<story><title>I fixed a bug the other day</title><url>https://www.javiergonzalez.io/blog/i-fixed-a-bug/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samhuk</author><text>&amp;gt; Deny that there is a problem.
&amp;gt; Deny that it is your problem.
&amp;gt; Ask for more information.
&amp;gt; Complain.&lt;p&gt;Oh my does this ever bring traumatic memories!&lt;p&gt;This entire article reminds me of a previous company I used to work for. There was a sufficiently large number of engineers that had a similar, if not more elaborate, deliberate, and sinister way of responding to bugs:&lt;p&gt;* Deny {bug} is a problem - &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t see how this affects you&amp;#x2F;anyone?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;* Deny {bug} can even be fixed - &amp;quot;Ok, fair, but I don&amp;#x27;t see how this can be fixed?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;* Deny {bug} is their problem - &amp;quot;Ok, fair, but have you tried asking {other employee?}, they are responsible for this.&amp;quot; (they are obviously not)&lt;p&gt;* Be rude - &amp;quot;If you think this is a problem, then go fix it&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;All this was just obvious defensive walls of lies to protect their reputation and hide their lack of skill and their laziness.&lt;p&gt;Around 5% of the engineers were like this and I&amp;#x27;ve always analogized it to the proportion of U238 in a sample of Uranium - just enough enriched dogshit to cause a critical mass of misery.&lt;p&gt;I left (for greener pastures) shortly after I had a couple of tasks requiring interaction with these &amp;quot;engineers&amp;quot;, which made working around them impossible, and then realizing that leadership had totally lost control of the zoo and didn&amp;#x27;t care one iota.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tjbiddle</author><text>Unfortunately this same attitude bleeds into consumer-facing customer support so often.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ll find a bug, and message support about it.&lt;p&gt;Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve cleared cookies, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve tried incognito, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve rebooted, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve tried a separate browser, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve tried a VPN, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve tried different DNT, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve tried incognito, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve tried rebooting, Yes - I&amp;#x27;ve tried an entirely separate device.&lt;p&gt;Infuriating. I&amp;#x27;m sure it catches plenty of tech illiterate people&amp;#x27;s garbage bug reports that are just their issue - but so often I&amp;#x27;m left banging my head on a desk when I know it&amp;#x27;s an actual problem.</text></comment>
<story><title>I fixed a bug the other day</title><url>https://www.javiergonzalez.io/blog/i-fixed-a-bug/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samhuk</author><text>&amp;gt; Deny that there is a problem.
&amp;gt; Deny that it is your problem.
&amp;gt; Ask for more information.
&amp;gt; Complain.&lt;p&gt;Oh my does this ever bring traumatic memories!&lt;p&gt;This entire article reminds me of a previous company I used to work for. There was a sufficiently large number of engineers that had a similar, if not more elaborate, deliberate, and sinister way of responding to bugs:&lt;p&gt;* Deny {bug} is a problem - &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t see how this affects you&amp;#x2F;anyone?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;* Deny {bug} can even be fixed - &amp;quot;Ok, fair, but I don&amp;#x27;t see how this can be fixed?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;* Deny {bug} is their problem - &amp;quot;Ok, fair, but have you tried asking {other employee?}, they are responsible for this.&amp;quot; (they are obviously not)&lt;p&gt;* Be rude - &amp;quot;If you think this is a problem, then go fix it&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;All this was just obvious defensive walls of lies to protect their reputation and hide their lack of skill and their laziness.&lt;p&gt;Around 5% of the engineers were like this and I&amp;#x27;ve always analogized it to the proportion of U238 in a sample of Uranium - just enough enriched dogshit to cause a critical mass of misery.&lt;p&gt;I left (for greener pastures) shortly after I had a couple of tasks requiring interaction with these &amp;quot;engineers&amp;quot;, which made working around them impossible, and then realizing that leadership had totally lost control of the zoo and didn&amp;#x27;t care one iota.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>theideaofcoffee</author><text>My goodness, are you me? This mirrors my experience to a T, almost exactly when I’ve tried to change process for the better. By far the one that hits the most is be rude: “well, just start fixing things then.” It was a daily struggle to have to work around the nay-say and lazy and equivocation and it was so demoralizing knowing that there was a simple fix but people didn’t want to do it because it would out their incompetence and start to reveal the tremendous pile of tech debt they’ve built everything else on.&lt;p&gt;The most funny thing was that this was not a huge organization at all, it was small for the scale they were working at but certain individuals have ossified the culture to a point where you would have thought it was hundreds of others. So frustrating, day in and day out.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; leadership had totally lost control of the zoo&lt;p&gt;This kills me&lt;p&gt;So glad to see I’m not alone!</text></comment>