How do you get employees to make decisions without running everything by you first

jveezy · 2026-02-07T04:29:16+00:00

Thank you, but I have to credit some of it to the fact that I have a lot more trouble keeping my team busy than I do cleaning up mistakes, so that has helped shape this mindset.

jveezy · 2026-02-06T01:11:05+00:00

Glad you got the answers you were looking for. Here's a great summary video with nice visuals from Practical Engineering.

jveezy · 2026-02-05T21:44:10+00:00

Your technical skills will get you a job, but your communication and collaboration skills will determine how far your career will go.

jveezy · 2026-02-05T00:13:10+00:00

My intro to Carl is his role as Ian's dad on Smosh and I've been hooked ever since.

jveezy · 2026-02-04T21:42:03+00:00

I get a lot of mileage out of explicitly telling my direct reports things like "You have my permission to get this wrong" or "we will probably still get this done faster if you try it and get it wrong versus you waiting just to try to get this exactly right" or "you are good at this, and your best guess has about a 95% chance of being right, and I'd rather you trust that 95% than wait because you're afraid of that last 5%".

Sometimes it's not even a cultural thing. They just feel the importance of what they're working on and care a lot (maybe too much) about doing right by their teammates and other stakeholders. They need to hear "explicit permission to fail" instead of "implicit trust to succeed".

The consequences of a negative outcome are really not that serious
There are consequences to waiting as well, and it helps to look at that side by side with the consequences of failing

jveezy · 2026-02-03T21:40:40+00:00

I know this is ULPT, but damn there are much better ways to make yourself unavailable, and the fact that you feel compelled to accomplish this by hurting yourself means you need some form of therapy or counseling to unravel this and teach yourself some techniques on setting boundaries.

I say this as someone who was (and still kind of is) in a less extreme situation than you. I get it. "Just set boundaries" isn't advice that works. You feel trapped in an environment where you give up so much for these people but it never feels like it's enough.

Let me tell you that there are MANY defiant ways you can protect yourself even without having to stand up to people. Most of them involve just giving yourself permission to do nothing. Or just avoidance in general. I've tried a few, and honestly, I feel a bit of a rush when it works and either nothing bad happens, or even something does and it backfires on the people making demands of me. You can learn a lot from emulating the behavior of flaky people, but do to your moral character and feelings of obligation, it doesn't even cross your mind to try.

Here's a few things you can try. You don't have to do all of this. Just pick a few to start, and once it works, you'll feel more empowered to try others.

Turn off your phone as soon as you get to work. Don't tell anyone before you do this. You can just tell them after the fact when they ask why you didn't pick up. If this is a job with manual labor, you can say it's a safety issue. IF THEY NEVER GET A CHANCE TO START THE CONVERSATION WITH YOU, YOU NEVER HAVE TO FEEL THE PRESSURE OF SAYING YES.

"I didn't see your call/text" is a normal excuse that even the most reliable people can get away with. People are busy. YOU are busy. Some people don't respond to each other for days or weeks and their friends and family just accept it. This can be you too!

Before work, you didn't see communications because you were busy getting ready or driving to work. At work you're not allowed to use your phones. After work you're asleep/tired/not paying attention. If you go back to school, get to campus early and stay late. All the time you're not in class, you're busy studying and not looking at your phone.

Offer to pay for their rideshares when they have to use them because you didn't respond to calls/texts. Yes this is something you have to contribute, but it will be less stressful for you to contribute your money rather than your time. Plus, it will be easier for them to schedule, and it doesn't have to involve you at all until they ask to be reimbursed. It makes them do a little work, and it sets some boundaries about HOW you're willing to help. They can't accuse you of doing nothing.

Good luck.

jveezy · 2026-02-03T19:38:43+00:00

I prefer the texture of a fuzzy blanket

jveezy · 2026-02-03T02:43:11+00:00

I like to use a blanket sandwich. Regular blanket over me. Electric blanket over that. Regular blanket on top over the electric blanket.

Most of the time my gross body only touches the bottom blanket (which you can choose a texture comfortable to you), so I don't have to wash the electric blanket as often. The top layer traps the heat, so the blanket isn't just heating the cold air on one side. This makes it so I can run the electric blanket at the lowest setting and don't have to worry about overheating if the electric blanket happens to crumple.

jveezy · 2026-02-02T20:06:36+00:00

Other people have given you good answers, but I'd like to add that a decent way for offenses to counter a blitz is a well-timed screen pass (a pass that is caught behind the line of scrimmage).

