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    <title>cmdln.net_2008-03-12</title>
    <expansionState>1,3,4,9,16,18,21,28,35,43,44,48,52,55,60,68,72,81,82,85,91,93,101,111,112,120</expansionState>
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    <outline text="Intro" Offset="00:17"/>
    <outline text="Word of the Week: crunch" Offset="02:07">
      <outline text="http://catb.org/jargon/html/C/crunch.html"/>
    </outline>
    <outline text="Inner Chapter: Pull Your Own Weight" Offset="03:56">
      <outline text="Touches on previous discussion of humility">
        <outline text="Need to mind your own work"/>
        <outline text="Not worry about the details of others' work so much"/>
        <outline text="You can only approach perfect knowledge of your own work"/>
        <outline text="Knowledge of others' work will always have gaps"/>
        <outline text="Reminds me of a chapter from Zen in the Martial Arts, Joe Hyams">
          <outline text="Lengthen Your Line"/>
          <outline text="http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Martial-Arts-Joe-Hyams/dp/0553275593/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1205180105&amp;sr=8-1"/>
          <outline text="Two lines represent you and an opponent"/>
          <outline text="The temptation is to try to shorten your opponent's line"/>
          <outline text="You cannot directly affect your opponent's abilities"/>
          <outline text="Instead, lengthen your own line"/>
        </outline>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Pulling your own weight is always in a group context">
        <outline text="If you are the sole author, who cares?"/>
        <outline text="Otherwise, need to make sure you are pulling with the team">
          <outline text="Requires an understanding, at least at higher level, of broader context"/>
          <outline text="How do my contributions fit into the overall effort?"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="Needs coordination, communication">
          <outline text="How do you know when something is changed?"/>
          <outline text="Make a manager, team aware of changes in cost of your own work"/>
          <outline text="Risk is that work is irrelevant, or less relevant, and you don't know"/>
          <outline text="A good leader needs to be aware of this, communicate this to team"/>
          <outline text="A good team will actively seek the connection that makes this easier"/>
          <outline text="Just regular spot checks to confirm priorities"/>
        </outline>
      </outline>
      <outline text="I think it also has to do with perceptions of fairness">
        <outline text="Easy to form a bias around your own work"/>
        <outline text="Need to actively offset that bias, always give the benefit"/>
        <outline text="Not sure what else to recommend"/>
        <outline text="Equity is so bound up in perception"/>
        <outline text="Have dealt with so many pathology people"/>
        <outline text="A worker's interest in others' work is going to be affected by how fair they think their dealings are"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Need to be able to trust that the rest of your team will execute as well">
        <outline text="Can help without letting your biases get in the way"/>
        <outline text="Again, key is communication"/>
        <outline text="Be a sounding board but don't assume you know more about the problem"/>
        <outline text="If worst happens, then it happens and you have to re-write anyway"/>
        <outline text="Worrying about it all the time won't change that"/>
        <outline text="Only writing it yourself will, defeats working on a team"/>
        <outline text="In professional environments we rarely get to pick our team mates"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Puppy at current job">
        <outline text="Often thinks doing busy work by itself is enough">
          <outline text="Re-factoring his own internal code when their are higher priorities"/>
          <outline text="Despite explicit instruction to work first on tasks that touch on other team members' work"/>
          <outline text="Must see other people busy and think that he just needs to be busy"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="Doesn't see the conversations revisiting priorities, checking on progress">
          <outline text="Worse, communications usually come from him as a brain dump"/>
          <outline text="No sense of questions that might need answers"/>
          <outline text="Doesn't clearly communicate in which order is and intends to pursue work"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="Has been so bad that has interfered with releases">
          <outline text="Without asking, committed to the wrong branch"/>
          <outline text="Made a mess when merging for a release"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="Have to assign him to lower importance tasks">
          <outline text="Cannot rely on him to tend to his own work"/>
          <outline text="Gets hung up on his title as lead, thinks that justifies being a busy body"/>
          <outline text="Doesn't realize his work output is a third of everyone else"/>
