Tag Archives: Society

A miserable failure of Agile

That is really something we come across almost every single day – the initiatives and ideas that seemed so good backfire and destroy all they were supposed to improve. One of those things is Agile in software development.

The idea originally was fairly trivial but seemed to have potential to work. The idea was to be able to split the software development into smaller chunks so that even an idiot would be able to write that small piece of code. Then, a company would not need to hire experienced software developments but could settle for inexperienced, inadequately trained and simply stupid developers, often without an engineering degree. That would allow to pay less for the same amount of software produced.

The result? A catastrophic loss of productivity ensues. Yes, it is cheap to get the software developers and make them scrum masters but what then? They are not capable of developing the software anyway. And you drove away all real masters of design already. The amount of time required to write and rewrite all the code and tests shoots through the roof. The productivity falls through the floor. Costs … you guess it.

Software design (as many other engineering disciplines) remains an art to this day. Yes, you can apply agile principles in some dark corners of software development but far from everywhere. And that is something managers still have to understand.… -->

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bash #417219

xxx: ярче всего мне запомнился ДР мужа, когда за столом его мама произнесла тост: Саша, желаю тебе в этом году найти свою любовь!!!!
xxx: а я сижу, такая, с кольцом и не палюсь…

Чем-то неуловимо маму напомнило … :)… -->

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The Japanese work etiquette

Sometimes the Japanese may behave strangely in our eyes. I do not mind in the slightest. It is all right, they behave in a totally appropriate manner. You would not mind yourself doing the same thing if you were them. You see, Japanese are a superior race, brought about by Gods to lead the world to total order and prosperity. If you think I am joking, think twice. We are not supposed to be on the same level, if I were to describe it in simple terms, I would say that you and me are the cattle and they are the farm owners. Do not let their friendliness and apparent spinelessness mislead you. They can and will slaughter cattle whenever the need arises.

What does one do then? Well, you have to become totally indispensable to some of them. Those will protect you and use you. This part is really no different from any other company. The difference is that you cannot complain – you are equal, so your complains are only mildly annoying to everyone and may be embarrassing to your protector, nothing else. You cannot object to them using and abusing your work – wouldn’t you find such objections from Roman Empire slaves ridiculous? Keep this frame of mind. They can do whatever they want, you are limited in options. You have the freedom to quit, of course. But as long as you stay you have to follow the game. Invent new and interesting ways to become useful. Invent new works, new templates, new objectives, new obstacles, new projects. Invent ways for your protector to look brilliant in the eyes of peers when he uses and abuses your work. As long as you do that, you will be fine. And if you help your protectors, you can ask for many things in return, as a favor, just do not try to be equal.… -->

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Scroogled

I just came across this wonderful piece: Scroogled by Cory Doctorow

“The courts won’t let them indiscriminately Google you. But after you’re in the system, it becomes a selective search. All legal. And once they start Googling you, they always find something. All your data is fed into a big hopper that checks for ‘suspicious patterns,’ using deviation from statistical norms to nail you.”

and I think it is a must read for all of us. And that’s besides it being an entertaining read.… -->

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День Победы

День Победы… как он был от нас далёк… Сегодня ведь праздник, наш День Победы. И главное в этом празднике не то, кого мы победили, а зачем. Зачем была та война? За что она была?
А война была за свободу, за возможность строить свою страну независимо, а не по указке чужого дяди. Не получилось тогда заполучить Россию, как ни старались. Сперва царей убрали, потом, когда выяснилось, что страна всё равно продолжает независимый путь – попытались силой. Слава Богу, не получилось. Слава Богу, был Сталин, и Киров, и остальные, кому была нужна страна, а не подачки из-за границы.
И очень жаль, что сегодня у них всё -таки получилось то, что не получилось тогда – в начале и середине прошлого века. Как жаль, что великая страна таки превращается в сырьевой придаток богатого дядюшки из-за границы. Деды бы не то что не простили, а просто не поняли бы такого.
Остается только надеяться, что наши победы не будут забыты и когда-нибудь наша страна станет опять грозной державой, самостоятельно определяющей свой путь.
А дедам моим – поклон до земли. Спасибо, родные.… -->

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The Factor of Money

I call this interesting thing “The Factor of Money”. What is it? It is one of the things quite wrong with the world from most people’s perspective. Although, to be fair, most of them do not realize it. And there is a minority who abuse the rest so it is quite ok for them. But let’s see.

A society is built on a number of factors that the society considers important. And whoever controls the decisive factor controls the society. If most of the world considers a single factor of utmost importance then whoever controls that factor controls the world.

Factors important, or crucial, for the people in the society may differ. One of the factors quite widespread nowadays is money. Notice how USSR, the Soviet countries overall, were not into money before. like the eighties. And those countries were quite apart from the other countries that were controlled by money. They were independent and powerful, they could not be easily subverted by money. Once they joined the throng in cherishing the money factor, they became a slave to the controllers of the money factor. Notice how quickly their deterioration happened.

Now watch this. China was always quite separate from the money world. They became strong on a basis totally different from money. Now they let the money in. What do you think will happen? Yes, let’s watch them being overtaken by the overlords of money. They stand no chance anymore whatever they may think about it.

The Factor of Money is the factor that leads to enslaving entire countries to the will of the Lords of Money. If you want your society or country to be independent, the first thing to do is to break away from The Money Factor.… -->

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Take responsibility for your food!

This is a great book for all you vegans and vegetarians out there: The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability by Lierre Keith. I cannot state it as elegantly and simply, so go read the book, whether you are vegetarian or not. And then grow up and take the responsibility.

“…for someone to live, someone else has to die.”

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