frameworks and regression testing them...make sure things work 'correctly' and work together.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/189917", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com", "https://workplace.stackexchange.com/users/138675/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 640, "author": "ArtOfCode", "author_id": 2685, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2685", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<h1>Where is the Sandbox?</h1>\n<p><strong>The current Sandbox is located on <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/q/9981/40609\">this meta post</a>. A list of all Sandboxes can be found on the <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/635/sandbox-for-proposed-questions-2014-2017\">original Sandbox post</a>.</strong> Proposed questions should be posted as answers to the <strong>current</strong> Sandbox.</p>\n<h1>Why should I use the Sandbox?</h1>\n<p>You might be thinking, perhaps, why would you stage questions on the sandbox instead of posting them directly?</p>\n<p>To answer this, let's see what could happen if you post it directly:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>If your question is incomplete, it will probably be quickly closed.</li>\n<li>If people think that some point of the question is unclear, they will complain about it in comments and down vote your question.</li>\n<li>You might edit your question and fix the problems pointed out by commenters, but some down votes will not get retracted.</li>\n<li>If your question has some point that is unclear or vague, some people may misunderstand it and post some bad answers, leading to unnecessary arguments, down votes and frustration.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>The sandbox is intended to mitigate all those problems.</p>\n<h1>How does the Sandbox work?</h1>\n<ol>\n<li>You get an idea for a nice question for this site, but aren't sure of its format or structure.</li>\n<li>You post an answer to the sandbox. Your answer to the sandbox should contain the question that you are proposing. It is ok if your question is still incomplete.</li>\n<li>After you post it there, people will give suggestions to improve your question and point out potential problems.</li>\n<li>You fix the problems, improving your question.</li>\n<li>When people agree that it is good, they will up vote it here in the sandbox; you should wait until a sufficient number of people seem to support your proposed question via voting and commenting before posting it on the main site.</li>\n<li>Now that you know that most of the problems are worked out, you post it in the main site.\nFurthermore, the sandbox allows you to suggest improvements for questions from other people too. Upvote other people's questions when you think that they are ready.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>When you post your question on the main site, edit the post here. You should remove the body and tags of your question, leaving the title and a link to the question on the main site. Then delete the post, and add a link to your question on main to the list of graduated that is the accepted community wiki answer on the current Sandbox. Currently the list for graduated posts is <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4858/28789\">this community wiki</a>.</p>\n<h1>How should I review proposals?</h1>\n<p>You can contribute to the community by reviewing proposals to help them get ready for posting. Here is some advice to make your reviewing more productive and more helpful:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sort the sandbox by active</strong>. While the Sandbox is young this may not make a huge difference, but as it grows, you'll see more active posts instead of just well-received posts.</li>\n<li><strong>Read the sandbox notes</strong>. For incomplete questions, the author should leave sandbox notes (see What should the format of Sandbox posts be?, below). Read these notes; if the author knows there's something to be done you don't need to tell them. Similarly, if you think the author has missed something, point it out.</li>\n<li><strong>Go through the close-vote reasons</strong>. You want to make sure that the question, if posted in its current form, won't fall victim to a harsh close-voter. Check that it doesn't come under any of the close reasons (or close flag reasons, if you can't yet close-vote).</li>\n<li><strong>Upvote complete proposals</strong>. You can also comment to indicate your approval. When a question gathers enough support it will be posted to the main site, so make sure you show when it's ready.</li>\n</ul>\n<h1>What should the format of sandbox posts be (title, tags, body)?</h1>\n<p>Questions do not have to come in an absolute format, but some general guidance makes it easier to use the Sandbox. In general, questions should include the title, tags and body. You can also use sandbox notes to show points about the question. Here's a general template:</p>\n<pre><code># My Question Title\n[tag:some-tag] [tag:other-descriptive-tag]\n\nHere goes the body of your question, literally as you intend to post it on main.\nIncomplete sections and notes intended only for the sandbox phase can be denoted\nas follows: [**Sandbox note:** I still need to add test cases.]\n\n-----\n\n## Sandbox Questions\n\nIn this section at the end you can put a few general sentences/questions aimed at\nreviewers in the sandbox, e.g. asking for specific feedback on parts of your question.\nAny thoughts you have about the question should also go here for the community to give\nyou feedback on.\n</code></pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 657, "author": "ArtOfCode", "author_id": 2685, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2685", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Answer Sandbox</h1>\n<p>For the most part, the guidance in the other post can also be applied to the answer sandbox. However, the format of posts in the <a href=\"http://meta.worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/656/sandbox-for-proposed-answers\">Answer Sandbox</a> should be slightly different.</p>\n<pre><code># [Title of the question](link to question)\n\nHere goes the body of your answer, literally as you intend to post it on main.\nIncomplete sections and notes intended only for the sandbox phase can be denoted\nas follows: [**Sandbox note:** I still need to add test cases.]\n\n-----\n\n## Sandbox Questions\n\nIn this section at the end you can put a few general sentences/questions aimed at\nreviewers in the sandbox, e.g. asking for specific feedback on parts of your answer.\nAny thoughts you have about the answer should also go here for the community to give\nyou feedback on.\n</code></pre>\n<p>Please see the <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help/formatting\">formatting guide</a> in the help center for further help with Markdown formatting.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/639", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2685/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2401, "author": "Vincent", "author_id": 147, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/147", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Some appear to be borderline according to the <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic\">help page</a>. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>For example, questions are welcome that are about:</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<pre><code>Creation of elements of a world (languages, species, buildings, etc.)\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Weapons are elements of the world but the questions should also include how the elements helps defining/altering the world. If the sole focus of the question is only about the weapon, then I believe it's not a worldbuilding question. If your not sure but you think it's off-topic, you can flag it. If enough high reputation users agrees with you, it's probably off-topic. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2403, "author": "clem steredenn", "author_id": 9685, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9685", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would say what @MonicaCelio usually writes (occasionally to me): if you think something is off-topic, vote to close it. People may or may not follow your lead, but you should help maintain a consistency throughout the site. Recent cases have shown that sometimes off-topic sometimes evade the usual voters/mods. If you are unsure about a certain question, do ask on meta about it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2404, "author": "DaaaahWhoosh", "author_id": 6507, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6507", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's possible that some of these weapons are <em>already</em> integrated into the world, and the askers are just asking how to plausibly account for them. For instance, my question about <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/21822/how-to-make-a-sound-gun\">a sound gun</a> is based around a weapon I wanted to have in my world, and I just wanted to know how it would work, or if it was plausible.</p>\n\n<p>Come to think of it, I assume that's what the <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/reality-check\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;reality-check&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">reality-check</a> tag is for: questions not specifically about worldbuilding, but about building individual aspects of that world that you'd like to have, but aren't sure are possible. In many cases, I don't think it's necessary to flesh out why you're using the weapon or what other aspects of the world exist, so long as you provide the materials available for the construction of said weapon. </p>\n\n<p>Allow me to point out <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2101/do-questions-have-to-be-for-some-greater-cause\">this question</a>, where the accepted answer pretty much states that you don't actually have to have a world in mind when asking a question. As long as that question is on-topic. There might be a chicken-and-egg scenario here. </p>\n\n<p>I admit it's sort of a grey area in many cases, though. I get the feeling we're having way too many 'is this worldbuilding?' questions here on meta, and the answer usually comes down to what you as an individual (with close votes) decide. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2409, "author": "chasly - supports Monica", "author_id": 10759, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10759", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My own preference and the reason I don't tend to vote-to-close except in blatant cases is that I would prefer a relaxation of the rules. I suppose, on reflection, what I'm really doing with this specific question is crying \"Unfair!\" when I am treated strictly and others aren't. </p>\n\n<p>That doesn't mean I want to bring others down with me. Despite the title, I don't object to such questions. I actually think they are very useful.</p>\n\n<p>. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2400", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10759/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2655, "author": "clem steredenn", "author_id": 9685, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9685", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think we should have a strict closing policy, and might have to revise past questions, but we need to agree on what is and what isn't on-topic. To me, questions about</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>the actions of single individual within a given frame/world</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>are <strong>off-topic</strong>. However, the following points would be exceptions</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol>\n <li>The \"individual\" is a person (physics or moral) of authority. Like the government, the defense forces, a widely recognised spiritual leader.</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The reactions of persons of authority participates in the creation of a world. Not so much on a geography level, but more to do with the society of that world. <em>Is the police allowed to send SWAT units for a 7 year-old child stealing a sweet in a sweet shop?</em></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"2\">\n <li>The question implies the modification of the world around the character. </li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Something along the line of <em>What should be changed in the American electing process to allow the previously unkown Joe Average be elected POTUS within a 4 years?</em> Yes it is about the actions of a single individual, but we are focusing on the world around that individual.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2656, "author": "Green", "author_id": 10364, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10364", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Worldbuilding is about creating systems or systems of systems. Character-building or plot-building is about the actions of an individual in a system they cannot alter.</strong> So a question about how the leader of a political uprising might orchestrate a coup would be fine while a question about an underling in that same uprising would not be okay.</p>\n\n<p>There's some gray area here, of course. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Brightline definition:</strong> If the actions of a person role have the capacity to substantially alter the world-system then it's an okay question. If the person is operating in a defined world-system (even if the world system itself may change over time) where that person has no power to change the system then it is an <em>off-topic</em> question and should be closed.</p>\n\n<p>Note the distinction between a person and the role they fill. Mahatma Ghandi is a man but his role was that of political transformer in Indian society. So questions incorporating his role are okay. Questions about who he is independent of that role are off-topic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2657, "author": "DaaaahWhoosh", "author_id": 6507, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6507", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>While Plato has taught me to be wary of simple answers, I want to provide this single criterion:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Questions must not be about a single individual's reaction. \n</code></pre>\n\n<p>This is a lot like the answer to that linked question, but I'd like to elaborate in my own way.</p>\n\n<p>So let's examine some edge cases. As bilbo_pingouin mentioned, we should accept questions about figures of authority. I would say this is somewhat false: we should not answer questions about the reaction of any individual. However, we may answer questions about the <em>authority</em> of these figures, and how they are <em>able</em> to react. Thus, answers will not be about the single individual, but anyone in that position of power, and are more about the power itself than the people holding it. </p>\n\n<p>Similarly, in pingoin's second example, the question is not about the individual, but about the society/world that aids him/her. Since this particular individual could be just about anyone, the question isn't really about just one person, and anyway they're not reacting to anything. Since the individual is the object rather than the subject, more of the action than the reaction, it's fine. </p>\n\n<p>The problem we may run into with this criterion (the only problem I can think of at the moment) is that questions that seek to fulfill it may end up being too broad; after all, how can you tell what the President would do if you can't specify who the president is? To this, I would say that these questions are off-topic for being too broad, or opinion based, or idea generation. Thus, we keep the 'questions about an individual' problem simple by pushing most of the edge cases into other categories. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2662, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Questions about individual actions are a part of the issue (and I agree with other answers that they should be closed if character-specific but possibly not if role-based). But I also think this is one type of broader <em>plot</em> questions.</p>\n\n<p>\"Given this situation, what would people do?\" is often problematic whether we're talking about an individual or a group -- it veers into idea-generation and it feels more like we're collaboratively writing a story than answering questions about building a world. <em>However</em>, \"given this situation and this societal structure, how should we expect this segment of society to react?\" feels more about the world -- or it least it can be. How would a militaristic society respond to a visit from seemingly-peaceful aliens? How would a deeply religious society respond if their god showed up and said \"no, you got it wrong\"? How would an ancient Roman army train to engage a zombie attack? These all feel like they're on the on-topic side of the line to me.</p>\n\n<p>This line is very fuzzy, which is why I brought the question up in chat (thanks for bringing it here!). Most of the examples listed in the question feel like they're on the off-topic side of the line to me, but saying exactly <em>why</em> -- beyond \"plot-building\" -- turns out to be hard.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2654", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9685/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 2903, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://writers.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/cPvvZ.png\" alt=\"Visit Writers Stack Exchange\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2915, "author": "Zizouz212", "author_id": 9228, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9228", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/100985/urban-planning?referrer=op6sMC2p1JNyhN5AgOqmTw2\"><img src=\"https://area51.stackexchange.com/ads/proposal/100985.png\" alt=\"Discuss the real world. Start Urban Planning SE!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2922, "author": "ArtOfCode", "author_id": 2685, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2685", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2878/2685\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Iggrs.png\" alt=\"Share your work on the blog -- we&#39;ll help!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2926, "author": "celtschk", "author_id": 98, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/98", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://medium.com/universe-factory\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/9Ggsp.png\" alt=\"Visit Universe Factory\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2942, "author": "nitsua60", "author_id": 12207, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/12207", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/BUfmt.png\" alt=\"RPG.SE\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3471, "author": "Crissov", "author_id": 11787, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11787", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/89262/constructed-languages\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/TV04f.png\" alt=\"Proposed Q&amp;A site for enthusiasts, developers, students, teachers, polyglots, and anyone else wanting to discuss constructed languages (Esperanto, Volapük, Dovahzul, Vulcan, etc.)\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3625, "author": "kenorb", "author_id": 271, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/271", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"//area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/96086/paranormal\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/lL7s5.png\" alt=\"Paranormal\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3854, "author": "Jesse Williams", "author_id": 19236, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/19236", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/101932/cartography\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Spc8y.png\" alt=\"Help support the Cartography SE in Area 51\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3986, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"//area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/93238\"><img src=\"//area51.stackexchange.com/ads/proposal/93238.png\" alt=\"Support the Literature proposal!\"></a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2902", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4042, "author": "HDE 226868", "author_id": 627, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/627", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's been something like seven months, and I was curious to see if things have changed at all. It turns out they have.</p>\n\n<p>I used the same query with the same minimum rep requirements. Here's what I got, for the top 15 (to one decimal place, rounding):</p>\n\n<pre><code> Stack | March User Overlap | October User Overlap | Change\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n StackOverflow | 53.3% | 49.8% | -3.5%\n SFF | 26.4% | 24.7% | -1.7%\n ELU | 23.0% | 21.0% | -2.0%\n Programmers | 16.4% | 14.3% | -2.1%\n SuperUser | 15.7% | 14.0% | -1.7%\n The Workplace | 15.4% | 14.9% | -0.5%\n RPG | 15.0% | 14.0% | -1.0%\n Meta | 14.8% | 12.7% | -2.1%\n Security | 12.8% | 12.7% | -0.1%\n Gaming | 12.4% | 12.7% | +0.3%\n Physics | 11.7% | 11.1% | -0.6%\n Academia | 11.2% | 10.5% | -0.7%\n Puzzling | 11.0% | 11.9% | +0.9%\n Code Golf | 11.0% | Not in Top 15 (9.0%) | -2.0%\n Maths | 11.0% | 10.3% | -0.7%\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n Travel | Not in Top 15 | 10.5% | ?\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>A couple sites switched places - Code Golf dropped to 16, while Travel rose into the Top 15, and The Workplace and Puzzling saw increases in position. On the whole though - and this is the amazing thing - <strong>most changes were negative</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>This could mean a few things - maybe more people are active on smaller beta sites, and are spread out, but I doubt it - but the conclusion I draw is that we're getting more people who are on Stack Exchange just for Worldbuilding Stack Exchange, and are participating enough to get a decent amount of rep. That's awesome. It means that we're finally attracting people from outside Stack Exchange, rather than just curious passersby who treat us as a novelty.</p>\n\n<p>Is this a small increase? I don't know; the chart shows fluctuations of up to 3.5%, and even 0.5% is non-negligible. But I think it's a good sign that the site is growing. I might run the query again this March to see if we continue to see drops in the percent of users active on other sites, but I think the results I got today are still accurate.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4071, "author": "Brythan", "author_id": 2113, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2113", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This produces interesting results, but I'm not sure that people understand what this means. What this tells us is how many of the Worldbuilding users come from each other site. By its nature, this query tends to produce the highest results from sites with lots of users. If we flip it around and ask how many users on other sites participate on Worldbuilding, we get very different results: </p>\n\n<pre><code>22.41 StackExchange.Hardwarerecs\n22.16 StackExchange.Politics\n21.74 StackExchange.Opensource\n21.43 StackExchange.Ai\n20.65 StackExchange.Mythology\n20.42 StackExchange.Law\n20.42 StackExchange.Space\n19.13 StackExchange.Moderators\n18.64 StackExchange.Crafts\n18.15 StackExchange.Astronomy\n17.79 StackExchange.Lifehacks\n16.55 StackExchange.Health\n16.52 StackExchange.Engineering\n16.33 StackExchange.3dprinting\n15.64 StackExchange.History\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/571747/cross-site-overlap-based-on-the-other-site?minrep=200\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Cross site overlap; based on other site</a></p>\n\n<p>What this query tells us is how many of the other site's active users are active on this site (the original query tells how many of our active users are active on another site). </p>\n\n<p>I like this query better because it pushes Stack Overflow down towards the bottom (few of their active users are active here while many of our users are active there). SF&amp;F moves down to the middle, somewhat behind Writers. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3359", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9685/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3949, "author": "JDługosz", "author_id": 885, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/885", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>sandbox</h1>\n\n<p>Other answers are for sandbox experimentation and discussion. The only way to see what we’re doing is <strong>in a post</strong>. It doesn’t look the same in comments or a chat room.</p>\n\n<h1>vector with subscript name</h1>\n\n<p>What’s the right way to indicate a vector quantity with subscriped name, like p_in for momentum?</p>\n\n<p>HDE 226868 suggests</p>\n\n<pre><code>Would something like $\\vec{p_{\\text{in}}}$ work? \nYou could also just use $\\vec{p}_{\\text{in}}$.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>which formats as</p>\n\n<p>Would something like $\\vec{p_{\\text{in}}}$ work? You could also just use $\\vec{p}_{\\text{in}}$.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3954, "author": "clem steredenn", "author_id": 9685, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9685", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am not sure what you mean really. If you're asking how to represent units (m, s, etc.) in math/physics/... results in general, you should know that there's a norm. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units\" rel=\"nofollow\">International System of Unit</a> (called <em>SI</em> from French).</p>\n\n<p>From the wikipedia page and <a href=\"http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">this nice checklist</a>, we can see a set of rules:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>A value is written with a number, a space and a unit. No end of line can occur between the number and the unit. Exceptions are %, °, \", ' which are written without spaces.</li>\n<li>A unit is mathematical symbol not an abbreviation. So <code>m</code> for metres and not <code>m.</code>.</li>\n<li>A prefix (<code>m</code> for mili, <code>k</code> for kilo, <code>M</code> for mega, etc.) is part of the unit, so no space.</li>\n<li>Different units are combined with a dot (should be centred, as it indicates a multiplication, not decimals) or a space. $\\text{N}\\ \\text{m}$ (<code>$\\text{N}\\ \\text{m}$</code>) or $\\text{N}\\cdot\\text{m}$ (<code>$\\text{N}\\cdot\\text{m}$</code>). In practice, prefer the dots. Normal dots are often easily understood as well.</li>\n<li>Division are given with a <strong>single</strong> slash, or a negative exponent. $\\text{m}/\\text{s}$ (<code>$\\text{m}/\\text{s}$</code>) or $\\text{m}\\cdot\\text{s}^{-1}$ (<code>$\\text{m}\\cdot\\text{s}^{-1}$</code>). No m/s/g: that's two slashes.</li>\n<li>Units named from person should have a capital letter (Pa, Hz, T, K) others shouldn't (m, s, mol, parsec). Exception is litre which can use both.</li>\n<li>No plural form! (no kg<strong>s</strong>).</li>\n<li>Prefixes case is fixed. M means $10^6$ and m means $10^{-3}$. Also no <strong>K</strong>g.</li>\n<li>Units are written in Roman lettres ($\\text{m}$ indicates metre, while $m$ is usually a mass).</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Some conventions might add a few more details.</p>\n\n<ol start=\"10\">\n<li>Variables should be in italic.</li>\n<li><p>I can't write it better than</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Superscripts and subscripts are in italic type if they represent variables, quantities, or running numbers. They are in roman type if they are descriptive.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Like $m_\\text{p}$ is the mass of a proton (descriptive).</p></li>\n<li>log, cos, etc. should be written in Roman lettres: $\\cos x$ (<code>$\\cos x$</code>).</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>A list of standard units and typical symbols for their variables can be found <a href=\"http://www.physics-help.info/physicsguide/appendices/si_units.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Of course all this is valid for SI units (not imperial ones). So if you're more familiar with pounds, yards, cups, etc. You might consider using those instead. You just have to make sure that you are explicit and clear. And still many of the rules above can apply to it.</p>\n\n<p>Hope I answered your question. In any case, I figure it would be something worth having around.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3948", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/885/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4326, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>To me, any question is on-topic when it asks us to employ our <em>imaginations</em> as much or more as our <em>scientific knowledge</em>.</strong></p>\n\n<p>I use an \"alternate situation\" litmus test -- there has to be some aspect of the question that is not about the real world/real universe for it to be valid on Worldbuilding. Alternative history is fine -- something changed, and X occurred instead of Y. Alternative physics -- something changed, and now up is down or somesuch. Alternative whatever. But if the question is just about something that could happen in this world (\"what if Earth were hit by an asteroid?\" for example) then it is off-topic and should move to one of the other Stack Exchanges. \"What if Earth were visited by aliens?\" is something that could happen, but it is still a valid question because it lies outside the current scientific experience. We are called on to extrapolate beyond available data, not just play out a section of the game tree.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4351, "author": "a4android", "author_id": 22159, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22159", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This seems to be primarily cases of the questioners being hesitant or diffident in the way they word the concept they are proposing for their question. Perhaps, they're having an attack of, possibly, false modesty or they're uncertain about how to put their question.</p>\n\n<p>Now reading into this hesitancy that this is a way of sneaking those dreaded what-if questions in under radar seems to be, perhaps, a step too far.</p>\n\n<p>For example, if the phrase \"Let's say\" was replaced by the straight forward \"Assume etc etc.\" then it would be plainly obvious this phrase was the preamble to setting up the proposition upon which the question was based.</p>\n\n<p>This can be best illustrated by taking this quotation and making the appropriate substitutions.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Examples include</p>\n\n<pre><code>Most effective method of creating fear? \"***Assume*** a psichotic (sic) alien race...\"\n... What features would humans gain or lose? \"***Assume*** humans lived in caves...\"\nCan a split personality itself have split personalities? \"***Assume*** a person has...\"\nTime required for isolated colonists to forget about their origin \"*Assume* that I have...