
Choose Your Manager - pchristensen
http://www.ericsink.com/entries/scrabble_1994.html
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swombat
Better lesson: if you have an employee who gets bored and writes cutting edge
code in his spare time while still getting his work done, give them something
better to do.

Daniel

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rantfoil
I think he's overstating how serious his "transgression" really was. If
anything, knowing that one of your rising stars is so into coding that they'd
rather be still coding for fun rather than anything else would make them
_more_ valuable.

Not saying that working on side projects on company time / company equipment
isn't dumb, but it's certainly not a major offense!

~~~
gcheong
True.

"The implementation (in C) was based on the GADDAG data structure and
algorithm explained in a paper by Steven Gordon"

Sounds like he was doing something more akin to research, which could
certainly have benefitted the company in future development projects, than
some guy simply wasting time with a trivial side project.

~~~
michael_dorfman
I was going to post a similar comment, until I read Gordon's paper, which is
entitled (wait for it) "A Faster Scrabble Move Generation Algorithm". In other
words, this wasn't a case of Eric finding a cool data structure and then
choosing Scrabble as a way to play with it-- if it was research, it was
Scrabble research.

This is not to take away from Eric in any way-- props to him for both the
coding he's done, and the article. And, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find
that his knowledge of DAGs, DAWGs and GADDADs was helpful later on in
SourceGear.

But this particular case looks more "recreation" than "research" to me.

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mattmaroon
Maybe Tim just had the typical aversion to friction that you often find in
management. Perhaps his decision looks like genius in hindsight, but was
really just motivated by his distaste for disciplining or firing.

~~~
jbenz
I think there is a difference between aversion to friction and the ability to
completely control your emotions, which was apparently Tim's skill.

My boss is similar. We've been through some brutal meetings together, and
while I start to get heated, he stays totally cool and positive. I always
admire it, but can't always follow his lead.

While others might have been immediately upset at their employee, Tim could
step back, remain level-headed, and look at the big picture. In the big
picture, he had found an employee who could be really successful.

~~~
mattmaroon
I don't know how you can assume that. I mean, there are both types of
managers, but I'd guess there are far more who are just pansies. Given no
other information, I'd be more inclined to choose that than chalk it up to
some stunning realization.

~~~
jbenz
You're right, it's just a guess based on the personality description of Tim. I
was giving him the benefit of the doubt.

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Create
This is called being "promoted away" to do no harm, when firing is not an
option for some reason. This time he had blind luck; the project could have
been scrapped, as most actually end up. Everybody and their dog was
implementing a browser in those days but never saw daylight (ISP sw depts 4
sure).

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wallflower
I thrive in a busy environment. When there is nothing to do, I start to worry
about what other people do (or don't do).

Some of the comments on the article are better than the article itself (his
manager, a multi-millionaire is now a 18-wheeler truck driver and a great
anecdote about the genius who made the first Ethernet card)

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edw519
Great post.

I've done work for 2 kinds of people, those who visualized the possibilites
once they saw what I could do and those who were threatened once they saw what
I could do.

Guess which kind I seek out now.

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ardit33
unfortunately, some of us don't have a choice to choose a manager to work for.
We might choose the company, but in any decent size company, the manager is
choosen for us by other people.

~~~
pavlusha
unfortunately, I have to agree with you. But even if you have some say in the
matter - How can you really know what type of manager this one will be after a
brief interview?

