weblog.masukomi.org - opinion

Quality Is Rarely Job 1

2019-03-03T15:13:58-05:00

In 1981 Robert Cox came up with a slogan for Ford; “Quality is Job 1”.

It has always stuck with me.

In the software industry there are few slogans could be further from the truth. C-level’s and other customer facing types frequently proclaim the “quality” of their products, but they aren’t the ones making the product. They’re frequently not even the ones using the product.

In software there are two viable ways to release quality software. You can release it when everything you want done is done, or you can release what you happen to have done at a specific date. You can’t combine the two, although almost every software company tries to.

People outside of engineering tell clients X will be ready on Y date. That date is inevitably too soon for the promised features to be completed.

Realistically, there is only one way to combine promised dates and promised features in software. You compromise the quality. People could, promise a date generously far in the future, but that’s not very helpful meeting to this quarter’s sales goals.

In order to deliver quality an engineer needs the support of management to not deliver code that isn’t done. “Done” of course doesn’t mean “It seems to work.” or “QA didn’t complain.” Done means “I have tests to prove it works.” Done means “QA can prove it works when users get ahold of it.” Done means “It’s intuitive for users.” For multi-user systems Done means “We can prove it works when tons of users try to use it at the same time.”

Done might not mean “It does everything that was requested.” There are always more features to add. It does mean that everyone, even the client, agrees that the features that are Done, are “enough” for now.

I believe that there are a few companies out there that actually deliver “quality” software that even their engineers believe in. I’ve never worked for someone else’s company that did this. Features sure, but overall product quality? No.

Do Social Networks Need Companies?

2017-12-22T09:37:51-05:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about Scuttlebutt lately (see my Why Scuttlebutt post), and Srol just wrote a great post about how Mastodon makes the internet feel like home again.

There’s a lot of good reasons for people to use tools like them for socializing online, and I don’t want these services to just wither as their users wander off. I want there to be options that aren’t controlled by large companies, but at the same time services that require servers (like Mastodon) need someone to pay for those servers. And while Scuttlebutt doesn’t need servers, the “pub” servers do play an important role. I find myself wondering what is required for a social network to succeed? Are businesses a critical part of the equation?

I think yes, and no. I think sites like Patreon its like, have shown that people are willing to support the people and projects that are important to them. So, I think that from a purely financial standpoint that no we don’t need the corporate money to keep these spaces afloat. Also, hosting costs for distributed systems like this are dirt cheap, and getting cheaper. There are a million people using Mastodon on servers paid for entirely by people who just feel like it.

At the same time corporate presence helps with the legitimacy of young networks. When major businesses establish a presence on a network it reinforces the idea that this is a “real” place, and that it’ll probably be around for a while.

From the business perspective, social networks aren’t great for selling things (instagram ads seeming to be the major exception to this), but they’re great for supporting your customers and finding like-minded people. Think, for example about what REI has done with their Opt Outside campaign.

Small companies, like indie software developers, survive because of their social interactions. They can’t afford the big marketing. So they make human contact, and support their customers, and help them to succeed in their business, or play, or whatever. And the customers appreciate it. Many of us become fantastically loyal to a product or company specifically because of the social interactions we have with the people behind them.

I look forward to getting on to Scuttlebutt and seeing what new things people have had to say, just like Srol looks forward to getting on Mastodon. Having to then switch to Twitter to ask a question of some developer whose software I use… it’s not hard, but it is a barrier, and it also means i’m going to have to deal with whatever’s going on “over there”.

I love Twitter, but if I’m not speaking with the Esperanto people there I’m pretty much guaranteed to get stressed out with some new political BS, and Facebook has always annoyed me.

But, it takes a lot of effort to for a company to have an effective social presence on a network, all that effort isn’t cheap. There’s got to be a reason why it’s worth the effort to have a presence there. They’ll come, if the people are there, of course, but the question on my mind, is will it help the people to come, or stay, if the businesses are there?

Do the creators of need to think about how companies could derive value from their platform? Not for any financial benefit of the creators, but as a tool to help the platform thrive.