\"\n</code></pre>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I absolutely agree with SRM that <em>imagination</em> and <em>knowledge</em> [1] are necessary for questions to be on-topic, but also that are answerable. However, commonsense, logic, even educated guesswork, a capacity to reason from a given set of parameters, and all-round problem solving are essential too.</p>\n\n<p>To arrive at a position where \"let's say\" etc etc phrases in questions are signs of what-if questions is reading to much into what are at base sloppily worded questions by questioners who are most likely lacking in self-confidence.</p>\n\n<p>[1] As much as I hate to say it. Science isn't the be-all and end-all of knowledge. My whole training, education and experience as a scientist are staging a revolt at my having said so. But, yes, there are other kinds of knowledge beyond just the scientific.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4322", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28639/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4378, "author": "Zizouz212", "author_id": 9228, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9228", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/110962/urban-planning\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/4XFo9.png\" alt=\"Discuss the real world. Start Urban Planning SE!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4379, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://writers.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/tr1JO.png\" alt=\"Visit Writers Stack Exchange\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4380, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2878\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/fCH9i.png\" alt=\"Share your work on the blog -- we&#39;ll help!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4381, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://medium.com/universe-factory\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/oyKlu.png\" alt=\"Visit Universe Factory, our community-run blog!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4382, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://literature.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/55MAT.png\" alt=\"Get inspired by reading!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4409, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.sfwa.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/meTZ0.jpg\" alt=\"The guild for professional world builders.\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4410, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://accrispin.blogspot.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/fZzVE.png\" alt=\"Writer Beware: A blog about publishers taking advantage of unsuspecting authors\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4414, "author": "SevenSidedDie", "author_id": 357, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/357", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://rpg.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/BUfmt.png\" alt=\"RPG.SE\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4416, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/MmyHw.jpg\" alt=\"The Submission Grinder helps authors find publishers.\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4432, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kTGgQ.png\" alt=\"Q&amp;A about works of sci-fi and fantasy!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4638, "author": "Mithical", "author_id": 22783, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22783", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/101265/constructed-languages\"><img src=\"https://area51.stackexchange.com/ads/proposal/101265.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" alt=\"Stack Exchange Q&amp;A site proposal: Constructed languages\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5137, "author": "HDE 226868", "author_id": 627, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/627", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/101932/cartography\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/RyCAE.png\" alt=\"Cartography Stack Exchange proposal\"></a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4377", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4415, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I like keeping \"xenobiology\" as a unique tag. It is one of those terms that needs to be a part of Worldbuilding. It's an aesthetic thing. :-)</p>\n\n<p>I'd keep xenobiology as about aliens when they diverge from known biology -- things like silicon life forms, hydrochloric acid blood, etc., i.e., where we are completely hypothetical for the base principles. \"biology\" would be for where the base principles of life match what we know and the question is about applications of those principles.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4417, "author": "a4android", "author_id": 22159, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22159", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The original tag shows a confused definition. It's close enough to being plain wrong. </p>\n\n<p>Xenobiology is the field of biology concerned with extraterrestrial and extrasolar lifeforms of all kinds. This can include space-based lifeforms (if any exist).</p>\n\n<p>Biology is, in the strictest sense, is the global term to cover absolutely all lifeforms. This can include xenobiology. But biology tends to be used when dealing with lifeforms that we know about, because currently xenobiology is a speculative field of science since we know of totally zero extraterrestrial and alien lifeforms.</p>\n\n<p>Most of the proposed \"improvements\" are starting from a place of confusion and proceed to muddle their way to not significantly better.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4430, "author": "a4android", "author_id": 22159, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22159", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<pre><code>This answer has copies the text of Zxyrra's question (see above) for easy reference. It has been italicized for clarity. Apologies for any formatting problems\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><em>According to its tag wiki, xenobiology is</em></p>\n\n<pre><code>*a form of biology that is not familiar to science and is not found in Earthly life*\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><em>the wiki and its contrast with the following imply that it is about aliens.\nAnd biology is</em></p>\n\n<pre><code>*For questions about living things. Does not exclude aliens, but additional information is usually necessary*\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><em>I believe there is a significant overlap between, and confusion with, these tags.</em></p>\n\n<pre><code>*Not all aliens are xenobiological. Most questions involving alien organisms are not \"not familiar to science\". They may ask about evolution, or anatomy, or some other well-understood concept, but it is rare to find something completely unheard of. Therefore, most \"alien biology\" is not \"xenobiology\" by the tag definition, even though the tag is implicitly about aliens.*\n\n*Not all xenobiology is alien. Some of the questions that do describe processes \"not familiar to science\" are eligible for \"xenobiology\" by definition, but they are not about aliens, which the tag implies.*\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><em>Why do we need overlap and ambiguity? I'm suggesting this:</em></p>\n\n<p>There is no harm in overlap and some ambiguity. This is inevitable with any classification system like WB SE's tag system. The problems here are trivial compared to <strong>real</strong> classification systems. Besides xenobiology can be specifically about alien biology, despite alien biology being dealt with under Biology.</p>\n\n<p>One further point of necessary clarification. Xenobiology can dealt with two fields of biology (1) alien biology concerned lifeforms beyond planet Earth, (2) strange, bizarre, and weird biology involving organisms that can be Earth-based. The tag as currently written, vaguely wanders between the two fields and could be a source of confusion. Though, probably, only to persons who have some knowledge and understanding of the relevant biology.</p>\n\n<p><em>biology should for questions about all living things, fictional, real, alien, Earthly, etc. because it is the study of life. Alien life is still life.\nxenobiology should be merged with biology or synchronized. Its usage is not clear, as explained above, but all questions with this tag do discuss the study of life or aspects of life.</em></p>\n\n<p><em>creature-design is relevant if the creatures are truly alien, and their peculiarities can be tagged separately.</em></p>\n\n<p>Agreed. A good idea.</p>\n\n<p><em>or alternatively to the above \"xenobiology\" can strictly be about \"aliens\" because \"processes not known to science\" can happen on Earth, too.</em></p>\n\n<p>This is a good point. It makes sense here on WB SE to strictly corral \"xenobiology\" to alien biology. Although this means questions about strange, bizarre, and weird biology will have to be dealt with under \"biology\". This shouldn't be a problem as these questions are likely to be rare. I may be wrong, but if so, then consideration will have to be given about using \"alien biology' as a tag and restricting \"xenobiology\" tag to weird biology.</p>\n\n<p>Having read the text of the current \"xenobiology\" tag, it does need editing, if for no other reason than to expunge one awful spelling error, but the \"hard-science\" requirement (mostly overlooked) is unnecessary hinderance. \"science-based\" would be better. The current \"biology\" tag is not unreasonable, and may only need minor edits.</p>\n\n<p>There was a suggestion about using \"alternate-biology\" (for reasons I won't go into here, \"alternative-biology\" is to be preferred). This makes better if used as a tag for \"alternative-biology\" in \"alternative-universes\" or \"parallel-universes\" (or worlds for universes) in the same sense as \"alternative-physics\" in \"alternative-universes\" or \"alternative-cosmos\"</p>\n\n<p>Note: other terms that could be used as tags for alien biology (apart from \"alien biology' itself) include exobiology and astrobiology. \"Exobiology\" has mainly fallen out of usage, so may be ignored safely. While \"astrobiology\" is in vogue in the scientific community.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4413", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28639/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4754, "author": "can-ned_food", "author_id": 27708, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/27708", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Let me posit four classes which can be used to classify any questions that arise when creating a world. (Of course, by ‘world’ I mean that which some might call “universe” of a story or an open setting.)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>someone has a question which pertains to some minor aspect of their created world.<br>\nThe aspect is believed to be peripheral, and probably would never make a noticable difference in any developing stories being created within that world. However, it could be good to know for later developments; it is always pleasant to explore anyways.<br>\nAlso, maybe the aspect is no so peripheral as the asker initially believed. It would be better if they had an answer now rather than wait for someone to point out a fault in their world later — simply because they didn't know the implications of some important premise.</li>\n<li>there is an important, but not core, aspect of some author's world that is beyond their acumen, knowledge, or intellectual skill to develop.<br>\nThis happens to all of us. We come up with a good premise for a story or a world, we go along, but then — wham! — we see that we need to know the <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/57453/\">climatic</a> characteristics of some planet.<br>\nSure, we could and should do all we can to learn the details of hydrodynamics, meteorodynamics, and lithodynamics if we are creating a typical spheroid planet, but it is helpful to have an expert guide us and explain things which are a tad too conjectural for most encyclopedia.<br>\nSomething cheaper than hiring a professor or postgrad is also useful for many of us — though, of course, if the aspect is important enough, you do want to involve some more stringent examination at some point prior to finalized publishing.</li>\n<li>someone learns of a fascinating idea — grafting of extra sensory instruments, a creature which uses some bodily organ in a novel way, a bizarre inversion of some familiar concept, or so, — and thinks that it would make a good premise for a story; however, they don't know enough about the related mechanics so as to begin making a world, let alone a story in that world.<br>\nSo, they need some help.<br>\nNow, these such requests are a tad dishonest, methinks. Why are you writing the story, anyway? Is it because you are a subtle and esquisite wordcrafter, but a paltry worldbuilder? Or, do you simply not have the science or wherewithal whereby to develop the germ of premise?<br>\nHow do you know that it will be a promising premise?<br>\nIt would be much better to either \n\n<ul>\n<li>attach someone, whether to the published credits or merely by contract, who can then receive some compensation for their contribution. If their help is that fundamental to the story, then they deserve some acclaim at least.</li>\n<li>add to your backburner those ideas that look promising but are beyond your contemporary level of expertise.</li>\n<li>pull a Roddenberry: it's a Warp Drive, Food Replicator, a Transporter, and a Universal Translator all–in–one! It's a <em>Repli-trans-warp-aporter</em>!</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>a person wants to begin writing a fantastic story or designing the fantastic setting for an MMO world, but they've got no premise which they think is appealing enough.<br>\n“Let me gather a collection of generic concepts which I like, and stew them together, and then I'll see if someone else can digest them and return to me something which is workable.”<br>\nThere can be many variations on that rather grotesque satire, and some may seem less dishonest than others, but let us take them as alike enough so as to warrant the same handling.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Most would agree that the bottom class is unacceptable here.<br>\nAs for the third class, I would say that it is also unacceptable. Some might disagree with me — indeed, many of what I believed were such questions have not been marked as off–topic or as non-worldbuilding.<br>\nThe first and second ones are the only ones which I believe belong here — and not so as to reduce the bloatation of the question population, but because they are the most honest.</p>\n\n<p>What if the question itself is the only extant germ for a worldbuilding not yet begun? Or, what if the asker has no immediate intentions to do any such building of world in their planned future?<br>\nWell, I don't believe that should be encouraged here — but, if it occurs, I don't think people should be too swift to downcast those questions which seem to do so; err on the side of benefit to all as often as is possible.<br>\nI do think that such questions would be better served by directing them elsewhere. If the other Stack Exchange sites aren't receptive to hypothetical postulations or queries, then that doesn't necessarily mean that they should go here.<br>\nI believe this because of one major reason: if the questions here don't support answers which are conducive to worldbuilding, then the entire environ of this site is diminished accordingly. People could conceivably begin answering the so–called What–If questions as if they were that, restricting the scope of their answers. New arrivals would see this, and adopt it.<br>\nThat's my concern in that regard.<br>\nNow you know, all those who wondered why I claimed certain nebulous questions weren't qualified for worldbuilding. I now hold back my vociferousity, depending on the quality of the answers I see or plan to give. I do think it is a valid danger, though.</p>\n\n<h2>In summary</h2>\n\n<p>This is not a ‘think tank’. It should not to be used so as to do your worldbuilding for you — i.e. <em>contribution</em>. The problem is not that such a thing is done, but that such a thing is done under pretenses of <em>consultation</em>\nThe purpose of the answers here should be twofold:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>a documentation of the worldbuilding for the posterity of later similar efforts</li>\n<li>a medium through which to request informative consultation for the purpose of worldbuilding</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>That is the criterion which should be used to assess questions as solicitations for “idea generation”.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4756, "author": "Lio Elbammalf", "author_id": 31124, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/31124", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A partial support for - at least some aspects of - WB being a debate is the number of <a href=\"http://data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/edit/651841\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">answers per question</a> we get. I think there should probably be an easier way to run a query over multiple sites but I couldn't see it, I just did a few to compare and got:</p>\n\n<pre><code> av # answers per question\nwb 4.7\nphysics 1.5\nSO 1.6\nUnix 1.5\nPuzzle 2.7\nPhoto 2.5\nScifi 2\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I tried to get a variety of different sites - photography being perhaps a little opinion based, stack overflow a little personal taste and physics having more definite answers. </p>\n\n<p>I was surprised to see quite so large a difference as that...I may have just picked a few distinctly different ones though so take this with a pinch of salt.</p>\n\n<p>More answers per question does seem to hint at the answerers believing there is more to add...and so perhaps more opinion based.</p>\n\n<p><strong>In the comments HDE226868 pointed out:</strong></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>According to the site comparisons, we're actually averaging a bit under 5 answers per question. Physics has about 1.5, as does SO and Unix &amp; Linux. Puzzling has just over 2.5, as does Photography. SciFi is at roughly 2. So somehow your answer data is multiplied by two. DaaahWhoosh says the code's counting answers twice per post ID.</p>\n</blockquote>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4763, "author": "Mołot", "author_id": 809, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/809", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Idea generation is OK, if narrow enough.</p>\n\n<p>For example, not even an hour about there was a question <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/76130/809\">What are all the changes human will get after the next Ice Age</a>. This is, of course, too broad. This kind of idea generation should be closed as such.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, questions like <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/25203/809\">How can I safely brighten my secondary star?</a> are perfectly OK to me. It involves idea generation, and it might be a bit unclear how the answers will be rated, but there is a really precise goal and solid set of limits.</p>\n\n<p>Long story short <strong>\"We will not build your world for you\"</strong> should apply. Specific, well defined parts, yes. But not a broad and unspecified part.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4698", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5147/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5003, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't know if votes that age away are tracked anywhere.</p>\n\n<p>Users with 10k rep can see some <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/tools/question-close-stats?daterange=last90days\">close/reopen statistics</a> for the last 90 days. For each close reason, it includes the number closed, the number of those that were reopened, the number edited, and the number edited and reopened, like this:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/pvLRx.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/pvLRx.png\" alt=\"screenshot of close/reopen stats\"></a></p>\n\n<p>(I don't have time to figure out how to make that into a nice table. Anybody who does, feel free to edit!)</p>\n\n<p>\"Too broad\" is by far our biggest closure reason, at 34% of closures. This also seems like the one where edits would help a lot, and, in fact, more than a third of them got edited. But only a small fraction got reopened. Is that because people aren't noticing and voting to reopen, or because the edits aren't enough? (\"Primarily opinion-based\" is the next-most-common reason and has a similar pattern.)</p>\n\n<p>I suggest a deeper review of \"too broad\". What can we do to help those questions get fixed and reopened?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5114, "author": "Taryn", "author_id": 552, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/552", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I spent a bit of time digging into this. I looked at the past 365 of questions posted on the site to get the numbers. Here is what I found:</p>\n\n<p>Over the past 365 days, there were <strong>6,534</strong> questions asked, of these:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>3,313 have received at least one close vote or flag,</li>\n<li>2,135 questions were closed, </li>\n<li>1,534 of the questions had at least one close vote or flag that aged away, and</li>\n<li>of the questions that were closed, 139 were reopened by the community</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Breaking these numbers down by close reasons, here are the total number of *flags/votes on questions, and then total number of those votes/flags that aged away by close reason:</p>\n\n<pre><code>+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+\n| Flag/Close Vote Reason | # Flags / CVs | # Flags / CVs Aged Away |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+\n| Too broad | 4394 | 881 |\n| Primarily opinion-based | 2892 | 601 |\n| Off-topic This question does not appear to be about **worldbuilding**, within the sco | 2393 | 424 |\n| Unclear what you're asking | 2108 | 389 |\n| Off-topic You are asking questions about a story set in a world instead of about buil | 1202 | 322 |\n| Duplicate | 1196 | 186 |\n| Off-topic Other (add a comment explaining what is wrong) | 164 | 48 |\n| Off-topic This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network | 62 | 1 |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I also looked at the questions that had been closed and then received reopen votes/flags to see how many of them aged away.</p>\n\n<pre><code>+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------+\n| Close Reason | # Reopen Votes | # Reopen Votes Aged Away |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------+\n| Too broad | 152 | 4 |\n| Off-topic This question does not appear to be about **worldbuilding**, within the sco | 111 | 0 |\n| Unclear what you're asking | 111 | 3 |\n| Primarily opinion-based | 98 | 9 |\n| Off-topic You are asking questions about a story set in a world instead of about buil | 60 | 2 |\n| Duplicate | 52 | 2 |\n| Off-topic Other (add a comment explaining what is wrong) | 4 | 0 |\n| Off-topic This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network | 3 | 0 |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------+\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Far fewer reopen votes were cast, so even less of them aged away, but over the past year, approximately 19% of close votes/flags aged away. </p>\n\n<p>As requested here are the comparisons to the other sites on the network for Pct Aged Away:</p>\n\n<pre><code>+---------------------------------------------------+---------------+\n| Site Name | Pct Aged Away |\n+---------------------------------------------------+---------------+\n| Freelancing Stack Exchange | 54.18 |\n| Esperanto Language Stack Exchange | 47.58 |\n| Artificial Intelligence Stack Exchange | 45.88 |\n| Martial Arts | 42.35 |\n| Sustainable Living | 40 |\n| Stack Overflow | 37.59 |\n| Homebrew | 33.33 |\n| Coffee Stack Exchange | 31.86 |\n| Linguistics | 30.97 |\n| Super User | 29.88 |\n| Health Stack Exchange | 29.16 |\n| Graphic Design | 28.75 |\n| 3D Printing Stack Exchange | 28.54 |\n| Chinese Language and Usage | 28.16 |\n| Mythology Stack Exchange | 26.9 |\n| History of Science and Mathematics Stack Exchange | 26.53 |\n| Audio-Video Production | 26.31 |\n| Programmers | 25.67 |\n| Arduino Stack Exchange | 24.88 |\n| Tridion Stack Exchange | 24.75 |\n| Computer Science | 24.64 |\n| Software Recommendations Stack Exchange | 24.39 |\n| Amateur Radio Stack Exchange | 24.22 |\n| Photography | 24.11 |\n| Open Data Stack Exchange | 23.95 |\n| Project Management | 23.9 |\n| Jewish Life and Learning | 23.78 |\n| Open Source Stack Exchange | 23.51 |\n| Motor Vehicle Maintenance and Repair | 22.96 |\n| Emacs Stack Exchange | 22.77 |\n| Server Fault | 22.65 |\n| Game Developers | 22.65 |\n| German Language and Usage | 22.24 |\n| elementary OS Stack Exchange | 22.07 |\n| Beer Stack Exchange | 21.95 |\n| Quantitative Finance | 21.69 |\n| Startups Stack Exchange | 21.4 |\n| Pets Stack Exchange | 21.26 |\n| Law Stack Exchange | 21.17 |\n| Reverse Engineering Stack Exchange | 21.11 |\n| Expatriates Stack Exchange | 20.97 |\n| Literature | 20.75 |\n| Economics | 20.69 |\n| Korean Language Stack Exchange | 20.59 |\n| Ebooks Stack Exchange | 20.41 |\n| Cognitive Sciences | 19.99 |\n| Worldbuilding Stack Exchange | 19.75 |\n| Latin Language Stack Exchange | 19.75 |\n| The Great Outdoors | 19.66 |\n| CiviCRM Stack Exchange | 19.08 |\n| Cooking | 18.97 |\n| Moderators Stack Exchange | 18.75 |\n| Music Fans Stack Exchange | 18.16 |\n| Philosophy | 17.7 |\n| WordPress | 17.16 |\n| Buddhism Stack Exchange | 17.14 |\n| Chess | 17.11 |\n| Politics | 17.11 |\n| Arts &amp; Crafts Stack Exchange | 17.11 |\n| Lifehacks Stack Exchange | 17.06 |\n| Writers | 16.75 |\n| Theoretical Computer Science | 16.62 |\n| Raspberry Pi | 16.18 |\n| Retrocomputing Stack Exchange | 15.98 |\n| Sitecore Stack Exchange | 15.59 |\n| Internet of Things Stack Exchange | 15.55 |\n| Computer Graphics Stack Exchange | 15.49 |\n| Gardening and Landscaping | 15.31 |\n| Biology | 15.3 |\n| Stack Overflow на русском | 15.2 |\n| Woodworking Stack Exchange | 15.18 |\n| ExpressionEngine | 15.15 |\n| Bicycles | 14.91 |\n| Russian Language and Usage | 14.86 |\n| Aviation Stack Exchange | 14.58 |\n| Astronomy | 14.57 |\n| Language Learning Stack Exchange | 14.14 |\n| Sports | 14.09 |\n| English Language Learners | 13.94 |\n| Apple | 13.67 |\n| Sound Design Stack Exchange | 13.63 |\n| Blender Stack Exchange | 13.62 |\n| Islam | 13.59 |\n| Computational Science | 13.28 |\n| Board and Card Games | 13.16 |\n| Earth Science Stack Exchange | 13.06 |\n| Hinduism Stack Exchange | 12.86 |\n| Skeptics | 12.75 |\n| Engineering Stack Exchange | 12.64 |\n| Puzzling Stack Exchange | 12.41 |\n| Movies | 12.38 |\n| Personal Productivity | 12.33 |\n| Japanese Language and Usage | 12.1 |\n| Personal Finance and Money | 12.09 |\n| Bitcoin | 12.01 |\n| Windows Phone | 11.83 |\n| Parenting | 11.68 |\n| Android Enthusiasts | 11.63 |\n| Software Quality Assurance and Testing | 11.62 |\n| Biblical Hermeneutics | 11.5 |\n| Role-playing Games | 11.29 |\n| French Language and Usage | 10.92 |\n| The Workplace | 10.87 |\n| Vi and Vim Stack Exchange | 10.84 |\n| MathOverflow | 10.76 |\n| Christianity | 10.75 |\n| Signal Processing | 10.66 |\n| Science Fiction | 10.61 |\n| Travel | 10.61 |\n| Stack Overflow em Português | 10.11 |\n| Ethereum Stack Exchange | 10.1 |\n| Web Apps | 10.07 |\n| Home Improvement | 9.95 |\n| Mathematics | 9.56 |\n| Fitness and Nutrition | 9.51 |\n| Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange | 9.51 |\n| Space Exploration Stack Exchange | 8.98 |\n| Statistical Analysis | 8.96 |\n| Portuguese Language Stack Exchange | 8.82 |\n| Academia | 8.76 |\n| History | 8.65 |\n| Joomla Stack Exchange | 8.6 |\n| Data Science Stack Exchange | 8.36 |\n| Ubuntu | 8.26 |\n| Code Review | 8.08 |\n| Spanish Language and Usage | 7.92 |\n| Patents | 7.81 |\n| English Language and Usage | 7.8 |\n| Salesforce | 7.8 |\n| SharePoint | 7.76 |\n| Stack Overflow en español | 7.74 |\n| Genealogy and Family History | 7.5 |\n| Hardware Recommendations Stack Exchange | 7.46 |\n| Monero Stack Exchange | 7.44 |\n| Database Administrators | 7.31 |\n| Magento | 7.28 |\n| Gaming | 7.26 |\n| LEGO® | 7.19 |\n| Italian Language Stack Exchange | 7.14 |\n| Poker | 7.01 |\n| IT Security | 6.91 |\n| User Experience | 6.86 |\n| Craft CMS Stack Exchange | 6.69 |\n| Physics | 6.66 |\n| Code Golf | 6.6 |\n| Musical Practice and Performance | 6.39 |\n| Drupal Answers | 6.3 |\n| Electronics and Robotics | 6.27 |\n| Mathematica | 6.22 |\n| Anime and Manga | 5.89 |\n| Unix and Linux | 5.64 |\n| Robotics | 5.2 |\n| Cryptography | 5.06 |\n| Chemistry | 4.65 |\n| GIS | 4.62 |\n| Stack Apps | 4.4 |\n| Webmasters | 3.52 |\n| TeX - LaTeX | 3.32 |\n| Tor Stack Exchange | 3.18 |\n| Network Engineering Stack Exchange | 1.44 |\n+---------------------------------------------------+---------------+\n</code></pre>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5002", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7351/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5003, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't know if votes that age away are tracked anywhere.</p>\n\n<p>Users with 10k rep can see some <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/tools/question-close-stats?daterange=last90days\">close/reopen statistics</a> for the last 90 days. For each close reason, it includes the number closed, the number of those that were reopened, the number edited, and the number edited and reopened, like this:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/pvLRx.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/pvLRx.png\" alt=\"screenshot of close/reopen stats\"></a></p>\n\n<p>(I don't have time to figure out how to make that into a nice table. Anybody who does, feel free to edit!)</p>\n\n<p>\"Too broad\" is by far our biggest closure reason, at 34% of closures. This also seems like the one where edits would help a lot, and, in fact, more than a third of them got edited. But only a small fraction got reopened. Is that because people aren't noticing and voting to reopen, or because the edits aren't enough? (\"Primarily opinion-based\" is the next-most-common reason and has a similar pattern.)</p>\n\n<p>I suggest a deeper review of \"too broad\". What can we do to help those questions get fixed and reopened?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5114, "author": "Taryn", "author_id": 552, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/552", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I spent a bit of time digging into this. I looked at the past 365 of questions posted on the site to get the numbers. Here is what I found:</p>\n\n<p>Over the past 365 days, there were <strong>6,534</strong> questions asked, of these:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>3,313 have received at least one close vote or flag,</li>\n<li>2,135 questions were closed, </li>\n<li>1,534 of the questions had at least one close vote or flag that aged away, and</li>\n<li>of the questions that were closed, 139 were reopened by the community</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Breaking these numbers down by close reasons, here are the total number of *flags/votes on questions, and then total number of those votes/flags that aged away by close reason:</p>\n\n<pre><code>+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+\n| Flag/Close Vote Reason | # Flags / CVs | # Flags / CVs Aged Away |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+\n| Too broad | 4394 | 881 |\n| Primarily opinion-based | 2892 | 601 |\n| Off-topic This question does not appear to be about **worldbuilding**, within the sco | 2393 | 424 |\n| Unclear what you're asking | 2108 | 389 |\n| Off-topic You are asking questions about a story set in a world instead of about buil | 1202 | 322 |\n| Duplicate | 1196 | 186 |\n| Off-topic Other (add a comment explaining what is wrong) | 164 | 48 |\n| Off-topic This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network | 62 | 1 |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------------------------+\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I also looked at the questions that had been closed and then received reopen votes/flags to see how many of them aged away.