
Ask HN: Is this a good idea to onboard new employees? - binora
We have this idea to maintain a log of &#x27;events&#x27; or decisions we take in our team. So whenever a new employee joins our team, she&#x2F;he is able to gain context in a short amount of time by just going through the log.<p>For starters, we can just maintain a repo and commit these decisions&#x2F;events to it.<p>I guess, then, the question is:<p>1. Is this really needed ?
2. If go ahead with this approach, what are those events or decisions worth committing?<p><pre><code>   some examples from the top of my head:
   * we decided to rewrite the auth flow. why? =&gt; ...
   * we chose language xyz for this particular module...
</code></pre>
We obviously have a wiki that has concrete things like setting up your laptop, information about existing products, blah blah.
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jkubicek
I think it’s not a great idea for onboarding. New employees aren’t going to
have the context to get the most out over even the most well-written decision
documents.

That said, this is a fantastic idea for all your current employees.
Documenting why a decision is made is going to help people really think
through the reasoning behind their decisions and is going to be incredibly
useful 1-2 years from. Is when you’re trying to figure out why you didn’t do
[something much simpler].

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ggm
A: because the last guy who knew how it works left three months ago

Q: why am I re-writing this mission critical thing wishing I had a time
machine?