I don’t think McDonalds, for example, being on Twitter devalues the Twitter experience in any way. I don’t follow them. They don’t affect me. I do think that the fact the companies I do care about are on Twitter enhances the experience for me. Is there a downside to the users to making the network more useful to those companies?

To be clear, I am explicitly not talking about allowing them to put ads in front of users, or charge for anything, or directly recognize revenue in any way. I’m talking about helping them to know that their presence on the network provides benefit to their company. Maybe it’s just knowing they got the word out about something important. Maybe it’s supporting their users.

I think maybe we should be thinking about the companies, if we want to see these new networks survive to maturity.

On Being A Manager

2016-05-13T08:15:00-04:00

At its core, being a manager is about power. I feel that many managers fail to understand what that power is for.

A manager is a lot like being the King or Queen of a tiny, tiny kingdom. The sovereign of a country can impose their will upon their people, but that’s not their job.

A sovereign’s job is to keep their people safe, happy, and prosperous. The more prosperous the people become, the more power they gain. The more power your people have, the more power you have. The more powerful and successful the people are the more powerful the sovereign becomes.

A good sovereign only imposes their will upon their people to protect them. A really good sovereign convinces their people to take the action themselves.

The people above you made you a manager because they believed in, and trusted you. They grant you power, but that power is titular, until you have the support and trust of your people. Your people’s success, and happiness, proves that trust was well placed. It encourages those above you to have more faith in you, and trust you more. That is your voice at the table. That is your strength in negotiations big and small. Your true power is to influence the future of your company to support your people.

There are times when you will be asked to bring your people unhappy tidings. If you’ve done your job, your people will trust you. They will trust that you will help them through the unpleasantness. They may not agree with you, but they will trust that they have their best interests at heart. They’ll trust that will do everything you can to protect them.

Internal threats are the only time a manager, wields their power downwards. If your people are threatened from within, you try and fix the problem. If the problem can not be fixed, you exorcise it. Sometimes the problem is a person. Sometime’s it’s a process.

When the threat is external, you raise awareness, of the problem, and its consequences. Diplomacy play a key role in this. Few of us are particularly good at diplomacy, so do your best, and learn from your mistakes.

Your people give you power. Protect and encourage them. Use your people’s power to reinforce that protection an encouragement within your world. Spread their influence through success.

Work with your people to build their power and trust in you.

The Thing About Today

2013-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

The thing about today is that we have the power.

We, can destroy this fear.

Not by being stoic. Not by being “strong”. By smiling. By being human. By being the neighbors we wish we were surrounded by.

Go outside.
Smile at a stranger.
Ask someone how they’re doing and mean it.
Listen.

Yesterday’s act was horrific, but I will light up this mother fucking town with smiles, because we are alive, and this world is filled with brilliant people with warm hearts, and their own 200 watt smiles, just waiting to shine.

Turning Down Apple

2012-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

I just turned down an interview with Apple.

There are a few companies who, when they call with a job offer you’ll respond with “fuck yes”. Apple is on that list for me. And yet…

A recruiter called me the other day. Apple needs someone and my particular skillset and background. It seemed to be a pretty good match, and she’d been looking for a while. An internal tool building kind of job, in a language I enjoy, for a company I admire? Fuck yes. Would you be willing to move? “Fuck yes.”

Examining the actual job posting and pondering some of the recruiter’s comments made me wonder if the skillset they were asking for was actually the what they really wanted, but it was still close enough to be worth trying for. It’s Apple after all.

But then we did a little research. For an additional $600 per month we could get a one bedroom apartment in a complex in some nearby burbville*, versus our 2 bedroom house abutting a park in Cambridge. Yeah, I’d have a bit more cash at the end of each month, but I’d still be stuck in a cube, in a soul-sucking burbville, in an apartment complex. Even if we could find a place by the nearby state parks we’d still have to deal with burbs, sprawl, and strip malls every time we ventured outside for anything.

Alternately we could move to some beautiful portion of Vermont and I could telecommute to my current job. The drop in living expenses would be bring me about as much additional take-home as a salary bump from Apple. Yeah, the project’s not as interesting, and the company’s not as cool as Apple (few are), but being able to work in a home office I created? Being able to causally fuck-off for 20 minutes without stressing about pretending to work, as every coder I know has to do, because it’s not humanly possibly (excluding severe autistics) to focus on a single task all day long?