</p>\n\n<pre><code>+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------+\n| Close Reason | # Reopen Votes | # Reopen Votes Aged Away |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------+\n| Too broad | 152 | 4 |\n| Off-topic This question does not appear to be about **worldbuilding**, within the sco | 111 | 0 |\n| Unclear what you're asking | 111 | 3 |\n| Primarily opinion-based | 98 | 9 |\n| Off-topic You are asking questions about a story set in a world instead of about buil | 60 | 2 |\n| Duplicate | 52 | 2 |\n| Off-topic Other (add a comment explaining what is wrong) | 4 | 0 |\n| Off-topic This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network | 3 | 0 |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------+\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Far fewer reopen votes were cast, so even less of them aged away, but over the past year, approximately 19% of close votes/flags aged away. </p>\n\n<p>As requested here are the comparisons to the other sites on the network for Pct Aged Away:</p>\n\n<pre><code>+---------------------------------------------------+---------------+\n| Site Name | Pct Aged Away |\n+---------------------------------------------------+---------------+\n| Freelancing Stack Exchange | 54.18 |\n| Esperanto Language Stack Exchange | 47.58 |\n| Artificial Intelligence Stack Exchange | 45.88 |\n| Martial Arts | 42.35 |\n| Sustainable Living | 40 |\n| Stack Overflow | 37.59 |\n| Homebrew | 33.33 |\n| Coffee Stack Exchange | 31.86 |\n| Linguistics | 30.97 |\n| Super User | 29.88 |\n| Health Stack Exchange | 29.16 |\n| Graphic Design | 28.75 |\n| 3D Printing Stack Exchange | 28.54 |\n| Chinese Language and Usage | 28.16 |\n| Mythology Stack Exchange | 26.9 |\n| History of Science and Mathematics Stack Exchange | 26.53 |\n| Audio-Video Production | 26.31 |\n| Programmers | 25.67 |\n| Arduino Stack Exchange | 24.88 |\n| Tridion Stack Exchange | 24.75 |\n| Computer Science | 24.64 |\n| Software Recommendations Stack Exchange | 24.39 |\n| Amateur Radio Stack Exchange | 24.22 |\n| Photography | 24.11 |\n| Open Data Stack Exchange | 23.95 |\n| Project Management | 23.9 |\n| Jewish Life and Learning | 23.78 |\n| Open Source Stack Exchange | 23.51 |\n| Motor Vehicle Maintenance and Repair | 22.96 |\n| Emacs Stack Exchange | 22.77 |\n| Server Fault | 22.65 |\n| Game Developers | 22.65 |\n| German Language and Usage | 22.24 |\n| elementary OS Stack Exchange | 22.07 |\n| Beer Stack Exchange | 21.95 |\n| Quantitative Finance | 21.69 |\n| Startups Stack Exchange | 21.4 |\n| Pets Stack Exchange | 21.26 |\n| Law Stack Exchange | 21.17 |\n| Reverse Engineering Stack Exchange | 21.11 |\n| Expatriates Stack Exchange | 20.97 |\n| Literature | 20.75 |\n| Economics | 20.69 |\n| Korean Language Stack Exchange | 20.59 |\n| Ebooks Stack Exchange | 20.41 |\n| Cognitive Sciences | 19.99 |\n| Worldbuilding Stack Exchange | 19.75 |\n| Latin Language Stack Exchange | 19.75 |\n| The Great Outdoors | 19.66 |\n| CiviCRM Stack Exchange | 19.08 |\n| Cooking | 18.97 |\n| Moderators Stack Exchange | 18.75 |\n| Music Fans Stack Exchange | 18.16 |\n| Philosophy | 17.7 |\n| WordPress | 17.16 |\n| Buddhism Stack Exchange | 17.14 |\n| Chess | 17.11 |\n| Politics | 17.11 |\n| Arts &amp; Crafts Stack Exchange | 17.11 |\n| Lifehacks Stack Exchange | 17.06 |\n| Writers | 16.75 |\n| Theoretical Computer Science | 16.62 |\n| Raspberry Pi | 16.18 |\n| Retrocomputing Stack Exchange | 15.98 |\n| Sitecore Stack Exchange | 15.59 |\n| Internet of Things Stack Exchange | 15.55 |\n| Computer Graphics Stack Exchange | 15.49 |\n| Gardening and Landscaping | 15.31 |\n| Biology | 15.3 |\n| Stack Overflow на русском | 15.2 |\n| Woodworking Stack Exchange | 15.18 |\n| ExpressionEngine | 15.15 |\n| Bicycles | 14.91 |\n| Russian Language and Usage | 14.86 |\n| Aviation Stack Exchange | 14.58 |\n| Astronomy | 14.57 |\n| Language Learning Stack Exchange | 14.14 |\n| Sports | 14.09 |\n| English Language Learners | 13.94 |\n| Apple | 13.67 |\n| Sound Design Stack Exchange | 13.63 |\n| Blender Stack Exchange | 13.62 |\n| Islam | 13.59 |\n| Computational Science | 13.28 |\n| Board and Card Games | 13.16 |\n| Earth Science Stack Exchange | 13.06 |\n| Hinduism Stack Exchange | 12.86 |\n| Skeptics | 12.75 |\n| Engineering Stack Exchange | 12.64 |\n| Puzzling Stack Exchange | 12.41 |\n| Movies | 12.38 |\n| Personal Productivity | 12.33 |\n| Japanese Language and Usage | 12.1 |\n| Personal Finance and Money | 12.09 |\n| Bitcoin | 12.01 |\n| Windows Phone | 11.83 |\n| Parenting | 11.68 |\n| Android Enthusiasts | 11.63 |\n| Software Quality Assurance and Testing | 11.62 |\n| Biblical Hermeneutics | 11.5 |\n| Role-playing Games | 11.29 |\n| French Language and Usage | 10.92 |\n| The Workplace | 10.87 |\n| Vi and Vim Stack Exchange | 10.84 |\n| MathOverflow | 10.76 |\n| Christianity | 10.75 |\n| Signal Processing | 10.66 |\n| Science Fiction | 10.61 |\n| Travel | 10.61 |\n| Stack Overflow em Português | 10.11 |\n| Ethereum Stack Exchange | 10.1 |\n| Web Apps | 10.07 |\n| Home Improvement | 9.95 |\n| Mathematics | 9.56 |\n| Fitness and Nutrition | 9.51 |\n| Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange | 9.51 |\n| Space Exploration Stack Exchange | 8.98 |\n| Statistical Analysis | 8.96 |\n| Portuguese Language Stack Exchange | 8.82 |\n| Academia | 8.76 |\n| History | 8.65 |\n| Joomla Stack Exchange | 8.6 |\n| Data Science Stack Exchange | 8.36 |\n| Ubuntu | 8.26 |\n| Code Review | 8.08 |\n| Spanish Language and Usage | 7.92 |\n| Patents | 7.81 |\n| English Language and Usage | 7.8 |\n| Salesforce | 7.8 |\n| SharePoint | 7.76 |\n| Stack Overflow en español | 7.74 |\n| Genealogy and Family History | 7.5 |\n| Hardware Recommendations Stack Exchange | 7.46 |\n| Monero Stack Exchange | 7.44 |\n| Database Administrators | 7.31 |\n| Magento | 7.28 |\n| Gaming | 7.26 |\n| LEGO® | 7.19 |\n| Italian Language Stack Exchange | 7.14 |\n| Poker | 7.01 |\n| IT Security | 6.91 |\n| User Experience | 6.86 |\n| Craft CMS Stack Exchange | 6.69 |\n| Physics | 6.66 |\n| Code Golf | 6.6 |\n| Musical Practice and Performance | 6.39 |\n| Drupal Answers | 6.3 |\n| Electronics and Robotics | 6.27 |\n| Mathematica | 6.22 |\n| Anime and Manga | 5.89 |\n| Unix and Linux | 5.64 |\n| Robotics | 5.2 |\n| Cryptography | 5.06 |\n| Chemistry | 4.65 |\n| GIS | 4.62 |\n| Stack Apps | 4.4 |\n| Webmasters | 3.52 |\n| TeX - LaTeX | 3.32 |\n| Tor Stack Exchange | 3.18 |\n| Network Engineering Stack Exchange | 1.44 |\n+---------------------------------------------------+---------------+\n</code></pre>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5014", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7351/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5650, "author": "Secespitus", "author_id": 28789, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28789", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't have any data at hand, but here's my feeling based on what I've seen on the site and a few things to keep in mind for this topic.</p>\n<h3>You can't see who voted to close before the closing is complete, so long as people don't explicitly comment.</h3>\n<p>If I see a question in the review queue and no comments indicating any problems I often leave a <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3773/reminder-to-close-voters\">Reminder to Close-Voters</a> to prompt others to state what they think is wrong with the question. Other people do this regularly, too, if there hasn't been any comment. So the second or third person to get a close vote in the review queue can often see at least one person who said something that may be wrong with a question.</p>\n<p>But still: you normally don't know who voted to close until the question is put on hold. Just like you can't normally see who voted to reopen until the question is reopened.</p>\n<p>You could go to your review history after casting your vote and see who voted for what, but that's already after the fact.</p>\n<p>This makes it hard for cliques to know when their voting-buddy voted for something.</p>\n<h3>There is no private messaging integrated into the SE network.</h3>\n<p>Nobody can send a private message to someone indicating something like &quot;Hey, how about we close this question?&quot; inside of the normal network.</p>\n<p>It would require the participants to get acquainted outside of the network, which increases the amount of work slightly that would be required, just for this kind of action.</p>\n<p>The closest you can get inside of the normal SE network is the <a href=\"https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/17213/the-factory-floor\">chat</a>, which everybody can access to write who has at least 20 reputation. And everybody can read it, no matter the reputation. This is a very low mark and there are no other requirements to be part of this &quot;clique&quot;. In fact we would love if more people regularly visited the chat to talk about their ideas/projects/... I've seen it sometimes (maybe once a month or every two months?) that someone posts a blatantly off-topic question there to start a discussion with the regulars who are online at the moment. Or about a question that needs reopening, because the author edited his question. Or about asking people to help with editing to give a new user some hints. A lot of the regulars in the chat have enough reputation to vote for close/reopen/edit/..., which makes this the ideal place to talk about pro and con of putting something on hold.</p>\n<p>There was even a <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4997/a-chat-room-for-reopening-and-closing-questions\">special chat room for talking about reopening</a>.</p>\n<p>Bottom line: the chat may be somewhat active at times, but there is not even enough attention to maintain a chatroom for this topic. The special room was frozen and it's very rare that a question pops up in the chat for VTC/VTO. And the discussions tend to be quite diverse. The people there are not thinking &quot;Ah, I know that username, so the question he mentioned must be closed immediately.&quot; - we openly talk about why a question should be put on hold or reopened if the case arises. Still, you could call it a &quot;clique&quot; if you wanted to. It's the closest thing you can get to a &quot;clique&quot; on this site anyway as the amount of regular chat users is quite limited, although everyone with a very little amount of 20 reputation can be part of this very open &quot;clique&quot;.</p>\n<h3>There are Meta discussions.</h3>\n<p>More often than in the chat someone posts something about closing/reopening on Meta. This leads to the regular Meta users seeing the question and acting on them, as a lot of them also have higher rep. Again, this could be seen as a &quot;clique&quot;, even if it's open to everyone. It's commonly referred to as the <a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/235225/what-is-the-meta-effect\">Meta Effect</a>. But these Meta discussions are still not something that leads to people thinking &quot;Ah, yes, gotta close&quot;. They are open discussions where different people offer different views.</p>\n<p>People can post on Meta with 5 reputation. Again, reading is possible even for people that are not logged in to the site. It's open for everyone. And 5 reputation is a single answer or question upvote. It's a tenth of the reputation you need to be able to comment everywhere. This could be seen as a &quot;clique&quot;, but just like the chat, it's a very open and welcoming &quot;clique&quot;. More activity on Meta would also be a great thing. There can't be too many people active in the chat / on Meta, so getting more opinions about how closing/reopening/... should work on the site would be great and people listen to arguments - not to the username that posted something.</p>\n<h3>Regular close voters often have somewhat similar patterns.</h3>\n<p>I know that there are a handful of people that very often vote similar to how I am voting. Seeing their username in the comments does in fact draw my personal attention because I know how they comment and realized through experience that they are very good at filtering the noise or summarizing problems/possible solutions. Data would surely suggest that we are a &quot;clique&quot; - mainly because they just vote similar most of the time.</p>\n<p>Just because people vote similar doesn't mean they stop thinking the moment one of them posts something. For example those people I have in mind have a similar opinion most of the time - just not when it comes to questions tagged <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/magic\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;magic&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">magic</a>. There are surely similarities in the voting pattern, but also bigger differences.</p>\n<h3>A question that is put on hold without any real reason can easily be reopened.</h3>\n<p>Posting on Meta and asking for the reasons for a question that was put on hold will draw in people that look at the question and you will surely find people that see the merit. If there are enough the question can be reopened. And as you can only VTC once on every question there won't be a war. You may see patterns of people who don't like <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/magic\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;magic&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">magic</a> questions for example voting to clsoe these questions and people who like them and vote to reopen - in the end the whole active community decides.</p>\n<h3>People show dramatically different levels of activity when it comes to reviewing.</h3>\n<p>Some people review a lot. Some people don't like reviewing at all.</p>\n<p>You will surely find that a few people VTC very often, especially compared with the average user. You could say that they are a &quot;clique&quot;. It would probably look like it. But someone has to do the reviewing if we want high quality questions and answers on the site. If you feel there are too few reopen votes for example the best thing to do is to lead with a good example by raising the topic on Meta/in chat regularly and trying to focus on the reopen review queue. But just like you might want to focus on the reopen queue you will find people who focus on the closing queue. Because that's also an important part of the community.</p>\n<h3>Conclusion</h3>\n<p>I don't think there are &quot;cliques&quot; of people on this site. Yes, there are some people who are more strict/lenient when it comes to certain topics and there are groups that you will find more often as reviewers, such as regular Meta users and regular chat users, but it's not like they are always voting for the same thing or stop to think once they see someone vote. And there are no groups who regularly invite others to close a bunch of questions they don't like. This would probably have the adverse effect quite often - if you can't say why you want to close something I for example tend to give the querent the benefit of doubt.</p>\n<p>But I am sure that any data would reveal that some people are very often co-voting. I can think of a few people that I would expect to see with a similar voting pattern to mine because we have a similar take on a lot of topics. Participating in a lot of discussions about these topics, because we always had them and will always have them on this site, leads to that, which is also a good sign that there are certain rules that people can follow to know whether something is on-topic or off-topic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5654, "author": "kingledion", "author_id": 23519, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23519", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am working on this with the data explorer. </p>\n\n<p>First for some background, I started with <a href=\"http://data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/768042/top-close-voters\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this query</a> and modified it to work for Worldbuilding's close criteria. I also used <a href=\"http://data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/152649/list-of-closed-quesions-from-2013\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this query</a> (modified) to determine how many closed questions we have had.</p>\n\n<p>There were exactly 100 users who voted to close a question in 2017 that eventually became closed. Of those 100, the top 10 cast 60% of the close votes.</p>\n\n<p>There were in total 1522 questions that were closed this year, so far. There are three users that have each voted to close more than 50% of the questions. </p>\n\n<p>When I broke it down by month, it is not uncommon to see multiple users who have voted together to close more than 80% of the questions in a month, or a set of five users who collectively cast 50% of all close votes. </p>\n\n<p>So before even doing a deeper dive analysis, I would say that, yes, there are definitely 'cliques'. However, these cliques are really just the list of people who like to close questions. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5658, "author": "kingledion", "author_id": 23519, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23519", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<h1>Data</h1>\n\n<p>I analyzed all the data for 2017. I got the list of question-closers for 1719 questions that have been closed for any reason but not deleted (deleted posts usually have no upvotes or answers after 30 days). This also counts questions that have since been reopened. I then took every subset of these closers and counted them. Here are the results</p>\n\n<h3>Groups of 1</h3>\n\n<p>The most closing user voted on 907 close questions, or 53% of the total. There are 11 users who voted on 10% or more of the close questions and those 11 users placed 2.9 votes per closed question. Or, in other words, they provided 59 % of all close votes.</p>\n\n<h3>Groups of 2</h3>\n\n<p>The highest grouping of 2 voted to close 569 questions together, or 33% of all questions. There were 10 pairs of users from 6 individual users who voted on 10% or more of closed questions together, and they placed 1.6 votes per question, or 33 % of the total close votes.</p>\n\n<h3>Groups of 3 or more</h3>\n\n<p>The highest grouping of 3 users voted to close 187 questions together. The highest group of 4 was 48 questions, and the highest group of 5, only 7 questions. </p>\n\n<h3>Gini Index</h3>\n\n<p>The Gini index of close voters is 0.807. Gini is a measure of inequality, used for incomes mostly. I don't have any information to put this number in context, but I am interested in doing so in the future, by comparison over time, or with other sites.</p>\n\n<h3>Pearsons $\\chi^2$ test for independence</h3>\n\n<p>Forming the the 11 highest users into a diagonal contingency table, we can use Pearsons test for independence. Using the null hypothesis of independence, I built a contingency table with 50 degrees of freedom. That table had a Pearson's $\\chi^2$ score of 5492, which is very high. Since $p = 0$ for this test, we can (resoundingly) reject the null hypothesis.</p>\n\n<p>A cursory look at the data shows us why. </p>\n\n<h1>Some users close a lot of questions</h1>\n\n<p>Especially recently, there are two users who have closed 'most' of the questions. Since August 1, there have been 718 questions closed; these two users closed 75% and 73% respectively. </p>\n\n<p>These two users have voted together 399 times, or 76% and 74% of those users total close votes, respectively. Together, they have voted to close 56% of all questions. </p>\n\n<p>There is a third user who frequently votes along side these two. This third user has 207 close votes, of which 57% have been with <em>both</em> of the two high close voters, and 93% have been with one or the other. </p>\n\n<p>This appears to be evidence of some 'collusion.' However, when comparing the actual number of times users have closed questions against expected, even in these recent months when many questions have been closed, they are not operating together more than expected. Here are actual and expected numbers for users A, B, and C from above:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Users Expected Closes Actual Closes\nA + B 393 399\nA + C 157 159\nB + C 152 152\nA, B, C 113 119\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>In fact, the expected values are surprisingly accurate.</p>\n\n<p>If we redo the $\\chi^2$ test for this time period, we see that the score has dropped all the way down to 138. This is still low enough to reject the null hypothesis ($p=0.008$), but it is much closer than before.</p>\n\n<h1>Conclusion</h1>\n\n<p>It does look like certain groups are closing questions together a lot as a clique. However, this behavior is expected due to how frequently members of that group are closing questions in general. Despite a failure of independence test for the entire year, when broken down into smaller samples, the test looks a lot better. </p>\n\n<p>Therefore, we can reject the null hypothesis that close voters are acting independently, but we can demonstrate some evidence that time is the factor causing this result. <strong>Overall, I conclude that there is insufficient evidence of voters demonstrating any of the co-voting patterns that you mention in the question.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5648", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/42101/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5802, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://medium.com/universe-factory\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/DDxv3.png\" alt=\"Visit Universe Factory, our community-run blog!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5803, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2878\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/6ooIj.png\" alt=\"Share your work on the blog -- we&#39;ll help!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5806, "author": "Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2", "author_id": 538, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/538", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://writing.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kr83W.png\" alt=\"Writing.SE\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5807, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://literature.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/euF1O.png\" alt=\"Get inspired by reading, at Literature SE!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5809, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kTGgQ.png\" alt=\"Q&amp;A about works of sci-fi and fantasy!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5832, "author": "NofP", "author_id": 42101, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/42101", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://physics.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/VdLYH.png\" alt=\"Discover the universe\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6209, "author": "Duncan", "author_id": 33241, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/33241", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://conlang.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xv8GC.png\" alt=\"Tower of Babel with SE colours.\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6210, "author": "FoxElemental", "author_id": 49578, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49578", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://conlang.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dh0yr.png\" alt=\"Built Your World? Now Build Your Language! (ConLang)\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6525, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6168/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/1ajQn.gif\" alt=\"The best questions are perfected first in our Sandbox!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6691, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6168/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/mkhzE.jpg\" alt=\"Help in the Sandbox as a Mentor!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6799, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help/accepted-answer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/cbOZq.jpg\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5801", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5828, "author": "Secespitus", "author_id": 28789, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28789", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/alternate-history\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;alternate-history&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">alternate-history</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/29552/alexp\">AlexP</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/biology\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;biology&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">biology</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/885/jd%c5%82ugosz\">JDługosz</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/climate\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;climate&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">climate</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/147/vincent\">Vincent</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/creature-design\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;creature-design&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">creature-design</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/11049/tres-2b\">TrEs-2b</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/economy\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;economy&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">economy</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2113/brythan\">Brythan</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/evolution\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;evolution&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">evolution</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/25189/rek\">rek</a> (The highest non-excluded tag is <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/water\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;water&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">water</a>, but the user has less than 10 water answers; ... upon further inspection he also only has 7 answers and 6 questions, so this is wrong too...)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/geography\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;geography&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">geography</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/3276/mikey\">Mikey</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/government\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;government&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">government</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/13430/john-robinson\">John Robinson</a> (wrong; too few answers)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/hard-science\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;hard-science&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">hard-science</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/7886/jim2b\">Jim2B</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/humans\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;humans&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">humans</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/7089/thorsten-s\">Thorsten S.</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/language\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;language&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">language</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/9207/lostinfrance\">Lostinfrance</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/magic\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;magic&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">magic</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2252/cort-ammon\">Cort Ammon</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/physics\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;physics&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">physics</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/40609/jbh\">JBH</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/planets\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;planets&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">planets</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/627/hde-226868\">HDE 226868</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/politics\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;politics&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">politics</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/11306/avernium\">Avernium</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/religion\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;religion&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">religion</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/20681/pedro-gabriel\">Pedro Gabriel</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/science-fiction\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;science-fiction&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">science-fiction</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/38942/ziobyte\">ZioByte</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/society\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;society&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">society</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/6402/o-m\">o.m.