"What problem are we trying to solve?" is a question I have to ask constantly in corporate development environments, and rarely does anyone presenting the task to be done actually know the answer!
It's very frustrating.
It's very frustrating.
Wow, that's describing it really well. I work for a guy who basically started a company by trying to vibe code his ideas into existence (late 2023 LLMs) and realized he would need actual developers to get anywhere.
It was excruciating trying to make him answer questions to get proper domain modelling going since LLM use had made him think of software as being wished into existence in a "declarative" way.
Not to mention the heavy contrast my persistent questioning had to a background of sycophantic yes-man claudespeak.
I think I have been pretty lucky the last 5-6 years of my career at least, where someone asking those questions is treated as trying to drive the team to a better result, rather than a pedant.
You can't always change your circumstances, but if you work to make little changes to improve your environment, the people that work with you probably will too.
My current team is like that - we all see the roadblocks that make our job harder, and we know we can't solve them all, but we talk about and work on making our own solutions to get around those things - like making a habit of asking those questions to better understand what's really desired by the stakeholder.
'"What problem are we trying to solve?" is a question I have to ask constantly in corporate development environments, and rarely does anyone presenting the task to be done actually know the answer! It's very frustrating.'
We talked about that for a bit, and then, only hours later, we got:
"Your job doesn't have to be that way."
So, again, I am glad you realized you have the power to change your world and did so. But, again, know that there were only hours between your job being a complete frustrating mess and it ostensibly becoming a well functioning system so there is not yet any evidence of it being a long-lived change. People can modify their behaviour momentarily but old habits die hard.
Now this seems to imply, to the best of my interpretation, that you only experienced that job at a single company some time in the past. Okay. But where did you think that was found in the earlier text? As far as I can see this is new information. And why are you still (at time of writing that comment, at least) frustrated by something that you are now suggesting, as best I can tell, was already no longer a part of your life and, given you finding significance in noting that you've done this for 15 years, likely hasn't been for a long time?
You have repeatedly confused yourself by assigning your own meanings to my words instead of asking for clarity where you didn’t understand.
I think that most people who read my comments understood that I am speaking broadly about my career, and that while I’ve encountered this problem at my current job, my team and I have worked to make it better.
Your primary issue comes from the fact that you asserted that my frustrations with corporate development are in fact the real job, and your seeming offense at being told that no, your negativity and hostility are not a universally shared experience.
I hope things get better for you in your career, but please stop harassing others for not succumbing to cynicism.
As instructed, the words were taken literally. Now that you are telling us that we actually needed to read between the lines to understand what you really meant is informative, but curiously late to make that known, especially in light of earlier instructions.
> and your seeming offense at being told that no, your negativity and hostility are not a universally shared experience.
Uh, what? That doesn't make any sense. If I were offended or felt negativity or hostility I would have turned off the computer and went outside. This is a completely voluntary time use. It had better be good. The fact that I am still here proves that there is no negative emotion felt whatsoever because the instant there is anything else I'm gone. Presumably the same holds for you because there is no rational explanation, assuming you are of sound mind, why you wouldn't have equally found something better to do if there was anything unpleasant experienced on your end.
I guess this is supposed to be another case where we cannot take what you have written literally?
You are correct. You ask that if you want to get promoted to a better job, because you understood the problem and likely saved the company money, time, effort or all three, rather than just pushing the buttons like a good code monkey.
I’ve asked that question all the time throughout my career. Lots of promotions. No firings or layoffs.
Why would you lose your job?