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Comment by tmountain | Hacker News Reader

Was not a fan. Basically reads as--I could not get on the same page as the client, my boss was useless in helping with these interactions (but... is the "best boss ever"), so they took me off the project, and a jaded / more experienced developer told me that he'd lost his passion for the work, so apathy must be the solution to communication issues.

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Same, it seemed like the story was building up to something and then ends abruptly with that quip.

I think at some point, the average poster on that subreddit started posting longer and longer stories rather than just humorous short ones, and that’s when it became less enjoyable to read. There are folks who post stories with “chapters” that become wildly popular, but they’re always very light in substance. I don’t see the appeal.

I agree. This was a long boring joke with an anti-climactic punchline. This guy sucks at handling his boss and his client. I've done agency work for over a decade now. I've worked with people like this and they're annoying.

It’s more about the realizations that there are things making your life at work a hell that you simply cannot do anything against. It also shows the only two options that you have to get out of that situation: moving on, or stopping to care.

I am not a fan of it either, but it's a scenario that you will eventually run into the longer you are at it. At some point you have to cut your losses. Part of that is deciding what the personal investment has cost you over time versus moving on to the next thing and striving to learn when there is no sane way forward.

The danger is that you may start to look for a point of no return when there are still paths forward. It's easy to develop bad habits that make this a more common scenario than it really should be. I don't know the answer to this, other than to make sure you aren't the problem. It requires constant, honest assesment from yourself, and (perhaps just as important) from others.

I agree. His boss is very much to blame for this. He is awful, basically siding with the client against the team he is meant to protect.

It is very important to separate the domain of responsibility:

What to do -> the client

How to do it -> the developer

Sure, there can be interactions both ways between the dev/architect and the client but you must be ready to defend your borders (i.e. the implementation) very fiercely with difficult clients. The dev didn't do it and got no respect back.

I can't blame the poor dev too hardly though. Life really sucks when you have to work against your boss and the client.

I tend to agree with you.

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