</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/space\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;space&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">space</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/29/michael-kj%c3%b6rling\">Michael Kjörling</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/space-travel\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;space-travel&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">space-travel</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/16883/catgut\">Catgut</a> (wrong; too few answers)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/technology\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;technology&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">technology</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/16295/separatrix\">Separatrix</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/warfare\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;warfare&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">warfare</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/8572/thucydides\">Thucydides</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/weapons\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;weapons&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">weapons</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/6453/aify\">Aify</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/worldbuilding-process\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;worldbuilding-process&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">worldbuilding-process</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/11859/rumguff\">rumguff</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/xenobiology\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;xenobiology&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">xenobiology</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/21870/z-schroeder\">Z.Schroeder</a></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5833, "author": "IEW", "author_id": 46704, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/46704", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>for space-travel > <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/20315/molborg\">MolbOrg</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5837, "author": "kingledion", "author_id": 23519, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23519", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Secespitus's answer is good, but here are the corrections to his answer.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/evolution\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;evolution&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">evolution</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4790/march-ho?tab=tags\">March Ho</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/government\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;government&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">government</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/25459/shadow1024?tab=tags\">Shadow1024</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/humans\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;humans&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">humans</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/7325/gary-walker?tab=tags\">GaryWalker</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/physics\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;physics&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">physics</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/3407/2012rcampion?tab=tags\">2012rcampion</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/space-travel\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;space-travel&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">space-travel</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/40609/jbh?tab=tags\">JBH</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/weapons\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;weapons&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">weapons</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/3202/samuel?tab=tags\">Samuel</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/xenobiology\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;xenobiology&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">xenobiology</a> -> <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/42450/slarty?tab=tags\">Slarty</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Maybe we'll go for a little bit easier next time....</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5826", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23519/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 5847, "author": "Jakob Lovern", "author_id": 44805, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/44805", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Velocity</h1>\n\n<p>Base SI units: $m/s$, $\\theta/s$<br>\nCommon units: mph, kph, m/s, %C</p>\n\n<p><em>Note: This answer includes both linear and angular velocity.</em></p>\n\n<h2>Linear Velocity</h2>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(speed)\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">'Orders of magnitude' on Wikipedia</a></p>\n\n<h3>Atom smashers</h3>\n\n<h3>People and cars</h3>\n\n<pre><code>kph m/s \n5 1.5 Walking\n13 3.5 Jogging\n25 7 Sprinting\n35 10 Fastest human\n45 13 Housecat\n55 15 Rabbit\n75 20 Raptor\n100 25 Slow highway\n110 30 Interstate (65 mph)\n120 35 Speed you actually go when it says “65”\n140 40 Raptor on hoverboard\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3>Things that fly</h3>\n\n<pre><code>kph\n 893 Boeing 747-300 cruise speed\n7,274 X-15 (see https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/)\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3>Space, orbital</h3>\n\n<pre><code>kph\n 2,286 Moon's linear orbital velocity around the Earth\n 11,052 linear velocity of geostationary \n 27,600 ground velocity of the International Space Station\n 108,000 linear velocity of Earth as it orbits the Sun \n 720,000 linear velocity of the Sun around the center of the galaxy\n18,000,000 S2's orbital speed around the black hole Sagittarius A*\n ?? velocities of various objects in orbit around earth\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3>Space, nonorbital</h3>\n\n<pre><code>kph\n 39,897 maximum velocity of Apollo 11 (earth reference point) \n 61,200 Velocity of voyager space probe (sun reference point)\n 252,792 fastest we've ever made anything go (Helios 1)\n 1,440,000 velocity of hypervelocity stars\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3>Space, relativistic</h3>\n\n<pre><code>%c\n&lt;1 hypervelocity stars (0.13%)\n 1 S2's orbital velocity (1.6%)\n 5\n10\n20\n30\n40\n50\n60\n70\n80\n90\n95\n99 ejection jet of Blazars (99.9%)\n ultra high-energy cosmic ray particles (99.99999999999999999999951%)\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2>Angular Velocity</h2>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(angular_velocity)\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">'Orders of magnitude' on Wikipedia</a></p>\n\n<h3>Placeholder</h3>\n\n<pre><code>lorem ipsum\ndolor sit amet\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2>Defined constants:</h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li>c - Speed of light in a vacuum. equal to 299792458 $m/s$</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5861, "author": "Jakob Lovern", "author_id": 44805, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/44805", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<h2>Force</h2>\n\n<p>Base SI units: $\\frac{kg*m}{s^2}$</p>\n\n<p>Common units: N</p>\n\n<pre><code>608.22 N Amount of force a human of average mass exerts on earth\n35,100 kN Thrust force of Saturn V first stage engine\n3.6e22 N Gravitational attraction between Sun and Earth\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><em>Needed ranges:</em></p>\n\n<p>Lots</p>\n\n<p>Defined Constants:\n<code>nAn</code></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5867, "author": "Jakob Lovern", "author_id": 44805, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/44805", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Mass</h1>\n\n<p>Base SI units: $kg$</p>\n\n<p>Common units: kg, g, mg, lb\n<em>note: lb is actually a unit of force, not a unit of mass. Colloquial usage is only defined on Earth.</em></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(mass)\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">'Orders of magnitude (mass)' on Wikipedia</a></p>\n\n<h2>Things you can pick up</h2>\n\n<pre><code>kg \n1 a rather heavy stick of butter\n76.4 average mass of a woman in the US\n88.8 average mass of a man in the US\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2>Modes of transportation</h2>\n\n<pre><code>1500 2012 Toyota Camry\n5000 African Elephant\n1.30e4 Semi-trailer truck\n1.74e5 Boeing 747-300\n2.97e6 Saturn V\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2>Celestial Bodies (Our solar system)</h2>\n\n<pre><code>2.20e14 Halley's comet\n9.39e20 Asteroid 1 Ceres (first asteroid discovered. Also largest.)\n2.30e21 All asteroids in our Solar System\n1.31e22 Pluto\n7.35e22 Moon\n3.29e23 Mercury\n6.39e23 Mars\n4.87e24 Venus\n5.87e24 Earth\n8.68e25 Uranus\n1.02e26 Neptune\n5.68e26 Saturn\n1.90e27 Jupiter\n1.99e30 Sun\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2>Celestial Bodies (Not our solar system)</h2>\n\n<pre><code>kg\n8e30 GRO J0422+32 (a small black hole)\n8e36 Sagittarius A* (Milky Way's super massive black hole)\n6e42 Milky way\n6e51 Observable universe\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Subatomic particles</p>\n\n<p>--</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>9.11e-31 Electron</li>\n<li>1.66e-27 Proton and neutron</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2>Defined Constants</h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar_limit\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Chandrasekhar limit</a> - Maximum mass of a stable white dwarf, approx. 2.77e30 kg</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_mass\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Solar Mass</a> - Mass of our sun, approx. 2e30 kg</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><em>Needed ranges:</em></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Cellular biology (e.g. mass of various organelles)</li>\n<li>[In]organic chemistry (e.g. masses of various interesting molecules)</li>\n<li>Subatomic physics (masses of various bosons and fermions)</li>\n<li>Weird range where mass and energy get mixed</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5868, "author": "kingledion", "author_id": 23519, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23519", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Energy and Power</h1>\n\n<p>Energy is measured in SI units of Joules. Power is the delivery of energy per second, and is measured in SI units of Watts. A Watt is one Joule per second.</p>\n\n<h3>Energy</h3>\n\n<p>Base SI unit: $\\frac{m^2*kg}{s^2}$<br>\nCommon units: Joule (J), kilowatt Hour (kWh)</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(energy)\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">'Orders of magnitude (Energy)' on Wikipedia</a></p>\n\n<pre><code>Joules\n1.6e-23 Energy of a photon from a microwave oven\n5.0e-15 Energy of a n X-ray photon\n8.2e-14 Mass-energy equivalent at rest of an electron\n3.4e-11 Energy released by the fission of one U-235 atom\n1.6e-7 The kinetic energy of a flying mosquito\n1.0e0 The impact energy of an apple, dropped from 1m height\n1.0e2 Energy stored in the capacitor of a flash-producing camera\n1.8e3 Kinetic energy of a M16 rifle bullet\n4.5e4 Energy released by burning 1 gram of gasoline\n6.0e5 Kinetic energy of a 2 ton automobile at 90 km/h\n1.1e8 Total energy burned while bicycling the Tour de France\n3.0e9 Kinetic energy of a Boeing 767 in flight\n4.2e9 Energy equivalent of 1 ton of TNT\n6.3e13 Orbital kinetic energy of the ISS\n2.1e17 Energy released by Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon\n6.8e19 Energy in the world's yearly electricity production\n5.0e23 Energy in the Chicxulub impact (that killed the dinosaurs)\n3.8e28 Kinetic energy of the Moon relative to the Earth\n2.0e32 Gravitational binding energy of the Earth\n2.7e33 Kinetic Energy of the Earth's orbit relative to the sun\n1.0e44 Energy released in a supernova\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3>Power</h3>\n\n<p>Base SI unit: $\\frac{kg*m^2}{s^3}$<br>\nCommon units: watt(W), horsepower(hp)</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power)\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">'Orders of magnitude (Power)' on Wikipedia</a></p>\n\n<pre><code>Watts\n1.0e-20 Power of the signal from Galileo space probe as it orbited Jupiter\n1.0e-16 Power of a GPS signal as received by your phone or watch\n1.0e-12 Power consumption of the average human cell\n1.0e-6 Power consumption of a mechanical wristwatch\n7.0e-2 Antenna power output of a household wireless router\n8.0e0 One human operating a hand-crank\n4.0e2 Approximate peak power consumption of a GPU\n7.5e2 One horsepower\n5.0e3 Photosynthetic energy production of a square km of ocean\n3.0e6 Power output of a locomotive\n2.1e9 Peak power output of the Hoover dam\n1.8e13 Power consumption of humanity\n7.5e13 Global net primary productivity\n1.1e15 World's most powerful laser pulse (there are competing claims)\n1.4e15 Heat flux of the Gulf Stream\n1.7e17 Solar energy that strikes the Earth / Kardashev I civilization\n3.8e26 Luminosity of the Sun / Kardashev II civilzation\n5.0e36 Luminosity of the Milky Way / Kardashev III civilzation\n3.6e49 Power emitted by black hole merger GW150914\n</code></pre>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5846", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/44805/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6453, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6388/welcome-to-worldbuilding-se?noredirect=1\">click here</a> to learn more about our culture and take our <strong>tour</strong>. Thanks!</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<pre>Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please [click here](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6388/welcome-to-worldbuilding-se?noredirect=1) to learn more about our culture and take our [tour]. Thanks!</pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6454, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>You're asking what we call a <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4868/how-to-deal-with-i-have-a-high-concept-please-do-my-work-for-me-questions\">high concept question</a>, which isn't a good fit for our site. Please review this link and help us by improving your question.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<pre>You're asking what we call a [high concept question](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4868/how-to-deal-with-i-have-a-high-concept-please-do-my-work-for-me-questions), which isn't a good fit for our site. Please review this link and help us by improving your question.</pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6455, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p><a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/92107/are-stack-exchange-sites-forums/92110#92110\">SE is not a discussion forum</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<pre>[SE is not a discussion forum](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/92107/are-stack-exchange-sites-forums/92110#92110).</pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6456, "author": "FoxElemental", "author_id": 49578, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49578", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Mine is this one:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Welcome to Worldbuilding, (Insert username)! If you have a moment, please take the <strong>tour</strong> and visit the <strong>help center</strong> to learn more about the site. You may also find <strong>Meta</strong> and <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6168/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\">The Sandbox</a> useful. <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6388\">Here</a> is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The tour, help center, and Meta would all convert from magic links. The raw script (what you should copy+paste) is</p>\n\n<p><code>Welcome to Worldbuilding, (Insert username)! If you have a moment, please take the [tour] and visit the [help] to learn more about the site. You may also find [meta] and [The Sandbox](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6168/sandbox-for-proposed-questions) useful. [Here](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6388) is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun!</code></p>\n\n<p>I'll modify as needed by changing parts of it or adding another notice. Remember to update it with the new link in case there's a new Sandbox (the current one is <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6168/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\">this one</a>).</p>\n\n<p>I adapted it from this answer from <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5254/are-there-any-rules-or-a-specific-format-for-welcome-to-worldbuilding-comment/5255#5255\">Are there any rules or a specific format for &quot;Welcome to WorldBuilding!&quot; comments?</a> But felt that meta and The Sandbox should be mentioned, and later on the post on \"Welcome to Worldbuilding!\". Sometimes I'll customize it with magic links like <code>[edit]</code> or <code>[chat]</code>, or things like \"Nice first question!\" If I mean it. I pop into the first Q/A review queue, add this message to each new post, and then hit the skip button &mdash; it lets me greet new users while letting others do the main review work, unless I feel like it that day.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Don't forget</strong> to change the \"(insert username)\" to the name of the user, or simply delete it. I've had it happen to me a couple times that I'll comment using this script but leave the \"insert username\" in and have to go back and fix it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6470, "author": "Dubukay", "author_id": 43163, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/43163", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm storing this one here for the Sandbox people (okay, basically just me) and is adopted from Secespitus' common script.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This is a reminder about <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2244/sandbox-cleanup#4912\">keeping the Sandbox clean</a>: are you still working on this draft? If so, please [edit] it to show how we may further help you. If not, please <strong>edit</strong> your draft to shorten it to something like \"Not posted: <em>title</em>\" and delete it. The current guidelines are that a draft is eligible for deletion after 30 days without an <strong>edit</strong> from the OP and a comment like this one for at least 7 days.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<pre>\nThis is a reminder about [keeping the Sandbox clean](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2244/sandbox-cleanup#4912): are you still working on this draft? If so, please [edit] it to show how we may further help you. If not, please [edit] your draft to shorten it to something like \"Not posted: *title*\" and delete it. The current guidelines are that a draft is eligible for deletion after 30 days without an [edit] from the OP and a comment like this one for at least 7 days.\n</pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6555, "author": "James", "author_id": 189, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/189", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My Stuff. A general welcome/ot/what is WB and then Be nice and on-topic.</p>\n\n<pre><code>Welcome bryan, to clarify some of the comments above: Stack Exchange is a little different from your standard discussion forum. The site is about specific questions with specific supported answers. As it stands this is commentary and while potentially interesting is not an answer to the question. Once you have gained rep via the site's mechanism you will be able to comment on posts. In the meantime please check out the [tour] and [help] to get a better idea how the site functions. Again welcome and happy world building.\n\n\n[Be nice](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/conduct)\n\n[How to ask](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic)\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Oh and this is just for fun:</p>\n\n<p>No: <a href=\"https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/46186521#46186521\">https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/46186521#46186521</a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6452", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6580, "author": "dot_Sp0T", "author_id": 2746, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2746", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Regarding Acting</h1>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Don't</strong> throw a temper tantrum, instead refrain from name-calling, wailing, aggressiveness, and all the other things that are involved in a tantrum</li>\n<li>Gather the things that bother you, think about them - Why do they bother you?</li>\n<li><p>Make a meta-post: </p>\n\n<pre><code>Title: **This thing bothers me (because yada yada)**\n\nHere I am explaining why it bothers me, I am using\n examples of where I've experienced this bothersome behaviour\n\nHere I am explaining how I think this bothersome thing could be made better\n</code></pre></li>\n<li><p>Reactions might not be what you expect: <strong>Do not lash out</strong></p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<h1>Regarding Reacting</h1>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Don't</strong> throw a temper tantrum, instead refrain from name-calling, wailing, aggressiveness, and all the other things that are involved in a tantrum</li>\n<li>Gather the things that bother you on the question, think about them - Why do they bother you?</li>\n<li><p>Make an answer:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Here I am explaining why I agree AND/OR disagree with the question/premise\n\nHere I am proposing things, in a normal tone, respecting the other parties\n</code></pre></li>\n<li><p>No matter what the situation, <em>you are <strong>not</strong> better than the querent</em></p></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6581, "author": "L.Dutch", "author_id": 30492, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/30492", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Address criticism to the behavior you disagree with, not to the person.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>Example: one gets their questions/answers downvoted without any glimpse of a motivation.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Worst reaction: \"Whoever downvoted this is obviously a [insert derogatory term here] [and here] [and here] [and here] [now wait for some sanction]\"</p></li>\n<li><p>Poor reaction: \"Your downvote clearly shows you are a complete ignorant in the topic\"</p></li>\n<li><p>Good reaction: \"Without feedback on my post, I cannot improve it. I would appreciate if you could also write some line to explain why are you downvoting.\"</p></li>\n<li><p>Best reaction: \"Thank you for taking time to read and vote on this question, if you have some more time, written feedback would be appreciated and can help me improve it further\"</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6582, "author": "user", "author_id": 29, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/29", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Well, rule number 1:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Focus on the behavior, not the person.</strong></p>\n\n<p>And also, rule number 1:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Be nice and constructive about it.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you're bothered by the behavior of <em>one specific user</em>, then flag for moderator attention whatever that user has posted which bothers you, describe why that bothers you, and someone in the moderation team will look at it and take appropriate action. Mind you, <em>appropriate action</em> does not necessarily mean <em>the action you would take if the decision was up to you</em>.</p>\n\n<p>If there is some <em>behavior</em> that bothers you, then:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Find some examples. Ideally, these should be examples by different users. If you really can't find examples of the same behavior by different users, then likely you're bothered by the user, not a behavior, so see above.</li>\n<li>Write up a <em>clear</em> Meta post that explains what the behavior is that you're bothered by, and asks how it should be handled without presupposing any particular response. Write a self-answer (not in the question itself) describing what you would like to see instead. Don't include a lot of extraneous material not directly related to the behavior you're discussing. <strong>Be constructive. Don't call out specific users, but do link to examples. Absolutely don't use expletives, bigotry or similar.</strong> You might think that following this advice somehow makes your post weaker, but it's really the opposite; showing the ability to discuss a behavior without discussing the person indicates <em>maturity</em>. If you don't understand why that is, then I really recommend figuring it out before you vent your frustration. It will be virtually guaranteed to be better received for it.</li>\n<li><strong>Accept that the community might not feel the way you do.</strong> If it was a big problem, people would likely be flagging it like crazy, and the moderation team would be on top of it. That this is not the case <em>likely indicates</em> that the community is either passively accepting of or actively encouraging the behavior in question. (Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that it is <em>right</em>. It does, however, raise the bar for criticism.)</li>\n<li><em>Accept that moderator flags are not super votes.</em> Moderators aren't going to go around deleting posts that some particular user just happens to disagree with. Even if the moderator agrees with you, they might feel that the type of flag you raised is inappropriate for the content in question; this sometimes happens with various kinds of \"rude or abusive\" flags, where the moderator handling the flag might agree that the content is unnecessary, but not with that it is rude or abusive. In such a situation, it's perfectly appropriate for the moderator to decline the <em>flag</em> but still fix the <em>content</em> in whichever way they feel is appropriate. (I myself have been pinged into private chat by a moderator to elaborate on a flag I raised, though not on Worldbuilding.)</li>\n<li>Accept that there are things the specifics of which moderators cannot talk about except with the one user involved, and in some cases, not even then. In addition to the usual terms of service, moderators are bound by <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/legal/moderator-agreement\">the moderator agreement</a>. It's short and sweet, and essentially comes down to: if an ordinary (even high-reputation) user can't see something, then a moderator can't talk about it, <em>even to moderators on other sites</em>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And of course, ultimately, \"appropriate action\" on the part of a moderator can mean anything from dismissing a flag as invalid, all the way up to destroying the user's account on the site, <em>but it is the moderator's decision — and responsibility — which of the available options to choose.</em> It's the moderator, not the user who raised the initial flag prompting action, who might have to answer to Stack Exchange community managers for why they did what they did; possibly with already having had their diamond moderator access revoked, either until the issue is sorted out, or permanently.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6579", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32097/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6923, "author": "user", "author_id": 29, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/29", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>For questions by votes, you can <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&amp;q=is%3aq\">search for <code>is:q</code> and sort by votes</a>.</p>\n\n<p>For answers by votes, you can <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&amp;q=is%3aa\">search for <code>is:a</code> and sort by votes</a>.</p>\n\n<p>To get a list of questions by views, you can use the Stack Exchange Data Explorer. <a href=\"https://data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/938848?opt.textResults=true\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Here's an example query</a> to get you started:</p>\n\n<pre><code>SELECT TOP(10)\n Id,\n ViewCount,\n Title,\n 'https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/' + CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX), Id) AS Link\nFROM Posts\nORDER BY ViewCount DESC\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>(SEDE isn't using the most recent data -- I think it updates weekly -- but allows you to perform queries that are difficult or impossible to express in the on-site search field syntax.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6930, "author": "kingledion", "author_id": 23519, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23519", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>A timely question</h1>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5691/holiday-data-palooza-site-statistics-from-2017\">Datapalooza</a> is just around the corner! I'm planning a more complete experience this year. Last year's focus was users, but this year's focus is going to be questions. </p>\n\n<p>Basically, if you don't want to do it yourself as MichaelKjorling suggests, comment with what you want, and I will see if I can work that into Datapalooza this year. Now is the time to let me know!</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6922", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10759/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 7065, "author": "HDE 226868", "author_id": 627, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/627", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://astronomy.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/1tczj.png\" alt=\"Astronomy Stack Exchange\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7066, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://medium.com/universe-factory\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/DDxv3.png\" alt=\"Visit Universe Factory, our community-run blog!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7067, "author": "Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2", "author_id": 538, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/538", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://writing.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kr83W.png\" alt=\"Writing.SE\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7072, "author": "motosubatsu", "author_id": 34690, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/34690", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2878\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/5HEIT.png\" alt=\"Share your work on the blog. We&#39;ll help!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7073, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7183/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/1ajQn.gif\" alt=\"The best questions are perfected first in our Sandbox!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7074, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7183/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/mkhzE.jpg\" alt=\"Help in the Sandbox as a Mentor!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7075, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help/accepted-answer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/cbOZq.jpg\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7076, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kTGgQ.png\" alt=\"Q&amp;A about science fiction and fantasy\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7077, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://literature.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/euF1O.png\" alt=\"Be inspired by stories\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7226, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/JpXKn.