Rands in Repose: Three Superpowers | Hacker News Reader

Rands in Repose: Three Superpowers

randsinrepose.com

31 pointsfilament12 comments

The nudge, the debate, and the mandate: three discussion speeds to address problems in your team.

Rather than picking one style per person receiving the message, you need to pick one per situation. Mentoring and long term conversion experiences can use the nudge. Deadlines and trouble may require the mandate.

I had a manager that swung between the nudge and the mandate. He never had time to debate with me so I wasn't able to trust him or feel heard. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to leave his team.

I don't think I've read anything by this author before -- does anyone else find the post pretty incomprehensible, or is it just me?

Try reading some of his other articles on development management. You may find yourself acclimatizing to his style, which will make it much easier to extract value from his writing.

He has a lot of practical experience, and his writing has been fairly well received in the past, so I suggest it's worth taking an open mind to his stuff if you are interested in managing or leading development teams.

I found it hard somehow (English's not my first language), but "incomprehensible" seems an exageration. It's about three managemente styles. See msg's comment here for an executive summary.

This older article of his is, I believe, considered something of a "classic". Personally, I consider it worth the read.

Free Electron

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2005/03/20/free_electr...

I don't think this is Rands' best work, to be honest. This piece bugged me too because it's almost entirely metaphorical description and has little to no actual analysis. He is a good writer, but this isn't his best work.

I've read a lot by him, but looking at it again I think it's fairly reasonable to say that this post is written with the assumption that you are up to date with at least some of the way Rands presents situations and conveys his message.

Over time the site has largely evolved into the first public pass of content that eventually becomes part of a book.

Personally, I'm a big fan of articles that don't assume every reader is a newcomer. It's a barrier for newcomers, but explaining all of his shorthand and previous content... well, it's arguably two books worth of stuff.

I was trying to use "the nudge" with an older relative who runs a branding company in "the far east." When I was working with her recently, I noticed there was a pattern of the use of puns in the company names of her clients. I grew up in the States, so I knew that the particular puns used were "kiddy grade." (Not a reference in this case.) That is, many of the puns in the company names are ones American kids have thought of by the 2nd grade. By the time one reaches adulthood, such puns seem silly, a bit dim, or are used in deliberately excruciating puns. I'm not so sure that such puns are always appropriate in corporate branding, unless a certain effect is desired. Her own company name contains two such puns melded together, even though her firm targets large companies as customers.

I tried bringing this up in an email with her, stemming from a conversation about something else. I offered my feedback as a native English speaker in such situations. As a means of demonstrating my perceptiveness in such matters, I talked in general terms about the "kiddy grade" pun. This nudge didn't seem to work.

(If you know of the companies I am referring to, please do not post their names here! This would be indiscreet.)

That sounds entirely appropriate if she does branding for hair salons.

However, if your nudge is directed at her core competency, and your authority consists of being a younger relative in the States, that's going to have to be one hell of a nudge.

That sounds entirely appropriate if she does branding for hair salons.

She does branding for large chain stores, financial companies, internet-related companies. If what native English speakers thought mattered tremendously, these would have been major gaffes. As it is, I don't think that's even of secondary importance, most of the time for most of her clients. It might be of great importance if she ever lands a gig with a multinational, though. Her portfolio might chase such firms away.

However, if your nudge is directed at her core competency, and your authority consists of being a younger relative in the States, that's going to have to be one hell of a nudge.

The fact that I brought up an aspect she'd never thought of before should be one hell of a nudge. The common reaction would be to rationalize my point away. The smart reaction would be different.

Pretty good. I haven't read anything that deep in years. I do think though that a lot of management issues are simply avoided by having a good team. But given situation where that is not possible, this might work well.

"I do think though that a lot of management issues are simply avoided by having a good team."

The circle is complete :-). Its been my experience over the last couple of decades that the correlation between "good team" and "good manager" is 100%, and more importantly they converge reasonably rapidly to that point. (which is to say if you find yourself on a 'bad' team and it isn't getting any better, then there is a strong probability that the manager isn't operating efficiently.)

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