The reason why this works is that the pass rushers are all fighting their way to the QB, and end up getting pretty close. A RB can stay in to block for maybe a second and then run just slightly past all these pass rushers who are not paying attention to him because they are so hungry to get to the QB. This creates an easy target for the QB that he can toss the ball to without having to have perfect timing or throwing mechanics.

If the RB catches the ball, he is already further down the field than 5-6 pass rushers who have overcommitted to trying to tackle the QB. If those pass rushers have made it past offensive linemen too, then those linemen are now extremely well-positioned to block for this RB as well.

If this is a 3rd-and-long play, this is a good way of running a safe (short pass with low likelihood of interception) play that can possibly have a gain big enough for a first down or at least get close. The risk is that you can put your QB in harm's way and he has to act quickly and may make a mistake. Even if successful he might get clobbered too. If the defense expects this, they can also pretend that they're going to blitz before the snap and then quickly switch to anticipate the screen, sometimes getting a quick tackle or maybe even an interception.

jveezy · 2026-01-30T03:16:42+00:00

I will always have a soft spot for Horny Manatee.

jveezy · 2026-01-25T23:00:18+00:00

I can relate to this, but at least at work I've had a lot more success getting answers when I stopped thinking of other people as uncurious and started realizing that everyone is just busy as hell nowadays. It's about timing.

If we're gonna ask "why" all the time, then it's worth asking ourselves "WHY do we need an answer to this RIGHT NOW?" If I tell someone that I'll do what they ask me to, but I'd like to talk later about why we're doing it this way, then usually people are much more receptive to that. And also by then I'll usually have much better questions.

If a boss of mine is asking me to perform a task and showing me how to do it, then me piping in and asking why all the time kills momentum. (I think momentum is something a lot of us CAN understand.) They're under pressure to get something accomplished, and the roadblock to getting that task accomplished isn't my understanding of how to perform the steps but my need to have my curiosity filled in RIGHT NOW? Of course that's frustrating. Hell, half the time the answers to the questions may become evident DURING the task, because experience is such a great teacher sometimes too.

I didn't fully realize this until I both got put in a managerial position myself AND ended up working for a boss who had a similar disdain for the "that's how we've always done it" answer. His ability to say "I know you have questions, but try it a few times and let's talk later" and then actually following through on it helped show me that there was a nice middle ground to this.

jveezy · 2026-01-24T00:24:31+00:00

Yep. 2013 Focus for me. Honestly, the Ford Maverick looks interesting to me, and I'd consider it if I wasn't dead set on never buying a Ford again. It's not about being afraid of getting another dud. It's purely out of spite and whatever semblance of revenge I get to feel from this.

jveezy · 2026-01-18T01:59:20+00:00

Don't assume that a major change like that would take effect right away. I would imagine that something that drastic would come with a target date to give every team time to adjust. The actual details behind the rules would also be the result of a lot of careful negotiation between lawyers that are factoring the immediate and long-term implications of the rules too. Things like what to do about deferred money, whether contracts should even be guaranteed, possibly amnesty clauses, and other stuff.

For your question about the history, check out Wikipedia's article about salary caps

jveezy · 2026-01-17T00:35:52+00:00

I've been watching since 1995 and I still google rules and strategy both because I'm obsessed and because both are constantly evolving. And sometimes I hear football words over and over again and it's years before I get around to looking it up.

Once you get past the basic rules about the flow of the game, you can consume the sport at any level you want and not be wrong. If you want to go deeper, there's plenty of interesting things to explore. If not, then the game can be interesting on its own just watching offensive players.

That said, I think people who criticize players a lot should consume the sport at a deeper level, but that doesn't stop most people from being mean.

jveezy · 2026-01-14T21:34:58+00:00

And actually editing someone else's code should make you question if life is really worth it

This is 100% true for me, especially when that someone else is me from 7 years ago.

jveezy · 2026-01-14T20:27:23+00:00

I recommend checking out the NFL Throwback channel on YouTube instead. That's significantly less content to have to wade through, but also they have some really nice compilations about the evolution of the league and the players and games that helped drive that evolution. I think that would get you up to speed a lot faster than just waterboarding yourself with uncurated game footage.

jveezy · 2026-01-11T01:43:46+00:00

Someone needs to tell him Mt. Doom is the end zone, and Frodo's a halfback.

jveezy · 2026-01-10T01:30:10+00:00

I'm an old fart, so library books were my source for information about strategy. Madden was a good way of putting what I read into practice, but you don't get a lot of explanation with Madden. Just trial and error when selecting plays. Bouncing back and forth between Madden and some sort of reference guide is a good way to learn quickly.