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7320, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/q/7313/40609\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/1HvQb.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7063", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8555/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 7247, "author": "Separatrix", "author_id": 16295, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/16295", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Cryogenics is the right term for your purposes but the tag definition is incorrect. </p>\n\n<p>The correct solution is perhaps to create a new <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">cryonics</a> tag for many of the questions currently tagged <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/cryogenics\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;cryogenics&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">cryogenics</a>, and free up cryogenics to be used correctly.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7258, "author": "Cyn", "author_id": 54137, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/54137", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is a tag for <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/temperature\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;temperature&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">temperature</a> with 97 questions so far.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This tag is for questions which are about temperature, heat and their\n effects on the environment, the heat of astronomical objects, living\n being,s things and space and what it might be like. (note: I put in an\n edit request to fix the commas)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>While I see that <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/cryogenics\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;cryogenics&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">cryogenics</a> also exists, I wonder if <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/temperature\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;temperature&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">temperature</a> would not be sufficient.</p>\n\n<p>Given that we have <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/cryogenics\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;cryogenics&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">cryogenics</a> it makes sense to make it broader, as Separatrix did.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7242", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 7368, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The link is not wrong. If you visit the <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/a/7073/40609\">source ad</a>, you'll discover the HTTPS link to our Meta page is correct.</p>\n\n<p>I believe you've misunderstood the URL. It's in two parts:</p>\n\n<p><code>http://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/ct/7073</code></p>\n\n<p>This is the first part. It's automatically created by Stack Exchange. We have no control over it. It's only purpose is to invoke the Community Ad server. This is required, at least, to ensure that community ad links are being properly used (without 6 votes, they're not supposed to show up or be usable). I do not know why Stack Exchange does not use the HTTPS protocol for this.</p>\n\n<p>The second part is this:</p>\n\n<p><code>https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f7183%2fsandbox-for-proposed-questions&amp;s=180e2f25810f79c41228e12f54de8770e28ab11c91cc704f647090556be8183e</code></p>\n\n<p>As you can see, it uses the HTTPS protocol as assigned in the source community ad. This is the query that's being sent to the Community Ads server. I don't know what the second parameter (<code>s</code>) refers to, but it's likely some form of session ID.</p>\n\n<p>The issue doesn't involve just this one ad. If you hover over any community ad, you'll find the first part of the URL to be the same (other than the numbers, which point to the unique community advertisement).</p>\n\n<p>Insofar as I know, since Stack Exchange is automatically producing the URL you're indicating, it's normal. If you have a concern, you'll need to post it at Meta.StackExchange.com where the developers will see it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7372, "author": "user", "author_id": 29, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/29", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>This is a non-issue with modern, standards-compliant browsers.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Along with a bunch of other headers, every response to a request to worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com comes with these headers:</p>\n\n<pre><code>content-security-policy: upgrade-insecure-requests\nstrict-transport-security: max-age=15552000\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>(You can see these yourself in the network console of your browser, or equivalent.)</p>\n\n<p>The effect of these is to (CSP) tell the web browser to use HTTPS for everything referenced from the page (<a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Security-Policy/upgrade-insecure-requests\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">MDN</a> says \"non-navigational insecure resource requests are automatically upgraded (first-party as well as third-party requests)\" and specifically illustrates with <code>&lt;img&gt;</code>, but not off-host <code>&lt;a href&gt;</code> links), <em>and</em> (HSTS) to record the fact that plain-text HTTP requests to this host are prohibited for a duration of 15,520,000 seconds (180 days).</p>\n\n<p>The CSP thus doesn't necessarily affect the target of the link (MDN seems a little unclear if navigational links to the same host are upgraded). However, the HSTS header <em>does</em> have an effect (<a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Strict-Transport-Security\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">MDN</a>), in forcing the browser to <em>only</em> allow HTTPS (technically, \"secure\") transport to the host that the HSTS header was received from.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Therefore, in practice, as soon as a request is made to the host, it will be force-upgraded to HTTPS before hitting the network.</strong> So no plain-text HTTP is involved when clicking on the ad, even though the link says plaintext HTTP.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7367", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/62089/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 7788, "author": "Dragonrage", "author_id": 15221, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15221", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://gaming.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kz3jL.png\" alt=\"Explore New Worlds\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7790, "author": "Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2", "author_id": 538, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/538", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://writing.codidact.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/QI5fh.png\" alt=\"Build your story with Writing Q&amp;A!\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7792, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://accrispin.blogspot.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/fZzVE.png\" alt=\"Writer Beware: A record of bad publishers taking advantage of unsuspecting authors\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7793, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/MmyHw.jpg\" alt=\"The Submission Grinder helps authors find publishers.\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7794, "author": "SRM", "author_id": 26246, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26246", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://www.sfwa.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/meTZ0.jpg\" alt=\"The guild for professional world builders.\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7801, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kTGgQ.png\" alt=\"Q&amp;A about science fiction and fantasy\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7802, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://literature.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/euF1O.png\" alt=\"Be inspired by stories\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7889, "author": "user", "author_id": 29, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/29", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://scientific-speculation.codidact.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Dr6be.png\" alt=\"Scientific Speculation Q&amp;A\"></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7971, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7183/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/mkhzE.jpg\" alt=\"Help in the Sandbox as a Mentor!\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7972, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7183/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/1ajQn.gif\" alt=\"The best questions are perfected first in our Sandbox!\" /></a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7787", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8555/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 8009, "author": "Ash", "author_id": 78800, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/78800", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You've put together a complex story, you're proud of it, you've come here requesting help on Part A. Someone tears apart your story on Part B. The downsides of this are:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>It can be very demotivational. You've put a lot of effort into this. &quot;THERE'S NO WAY THIS COULD EVEN HAPPEN! DO YOUR RESEARCH!&quot; would feel like a gut punch.</li>\n<li>It discourages concise questions. New users see peoples questions being ripped apart on backstory, so they try to pre-empt this and expand their questions to explain lots of backstory so avoid the scenario being torn down.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Giving feedback that &quot;this wont work&quot; is very useful, but care needs to be taken in how you write it so as to not offend.</p>\n<p>I try to go &quot;This wont work, because X. But assume we can get past X somehow (maybe Y?), Z will happen.&quot;</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8010, "author": "AlexP", "author_id": 29552, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/29552", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It was me who was &quot;challenging&quot; the back story.</p>\n<p>Except I wasn't challenging the back story.</p>\n<p>The question was of the form &quot;people are doing X causing Y effect; how long will the effect last?&quot; The problem was that doing X would not have effect Y; in order for the question to be answerable, just as JBH says, it is irrelevant what people were doing: what is relevant are the prevailing conditions when effect Y occurred.</p>\n<p>My comment was:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A nuclear war fought with currently available weapons will <strong>not</strong> result in <em>&quot;more than 90% of all life on Earth being wiped out&quot;</em>. Not even close. What this means is that the war assumed by the question will be fought with weapons of which we have no idea. In order for the question to be answerable you need to explain what those weapons do.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I was asking the querent to clarify what the weapons <em>do</em>, not how they work, or why they were used.</p>\n<p>I was not asking to invent the weapons, only to describe their effect.</p>\n<p>I was not asking to justify the end result of using them.</p>\n<p>I'm at a loss understanding how my comment was not asking for the <em>&quot;starting condition&quot;</em>, as JBH says, from where to estimate the duration of the recovery.</p>\n<p>The original poster of the question in question explicitly insisted in their comment that the war <em>&quot;would be fought with much larger arsenals including both fission and fusion bombs&quot;</em>. No new science or technology. Just larger arsenals.</p>\n<h2>Aside, about that rant-inducing faith in science</h2>\n<p>First of all, I see no conflict between science and religion. Science is about the material; religion is about the spiritual. The two don't mix, and don't have anything substantial to say about each other's sphere. Science can and does study religion <em>as a phenomenon in the real world</em>; religion can always override science <em>in the spiritual world</em>. They are no more in conflict with each other than they are in conflict with literary theory.</p>\n<p>As for the practicalities, it is easy:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Thermodynamics rules; it is too beautiful to be challenged.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Classical mechanics and classical electromagnetism are set in stone <em>in the situations where they apply</em>.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Materials science is in rapid evolution; the rest of the physics sets hard boundaries, but within those boundaries wonderful discoveries can be made any time.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Special relativity is predicated on the assumption that all laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference: and the rest is just math. Challenging it implies either challenging the basic assumption, or coming up with a new mathematical solution: as avid readers of science fiction, <em>we all hope</em> that one or the other challenge will eventually prevail.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>General relativity <em>might</em> be wrong; we just have as yet no idea in what way it might be wrong.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Quantum physics is undoubtedly true in its observations, but its usual mathematical formulation may be off. As, lo and behold, there do indeed exist alternative mathematical formulations of quantum physics, some more philosophically palatable than others.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>We already <em>know</em> that general relativity and quantum physics cannot be both true; hence the search for an elusive theory of everything, reminding us amateurs of the last glorious days of alchemy.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Natural evolution by common descent with modifications is simply an observation of how things are. <em>How exactly</em> it happens is a matter of on-going research; the mathematics of population genetics is fascinating, but biology is notoriously wet and messy; hopefully, real soon now a new elegant synthesis will replace the dusty mid-20th century Modern Synthesis of Mayr, Dobzhansky <em>et al.</em></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Economics, psychology, sociology, and other such fields of inquiry are pretty much at a pre-scientific level of development and there isn't anything to have faith in.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8011, "author": "elemtilas", "author_id": 37029, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/37029", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>My opinion on this event is fairly simple and straightforward:</p>\n<p><strong>I think we too often rely on Science As We Know It to be the end-all be-all of measures by which we view, critique, understand, and answer every question in this forum.</strong></p>\n<p>We have a lot of very intelligent, very science oriented (science almost to the point of dogmatic faith) people here and it's long been an observation of mine that these individuals especially and our Company as a whole (and I've done this too, from time to time!) tend to approach all questions through the lens of real world understanding.</p>\n<p>I hold that we tend to forget sometimes that this is all about fiction. We almost never know what the OP's perspective is: are they writing fantasy, or myth, or fairy story, or quasiVictorian mystery, or pseudoscientific adventure? Are they working on a magical world (hard or soft magic; integral or ephemeral), or a scifi world (hard or soft scifi; rigid or lax compliance), or the real world itself?</p>\n<p>We can't approach all these kinds of worlds with the same hammer. We need to, I think, be a little more creative. Sometimes I think we need also to be more open and perhaps more willing to offer an answer even if we don't have all the data.</p>\n<p>To take the query at hand: if I were to answer, I would (most likely) ignore AlexP's entirely correct, but also in a key way beside the point challenges. Simply because the question isn't &quot;are there enough weapons to do what I want&quot; but rather &quot;this is the Situation; and this is the Background; now I need help with an Assessment and a Recommendation as to timeframe&quot;. What I mean by this is <em>okay, this is the fictional world the OP has constructed, and here is the problem the OP is facing: now, how can I apply my real world knowledge in combination with my creativity and in combination with my understanding that it's the ultimate narrative that is important here in order to help the OP through my response?</em></p>\n<p>Very simple.</p>\n<p>To answer your question (finally!): it is always appropriate to challenge an OP's assumptions, <em><strong>BUT</strong></em> <strong>we always need to adjust our perspective and our approach to the background type and the individual question at hand.</strong></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8013, "author": "Nosajimiki", "author_id": 57832, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/57832", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would say that a harsh critique of the backstory is normally not necessary. The OP sets the criteria, and it is our job when answering to answer as though the backstory is true... with one exception, <strong>Hard-Science</strong> tags.</p>\n<p>JBH makes a good point in his comment by saying, how you go about handling this should be based on the user's experience. If the user is an experienced member of our community (someone with several thousand reputation points) then it is reasonable to assume that they know when and how to use the hard-science tag in which case, you should just go ahead and challenge the backstory. But since newer users do often interpret it as a &quot;hard science fiction&quot; tag, it would make more sense to challenge the tag than the backstory in this case.</p>\n<p>Lastly, (and this is really the most important part I think we could all do better on), don't assume that you have a better understanding of the science at play than anyone who will come after you. When challenging scientific limitations, it is best to use less absolute language like, &quot;<em><strong>I do not believe that</strong> a nuclear war fought with currently available weapons could result in more than 90% of all life on Earth being wiped out...</em>&quot;. In this case, there are citable models for nuclear war that can cause this much loss of life through environmental damage factors like lack of precipitation, ozone depletion, and the Oxygen depletion of the Oceans.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8018, "author": "DarcyThomas", "author_id": 4798, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4798", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Sometimes I find a back story is too unrealistic*, that it becomes jaring, and means the answer to the core of the question would therefore also feel unrealistic.</p>\n<p>So what I tend to do, is point out the issues <strong>and come up with a plausible alternative backstory</strong>, then I can provide a realistic and plausible answer to their core question.</p>\n<p>It is easy, lazy and often times disrespectful and rude, to just shoot down an idea. Legalized trolling if you will. Sure sometimes justified. But most of the time you can't see the value for the trollishness. Good questions and answers are more important than the ego (getting pumped up, by pushing others down) of the person answering.</p>\n<p>If someone doesn't have the time to provide useful help to OP, then why are they answering?!?</p>\n<p><em>So in this specific case, provide a political or scientific reason why there <strong>would</strong> be sufficient nukes, and then answering OPs reconstruction question.</em></p>\n<hr />\n<p><code>*</code> Having an implausible plot element, has spoiled so many SciFi movies for me, which a simple change would have made right.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8111, "author": "Tortliena", "author_id": 80336, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/80336", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>A mentionned asker's answer</h1>\n<p>Jumped from my <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/189754/would-an-hibernating-bear-men-society-faces-issues-from-unattended-farmlands-in\">bear hibernation question</a> to this meta-discussion through a comment.</p>\n<p><strong>I'll give my answer as a new worldbuilding stack-exchange user -and new stack-user in general, not accounting reading posts-, on the experience I had regarding all this. So please bear in mind that I don't know all stacky's inner workings, nor do I have an objective point of view. That's not my objective here anyway.</strong></p>\n<h2>Personal context</h2>\n<p>To stay humble like a bumblebee, I don't have a lot of experience in world-building; it's neither my job nor I have a bachelor in litterature. Having strong ties with games however, I am more of a jack-of-all-trade, with knowledge in all that relates to it, be it game design, art or science stuffies, being a champion of none.</p>\n<p>In games, one's suspension of disbelief has quite a large margin of tolerance, like in regards to physics (double air jumps, checked!), medecine (instant health pack, checked!). In other words, it's fine if things don't stick together perfectly in most games. Moreover, I am more interested in making stories for a younger -but not fool- audience, who doesn't necessarily care for the factual science data adults live with. This gives an idea of what I aim for, in general.</p>\n<h2>My experience</h2>\n<p>After having checked the water's temperature through a first question, and received useful comments on how to improve it (and later ones), I went onto something truly important to me, and posted my second question about these bear men and unattended farmlands.</p>\n<p>As I found my first answer and comment to my question, I quickly noticed that something was amiss. Indeed, I didn't know for sure that well-fed bears may not hibernate at that time, and seeing people focusing on this made me wonder if my question was correctly written. Because I didn't have the time, I left and let this thought flow to settle things down in my mind.</p>\n<p>When I came back laty later in the day, I saw JBH's comments on the frame challenge answer and following my question's comments. This is then that I realized that what I wanted is not to change my bear race, as the answer led me indirectly to. And therefore I changed my posture on the subject, answering to two comments flows at once and even telling twice in the main one that I changed the question.</p>\n<h3>How I feel now</h3>\n<p>I feel like this hibernation issue went much, much too far. What I wanted was stated in 2 sentences about food production, which was in the title too, and because I missed out a detail out of a whole question, everybody (or I felt like it was everybody) argued more on whether answers should tell that no, this food situation won't happen at all in the first place.</p>\n<p>I feel kind of bad.</p>\n<p>Bad for me of course, because I spent (some) time refocusing the subject and didn't get my answer as easily it could have been, but also because my story has been waived away on a single fact, which, if I haven't learned at receiving really harsh opinions, may have made me falter.</p>\n<p>But also for the people who wasted time, thinking they helped me by discussing on this subject. It was, from my point of view, a loss of time after the third comment came in, because all was said and done about it. Aside of not having a &quot;reality check&quot; tag, noone on stackys knew for sure how coherent my world needs to be in regard to science. Actually, I take back some of that. Even if my needs were really high, in true truly truth, neither me nor the people immersed in my world would break their suspension of disbelief just because bears don't actually hibernate every year! If it did, then it would shatter in million pieces as soon as one of them started to speak! And anyhow, that's not what I want, that's not the world I want to convey my stories with!</p>\n<h1>My answer to this meta-discussion</h1>\n<p>Before leaping like a mad horse onto cactuses, <strong>ask yourself how realistic the world needs to be regarding to tags, world's genre and the question</strong>. It could be useful to ask that if it's not clear at all. This need should serve as your goal. Then compare with how much your frame challenge breaks this need.</p>\n<p>Now, on the how to :</p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you can still say &quot;<em>ok this is the context X, but I think some changes is needed to have a point in answering the question</em>&quot;, then the challenge should either be mentionned partially in an answer (&quot;<em>Ok, know that you have problem X related to the question here, but if X is resolved one way or another, then we can say this...</em>&quot;), or as a question in comment.</li>\n<li>If you can only say &quot;<em>Given this context X, it's really impossible to have Y appear in the first place</em>&quot;, then you cannot answer the question and need clarification or rework. Therefore, this should be done in a comment.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>If you have a doubt between the two, then ask yourself those two questions : Are you feeling you are cheating your way out from the question? If you were told this world context in a story, would you break your suspension of disbelief? In other words, would it make you raise your biggest eyebrow and say &quot;Wait, how is that even possible!&quot;? Answering &quot;yes&quot; to the first question and/or &quot;no&quot; to the second means the question is probably answerable.</p>\n<p>On a final note : it is nicer to wonder what the asker wish while putting down the challenge. This is especially true with newcomers, because they're less prone to affirm their position. Putting it as an affirmation -especially as a stack's answer- is very assertive, because you mean by that that &quot;you know your thing&quot; rather than &quot;you're not sure that answering with this will help you&quot;. Having received the two, I can tell this changes the feeling.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8008", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 8332, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7183/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/mkhzE.jpg\" alt=\"Help in the Sandbox as a Mentor!\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8333, "author": "JBH", "author_id": 40609, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40609", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7183/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/1ajQn.gif\" alt=\"The best questions are perfected first in our Sandbox!\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8335, "author": "Tortliena", "author_id": 80336, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/80336", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7183/sandbox-for-proposed-questions\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/bJu8B.png\" alt=\"Improve your question in the sandbox!\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8345, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://scifi.stackexchange.com/\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kTGgQ.png\" alt=\"Q&amp;A about Science Fiction and Fantasy on Stack Exchange\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8346, "author": "Rand al'Thor", "author_id": 2235, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2235", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://literature.stackexchange.com\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/euF1O.png\" alt=\"Be inspired by stories\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8349, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://writing.codidact.com\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/7Rwg2.jpg\" alt=\"Build the story to go with your world on Writing.Codidact.com!\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8350, "author": "Monica Cellio", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://scientific-speculation.codidact.com\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/zWyda.png\" alt=\"Help us build another friendly community!\" /></a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8352, "author": "Tortliena", "author_id": 80336, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/80336", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://writing.codidact.com\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/hQNrQ.jpg\" alt=\"Build the story to go with your world on Writing.Codidact.com!\" /></a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8330", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8555/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 385, "author": "Monty Wild", "author_id": 75, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/75", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The main factors that would be involved are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Surface gravity - an effect of diameter and density</li>\n<li>Tectonic activity levels</li>\n<li>Erosion rate.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Mars has lower surface gravity, and due to its thinner atmosphere, a lower erosion rate. This means that there is less gravity to prevent taller mountains and less weather to wear them down. </p>\n\n<p>So, unfortunately there isn't a single factor.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 31088, "author": "JDługosz", "author_id": 885, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/885", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The tallest mountains possible depend on the strength of the rocks, which are fluid under high pressures and geologic time. They will sag even as their being pushed up. Mountains on the moon are very tall because the rocks are dry. Mountains on Venus are stubby because of the heat.</p>\n\n<p>So it depends greatly on the composition and gravity. A larger planet will have stronger surface gravity and thus shorter mountains, which is scaling the opposite direction you were supposing.</p>\n\n<p>You could look up the details for various rocky worlds and check for yourself.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/381", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/156/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1102, "author": "Mark", "author_id": 278, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/278", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A good rule of thumb is that at each step of the food chain, 90% of the energy is lost: a plant only absorbs 10% of the sunlight that falls on it, of which only 10% is available to a grazing animal, of which only 10% is available to a predator, and so on.</p>\n\n<p>Weight is a reasonable proxy for energy, so a 100 kg apex predator will need 1000 kg of hawks, and at the base, you're looking at about 1,000,000 kg of plants.