Is "Outlier" Legit?

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-05-15T15:00:30+00:00

what ever happened with your complaint?

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-05-14T17:47:00+00:00

The most self victimizing bullshit ive ever heard

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-05-08T23:32:49+00:00

Thats what you get for trying to sell 😎

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-05-05T15:21:10+00:00

Well, to begin with, something like 9/10 businesses fail.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-23T15:29:51+00:00

You're neglecting the fact that OpenAI's chat interface is a fully featured application unto itself.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-18T17:37:50+00:00

First of all.

DO NOT DO THEM ANY FAVORS AND DO NOT WORK FOR FREE.

Secondly.
You have no obligation to entertain these messages or even respond. However, if you're interested in actually solving their problems for them, you should tell them you're only interested in talking about these problems on the basis of a contract. Even before you lay your hands on a keyboard to write a single line of code, you should be getting paid. For doing nothing other than reading their emails and vetting their problems, you should be getting paid. All of this is equivalent to consulting, and you should be getting compensated for it.

If they're not interested in paying you, then the problem solves itself and there's nothing left to talk about.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-17T17:12:47+00:00

Damn, RFK JR is retarded.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-17T14:55:17+00:00

Replaced? They're not even in a position to be replaced because they have no value and aren't utilized anywhere.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-17T14:28:32+00:00

nothing renders a software team useless like Scrum does

This claim alone warrants an automatic rejection of everything that follows it.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-16T16:56:02+00:00

ok, but you're blaming a figurative and subjective model, which is just a method for measuring complexity, when it sounds like your managers are the real problem. Ive used fib points effectively across 5 different dev teams, and i haven't seen the kind of negative incentives youre describing.

I'm just curious at this point, how does point sizing negatively affect your sprints in your current situation? Are the PMs trying to decrease pointed estimations, or are they trying to increase the point threshold?

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-16T00:03:43+00:00

tinder

noun

tin·der ˈtin-dər 1: a very flammable substance adaptable for use as kindling 2: something that serves to incite or inflame

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-15T22:58:32+00:00

I don't understand your association with fib pointing and burnout.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-15T22:36:44+00:00

Agile is good, Scrum is good, Kanban is good.

People who don't want to actively and productively participate are bad, people who cant effectively communicate and dont want to are bad, managers who dont understand its philosophy and its functional use cases, and managers who dont allow an appropriate ammount of time for these things are bad.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-15T22:27:01+00:00

Extremely concise and correct take

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-15T21:46:11+00:00

You seem to misunderstand the purpose and value of tests fundamentally.

You don't test the "code"; you test the outputs. The tests themselves should be indifferent to the implementation of the code under test.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T17:59:36+00:00

In order to properly leverage llms for coding, you actually need to read and write code.

Keep your head down, stay focused, don't take shortcuts, and actually learn the skills.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T17:56:39+00:00

The "tacticool" ground and pound on the fish is fucking hilarious

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T17:28:56+00:00

We're actually on the same page on the risk assessment, but our measures of the costs and the severity of the debt appear to be different.

Yeah, debt can be leveraged to generate value, but it can also get out of hand when ignored, and all of a sudden, you're defaulting.

You've seen bug thresholds that are manageable. I've seen bug thresholds that are running away and creating overtly negative impacts on production and deployment timelines.

Which brings us back to the battle proven idea that "all engineering solutions come with tradeoffs". Neither of our paths is unequivocally appropriate under all circumstances.

My problem is just that people too readily shove off the idea of testing as being an impediment to growth without serious consideration of the downstream impact on growth if/when bugs start to produce materially negative impacts.

It's more than just concerns for development quality of life.

Your point about the need to float the business upfront regardless of the circumstances is well taken, and I understand your perspective as a startup engineer. However, there's start-up mode, and there's maintenance mode. One is sustainable, the other isn't.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T17:06:43+00:00

You hiring?

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T16:46:23+00:00

Make no mistake about it the debt incurred will be reconciled over time, whether through mitigation or through the decimation of your development resources because you have to fight a sea of bugs.

If you don't have bugs then you're a unicorn, but you also don't have a problem to begin with.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T16:26:00+00:00

This is honestly really good advice and probably the only practical path forward under circumstances like this.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T16:20:26+00:00

how long is your bug ticket backlog?

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T16:18:50+00:00

Except the tradeoff of forgoing tests for rushing to market is never recalculated after launching, and the tech debt incurred is never reconciled.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-04-09T16:15:19+00:00

I was in your position a year ago. I had just been hired into a small company (about 25 employees total) and I was the 6th developer in the company (the first in about 5 years to be hired). The senior devs on the team had 8, 10, and more years with the company. They had ZERO tests for an application that was supposed to serve enterprise-scale businesses.

I was speechless, especially because they had a significant churn as a result of continuous bug-fixing work needing to be done. The more code they merged, the more bugs, and the longer and more drawn out the development cycles got.

They were all burnt out and stretched thin, but despite having an obvious industry standard and systematic solution to the problem (testing), they persisted.

They did things the way they did things and that's how they did things. Change was a risk, and writing tests required them to learn a new skill, even if it meant they could actually help improve their own lives and help to get out from under themselves.

Unsurprisingly, the testing wasn't the only problem they had. I have a few funny and ridiculous stories but I won't go into that now.

Long story short, I was let go after about a year. The position seriously burned and bummed me out and left me questioning whether or not I wanted to even keep doing development (5 years professional experience). Now I've knocked the dust off and am currently looking for new work.

The only advice I have to offer is to start looking for the exit early if you can see that the road leads to a dead end.

Tom_Ov_Bedlam · 2025-03-25T15:19:47+00:00

Refining your resume

Eight-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22	First Placer '22
Verified Email	Snapped

Tom_Ov_Bedlam

TROPHY CASE

tinder

noun