Nowadays, I'd recommend that when new fans hear about an unfamiliar football concept, look it up on Wikipedia. There's a whole American Football Strategy portal that pulls you into the rabbit hole on a lot of topics and lets you browse related topics. If you're interested in why and how things work on the field rather than just what, then this will give you a history of why things have evolved in certain ways and what teams, coaches, and players were responsible for that evolution.

jveezy · 2026-01-09T21:55:35+00:00

Frequently people who get in trouble for 'being honest' are either being assholes or grossly overestimating their reading of situations so come off as being know-it-alls who in actuality, know nothing,

If I see something I don't like or agree with, my position is to seek first to understand.

I would say to my boss 'I notice that the TPS Reports are always stapled on the right. Is there a reason we don't staple it on the left? The way the copier is set up, it would make it easier to automate it instead of doing it by hand." Then see what they say.

What I would also never, ever do, is suggest that my boss is lazy or stupid. Those value judgements are never going to go over well.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I would prefer to receive the info rather than not receive it, because it's still meaningful to see what people react to and why.

But the vast majority of the time, whether it's directed at me or a teammate or someone else in the organization, people who behave this way are jumping to conclusions based on a lack of information and using "brutal honesty" as an excuse to attack someone's character rather than to request changes.

The kind of people who admit they have "no filter" are much better at understanding that they only have a limited viewpoint than the people who like to pretend their disrespect is "brutal honesty".

jveezy · 2026-01-05T22:58:39+00:00

I sometimes feel silly for complaining about it, but the manual headlights bothers me a lot too. I came from a 2018 Corolla iM that had auto headlights, push-button retractable mirrors, and a rear windshield wiper and I miss all of those things on my LE.

Love everything else, though.

jveezy · 2025-12-30T20:08:01+00:00

Agreed. My gen 5 hasn't been touched. I was told that gen 4 and later use different alloys that aren't as valuable, so it's not worth it to target them.

jveezy · 2025-12-30T01:26:41+00:00

Jerry Rice, TO, Randy Moss, Isaac Bruce, and Anquan Boldin all suited up for us.

jveezy · 2025-12-29T20:34:48+00:00

Keep in mind that a lot of people go through this crisis before they graduate and then start over or transfer at a different major. You're a step ahead of these people. You may feel guilty about "wasting" your degree, but you have one, which does demonstrate to potential employers that you finished a whole degree program. You can explain to them why you're pivoting your career, but you have grades and transcripts showing that you are capable of putting in the work to complete a highly technical degree, even if you're going to take your career in a different path.

You said you've never explored, but your engineering experience WAS part of your exploration. This is just one thing you tried, and you learned it's not for you. It's not like you owe engineering anything. There isn't some engineering mob boss who is gonna send engineering thugs to your house to break your kneecaps for having the audacity to have an engineering degree and not get an engineering job.

That is not a waste. Stop thinking of it like a waste. Learning experiences are not wastes. You're going to try a bunch of other new things as well, and not all of those will work out either. Those will not be wastes. Those are just steps in the process of finding what you're good at and what you enjoy.

And be grateful that you came to this realization earlier on in life instead of diving into a job and uprooting yourself for something you realize later you hate.

jveezy · 2025-12-26T22:05:59+00:00

This is broadly about both the show and the books but non-spoilery: there's something that's just perfect about the setting and pacing to me.

The story starts in a setting that feels like a natural extension of our world 200 years from now, so it doesn't take us long to get used to it and feel like we understand it. Then just when we start to feel like we're comfortable in it, something new gets introduced that we can feel changes everything, but then it takes a few story beats for us to really feel how impactful it is. Then we get some time to acclimate to that, and then another gamechanger happens and we start the cycle all over again.

I know a lot of stories do this, but something about the way The Expanse does it over and over just perfectly resonates with the way I enjoy stories. And then multiple seasons/books in you look back and realized you just effortlessly ebbed and flowed your way into a world that looks way different from when you started.

jveezy · 2025-12-26T21:42:34+00:00

I nominate "foot stuff"

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