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1105, "author": "DonyorM", "author_id": 81, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/81", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There will be no exact answer, because it somewhat depends on the life-style of your predator, </p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey\">osprey</a> is a bird of prey that eats fish. They weigh about 0.9 - 2.1 kg. An <a href=\"http://cfwep.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-much-fish-does-fish-hawk-eat-osprey.html\">osprey eats</a> about 3 kg a day. So about 1.5 times its own weight, depending on what it can catch, as well as how far it is from the food source and whether or not it has chicks. </p>\n\n<p>A peregrine falcon is another bird of prey, which <a href=\"http://diet.yukozimo.com/what-do-falcons-eat/\">eats</a> about 185g (<a href=\"http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Quail/lifehistory\">average weight</a> of a quail) a day. The peregrine falcon <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Falcon\">weighs</a> an average of 915 grams, but they can eat up to birds the size of <a href=\"http://falconsbarcelona.net/Falco11/en_pagines/especie7.html\">2000 g</a>. This shows that birds of prey can have a wide variance in the amount of food they eat. But generally they eat about 1/5 their weight a day. </p>\n\n<p>Red tail hawks <a href=\"http://animalstime.com/red-tailed-hawk-facts-kids-red-tailed-hawk-diet-habitat/\">weigh</a> about 1,030 grams and eat about 135 grams. So they eat a little more than 1/10 their weight. For all of these species the babies eat more. Overall this shows evidence shows that animals eat significantly less per day than they weigh.</p>\n\n<p>So an apex predator could eat a large range of amounts of foods. We will go with about 1/5 their weight, because they are eating other birds, and so we will compare them more to the falcon, which is in between the hawk and the osprey. If this is the case, then an apex predator would need to eat about 20 kg of hawks a day. Multiply this by three of three predators, then you get 60 kg a day. That's about 1800 kg of hawks a month. If hawks eat one tenth their weight a day, then you need 180 kg of small birds a month. These are the numbers of birds that will be consumed, not the number of the population, just to make that clear.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1148, "author": "Ilmari Karonen", "author_id": 170, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/170", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The 10% conversion efficiency mentioned in other answers is a decent rule of thumb &mdash; there's a lot of variation in the real world, but if you assume that the total prey biomass equals somewhere around 10 times the total predator biomass, you'll get a fairly plausible-looking food chain.</p>\n\n<p>Tim B makes an excellent point in the comments, though: <strong>generally, even apex predators mostly hunt herbivores,</strong> simply because they're usually the easiest and most abundant food source around. So a 100 kg apex predator does <em>not</em> need 1,000 kg of lower predators to support it &mdash; it just needs 1,000 kg of <em>some</em> kind of prey, which may include both herbivores and other carnivores.</p>\n\n<p>In fact, in real life, many apex predators (such as bears and, indeed, humans) are even omnivorous to some extent, consuming some plants (usually parts with high nutritive value, like fruits, nuts and berries) to supplement their hunting. Indeed, one major advantage of a flexible omnivorous diet, for species high up in the food chain, is that it helps guarantee a steady food supply, minimizing the risk of mass starvation (from which apex predators, with their small population sizes and long generation times, have a hard time recovering from) due to fluctuations lower down in the food chain. Conversely, since apex predators, by definition, have relatively little competition, they don't suffer such a strong pressure to specialize as species lower in the food chain, and can thus afford to maintain a generalist diet.</p>\n\n<p>Actually, the only reason <em>everything</em> in nature isn't omnivorous is that different nutrition sources sometimes require incompatible adaptations. For example, the reason why autotrophs (plants) and heterotrophs (animals) are mostly distinct is because efficient autotrophy requires some adaptations (like a low-energy sessile lifestyle) that are incompatible with those needed for efficient heterotrophy (in particular, mobility for grazing/hunting). Similarly, the distinction between primary consumers (herbivores) and secondary consumers (carnivores / omnivores) is a follow-on effect to this: efficient grazing on such a low-density nutrition source as most plant tissue requires behavioral traits and digestive adaptations that are not well suited for hunting, and vice versa, so while a predator may occasionally eat plants, it is unlikely to be able to survive well on plants alone.</p>\n\n<p>However, on higher levels of the food chain, this specialization starts to break down: the adaptations needed to hunt songbirds are not that different from those needed to hunt falcons, so an apex predator that can do one will most likely be capable of both. They're still most likely to hunt <em>mostly</em> songbirds, though, simply because there will be a lot more songbirds around than falcons (and also because songbirds will likely be easier to catch, and less likely to fight back, than falcons).</p>\n\n<p>(In fact, IRL, falcons would generally be considered apex predators themselves. While there are species that may, <em>occasionally</em>, kill and eat falcons, none of them really do so routinely or to such an extent as to put any significant predation pressure on the falcons. To a first approximation, nothing eats falcons.)</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>So, with that out of the way, how should you figure out the biomass of different species in your ecosystem? Well, the first step would be to roughly sketch out the <a href=\"//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_web\">food web</a> for the ecosystem. For example, a quick sketch might look something like this:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Large apex predator (100 kg), large carnivore:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Mainly eats mountain goats (80%), supplemented by some lemmings (15%) and songbirds (5%).</li>\n<li>May opportunistically eat falcons, but not very often (&lt; 1%).</li>\n<li>Does not usually eat insects (too small to hunt efficiently) or plants (not easily digestible).</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Mountain goat (50 kg), large herbivore:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Mainly eats plants (> 99%); can eat almost any plant, even those inedible to most other herbivores.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Falcon (0.2 kg), small carnivore:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Mainly eats songbirds (25%) and lemmings (75%).</li>\n<li>May opportunistically scavenge mountain goat remains left by apex predators (&lt; 5%).</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Lemming (0.1 kg), small herbivore / omnivore:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Mainly eats plants (90%; shoots, leaves, roots and seeds / berries) and some insects (10%).</li>\n<li>May occasionally eat eggs (&lt; 5%) when available.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Songbird (0.02 kg), small herbivore / insectivore:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Diet consists mainly of insects (50%) and seeds (50%); proportion varies by season (mostly insects in spring / summer, seeds in autumn / winter).</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Insects and arachnids:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Broad group subsuming a complex sub-ecosystem of herbivorous, predatory, scavenging, symbiotic and parasitic species.</li>\n<li>Predatory insects and arachnids mainly hunt other insects; thus, overall, the group may be considered mainly herbivorous (> 95%).</li>\n<li>Some parasitic species, such as ticks and mosquitoes, derive a significant part of their nutrition from birds and mammals (&lt; 5% overall).</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Plants and fungi:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Autotrophs / detritivores, obtain their energy and nutrients from sunlight and/or from waste and remains of other organisms.</li>\n<li>A few species in nutrient-scarce habitats may catch insects for extra nutrients (&lt; 1%).</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Note that I've added a few land herbivores to your ecosystem, since it didn't seem realistic to me <em>not</em> to have any. In particular, if you want large apex predators, you really do need some large prey that they can hunt efficiently; without those, there probably would not be any niche for predators much larger than your falcons.</p>\n\n<p>Now, since you've already decided how many apex predators you want, you can start from the top and work out how much food they need. So, for example, three apex predators (3 &times; 100 kg = 300 kg) will, by the 10% rule, need around 3,000 kg of prey. Around 80% of that will be mountain goats, so that's 2,400 kg / 50 kg = 48 goats; let's round that up to 50. (Nothing else really eats goats in this ecosystem, so we don't need to account for other predators.) That's not a huge lot of goats, but then, three apex predators is quite a small population in itself.</p>\n\n<p>The apex predators also eat some lemmings; the 10% rule says we need 450 kg / 0.1 kg = 4,500 lemmings to satisfy their craving for small furry snacks. However, the lemming population is also harvested by falcons; we haven't yet decided how many falcons there should be, since falcons are not a major food source for anything, but let's say there are 100 falcons, making their total biomass 20 kg. They'll thus need 200 kg of prey, of which 75% will be lemmings, giving us a total lemming biomass of 450 kg + 150 kg = 600 kg, and thus a typical population of 6,000 lemmings.</p>\n\n<p>(Of course, if these are anything like real lemmings, their population size will be cyclic, growing over a few years to a peak and then crashing. This will likely induce a similar cycle in the falcon population, or at least in their offspring production rate. During peak years, the apex predators may also consume a significantly higher proportion of lemmings, since they'll be plentiful and easy to catch.)</p>\n\n<p>The apex predators and falcons will also require a songbird biomass of 150 kg + 50 kg = 200 kg, giving us a population of around 10,000 songbirds. Half of the songbirds' food will be insects, which means they'll need around 1 tonne of insects to support them; however, the lemmings also eat some insects, pushing the total insect biomass needed to support both populations to around 1.6 tonnes. (In practice, the real insect biomass should almost certainly be higher, since some of it will be consumed by other insects and arachnids. I don't have a good conversion factor for that, so let's just arbitrarily call it 2 tonnes.)</p>\n\n<p>The 2.5 tonnes of mountain goats will, by the 10% rule, need 25 tonnes of plants to support them; the lemmings will need about 5.5 tonnes, and the songbirds will need about 1 tonne of fruits and seeds. Treating the 2 tonnes of insect biomass as roughly 100% herbivores means they'll need 20 tonnes of plants to support them (and everything that depends on them), for a total plant biomass of around 50 tonnes. (This figure does not generally include things like tree trunks, which are not easily consumed by herbivores.)</p>\n\n<p>We'll thus get the following rough biomass / population figures:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Apex predators: 3 &times; 100 kg = 300 kg</li>\n<li>Mountain goats: 50 &times; 50 kg = 2,500 kg</li>\n<li>Falcons: 100 &times; 0.2 kg = 20 kg</li>\n<li>Lemmings: 6,000 &times; 0.1 kg = 600 kg (typical)</li>\n<li>Songbirds: 10,000 &times; 0.02 kg = 200 kg</li>\n<li>Insects: 2 tonnes</li>\n<li>Plants: 50 tonnes (live tissue; not including tree trunks etc.)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>As noted above, if the lemming population is anything like in the real world, it may cycle strongly, from, say, 600 to 60,000 individuals. This oscillation is likely to be reflected, to varying degrees (and with varying delays) in the other populations as well.</p>\n\n<p>These cyclic interactions can get quite complex. For example, during peak lemming years, the apex predators may hunt less goats, which will allow the goat population to rise next year; however, the lemmings will also compete with the goats for food, which may somewhat moderate the rise. If the lemmings deplete the plant resources considerably on peak years, this may cause the goat population to first peak (due to reduced predation) on the next year, and then crash (due to lack of food) afterwards. Similarly, a lot of lemmings means that falcons will hunt fewer songbirds this year, but also that there will be more falcons next year.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, all of this is assuming an essentially closed ecosystem. However, in nature, few ecosystems are totally isolated from their surroundings, so there will likely be migration and other interactions with surrounding areas. Fortunately, these interactions often tend to be stabilizing: for example, if there aren't enough songbirds and lemmings around, the falcons can fly off the mountain and look for prey elsewhere.</p>\n\n<p>In particular, a population of three apex predators is <em>not</em> anywhere near stable in isolation; unless rescued by immigration from elsewhere, it will almost surely go extinct within a few generations (and even if it did not, it would suffer greatly from inbreeding). However, a population of three large predators <em>can</em> live just fine on a mountain, as long as there are other populations nearby from which new individuals can occasionally immigrate, and to which the offspring of the current population can emigrate if there's not enough local prey to support them.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/1091", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/18/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3480, "author": "HDE 226868", "author_id": 627, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/627", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One partial technique is to create an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_posteriori_(languages)\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><em>a posteriori</em></a> language - that is, to base it off an existing language. <a href=\"http://www.languageconnections.com/wp1/languages-of-middle-earth/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Here</a>, J. R. R. Tolkien is quoted explaining how he was inspired to create some of his languages:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><strong>Elvish:</strong></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But it was his discovery of the Finnish language that truely inspired him. Tolkien wrote about it many years later: “It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me.”</p>\n \n <p>“The ingredients in Quenya are various, but worked out into a self-consistent character not precisely like any language that I know. Finnish, which I came across when I first begun to construct a ‘mythology’ was a dominant influence, but that has been much reduced [now in late Quenya]. It survives in some features: such as the absence of any consonant combinations initially, the absence of the voiced stops b, d, g (except in mb, nd, ng, ld, rd, which are favoured) and the fondness for the ending -inen, -ainen, -oinen, also in some points of grammar, such as the inflexional endings -sse (rest at or in), -nna (movement to, towards), and -llo (movement from); the personal possessives are also expressed by suffixes; there is no gender.”</p>\n</blockquote></li>\n<li><p><strong>Dwarvish:</strong></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Tolkien based Dwarvish on the Semitic languages, due to his observation of similarities between Dwarves and Jews: both were “at once natives and aliens in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue…”. Tolkien also commented of the Dwarves that “their words are Semitic obviously, constructed to be Semitic.” Like the Semitic languages, Khuzdul has triconsonantal roots: kh-z-d, b-n-d, z-g-l. Other similarities to Hebrew in phonology and morphology have been observed. </p>\n</blockquote></li>\n<li><p><strong>Languages of Men:</strong></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Taliska, based on the Gothic language, was an early interest of Tolkien.</p>\n \n <p>Soval Pharë, also known as “Common Speech” or Westron in English, comes closest to being a lingua franca in Middle-earth particularly during the time period of The Lord of the Rings.</p>\n \n <p>Other less developed languages included: Dalish (derived from Old Norse), and Rohirric (derived from Anglo-Saxon), Rhovanion (derived from Gothic), as well as Haladin, Dunlendish, Drûg, Haradrim, and Easterling.</p>\n</blockquote></li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Another method is to find a set of letters - may it be a dipthong, a few consonants, or just a random combination - and use it in different names, possibly as a prefix or suffix. Again, drawing on <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Lord_of_the_Rings_characters\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Tolkien's work</a>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Theoded and Theodred</li>\n<li>Eowyn and Eomer</li>\n<li>Faramir and Boromir</li>\n<li>Aragorn and Arathorn</li>\n<li>Hobbits in general (see the family trees in the appendices of the books); a good example is <a href=\"http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Baggins_Family\" rel=\"noreferrer\">the Baggins family</a>, with Balbo, Bungo, Biblo, Belba, Bodo, Bingo, etc. - though I just picked ones beginning with \"B\".</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Need I mention <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Hobbit_characters#Thorin.27s_Company\" rel=\"noreferrer\">the dwarfs</a> (Balin and Dwalin, Fili and Kili, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur, Oin and Gloin, Ori, Nori, and Dori - as well as Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror)?</p>\n\n<p>By the way, there are many more fantastic examples <a href=\"http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_characters\" rel=\"noreferrer\">here</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3491, "author": "Tim B", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The easiest way to do this is just to pick a sound or a theme for each culture/race/etc and then use that.</p>\n\n<p>Some examples:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Clicks</strong></p>\n\n<p>Alien insectoid race communicates using clicks, so their words tend to be very harsh and certain sounds they just don't use.</p>\n\n<p>For example letters that use the lips and tongue a lot like m, n, f, g, h might be gone but there would be a lot of k, x, t, and similar letters.</p>\n\n<p>The resulting names tend to be things like Kixstex, Takxas, Vakt, Gatrex</p>\n\n<p><strong>Hisses</strong></p>\n\n<p>A snake like race might tend to use long syllabic words and favor hissing sounds.</p>\n\n<p>Sourassan, Moarasseen, Hashouss, veehamon</p>\n\n<p><strong>Meaning</strong></p>\n\n<p>A lot of place names in English actually have meaning. Many of these are obvious such as \"ford\" or \"bridge\" in a name (i.e. Watford, Cambridge) but others had old-english meanings. For example \"ton\", \"by\", and other sounds at the end of a name actually meant something. So you can pick a few sounds that mean something for these aliens and then end all place names with one of those sounds.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Other sounds</strong></p>\n\n<p>Perhaps they use something like a click or a stop in the word, Tr'lk, Ptr!nk, etc. You need to be careful doing this though as readers may well not know how to sound out the word if it's written like that.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3492, "author": "Vandroiy", "author_id": 2615, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2615", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>To not have anything in mind about a particular language is asking a bit much. If the names are to be spoken, and thus based on the sound of the language, you need to know <em>something</em> about that. Similarly, for written names, you'd need a minimal idea about the language's building blocks and their composition. This can't be avoided since it is at the heart of asking for consistency.</p>\n\n<p>That said, many readers don't mind if you take short-cuts. They'd be satisfied with a small part of the language, just enough to make names and still sound like a credible part of a language. To invent names, you could create a set of similar names like this:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Define minimal building blocks (and possibly combination rules)</li>\n<li>Create random valid combinations</li>\n<li>Filter the combinations for uniqueness, aesthetics, or other reasons for suitability</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I'll call the building blocks <em>elements</em>, since it would be constraining to make assumptions about their complexity. They could be letters, sounds, syllables, or even whole words; either works but produces a different kind of similarity between the names.</p>\n\n<p>That's already better than nothing. Personally, I'd season it with a little meaning, to create an illusion of depth:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Sketch a cultural background</li>\n<li>Select some combinations and give them a <em>concept</em> or an <em>association</em>. When naming, use or exclude these situationally.</li>\n<li>Create semantics for the usage of any meaningful components you defined (e.g. placement rules for titles, honorifics, adjectives)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Let's do a little example. I call my culture the <em>Ahl</em>, since one-syllable names are cool and I'm too lazy to go down the alphabet.</p>\n\n<h2>Building blocks and their combination</h2>\n\n<p>To give the words structure, I invent two types of elements to build words from: $a$ and $b$. For this example, they're combinable by the formal grammar $S \\rightarrow aS; S \\rightarrow ab$. (So valid words would be structured $ab$, $aab$, $aaab$, and so on.) <em>This is not a general solution, but a set of rules specific to the culture we're creating names for.</em></p>\n\n<p>Since \"Ahl\" should be a valid name, let's say that \"Ah\" would be a possible $a$ and \"L\" a possible $b$. We need a few more, so here goes!</p>\n\n<pre><code>let aList = [\"Ah\"; \"Riu\"; \"Ne\"; \"Iya\"]\nlet bList = [\"L\"; \"N\"; \"D\"; \"Sh\"]\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><em>Feel free to ignore the syntax unless you want to computer-generate names in the next step.</em> Of course, actual lists of elements should be larger. It might take a bit to come up with <em>good</em> elements -- these are just me typing in anything that first came to mind.</p>\n\n<p><em>I am limiting myself to the Latin alphabet and common sounds here. That is, of course, not necessary. When using alien names, you often need annotations on how to read them anyway.</em></p>\n\n<h2>Combining</h2>\n\n<p>Now, just combine them and have a look! Easy to do by hand...</p>\n\n<p>but this is Stackexchange, so let's add a program to output all allowed words of a given count of elements. But feel free to do it by hand instead. (The following is in F#. You can paste it, together with the element lists, on the website tryfsharp.org if it works on your browser, or any F# compiler or console.)</p>\n\n<pre><code>let aStep = List.collect (fun (s : string) -&gt; [for a in aList -&gt; a + s.ToLower()])\nlet rec allNames length =\n if length &gt; 1 then aStep &lt;| allNames (length - 1) else bList\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><code>allNames 2 |&gt; List.iter (printfn \"%s\")</code> outputs all two-element names (scroll up in the output if you test it on tryfsharp):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Ahl Riul Nel Iyal Ahn Riun Nen Iyan Ahd Riud Ned Iyad Ahsh Riush Nesh Iyash</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>For three elements, we get a longer list, with names like \"Riunen\", \"Neriud\", or \"Iyanel\". If the rules and elements are chosen carelessly, many combinations will be unusable, but that's not a problem as long as you can find enough usable ones.</p>\n\n<p>The count of possible names increases rapidly when using larger element sets, shorter elements, or longer words. Choosing a large set of possibilities adds some realism, but might make the similarity of the names less apparent. You can use much more restrictive rules for making names than would be reasonable to make words of a language. (Seeing how similar names in some cultures are, this is quite realistic.) </p>\n\n<h2>Meaning</h2>\n\n<p>We need context before adding meaning, so I'll make up something. The Ahl are a mysterious society. Their cities are shrouded in thick fog; they have excellent hearing and can navigate by sound. In their view, strength is knowledge about one another: deception is defense and surveillance is offense, the cautious is wise and the noisy a fool and a nuisance.</p>\n\n<p>Someone important in Ahl society would be a <em>keeper of secrets</em> or something along that line. So I just take one of the short combinations to create a title for that: <em>Nesh</em>. A Nesh is the one who decides what can and can't be told to outsiders.</p>\n\n<p>Similar picks can be made for other important concepts: noisiness, listening, knowing, cartography -- things an Ahl might have a special word or phrase for.</p>\n\n<h2>Scaling the effort</h2>\n\n<p>This method can be used in a very simple way, say, by writing down a dozen syllables and combining them arbitrarily. Spending a little more time, one can think of a few rules on how to build words and how to use them. It should be easy to create names that are distinct from the names of other cultures in the same setting.</p>\n\n<p>The difficulty lies in making the names credible as something alien, not something an author just came up with on a whim. There is, of course, much more to this; a major problem lies in sounds and phonetics. It is very unlikely that an alien language can be transcribed into an English text without an elaborate explanation how to read it. But that is a broad topic and this post is already too long. <em>Also, I'd have to ask Nesh Ryunen if I may disclose any more.</em></p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<h2>Addendum: fast step 1-2 via sample text Markov chain</h2>\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/3579/2615\">this answer</a>, evandentremont suggested a fast way for the first two steps if you have a sample for which you want to generate similar-sounding text. In a first step, calculate the probability for letters depending on the previous letter(s). Then, output random strings that follow the same distribution. (This is a Markov chain approach.)</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://fssnip.net/ol\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Here is an F# program to do this with selectable amount of considered characters per character placed (order).</a> An order of one produces results of limited quality, since the actual sounds comprising words are more than single letters. higher orders require longer samples to work well, but the output looks more sane.</p>\n\n<p>This method has its downsides, as you aren't consciously creating the sounds and words. This makes it harder to interpret meaningful patterns into them and design distinct alien features. It is still fun to do and a <em>very fast</em> method. Here is what it does for an order of two:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Input</strong>: \"lololololol zomg roflmao\"</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>zomg zomg zomg roflmao lol lololololololol zomg lolol</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><em>Wow, it can speak online kiddie</em></p>\n\n<p>Note that samples in real use cases should be <em>much</em> longer. Let's test it with an input that is a little closer to a realistic use case.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Input</strong>: 70 names of planets and moons in our solar system</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Lysida Calia Cara Epinopa Amassa Aritanus Laranus Kalyke Chaliel Tethea Theus Porax Elasiphalia</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>These sound pretty real, don't they? This may be more of a language analysis tool than a language creation tool, but it sure is a quick way to enlarge a set of fantasy names.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3499, "author": "lea", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Two quick-and-dirty methods that I have used myself, or have seen used. These are not suitable for conlanging, or any story dealing extensively with concepts of language or communication. They are, however, suitable for monoglots and/or English speakers. </p>\n\n<p>(1) <strong>Simple names made up of a small number of consonants</strong>. Repeating certain consonants with regularity emulates the look and feel of a distinct phonology. Certain vowel or vowel combinations, when placed regularly in the same part of a word, also create a sense of regularity. Choose four or five of your favorite consonants and make sure that at least one of them appears in each name you create. If you're a fan of the <em>Avatar</em>-verse, think of the water tribes' names, almost all of which contain the letter K. Quick and dirty, as I said. </p>\n\n<p>Vowels are only slightly more complicated. Q&amp;D rules like 'lots of names ending in A' or 'lots of double vowels for extended sound' can make a strong impression on a reader. With regards to both vowels and consonants, what makes the strongest impression is that which seems least familiar. If you are writing with an Anglophone audience in mind, hard consonants like K and Q create a feeling of alienness, as does liberally sprinkling the least-common tiles in Scrabble. </p>\n\n<p>(2) An even simpler (but dirtier) trick is to generate <strong>a series of prefixes and a series of suffixes</strong>, and mix and match them as appropriate. This is actually a pretty common way of generating new names IRL, and not just in the last century, either. You can populate your lists with morphemes taken from rare or archaic names, or take common morphemes and swap out one consonant for a similar-sounding one, such as N for M. This can create names that are vaguely familiar, but not on a 'my next-door neighbor' level. </p>\n\n<p>Don'ts: avoid apostrophes, diacritics that you're not sure how to pronounce, ligature letters that you're not sure how to pronounce, and capital letters in the middle of names. These are also quick and dirty tricks, but they lack the versimilitude of the others and tend to stick out like a sore thumb. