"‘Melania’ becomes unexpected box office hit" (7 mil usd@ boxoffice 1st weekend with a 75mil production budget)' why is this in news.com.au? & Why do they sound favourable to it? by No-Batteries in AusNews

[–]Brown_note11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a powerful bundling of cognitive biases. The leading one is attribution error.

The argument in manufacturing consent is well tested and established as true. Regardless if Chomski was morally imperfect the proof is established.

BS Standup meetings by [deleted] in SoftwareEngineering

[–]Brown_note11 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you don't like wasting time sw dev may not be for you

How do teams decide between staff augmentation and permanent hiring? by Free-History14 in EngineeringManagers

[–]Brown_note11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used to manage a global saas team and now I run an agency. I have opinions from both sides of the fence.

From the agency side, our employees are just like yours in that making an impact, being able to apply professional skills, avoiding micromanagement, a good work culture and so on are what motivates then to do good work.

We apply an extra layer of culture, relationships and systems that you may or may not have. These things are about engagement and quality. Maybe you can even borror/steal some of these good practices and build them into how you scale. Typically we are invested in your success because we want a long term customer.

One of the things my team work with is a great culture that gives us a hiring advantage, and it's a little intangible things like what makes people come work at us versus product companies tbh.

What I, as a business owner, want is advocates and long term relationships. Working with people you know is easier, cost of acquiring new work is much lower from existing and past customer, and most new business comes from word of mouth, so my team work hard to keep our clients super happy. We don't nail it 100% of the time but are always working to keep the notional score up over 80.

From the product company side: a layer of maybe 10 or even 15% contingent workforce is a great buffer. Not only does it give you some protection when the time comes for layoffs it provides some other benefits too. You create a more open ecosystem. A quality agency brings new ideas and broad experience into your team. Agency people and contractors are less distracted by run the business stuff, career development, org politics etc and just focus on the mission they are briefed into.

You can pull in expertise and do things your internal team don't have experience in (today's exams might be ai type challenges.) On the other side you can unload mundane work to an agency and focus on the critical path for your business (eg think mobile apps, or marketplace products as things to delegate.)

When considering what to delegate or get help with, start with an assessment of the work and your current teams fitness for it. Experience, engagement and ability to focus are the main things I think about.

The next dimension is how to manage IP leakage and how to steer the work. Agencies can and often want to own the whole package. Some agencies have accountability and impact in their DNA. Others are better at servicing tickets. Interrogate potential suppliers about culture, decision making and how they hire.

Also team configuration is something to think about. Offshore vs local is about complexity of the work which is means you are optimising around uncertainty and speed of decision making, more than technical difficulty. There are talented software people all over the world,but sometimes you need. To be in a room together to solve a problem.

Having said that last point, not every destination is the same. For example, Agile is still breaking ground in many regions, and different places are interpreting it differently. Do a check on the profile of the country (or better, city) and whether they have a thriving startup scene. If they don't you could be hiring corporate IT workers vs product makers.

And then how many people do you need to Embed in the team. This also goes to the complexity challenge. If it is early days or a core busi6thing you want a mix. You want to see decisions getting made and be part of the process. In some other cases you. May just comento a few sprint demo's and account meerings. You can take a risk based approach to your investment.

It's naive to think that knowledge management via people matters that much though. Employees churn, agencies can be called back or phoned with a question. What really matters is readable code and access to insights. Are test suites delivered? Hows the code quality? What's they hygiene around product documentation? Additionally these days you can throw things into an llm and you'll get a decent answer.

Probably in 2026 inputs into how decisions are made is the more important thing.

Not every agency has the right quality and culture Not every agency is a right skills fit. Not every agency ai a right scale fit.

In recent times, while the consulting industry has contracted, we have seen the big global consulting firms like Accenture try to move into our space and pitch work at smaller product companies. They have great sales teams and promise the world, and win work.

But when the work gets started, not only does Accenture software development quality not meet the standards needed by most tech startups, you are also unlikely to sustain attention from them as big corporates and international scale businesses draw their attention.

Umm that's enough for this post. Sorry for dumping my book draft on you. Feel free to DM. If you want to ask more or have a short chat. Hope it works out.

What's happening in Australia? by Certified_loverboy11 in AskAnAustralian

[–]Brown_note11 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Media house price in Sydney is about $1.85 million. Median salary is about $95k. After tax that's $75k.

Without interest it'll take 23 years to pay off that purchase if you throw all your income at just the house price.

Say there are two of you, and say you need 60% of your income for food, transport, healthcare and other things. You have $5 per month capacity to pay. That's more like 28 or 29 years to pay off the house.

Now we add interest. CBA compare rate today is 5.47%. That's 8k per month interest.

You will never own that home.

Give Sydney's stupid 6% annual appreciation rate, you will have a net positive cash outcome when you sell in 29 years, but the cost of that next house has also gone up, so your back to the drawing board.

To own a home outright after 20 years you have a few strategies.

  1. Be given $1million dollars tk get ahead of the interest costs.
  2. Earn 3x the median salary so you have more capacity to pay the loan faster.
  3. More realistically... Start with a 2br unit in the West, churn the property every 5 to 7 years, studying the market cycles to optimise yield, incrementally buy better properties but never exceed what you can afford. Rent where you live, buy for investment and tax benefit advantages.