If you’ve got the self-discipline to work from home and still get your tasks done on schedule, the bump in your quality of life is so dramatic that it easily cancels out many of the workplace frustrations, and totally trumps extra cash. To me the idea of being able to look out my window and see trees, to take a break to play with the dogs or chat with Dachary… That’s worth so much.

So, I thanked her for her interest, and turned down what’s likely to be my only chance to work at Apple… unless of course, they find a position I could telecommute for. Or, if they set up shop in the middle of the woods. ;)

A good life is better than a good paycheck any day of the week. Even if that paycheck’s from a great company.

* I consider track housing to be the urban planning equivalent of the office cubicle. The lower half of California is rife with these things, and the more standard burbs aren’t much better if you ask me, but just to be clear: I do currently live in Cambridge MA, which is pretty far from a view of beautiful trees, but I do love this city, and if I’m not in the woods, it’s one of the few places I’d be happy living. That being said, we have been discussing finding a place in VT with trees, and a nice net connection. ;)

Tourists and Adventurers

2012-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

This post was written as response to The Travel Chica’s post about the flooding of the Atacama

The Travel Chica just discovered that “the driest place on the planet is flooding”.

The two most beautiful places on my itinerary for Chile have experienced environmental disasters just before my arrival. First, there was the fire in Torres del Paine. And now the driest place on the planet is flooding.

…
I just spent US$100 on a bus ticket to get here, dealt with the discomfort of an overnight bus ride, and left a city I loved and wanted to explore more. And I am not going to be able to take pictures of this landscape photographer’s dream destination.

…
People are being evacuated.
The military is handing out mattresses and blankets on the square.

…
The only thing for me to do is book a bus ticket out of here. …And wait until I can escape to northern Argentina…

So, let’s recap: People’s homes are flooded. Entire villages are being evacuated, and she’s complaining about a $100 bus ticket and the “discomfort of an overnight bus ride”.

She’s traveled to a “photographer’s dream destination” and when she finds out that she will not be able to take the same pictures everyone else has been taking for years, but instead has been presented with the opportunity to photograph something that has never happened within our lifetime “the only thing for [her] to do is book a ticket out…” Just imagine how extraordinary (literally) it would be to go to the same places of all those beautiful pictures she admired, and find beauty in a landscape transformed by an element that is almost never present.

This, is a spectacular example of the differences between a typical tourist and an adventurer. A tourist books itineraries, expects comfort everywhere despite the being in a land rife with poverty, and gets upset when things don’t go according to plan.

An adventurer says “Holy shit! How fortunate am I to be experiencing something that has never happened in my lifetime, to be in a place where the money I bring to the community when paying for food, guides, and shelter can have a real impact in this time of crisis, to be able to photograph things no-one else will have the opportunity to, to tell stories no-one else can tell, and to have the ability to hop the next bus out whenever I want.”

The adventurer thrives in the unexpected moments of life. The tourist gets annoyed.

I will never be a tourist.

I Saw a Man Walking Down the Street...

2012-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

… and it reminded me of everything I hope for.

The man in question had serious physical disabilities. His left foot pointed almost directly inward. His legs didn’t seem to be oriented in the way that yours or mine are. I suspect his spine didn’t curve in a typical direction either.

He walked forcefully, arms flailing out to the sides. His feet stamped their way into the concrete. With every step you feared he might topple forwards, but he didn’t. My first reaction was to look away “don’t stare ate the disabled person and make them uncomfortable”. But, I forced myself to look back, as I always do. It’s unnatural to not stare at a sight like that. I think it’s doing them a great injustice to pretend they aren’t who, and what, they are. So I looked…

He wore a nicely trimmed beard, light blue dress shirt, navy blue pants, black socks, and brown leather dress shoes, and a face that demanded my respect, because he wasn’t “flailing”. He was walking, and he wasn’t giving up. He could have taken the easy route and used a wheelchair, but he didn’t. He got up, got dressed, and walked to work, despite all the looks he knew he’d get, despite the fact that he was burning more calories than a jogger on his way in to work.

I want to be that bad-ass.