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3500, "author": "Royal Canadian Bandit", "author_id": 2556, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2556", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Names are <strong>labels</strong> used to identify particular people and places. </p>\n\n<p>If you have no interest in linguistics, or the specific characteristics of the aliens' language, then all you need is a convenient way of generating these labels. Each name is a sequence of sub-elements -- basically, syllables. So \"Obi-Wan Kenobi\" breaks down as OBI WAN KEN OBI. You need to identify some syllables as your building blocks, and string them together. The basic requirements are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Names should be <em>pronounceable</em> to the average reader. If all the aliens are called things like Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, most readers will find it annoying.</li>\n<li>Names should not obviously be from our world. An alien called Juanita who comes from the planet Barbados is no good.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you want to get slightly more advanced:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Ideally, names from the same culture should have some elements in common. Certain combinations of sounds are more common in particular languages -- so French names sound different from Japanese ones.</li>\n<li>The sub-elements can have their own meanings. This can be as complicated as you like, especially for aliens -- names can identify family relations, place of birth, social rank, stage in life cycle, or notable features/achievements. \"Thorgrim the Unruly, son of Hardgrim of the Bear Clan, Earl of Mudtown\" is a name which contains a lot of information about who Thorgrim is.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Basically, that's all there is to it. Choose your name-elements and combine them as you see fit.</p>\n\n<p>A couple of useful links:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>There are a number of fantasy name generators on the Internet, such as <a href=\"http://fantasynamegenerators.com/\">this one</a>, which basically automate the name construction process.</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/lingo.html\">This is an entertaining rant</a> by a linguistics graduate about everything that is wrong with fictional alien languages.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Good luck and happy naming!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3579, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can approach this algorithmically. Look into <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markov_chain\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Markov Chains</a>. </p>\n\n<p>I once built a random planet name generator using them. Basically, analyze a body of text for patterns and procedurally generate new words.</p>\n\n<p>For example </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This is a sentence.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You see that given a <code>t</code>, it can be followed by <code>h</code> or <code>e</code>. <code>I</code> can be followed by <code>s</code>, or <code>s</code>. </p>\n\n<p>Starting with a random letter keep the chain going. For example start with <code>t</code> and you have a 50:50 chance of <code>h</code>, or <code>e</code> following it. Start with <code>I</code>, and you have a 100% chance of <code>s</code> following it. </p>\n\n<p>The larger the corpus of text, the better the results. You can (and should) also group letters. The larger the group, the more realistic the words sounds. If the group is too big, it will fail to generate new words. I find two or three usually works best. </p>\n\n<p>Now, for sounding alien, find a set of words that have the same 'tone' that you're looking for. For elvish words use a list Lord of The Rings words. For alien, use a list of Star Trek planets. For foreign sounding, just use a book written in that language.</p>\n\n<p>Here's an <a href=\"http://alexeymk.com/2012/07/15/weekend-hack--a-markov-baby-name-generator.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">example written in python</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3636, "author": "bobtato", "author_id": 2770, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2770", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The one noticeable mistake authors sometimes make is that groups of names will be too obviously related, too samey. If everyone's called Vunar, Logor, Zenil, Wozan, Terat etc., it's the vocabulary equivalent of the cheap cardboard sets on 60s sci-fi shows.</p>\n\n<p>Names have history behind them, and except in the most boring cultures, that history will include waves of immigration and war and other things, which you can easily see by just looking at lists of names from different real-world countries. So, if you need a lot of names, use the techniques above to generate languages, but generate more than one, and mix them up occasionally. If my list above included someone called \"q,,qxul\", that would immediately make a richer world because you're wondering about the story behind it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 40345, "author": "Green", "author_id": 10364, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/10364", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<h2>An Involved Way to develop the aural feel of your language</h2>\n\n<p>The IPA chart show below describes every sound that the human body uses in verbal languages. Every language uses a subset of these sounds. (Other sounds are possible such as <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8hrhBZJ98\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Mongolian throat singing</a>.)</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/5l6UW.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/5l6UW.png\" alt=\"IPA Chart(2005)\"></a>\nThere is a newer 2015 revision but I couldn't find a good legible copy.</p>\n\n<p>Of this huge set of possible sounds, each language chooses some to use. Below is the English IPA chart.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lxcvx.gif\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Lxcvx.gif\" alt=\"English IPA Chart\"></a></p>\n\n<p>As you can see there are a great many sounds that English just simply does not use and, if you are targeting an English audience, you shouldn't expect them to pronounce your new names \"properly\". They may not even be able to hear the difference.</p>\n\n<p>Have a look at the <a href=\"http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">IPA symbols with pronunciations.</a></p>\n\n<h2>Language Feel Development Process</h2>\n\n<p>Here we go:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Look through the <a href=\"http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_native.php\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">GMU Accent Archive</a> where the IPA charts for many many languages can be found. Familiarize yourself with the languages / dialects / accents you are most familiar with. If you find a particularly interesting IPA sound set, go find examples of it on YouTube (or your favorite video site).</li>\n<li>Take some time to learn what the IPA symbols mean and how they sound. Wikipedia has lots of sound samples for <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet#Consonants\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">consonants</a> and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet#Vowels\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">vowels</a>.</li>\n<li>Pick a collection of random consonants, at least 15, at most 25. (But go nuts if you want to) It doesn't yet matter if your target language uses or can even hear those sounds, we'll get to that later. (For example, a <a href=\"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monoglot\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">monoglot</a> English speaker most likely won't be able to tell the difference between a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">plosive glottal</a> and a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_glottal_fricative\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">fricative glottal</a>. Right now, we don't care.)</li>\n<li>Choose some vowels, probably no more than 12 but no fewer than 5.</li>\n<li>Decide on a few rules about which sounds can or can't follow other sounds. For example, maybe you want a really fast sounding language, so have a rule that says consonants must come in threes with no intervening vowels. Or, each consonant must be followed by a vowel and vowels are never allowed to start a word. Go as crazy as you want but remember that you will need to rein in any craziness here when you get to the transliteration step. Don't make yourself work any harder than you have to....unless you really want to.</li>\n<li>Create some candidate word examples using the symbols you've come up with. If the randomness is weak with you, assign each symbol a number then choose a random integer from <a href=\"https://www.random.org/integers/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Random.org</a>. Sometimes the resulting words won't make sense, such as if you get 5 consonants next to each other (unless you're Czech, in which case, go for it!). Use your good judgement here.</li>\n<li>Evaluate the emotional feel of your words. Note that every culture places an emotional value on a particular kind of sound. I'm sure you can think of a language that always sounds angry (to you) for no other reason than the sounds of that language, even if the speaker isn't angry. This step is highly dependent on your needs and the needs of your audience.</li>\n<li>If you're happy with your sound set, go ahead to the transliteration stage. If not, go back to step 3 then refine your sound set or choose new random names.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>So we have the sounds and a few words, but they are in a language that are probably only pronounceable by you. Let's fix that with a little transliteration:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Map each of your chosen symbols to the sounds that closely match your target language. There may not be any close relationship, so you'll need to approximate and get close. You may lose some vocal nuance such as if, for example, you have to collapse a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_dental_non-sibilant_affricate\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">voiced</a> and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_non-sibilant_affricate\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">unvoiced dental fricative</a> down to just a voiced dental fricative. If this is a problem, go back to step 3 and refine your sound set.</li>\n<li>Now, take the sounds in your set and assign them to the letters and letter combos of your target language.</li>\n<li>Translate from your IPA symbol set to your target language for each name you need to generate.</li>\n<li>By this point, you should have some very unusual sounding names that aren't based on any single Earth culture but have the emotional feel you want.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h2>Maintaining Pronunciation</h2>\n\n<p>As you can see, it's incredibly easy to choose a selection of sounds that are completely unpronounceable by your target audience. Don't make that mistake. If your audience can't even say your character's names, they are less likely to talk about them.</p>\n\n<h2>Extended Language Exercises</h2>\n\n<p>This same process can be used to generate a new language too though that will require generating an entire new set of words. Just start with translating the <a href=\"http://splasho.com/upgoer5/phpspellcheck/dictionaries/1000.dicin\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ten hundred most common words</a> of <a href=\"http://splasho.com/upgoer5/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Up-Goer Five</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 69924, "author": "The_CIA", "author_id": 32340, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/32340", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Try to use lots of q's without u's after, x's, z's, and other unused letters. Try to use symbols for weird names (Ex. ' Xl√h*i ' ) and underuse vowels. Try using apostrophes after x's(Ex. ' X'dravl '). However, make them easy to pronounce- don't use ' jfdhvhfdughdi'f9dv89•¥ç•¨hçüfvgidjvid ' as a name.(X'dravl = X + gravel with a d instead of a g). If you want not so weird names, ram lots of consonants together with little vowels, or vice-versa(Ex. ' Klcamt ' or ' Ugaeuys '). DON'T make the name completely out of consonatnts. Use a 3 to 1 ratio. Hope this helps!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 70250, "author": "nigel222", "author_id": 13883, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/13883", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>I'd be inclIned to say, don't try.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Humans all share a common vocal tract architecture. So we can universally hear all the communicative noises made by another human. And yet ...</p>\n\n<p>Our mental processing of noises made by other humans into language involves filters developed in early childhood. I have watched film of a man speaking an African \"click\" language and parsed it as a man speaking a language I did not know with something in the background making clicking noises. It was then pointed out that the clicks were part of the language. Another example is that in English, voice pitch is a side-channel to speech which carries emotional content and question-marks. In Asian tonal languages the pitch is part of the language, and the same syllable has four or more meanings depending on how It is pitched. </p>\n\n<p>Few people can ever become fluent in a language from a different language family which they did not experience in their childhood. They don't have the right mental filters and acquiring new ones in later life is far from a universal ability.</p>\n\n<p>Now consider nonhuman aliens. There is no common vocal tract. No common brain architecture. Do they speak with sound only? Maybe they have chromatophores on their cheeks. Maybe they use ultrasonic frequencies. Maybe they have specialized appendages and sign, exclusively or in part.</p>\n\n<p>We will need translators. Machines, maybe, or highly trained people raised in a hunan-alien mixed society who are bilingual by birthright. </p>\n\n<p>How do humans deal with very foreign names? They adopt new ones. Orientals in English universities very often adopt an English name, since nobody here can pronounce their own name correctly. Sometimes the name is a near-translation or a \"soundalike\". Sometimes irs just thst they like the sound, say, Sonia. In other human societies all names are capable of translation. But some may not be socially acceptable when translated! Others may simply be useless. Ae49245ef3 translates into decimal but would promptly be forgotten.</p>\n\n<p>Note also what happens when two people with the same name share a workplace. One or the other will rapidly acquire a nickname or name qualifier to avoid confusion. </p>\n\n<p>I'm almost certain that aliens or their translators will use English-human names for talking to English-humans, and vice versa. A name is basically a label to identify an individual. </p>\n\n<p>Tell your story with hunan names. If you want to distinguish aliens from humans by name, pick names from a non English name book. Avoid those which do not have an obvious (if wrong) English pronunciation, because someone may want to read your story out loud. If you feel the need, explain somewhere that alien given names and human tongues and brains are not compatible.</p>\n\n<p>On a similar note, it annoys.me when someone introduces (say) a pakori with a paragraph describing a not-quite mule, which plays no further significant part in the story. Just call it a mule. Maybe a sentence about its green coat and blue eyes on stalks if you must.</p>\n\n<p>(Added) This was all about naming aliens. For humans I would suggest doing what Vernor Vinge does. Assume that certain aspects of certain cultures including names will persist, even light-years and milennia away from Earth. So in <em>A Deepness in the sky</em> one group has a strong flavour of Chinese and Vietnamese -sounding names along with English (I've always assumed Trixia is Tricia via Chinese). Another group has many seemingly Dutch names and presumably origins. Frank Herbert did something similar in <em>Dune</em> and sequels. By all means invent a few names but don't assume all or most current names will have vanished. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 70799, "author": "Logan Kitchen", "author_id": 30302, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/30302", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am going to take a simpler route than some of the other answers here, though I have an insane amount of respect for the linguistically talented out there that really get into the sounds and sound combinations that create names. </p>\n\n<p>Something that I have noticed, is that if you go back far enough, most names have literal meanings. So most of my names do the same. Here is more or less the system I use.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Pick a language or a group of languages you would like to base your names on. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I usually choose a language for each area or culture so that my names have some kind of similarity. I have used Spanish, Latin, Greek, German, and other western languages. (I have little experience with eastern languages, but have been dabbling a bit recently).</p>\n\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Find a name or attribute for the character, place, or thing to be named. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>For example, I chose my name, \"Logan\", for a character. For a country I chose \"hard-lands\" and chose \"longbow\" for the name of an ocean bay there.</p>\n\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Find suitable words that match the name in your previously chosen language(s). </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I discovered Logan meant \"small hill\" in gaelic. I then looked these up in Latin: \"parvus\" means small and \"tumulus\" means hill. For the hard-lands and longbow bay I went with Spanish. Some translations for hard are \"arduo\" and \"dificil\". Bow translates to \"arco\".</p>\n\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>Modify the foreign words until you think they fit. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I left my characters name as \"Parvus Tumulus\", the great paladin. Latin suited him well, and I didn't feel like I needed to change it. My country became \"Arduin\" and the bay became \"Aargol Bay\".</p>\n\n<p>I find that if I modify the words enough they make pretty good names most of the time. If not, I'll try other languages or synonyms.I've also created my own language before and named things in that language, but with my limited linguistic skills they were not quite as good as this method.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 99868, "author": "wordsworth", "author_id": 45668, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/45668", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Great discussion! As a more linguistically inclined reader, I am pretty sensitive to situations where the author clearly didn't try, and I like that people are making an effort here. It takes a surprisingly small amount of text to reveal at least a couple of grammatical rules that readers can pick up on, especially for heavily inflected languages (those with lots of markers for case and tense, e.g.), and even less for phonetic patterns, even if it's a completely fictional language. Maybe work out what parts of speech or concepts you'll need to represent and develop a few basic rules, and then go crazy with an unfamiliar phonetic veneer. You might come up with the meanings you want first (I need a word that will mean \"Yellow Town\", and later on I need a \"yellow-gold dress\", so maybe these can have the same adjective? Maybe adjectives need to have a certain sound or prefix?) and build up only the parts of the language you'll definitely need. Or you can come up with a few sounds you like, then assign them meaning (this one is a verb tense marker, that one means the noun \"house\") and expand outward. If it's completely random or far too simplified your readers will notice, and, as others have pointed out, you want the middle road between too familiar/derivative and ludicrous.</p>\n\n<p>So, for instance, if your alien civilization has cities named Brh;oijg and RI'fhi'fj bn, that might work, but if you add much more into the story than that you'll want to make sure it doesn't look like you tripped and faceplanted on your keyboard like I just did to create them. They look different, but they also look silly, so you have to justify their existence. You can use context to show how these are functional words that are transliterated for your reader-- the alien language probably has a fundamentally different writing system-- and are to some extent comprehensible, even if you don't explain their meaning. Perhaps a semicolon represents a sound not found in human languages. (\"Can you tell me how to get to, um, Brah OY-jig?\" Janet asked doubtfully, looking at the handwritten instructions. The concierge snorted and read the note over her shoulder. \"Ha, no! It's VREE-qhooyik.\" \"Vree-KOY-ick?\" \"Nah, VREE-qhooy-yik, or something like. We humans have to sort of approximate that middle sound with a loogie-hawking noise, sorry. A Qhhhuuuh sound, you know?\") </p>\n\n<p>Or maybe \";oijg\" means whatever the alien equivalent of ferry or bridge would be, a location where people can cross an otherwise impassable geological obstacle, so you can have towns named Brh;oijg and Xata;oijg along the same feature. And you can get fancy: where that river/canyon/noxious thicket crosses a cultural boundary you might have a varied spelling or pronunciation to indicate a dialect shift but not a completely different civilization with its own language: Guris koijik. </p>\n\n<p>Even if you don't go that far you can look for patterns in human languages and try to come up with your own variations to make words with a certain feel. English is often tricky because we have strings of consonants in our Germanic words and ridiculous vowel pronunciations. Greek likes long words with extra-long strings of vowels or consonants. French has loads of silent letters and elided sounds. You could drop articles and most personal pronouns like Latin. Asian languages use tone to indicate word meaning in a way that English really doesn't, an idea which would be cool to incorporate into a new language but would be very hard to represent in an otherwise-English text. Body language and intonation figure heavily into interpersonal communication and likewise don't show up much in written language, but you could tell your reader that only half the meaning comes from the sounds, and verb tense or sarcasm are all about the movement of the antennae.</p>\n\n<p>You don't have to slave over making it completely consistent-- English is a great example of a language where all the rules get violated all the time. Just throw your readers a bone and have SOME patterns that don't insult their intelligence-- avoid having every word end in \"ees\" without reason, e.g. Syllables that don't helpfully contribute to meaning inevitably get dropped in language evolution.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 138996, "author": "Beefster", "author_id": 46434, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/46434", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Use phonemes that are technically unpronounceable...</h1>\n<h3>... but use an approximation so that the reader can actually say it</h3>\n<p>As sort of an addendum to <a href=\"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/40345/46434\">this answer</a>, take something like 70-85% of the English phonemes, fill in the rest with non-English phonemes and maybe throw in an exotic phoneme or two that humans can't actually pronounce, but can reasonably approximate.</p>\n<p>An interesting real world example of approximating similar phonemes is the Japanese 'fu' syllable. The consonant is actually pronounced by exhaling with your lips close together rather than with your teeth and lips together, but the two sound similar enough that native English speakers say it their way and the Japanese understand it just fine. This is also part of why the Japanese have difficulty pronouncing the 'v' sound.</p>\n<p>It's possible the aliens have some different oral anatomy that allows them to speak a rather bizarre consonant which we can only approximate with, say, a bilabial trill (sort of like blowing a raspberry or emulating a motorboat propeller), which might be written as 'bb'. Fortunately for you, they don't also have a proper bilabial trill to make these impossible to distinctly pronounce. (avoiding the equivalent of the R/L problem for the Japanese)</p>\n<p>You can also use phonemes in weird places that they don't normally appear in English. For instance, the 'ng' sound normally only appears at the end of a syllable, so putting it at the beginning of a syllable instead can be exotic, but still pronounceable.</p>\n<p>Putting all this together can give you a name like 'ngabbur' (NGA - bboor). It's a little tricky to pronounce properly, but they'll forgive you if you say it more like NYAH-bboor or NAH-ber. After all, you don't get mad at children because they can't quite pronounce your name right.</p>\n<p>Lastly, don't go crazy with glottal stops. Better yet, avoid them altogether. Apostrophed names are incredibly cliche in fantasy and sci-fi.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>In addition, it's pretty likely that an alien living among humans would adopt an English name much like what the Chinese often do when living in the US since their names are often rather difficult for us to pronounce due to the tonality.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/3478", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2110/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3583, "author": "HDE 226868", "author_id": 627, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/627", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You could always simply lie down.</p>\n\n<p>Jokes aside, the answer is that there would be quite a few issues. Your spine would not be used to being so compressed. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_human_body\" rel=\"nofollow\">This is a problem</a> with astronauts returning home from extended stays in space. There are two key issues:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceflight_osteopenia\" rel=\"nofollow\">Spaceflight osteopenia:</a></strong> In microgravity, there is less stress on the bones in the body. Therefore, they become less dense. Back on Earth, the bones must support weight. However, they are too weak, and it is extremely hard for astronauts to walk again after long stays in space because of this loss. On Mars, a human would have low bone density; they wouldn't be able to stay upright <em>without much effort</em> on Earth. To counteract this, Wikipedia gives the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Increasing dietary calcium and vitamin D is a standard countermeasure for osteoporosis. Clay is reportedly used by NASA for retaining calcium.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You'd need a <em>lot</em> of calcium and vitamin D, but it's possible you could adapt to life on Earth.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_atrophy\" rel=\"nofollow\">Muscle Atrophy:</a></strong> Something similar happens to muscles. In space, they aren't used to maintaining effort by keeping the body up. Therefore, they become weak. This would also be a problem for someone going from Mars to Earth. Their muscles would only be useful in relatively weak gravity. Wikipedia suggests the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>One important rehabilitation tool for muscle atrophy includes the use of functional electrical stimulation to stimulate the muscles. This has seen a large amount of success in the rehabilitation of paraplegic patients.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Or you could go the low-tech way and simply work out for a while. It would take quite some time, but it would work.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I think it's safe to say that you would survive, but it would take a lot of effort for you to function normally on Earth.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3608, "author": "bowlturner", "author_id": 19, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/19", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>While just going straight from Mars to Earth would be problematic for a native of mars, there is a bigger problem. Currently it would be about 150 day journey to travel between the two planets. if it was all the way in micro-gravity even earthlings will have issues on Mars, though not quite as bad. </p>\n\n<p>So the important thing would be for transportation ships to be built with the ability to have a gravity ring, or even a couple. And everyone would need to exercise and spend some minimum amount of time in these. </p>\n\n<p>It would be even more important for the Mars return to slowly try to acclimate themselves to a heavier gravity, if there was a couple of rings and they could take time working themselves up to full earth they would have several months to adjust before they ever landed on earth. There is a very good chance that they might need most of that time and be pretty pro-active if they don't want to feel like they're being crushed. </p>\n\n<p>Of course the diet on ship should help with the nutrients (calcium, etc) to encourage healthy development.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/3580", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2517/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3677, "author": "kaine", "author_id": 129, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/129", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My current best direction/color combinations are: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>earth: yellow (color of sandstone)</li>\n<li>fire: red (hue 0)</li>\n<li>ice: blue (color of a deep crack in a glacier)</li>\n<li>light: white</li>\n<li>dark: black</li>\n<li>air: purple</li>\n<li>balance: silver</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The issue is that air would have to be purple. I would try to legitimize this by having pure air also involve pure spiritual or mental spells (like divination) and have those involve the appearance of dark purple runes.</p>\n\n<p>This feels, however, contrived for earth and air. I am worried that having a balanced magic user's aura look silver may be difficult to pull off but if done right could be awesome. Air with a spiritual component may also make the white necromancy/black necromancy dynamic from the original into an awkward position.</p>\n\n<p>Important or worrying combination observations:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Lightning which I always thought should be yellow, would be a light\nmagenta.</li>\n<li>Energy/Force in general is a combination of air and fire</li>\n<li>Lava is orange</li>\n<li>Apparently water is a purple blue. This may be the best way to separate it from ice.</li>\n<li>For Nature to be green, it would be earth and ice.</li>\n<li>Light/Dark would no longer be as tightly linked with Life and Death as I originally wanted.</li>\n<li>I don't know what earth spells would work with light and dark off hand to offset the now super magical air. I think I would have to overpower lava and nature.</li>\n<li>Steam spells don't exist for good reason (steam should be considered tech)</li>\n<li>Teleportation (Conveyance), unlock can trap, time magic (temporal), meta magic, and some other important spells from the original game are difficult to place without overpowering the air side or defaulting it them all to \"balanced but hard\".