Poik

joined 1 year ago
[–] Poik@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago

I've seen a few, but it's still kind of controversial. That being said, there is a time and a place for agile where it works, but also there is a team composition and a style of agile which works and that style tends to piss off micromanaging middle managers, so it rarely is allowed.

I had an article saved in my work slack before I left that company (for health reasons), but a currently popular one seems to be this one: https://johnfarrier.com/agile-failure-what-drives-268-higher-failure-rates/

My take is based on years of interaction with companies and friends in other companies. The biggest problem isn't necessarily Agile, but instead that agile is not intended for long term projects. Agile is fantastic in short turnaround interactions such as web dev, and because these short turnaround places have such easily visible results, managers take them to be gospel. Thus comes Corporate Agile: https://web.archive.org/web/20240524230754/https://bits.danielrothmann.com/corporate-agile Link is from the Internet archive because I can't find his new site if he moved.

Long story short, corporate agile is the agile the bosses want, as it allows them to be constantly involved with more and more "agile" meetings. You know. Meetings. The antithesis of Agile. The place productivity goes to die. I had to remind our bosses that Agile dictated that stand ups included the developers and the scrum master ONLY multiple times and pointed them to the agile training they gave me. Didn't matter. They're the boss. This is a pretty common breakdown in Agile. So, that turned daily standup into daily meeting, since the quick status updates now had to be broken down for the boss. Every. Single. Day.

Agile at its most basic is intended to reduce meetings to once a week so the rest of the time can be spent developing. Every company I know starts including devs in at least 300% more meetings (even junior devs) after switching to Agile for at least 6 months. And on average, it takes half an hour for a programmer to return to the level of productivity they hit before any interruption. This is generally due to the limitations of working memory. (Many research papers on this if you want.)

But to get back to the original point. Because agile concentrates on short immediately tangible and verifiable benefits, any progress that takes longer than a sprint isn't allowed. (It actually is, with proper implementation, as Agile is supposed to be edited on a team by team basis to make things work, but companies want everyone on exactly the same page.) Guess what doesn't have immediately tangible and verifiable benefits? That's right, research. Guess what it's still in a research phase? Aside from basically anything that isn't in market yet, self driving technology is very much research driven. Lots of trial, error, and long development cycles. Longer than a sprint for sure. And anyone who says self driving is in market should try an exercise if finding one level 5 self driving car that hasn't been recalled due to false marketing or safety concerns. The technology isn't there yet. It could be getting there, but profits are getting in the way of progress.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 16 points 2 days ago

Realistically. Trains will revolutionize road transport of goods and people if the train industry properly maintained their rails, operated above board (unlike the one that had the chemical spill in Ohio and other issues), and expands a bit. The largest expense in good transport is long haul and no one wants to drive long haul. Last mile will probably need trucks and drivers for at least 3 to 5 more decades. And taxi services have similar challenges to last mile delivery. Personal self driving systems need even more consideration than taxi services, and will likely take five to ten years after taxi services become recognized as safe.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

In my (in the industry) experience: Agile killed safe development by pushing superficial internal deadlines that look good instead of are good. Safety requirements therefore are never met, but people keep looking like they're approaching at least one, but end up sacrificing other things that no one is concentrating on, causing more set backs than improvements. Self driving will not be legally commercialized until either someone lobbies bad development onto the roads, or capitalism realizes that quarter profit isn't as important as ten year profit and Agile finally burns in a god damn fire.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 30 points 4 days ago

Not necessarily the case, but if it's affecting your life so strongly, you might want to get checked by a medical professional.

Long COVID can destroy your life. Depression can destroy your life. Iron deficiency can ruin your life. A lot of things you might just think is just being tired may actually have a cause. Especially if simple fixes like "touch grass" style clichés do nothing for you.

It's not always the answer, but it's good to rule out in that case.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

I was told in 2009 "Why optimize? Hardware upgrades will make your efforts obsolete anyway." So... I devoted my time to optimization, because fuck that. I ended up doing algorithm optimization in my first full time job, and loved... That part of the job at least.

Indie games and co-op games are my jam. I feel for all of this comment.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 7 points 3 weeks ago

He got free food and a bed? Jealous.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

The master branch in git isn't the same though. It's closer related to the word "remaster." Master used to mean the original document is still used everywhere in tech and outside of it.

Main makes more sense since a master copy should be something that doesn't change in my opinion. But that's semantics...

[–] Poik@pawb.social 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

After you hit full time student, the rest of the classes are free, so I filled my schedule way too full. All my favorite teachers were in the math department too. No regrets. That and I ended up using my math skills when I switched to machine learning engineering.

That must have been cathartic as hell.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 17 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

As someone with a degree in math and a degree in engineering... One of those degrees got me a job.

That being said, that's the way engineers look at managers, as generally they want to build something that works and is safe, but all managers care about is getting it done quickly and under budget, which means any micromanaging gets pushed down to the technician to have to deal with... And trying to argue gets you fired.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago

Our cats use it to beg for treats. Very rarely do I see them on it and not meowing for attention.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago

It's valid, and it sucks. If you can even do $5, it's worth it. But the world is absolutely against you right now. A lot of older folk don't quite get how bad it's gotten.

However, saving a dollar today is worth more than saving two dollars ten years from now. And having an emergency fund might actually save your life.

Hopefully something happens to shake up housing. These prices are absolutely criminal.

[–] Poik@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago

If I hadn't saved, I probably would be dead right now. The US doesn't really do healthcare or mental care, and I no longer can sustain myself. Long COVID is a bitch and doctors usually ignore it.

But if you're banking on never having an emergency, go for it. There's a balance to hit, at least in less developed countries like the US.

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