          <outline text="Every last team member wonders why he has delivered a third the functionality in the same amount of time"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="Has a very literal mindset">
          <outline text="Won't use an interactive debugger, has to see state of system in logs"/>
          <outline text="Has to design all code up front, thrashes when he wanders off the design"/>
          <outline text="Wonder if he has problems taking things on faith?"/>
          <outline text="Would interfere with making him understand concerns outside his immediate control"/>
          <outline text="Has been prone to take our boss at literal word on very speculative, strategic planning discussions"/>
          <outline text="Perhaps any uncertainty in discussing high level makes him anxious"/>
          <outline text="Cannot always speak with certainty, he also has a pattern of holding people to things"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="Has trouble with changing priorities, circumstance">
          <outline text="Still pursuing a dated incentive, just for the check, though the opportunity has passed"/>
          <outline text="Tech partner has acquired a competing offering"/>
          <outline text="Other integrations have proven way to costly"/>
        </outline>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Passive aggressive research lead">
        <outline text="Always felt like communication on priorities was interference"/>
        <outline text="Never tried to understand how his contributions helped the company"/>
        <outline text="As a lead, did things only because he was pressed"/>
        <outline text="I failed, could not find way to motivate"/>
        <outline text="He tried to claim unemployment after the fact"/>
        <outline text="Got to see the filings as former manager"/>
        <outline text="Indicated he was probably out of touch with reality"/>
        <outline text="Still, makes me wonder at how best to enhance fairness"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Know nothing at previous job">
        <outline text="Was in a lead role">
          <outline text="Expectation was she would be able to take high level direction"/>
          <outline text="In reality, she need explicit, detailed directions to get anything done"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="Not a conceptual thinker">
          <outline text="Unaware of her own ignorance"/>
          <outline text="How do you design software when you are such a literalist?"/>
          <outline text="Design is about asking questions, speculating"/>
          <outline text="No one correct answer"/>
          <outline text="Have to entertain alternatives and weigh trade offs"/>
        </outline>
        <outline text="I was asked to rewrite one view into an application">
          <outline text="The old version used data caching"/>
          <outline text="I elected not to do so">
            <outline text="Felt new approach would be fast enough"/>
            <outline text="At least thought we should test before adding cache"/>
          </outline>
          <outline text="Over my objections, she was told to implement a cache in my code"/>
          <outline text="Another lead and I wasted three, four hours trying to explain how to implement as a plugin"/>
          <outline text="Ended up finally making her understand a super simple example of a Factory pattern"/>
          <outline text="Once she kind of got it, wanted to know why only her code, not everyone else's"/>
          <outline text="Seriously eroded my trust in her, but had to leave her to do the assignment"/>
        </outline>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Be aware of your own work load, priorities">
        <outline text="Talk to your manager"/>
        <outline text="Simple confirm your progress, goals"/>
        <outline text="Doesn't have to be overly detailed"/>
        <outline text="Need to develop confidence in your own abilities, prioritizing tasks"/>
        <outline text="With a good rapport, should be able to discuss speculative questions"/>
        <outline text="Need to be able to separate out the issues of the day from broader concerns"/>
        <outline text="Understand how broader concerns affect you"/>
        <outline text="Understand how over time strategic goals come into focus, inform tactical work"/>
        <outline text="If you are handling your own work well, then you can consider leading, mentoring"/>
      </outline>
    </outline>
    <outline text="Outro" Offset="29:52">
      <outline text="Contact me">
        <outline text="Email to feedback@thecommandline.net"/>
        <outline text="Web site at http://thecommandline.net/"/>
        <outline text="IM to command.line@skype"/>
        <outline text="Listener comment line is 240-949-2638"/>
        <outline text="del.icio.us tag is &quot;for:cmdln&quot;"/>
        <outline text="http://twitter.com/cmdln"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="I'd like to thank libsyn.com for AAC hosting and Wouter de Bie for MP3 hosting"/>
      <outline text="These notes and the show audio and music are covered by a Creative Commons license">
        <outline text="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/"/>
        <outline text="Attribution, non-commercial, share alike"/>
      </outline>
    </outline>
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