</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3798, "author": "celtschk", "author_id": 98, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/98", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If I understand you correctly, each spell sits at a certain point, and the geometric shape represents the set of spells the mage can spell. And each point should have a different colour, representing that point, with inner colours being the mixture of the outer colours. Moreover I'm assuming the following opposite pairs (you only explicitly stated one):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>light — darkness</li>\n<li>fire — water</li>\n<li>earth — air</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>As you already noticed, black and white are the natural choices for light and darkness. The middle point (\"neutral\") would be a 50% grey (which actually fits quite well with your suggestion of silver, since silver is nothing but a shining grey).</p>\n\n<p>For the other colours, I'd look at the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel\" rel=\"nofollow\">HSV colour wheel</a> and choose four colours on a square. For example, looking at <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel#mediaviewer/File:RBG_color_wheel.svg\" rel=\"nofollow\">this image,</a> assuming you choose red for fire, and want fire and water to be antagonists, you'd get cyan for water (which isn't too far from blue), and then have violet and chartreuse green for air and earth, where you still have freedom of which is which.</p>\n\n<p>Actually looking at <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel#mediaviewer/File:Hsv_color_circle.svg\" rel=\"nofollow\">this colour wheel with HTML names</a> shows that the HTML name for cyan (opposite of red) is \"aqua\", which actually is what this would result in.</p>\n\n<p>Another starting point could be yellow for earth, which would give blue for air, and leaves rose and spring green for fire and water.</p>\n\n<p>Note that there's relatively little freedom of choice if you want mixed colours to work nicely. As soon as you chose black and white as light and darkness, all other opposite pairs <em>must</em> be opposites on the colour wheel. You might be able to choose two non-orthogonal directions for your colours in the wheel, though.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3806, "author": "Epiglottal Axolotl", "author_id": 45, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/45", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Building off @celtschk's answer, you could use something like this:</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/DfraS.png\" alt=\"four elements gradient\"></p>\n\n<p>and have red be fire, yellow be earth (the color of sand), cyan be water or ice, and blue be air (the color of the sky). Likewise, the colors would be lighter for light magic and darker for dark magic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3819, "author": "Vandroiy", "author_id": 2615, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2615", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This may be a little unconventional, but I propose the following candidates for axes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><strong>Normal-Strange</strong> How close to natural occurrences is the spell? A flame or a gust of wind are rather ordinary. A floating object, not so much, but still not extreme when knowing magnetism. A walking corpse or a local disturbance in space topology, however... you get the point.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Blunt-Intricate</strong> How much structure is in the spell, how many constraints on it being correct? Hail, an explosion, or a nova don't call for too much precision. A defensive wall already needs a little more. But resurrection or mind control won't work unless executed with precision.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Rash-Calm</strong> Is the spell the kind someone would cast in a rage, or after careful consideration? Creative spells tend to go in the \"calm\" direction, while a curse or a direct attack counts as rash.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I came up with these by brainstorming 16 potential axes and filtering them for applicability to sample spells and correlation. <em>Though I wouldn't claim to have been very thorough with picking candidates.</em> Here's a table with example classifications, in which I split each axis only into the two extremes and a neutral slot. The Rash-Calm axis is the innermost distinction, with rash at the top, neutral in the middle and calm at the bottom.</p>\n\n<pre><code> Normal Unusual Strange\n ======================================================================\n Blunt Fire, Hail Corrode, Swarm Devouring Darkness\n Wind, Fog Push, Bend Alter Gravity\n Rain, Sunshine Beacon, Eclipse Aura of Magic\n ======================================================================\n Structured Lightning Mind Stun Infest/Possess\n Poison Frighten Distort Space/Time\n Stone Wall Thornbush Wall Skeleton Minion\n ======================================================================\n Intricate Disease Curse Netherworld Banish\n Identify Barrier, Enchant Transform\n Create Item Hear the Dead Portal\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><em>Swarm would be an insect swarm or such, Aura of Magic an undirected magic buff.</em></p>\n\n<p>I can't imagine the setting or planned content too well, so the examples might be off. But it seems easier to me to map a new spell to these axes than to axes like \"Earth\" or \"Light\".</p>\n\n<p>How to map these to colors would probably depend on the distribution of actual spells. I hope they are fairly close to orthogonal, but that of course depends on the actual spells.</p>\n\n<h2>RGB mapping</h2>\n\n<p>If those are orthogonal, one could simply map them to RGB. Players will have to decompose colors in any case, so why not make it easy for them? Say, red is rash, green intricate, and blue normal?</p>\n\n<p>Then, black would be calm-blunt-strange, white would be rash-intricate-normal, violet would be blunt-normal, teal would be calm-unusual, yellow would be rash-intricate-strange.</p>\n\n<h2>Dynamic visualization</h2>\n\n<p>If you are making a game, you're not technically limited to a static color. Instead of trying to get the most out of color space, you could use the fact that the image is not static. How about those axes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Hue</strong> Red is blunt, then it goes up the spectrum until violet is maximally intricate</li>\n<li><strong>Brightness</strong> Black is calm and white is the total berserker</li>\n<li><strong>Noise</strong> A uniform color is normal, and flickering spots or color noise indicate strangeness</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The noise could be implemented such that, for very bright or dark characters, the noise peaks out in such a way that the hue can still be determined from remaining flickers, even though the color is technically black or white. This would mean that for perfectly \"normal\" characters that are either perfectly calm or rash types, the intricacy cannot be told.</p>\n\n<p>In a strange way, that's kind of logical. <em>Though, if you don't like this, just limit the brightness range.</em></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3820, "author": "Cort Ammon", "author_id": 2252, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2252", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>An interesting fact based source for these colors would be the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opponent_process\" rel=\"nofollow\">psychological primary colors</a></p>\n\n<pre><code> Black -- White\n Blue -- Yellow\n Red -- Green\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>What is neat about them is that it is theorized that humans cannot see \"RedGreen\" or \"BlueYellow.\" This is why its so utterly painful to see badly designed Christmas cards with poorly chosen Red-on-Green color schemes.</p>\n\n<p>I would also highly recommend such a system be dynamic in time, because that's another axis you can use to make powerful magicians create dancing auras. It could also show interesting structures which challenge the \"you cannot see both colors\" attitude: a highly blue individual who has specks of yellow that dance and sparkle around him, but his body is a deep unmoving unwaivering blue.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 72119, "author": "Paul TIKI", "author_id": 31273, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/31273", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is putting me in mind of the color scheme of Magic: the Gathering, so I can use that as a start point. </p>\n\n<p>In my mind your magical spectrum is a sphere withing a cube. All three axes pass through the center of the sphere and you mages abilities can be mapped on the surface of the sphere. The strong mage will cover a large portion of the surface while weaker ones will only cover a smaller portion. These portions are represented by a circle drawn on the surface of the sphere with the center point being the core of their ability and getting progressively weaker the farther away from the center-point that you get. No one can cover more than 120 degrees of arc in any direction from their center. This will leave the diametrically opposed magic unavailable to them.</p>\n\n<p>The color continuum would work like so:</p>\n\n<p>Up and down are Good and Evil so White and Black</p>\n\n<p>North and South are Earth and Air so Green and Yellow</p>\n\n<p>East and West are Fire and Water, which is Red and Blue. </p>\n\n<p>Every point on the sphere is affected by the combination of colors. Up oriented mages are going to have a lot of pastels, where down are going to be muddy. North is going to be very green with pastels and muddy colors both. A Westerly mage will be good with water, but not really be able to do anything with fire. A powerful westrly mage will be able to do some up and some down, as well as a little north and a little south. the <em>rule of cool</em> side effect color would be a combination of how much north or how much south or whatever.</p>\n\n<p>I think this kind of thing should make a big portion of you magical system intuitive and consistent to anyone familiar with \"Alchemy\" and other things.</p>\n\n<p>Where i get the inspiration from M:tG is with the \"philosophies\" in the colors. Death and Decay and what is associated are black. White is civilization and Order. Green is life, which is chaotic and not always nice. Water is flexible and fluid, like thought. Your various spells would fall along those lines. A conveyance spell to a green mage might mean being slid along the surface of the earth at tremendous speed while a yellow mage would fly. A Black Mage would ride on the back of a nightmare and so on.<br>\nYou can get creative with this too. Light spells could come from anywhere on the sphere. a Red mage would use fire, a black mage would use a glowing fungus. Water and air mages would both be good at seeming or illusions.</p>\n\n<p>One last note about the cube that is around the sphere. The space around the sphere is the Aether and as such is the purview of deities only. they could posses powers of the spirit that may correspond to the sphere, but are above it.</p>\n\n<p>This sounds like fUn!</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/3676", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/129/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 6927, "author": "user55318", "author_id": 4994, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/4994", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If they have unlimited energy and advanced technology, they can create matter. This is a result of the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence\">mass-energy equivalence</a>. So they can produce oxygen or whatever they need. </p>\n\n<p>Current technology is not exactly there yet but is <a href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/may/18/matter-light-photons-electrons-positrons\">on the way</a>. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6934, "author": "user3082", "author_id": 3082, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/3082", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Have them change their bodies, so they don't actually expel wastes. CO2 goes into their body, where some chloroplasts are fed light to turn it back into O2.</p>\n\n<p>With the right design, you don't even need the magic powers - just some good genengineering. And, of course sunlight or power input.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6939, "author": "Bobson", "author_id": 50, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/50", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Per <a href=\"https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/a/933/5478\">this Chemistry.SE answer</a>, \"about 94 k-cal of energy is required per mol of $CO_2$ (about 44g)\" to convert $6CO_2 + 6H_2O \\rightarrow C_6H_{12}O_6 + 6O_2$. </p>\n\n<p>So assuming unlimited energy to power this reaction, and a large enough supply of water, it would be easy to renew the oxygen bubble by converting waste carbon dioxide to glucose (or a <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexose\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">related sugar</a>) and more oxygen.</p>\n\n<p>How large is \"large enough\"? We need equal amounts of $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ for this reaction. <a href=\"https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/5644/8079\">This Biology.SE answer</a> estimates \"that in each breath we take in 18 mg $O_2$ (1.1 mmol) and we release 36 mg of $CO_2$ (1.2 mmol) plus 20 mg $H_2O$ (1.1 mmol).\" So to avoid a slow $CO_2$ buildup, we need to bring along an extra 0.1 mmol of water per breath (plus, if we use up <em>all</em> the water in this conversion, the air would get really dry, so some extra water is good). One mol of water is ~18g (or ~18mL), so 0.1 mmol would be ~1.8mg (or ~1.8 microliters). Assuming 15 breaths per minute (towards the high end of the average rest range), a 1L bottle of water would be sufficient for quite a while.</p>\n\n<p>$\\frac{1.8{\\mu}L \\text{ water}}{1 \\text{ breath}}\\times\\frac{15\\text{ breaths}}{1\\text{ minute}}\\times\\frac{1440\\text{ minutes}}{\\text{day}}\\times\\frac{1\\text{ bottle}}{1L=1,000,000{\\mu}L\\text{ water}}=\\frac{0.03888\\text{ bottles}}{\\text{day}}\\rightarrow\\frac{25.72\\text{ days}}{\\text{bottle}}$</p>\n\n<p>Of course, this assumes no other requirements (such as food, water to drink, etc.) and doesn't address the length of the trip at all. But with unlimited energy, it's very easy to recycle your air.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6974, "author": "Cort Ammon", "author_id": 2252, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2252", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>We write a lot of equations such as $C_6H_{12}O_6 + 6O_2 \\rightarrow 6CO_2 + 6H_2O$ to describe combustion, but in reality it is better written $C_6H_{12}O_6 + 6O_2 \\leftrightarrow 6CO_2 + 6H_2O$. All chemical reactions we are aware of work in both directions. The \"one-way-ness\" of some operations is merely that entropy highly favors one direction under some circumstances, so much so that it is convenient to approximate it as a one way trip.</p>\n\n<p>A creature which could bend physics could set up the situation such that it is more convenient for the reverse equation to occur. In doing so, he would have to pay the piper... he would need to put enough energy into the system to make this reaction favorable (which is as much or more energy than he got out of the reaction). A character with \"infinite energy\" would have zero trouble with this... literally none at all (well, some small epsilon of trouble). As long as you don't lose any matter, all you are doing is rearranging structure.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The fun part is <a href=\"http://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Sanderson's First Law of Magic</a></strong></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Sanderson’s First Law of Magics: An author’s ability to solve conflict\n with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands\n said magic.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Sanderson's law fits nicely with Arthur C. Clarke's law, \"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.\" In his blog, Sanderson explains that \"magic\" is really any plot device which is not easily explained.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Your challenge is to make the reader understand the magic of space-travel well enough to allow you, as an author, to send characters through space.</strong> Whatever construct you envision needs to be understandable enough by the reader that you can get away with it.</p>\n\n<p>For example, while it may be most efficient to allow the traveler to simply disassemble molecules at will, such behavior leaves the reader lost. <strong>However, if the traveler can, say, recreate a miniature reality of a solar system he once visited, complete with suns and trees, and carry it with him he can rely on that ecosystem to do the work of photosynthesis for him. Readers understand our ecosystem, so they can relate.</strong> (such a system would be less energy efficient than raw molecule conversion, but that's the price you pay for magic that readers understand... and an infinite energy creature won't have much trouble). He can simply pour his \"energy\" into keeping the miniature sun burning, which is much easier to do in reader's eyes because the sun is more uncontrolled. Generating oxygen atom-by-atom would require a great deal of control and sensitivity.</p>\n\n<p>If the traveler has a flaw, this could also lead to plot devices. <strong>Consider what would happen if he lost control of this miniature reality.</strong> Might the sun go nova? Could he bring biology from one planet to another by accident? How would the traveler alter his travel plans to avoid making a mistake? Perhaps he actively dismisses the trees and sun long before arriving at the planet, basically holding his breath for the laws few million miles. This could create a potential plot point if he were intercepted after dismissing his source of life.</p>\n\n<p>What might happen if <em>we</em> were part of that miniature reality, and he was about to dismiss us before arriving at his destination?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106735, "author": "pjz", "author_id": 48533, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/48533", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The simple thermodynamic answer is:</p>\n\n<p><em>You need as much energy (in the opposite direction) to convert CO2 to O2 as you got when you converted it from O2 to CO2.</em></p>\n\n<p>I must admit I don't know what that number is, nor what the biologic role of breathing really is (is it for energy exchange? or to catalyze other reactions?) but since we get most of our energy from food, I think it's more the latter, so... they could just eat a bit more and use some of that energy to manage it. Consider that it'd be approximately the same as breathing twice as hard as normal.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106794, "author": "Loren Pechtel", "author_id": 264, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/264", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As others have said, given sufficient energy this is trivial. Simply strip the carbon out of the CO2 and they're good to go.</p>\n\n<p>However, there is another problem: Heat. Since they have infinite energy available I'm not going to worry about them being too cold, but how do they handle the opposite problem? I have a hard time picturing anything like 100% efficiency in this reaction.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106798, "author": "tj1000", "author_id": 39319, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/39319", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Without a suit, the person is exposed to the vacuum of space. In the absence of pressure, their blood will boil as the gases dissolved in their blood return to a gaseous state. Blood clots form, and the person dies a rather painful death within a few minutes. </p>\n\n<p>If for some reason that doesn't kill them immediately, then they'll die from radiation exposure if they're anywhere near a sun, because they won't have the earth's atmosphere and magnetic field to deflect or absorb that. A good deal of the reason current astronaut suits worn outside the spacecraft are so thick is radiation shielding. </p>\n\n<p>Your suitless space traveler may need a physiology that infuses oxygen and disposes of CO2 by some means other than gaseous transfer to survive in a vacuum, or maybe a hard shell exterior so that they can maintain a bit of pressure internally to allow blood in its current form to exist without boiling. </p>\n\n<p>As for the radiation... maybe the hard shell could also double as a radiation shield, but now your people look like Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four. A bit crusty... might want to avoid any romantic side plots. </p>\n\n<p>Perhaps they could wear a personal force field, like the blaster deflecting personal shields worn in Asimov's Foundation series. These were just a belt a person wore... the actual shield that surrounded the person was invisible. That could both deflect radiation and act as a pressure vessel so that a normal person wouldn't need a suit in space. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106814, "author": "Thucydides", "author_id": 8572, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/8572", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are two non magical answers to this, so you can take it for what it is worth and adapt it to your needs.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Plant-human symbiots. The idea is to essentially create the closed loop ecology of the Earth, but stripping out and simplifying it as much as possible. At the minimum, the human is encased in a plant, and the plant feeds off the human waste products (fecal matter, urine and CO2). The plant uses the energy available from the sun to break these materials down via photosynthesis and feeds its \"waste products\" (O2, sugars and carbohydrates) back to the person.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/T1Uxg.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/T1Uxg.jpg\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n\n<p><em>Living inside a space garden</em></p>\n\n<p>The plant would need to be specially adapted to keep itself sealed against the vacuum of space, while allowing solar energy inside to run the ecology. On Earth, it takes about a quarter acre of land to supply sufficient food for a person, so it is probably safe to assume a similar amount of solar collection area may be needed to supply the symbiont inside.</p>\n\n<p>2 Mad Scientist. <a href=\"https://infogalactic.com/info/Alexander_Bolonkin\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Alexander Bolonkin</a> has published a <a href=\"https://arxiv.org/pdf/0806.3792.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">paper</a> which essentially suggests that a human could have the equivalent of a heart-lung machine implanted. The cyborg would then only need to have the outer skin toughened enough to resist vacuum and solar radiation (You would get a pretty nasty sunburn in space), and a few other surgical or genetic engineering modifications to close the body to the vacuum (i.e. prevent moisture and gasses from leaving the body through natural openings. This is a pretty extreme cyborg, and issues like energy and material storage are not covered in too much depth.</p>\n\n<p>Converting either of these ideas into magic will require some sort of authorial handwave. Perhaps the person needs to be in contact with a quarter acre of cultivated farmland via wormhole or some magical transference system in order to take advantage of being part of a pre existing ecosystem. Perhaps they do the same thing in a hospital to be hooked up to the proper machinery to survive in space.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 115348, "author": "Iron Gremlin", "author_id": 49932, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/49932", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You have infinite energy.</p>\n\n<p>If you heat anything enough, it'll separate into its component elements.</p>\n\n<p>When the Co2 concentration gets high enough, accelerate fast enough to push the Co2 to the 'bottom' of the bubble.</p>\n\n<p>Separate the sections of your bubble to form two bubbles, closing off the majority of the Co2.</p>\n\n<p>Use your infinite energy to heat the collection of gasses in the Co2 bubble to incredibly high temperatures.</p>\n\n<p>Form the Co2 bubble into a disc, and spin it really fast while heating it. Use 'magic' to fling out the heavier carbon and just leave it in space.</p>\n\n<p>This has the narrative benefit of not requiring 20 paragraphs of explaining gas mixtures or photosynthesis, and also a spinning disc of superheated gas would probably look cool as hell.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/6925", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com", "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/749/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 7185, "author": "Peter M. - stands for Monica", "author_id": 687, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/687", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If ship is only way to survive (no land), you would NOT want to abandon the ship if it is afloat and not sinking. Other boats would stay in safe distance and crew would do everything to repair the engines and make her sea-worthy before next storm hits.</p>\n\n<p>But you have problem: with no safe harbor, no dry docks, your civilization will last few decades max. Unless you build floating factories, oil refineries and steel producing facilities.</p>\n\n<p>Your ships doesn't have to float all the time - you can use things like stationary oil platforms, place them in shallow areas/reefs, and start mining iron.</p>\n\n<p>If situation is extremely dire, only the rescue crew will try to save ship, and non-required crew and resources would be evacuated. But with no land, situation is pretty desperate and you will risk a lot to save ship. Without ship, you cannot support the population, so other ships might be reluctant to get more mouths to feed. They may select some of rescued crew which skills are important, but others - tough bad luck but we cannot feed you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7189, "author": "A E", "author_id": 2279, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2279", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>That doesn't sound too bad at all.</p>\n<p>There's no threat to either the ship or the lives of the people on board (other than possible collision with another vessel), if I understand correctly. This is therefore a situation of '<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-pan\" rel=\"noreferrer\">urgency</a>' rather than distress.</p>\n<p>So the obvious thing to do is:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Ship communicates &quot;<a href=\"http://navruleshandbook.com/Rule27.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">vessel not under command</a>&quot; to nearby vessels (using radio, lights, etc). Crew and passengers remain on board (much safer than evacuation in bad weather).</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Other vessels manoeuvre to avoid collision.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>All parties wait for the storm to die down and then think about next steps: repair, towing, etc.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Lights and shapes:</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.otenmaritime.com/international-collision-regulations/part-c---lights-and-shapes/rule-27---vessels-not-under-command-or-restricted-in-their-ability-to-manoeuvre\" rel=\"noreferrer\">International Collision Regulations‎ &gt; ‎Part C - Lights and shapes‎ &gt; ‎\nRule 27 - Vessels not under command or restricted in their ability to manoeuvre</a></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>(a) A vessel not under command shall exhibit:<br>\n  (i) two all-round red lights in a vertical line where they can best be seen;<br>\n  (ii) two balls or similar shapes in a vertical line where they can best be seen;<br>\n  (iii) when making way through the water, in addition to the lights prescribed in this paragraph, sidelights and a sternlight.<br></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.portreath-harbour.org/distress-proceedures/pan-pan/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Radio transmission of urgency message</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The format of the urgent message is as follows:<br>\nPAN PAN (repeated three times) Your vessels name (repeated three times).<br>\nYour International call sign and MMSI.<br>\nPAN PAN (once) your vessels name (once).<br>\nYour Position (in Lat and Long) or compass bearings if you have no way of working out your position. Or position unknown.<br>\nContents of urgent message<br>\nOver.<br></p>\n<p>for example:-</p>\n</blockquote>\n<pre><code>PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN\nThis is fishing vessel LL307 Early Dawn Early Dawn Early Dawn call sign 2CSG2 MMSI 235075333\nPAN PAN fishing Vessel LL307 Early Dawn call sign 2CSG2 MMSI 235075333\nMy position is Five Zero degrees, Four Six minutes, North: Zero Zero Five degrees, One Seven minutes, West\nI have a crewman who has passed out, breathing and pulse steady, I require medical advice.\nOver.\n</code></pre>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.portreath-harbour.org/distress-proceedures/pan-pan/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.portreath-harbour.org/distress-proceedures/pan-pan/</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7295, "author": "ArtOfCode", "author_id": 2685, "author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/2685", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can quite easily do both.</p>\n\n<p>Rescuing the ship's people is the easier task. Deploy the lifeboats of the stricken ship with as many crew as possible in them (with current regulations, there should be enough for all crew but in a post apocalyptic society there may not be). Any remaining crew can be evacuated with helicopters equipped with winches. Sea Kings and Merlin helicopters often come with this equipment already on board.</p>\n\n<p>You can recover the ship in one of two ways.<br>\n<strong>1. Take it under tow</strong><br>\n You can come reasonably close in another ship, throw a catching line across to a remaining crew member, who can then pull a steel tow hawser across from the tow ship. Once fastened, this line should be made as long as possible to reduce the collision risk, but you would at lease have some control.</p>\n\n<p><strong>2. Side-along tow or Sandwich Ships</strong><br>\n This solution is better suited for calm weather. A ship comes alongside the stricken ship, fixes lines bow and stern, and moves away taking the unfortunate with it. However, given that the stricken ship has no power, the tow ship needs to use its side thrusters for movement to avoid going round in circles.<br>\n This problem can also be solved with \"sandwich ships\", where a ship comes alongside on both sides and fixes on. Although this requires two ships, it does solve the problem of going round in circles.</p>\n" } ]

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