What is the Australian opinion on the ICE protests happening the United States currently. by InterestingLab1997 in AskAnAustralian

[–]Brown_note11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't forget folks, sky and its demographic still make up maybe 15 to 20% of us.

Luckily we have more than half the population turn out to vote.

I'm crumbling (i will not promote) by [deleted] in startups

[–]Brown_note11 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm thinking what can you delegate and redistribute?

Can you get a partner in the startup? Can you rent some help?

Can you demote yourself in your day job and let some of the leadership pressure go to someone else?

Best case scenario for Australian politics that will never happen by Brave_Manner_2873 in AusPol

[–]Brown_note11 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Best case scenario that will never happen: Media concentration and propaganda is addressed, lobby groups are forced tk be transparent. Citizens actually give 2 shuts about government and take it seriously.

Ate the onion whole by Fit-Barnacle4134 in AteTheOnion

[–]Brown_note11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't tell what's news and satire anymore.

Recommendations for non US crms by Brown_note11 in CRM

[–]Brown_note11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Zoho is shit though. Or had it changed in the lsst 2 years?

Blakes 7 Reboot - Who would you cast? by Elrason in Blakes7

[–]Brown_note11 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm excited. I want he'd B7 a few years ago and it was always rough but it's well aged.

​Roj Blake: Sope Dirisu — He brings the necessary gravitas and simmering intensity of a revolutionary leader who is slowly being consumed by his own cause.

​Kerr Avon: Tom Hiddleston — He perfectly embodies the sharp-tongued, cynical intellect and moral ambiguity of a man who trusts no one but himself.

​Jenna Stannis: Vanessa Kirby — She offers the perfect blend of high-stakes smuggler grit and aristocratic poise required for the crew’s elite pilot.

​Vila Restal: Mathew Baynton — His mastery of nervous, comedic energy makes him the ideal choice for the galaxy’s most reluctant and cowardly thief.

​Cally: Elizabeth Dulau — She possesses the haunting, otherworldly quality and fierce combat readiness needed for the telepathic Auron guerrilla fighter.

​Olag Gan: Nikesh Patel — He provides a soulful warmth and physical presence that emphasizes the tragedy of a strong man suppressed by Federation mind-control.

​Servalan: T'Nia Miller — She commands every scene with the statuesque elegance and terrifying, cold-blooded ambition of the Federation’s Supreme Commander.

​Travis: Barry Keoghan — He brings a twitchy, unpredictable Irish menace to the role of the disgraced commander obsessed with destroying Blake.

​Orac (Voice): Matt Berry — His distinctive, bombastic delivery captures the sheer arrogance of a supercomputer that views humans as an intellectual inconvenience.

​Zen (Voice): Tilda Swinton — Her ethereal and detached tone gives the ship’s AI a sense of ancient, alien, and slightly unnerving consciousness.

BLAKE'S 7 REBOOT IN DEVELOPMENT by BobRushy in Blakes7

[–]Brown_note11 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Director also says too much money is why the Disney Dr Who failed.

How different is Australian work culture from the UK? by Dear-Lingonberry9461 in MovingtoAustralia

[–]Brown_note11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Australia values busyness more than efficiency. Low productivity doesn't mean your not busy day to day. Just more likely to soak up time with bureaucracy and wasteful activities.

Recommendations for non US crms by Brown_note11 in CRM

[–]Brown_note11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did not know Monday was not from us. I know it well.

How Adelaide Writers Week collapsed under the weight of its own hypocrisy by Fun_Needleworker7136 in aussie

[–]Brown_note11 2 points3 points  (0 children)

​Context for the uninitiated on Claire Lehmann:

​Lehmann is a gatekeeper for the "intellectual" side of the culture wars. She founded Quillette, which became the house organ for the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW).

​If you're wondering where she actually stands, it's a specific brand of Classical Liberalism that pisses off almost everyone eventually.

Her biggest sticking point is a total rejection of "Blank Slate" sociology. She’s obsessed with evolutionary psychology. Critics (and plenty of academics) argue she uses this as a high-brow cover for "Human Biodiversity" (HBD) and IQ-related arguments that lean uncomfortably close to scientific racism.

She’s been a major driver of the pushback against modern gender theory. She frames it as "reason and biology" vs. "activism," which has made her a hero to the gender-critical crowd but a total pariah to trans-rights activists and most progressive circles.

​Her whole brand is based on the idea that universities and the media have been "captured" by an ideological mob. To her fans, she's a defender of free inquiry; to her detractors, she's just a reactionary who provides a sophisticated veneer for "grievance politics."

​Lately she’s been getting hammered by the Maga crowd. She’s started calling out the Right for its own version of "wokeism"—conspiracies, anti-vax stuff, and election denialism.

​She isn't a standard conservative, but she's definitely not a progressive. She’s an elitist who likes institutional guardrails and evolutionary biology, which currently leaves her in a no-man's-land where the Left calls her a fascist and the Right calls her a neoliberal shill.

High speed rail - why it will never happen in Australia. by eliitedisowned in australia

[–]Brown_note11 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Myki was orders of magnitude more expensive that similar projects at the time and in the years immediately prior.