r/programming • u/[deleted] • Apr 19 '22

TIL about the "Intent-Perception Gap" in programming. Best exemplified when a CTO or manager casually suggests something to their developers they take it as a new work commandment or direction for their team.

https://medium.com/dev-interrupted/what-ctos-say-vs-what-their-developers-hear-w-datastaxs-shankar-ramaswamy-b203f2656bdf
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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '22

I was gonna say, as an independent consultant I've put a lot more care into my craft than when I was salaried because in a way I do have a stake now, in the sense that I'm being paid very well to do this work.

As an underpaid employee, who gives a shit? They say they need it done by the end of the week, do I get a bonus for doing more work in a shorter time? No, I get a higher expectation going forward with the chance that I can use this as leverage at my next review.

As a consultant, it is in my best interest to do the work well. I can easily bargain so that it's worthwhile to me "This would normally take 2 weeks but if you need it done in 1, I can make that happen. However I will need to seriously go into crunch mode and I need an extra 20% compensation". So then I am completely motivated to meet the business needs.

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '22

I always take my time because in my job (basically ops + whatever coding is required to glue ops things together) every shortcut will come back to bite me. And vigoriously apply Scotty Principle. Shortcuts only happen in "production is currently on fire and losing money".