Discussion of June '17 update

You don’t need the title. Just a propensity for screwing up the design.

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I love software testing days at work. I’m SO good at breaking the programs. Trying to get one of those programming positions so I can break it more and more often.

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I had that job for a number of years, was quite good at it. They stopped giving me the standard “tests” to run, but just asked me to run it as if I was a dumb user. They got a LOT more bug reports and consequently fixed a lot more things. Now they have seen a HUGE reduction of trouble tickets. I also did the requirements testing, but my “specialty” was finding the “weird” stuff.

That was fun for quite a while.

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We have a contract tester here for that. Her husband is an engineer who worked here many years ago and she has an English degree. So she understands how the software/hardware works, but doesn’t approach it like us. Catches some interesting bugs that way.

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I too have complete faith in receiving what I ordered. Where I think things have been poorly communicated is in between the schedule announcements and the next delay. Do I believe the company has been honest in their communications at all times. No, I do not. I 100% believe that at times Dan and the team knew the currently announced schedule was not going to hold. Do I feel that was wrong (That’s hard to say), maybe, maybe not.

I have started up several companies in my life. There have been times in my own company that I too have made the decision not to share the bad news immediately. As a company executive answering to shareholders and customers, you have to have a root cause/corrective action plan that addresses the issue to share with the owners. For the customers you need to develop a similar plan with a slightly different twist. Those things take time which I have experienced. Its never fun but that’s the nature of the position owing and running any company.

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Have you ever watched video on how eggcrate foam is cut? Talk about hypnotic. =)

My work had this “How we think” seminar last year - they categorize us in groups:

Baby Boomers: Born 1946 to 1964
Generation X: Born 1965 to 1976,
Millennials or Gen Y: Born 1977 to 1995
Gen Z, iGen, or Centennials: Born 1996 and later

Basically it was a team building workshop that’s trying to teach the difference gens to respect each other’s approach/way of thinking etc… since our workplace is so diverse now.

It was interesting…

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Sounds like horse hockey to me. Yes, in very general ways there are generational differences but what ever happened to getting to know individuals?

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LOL - they did not cover that in the seminar.

Sometimes I wonder who comes up with these “seminars” and make $$$ off them!

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Yes the is no significant difference between somebody born in 1964 and somebody born in 1965. They could in fact be born seconds apart and be identical twins.

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There are definite differences between the generations (well documented in the psychiatric literature). A lot having to do with either pervasive economic, political and technological differences during the formative years.

Of course the closer you get to each other in age, the less the difference in individuals; these are of course populations. So yes someone born on 12/1964 and 1/1965 aren’t really different, but you have to draw a line somewhere.

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Pedantic but correct.
I was thinking more about freinds I have that are 30 years junior and 20 years senior but we have too much in common to have that matter.

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True – but people who study this point out that there are radical differences in the way we think. (Some great education out there on this) The war generation worked for folks, giving their all, and were often treated fairly by the company – give them your all and they would often give back just as much. Baby Boomers came into the work force with that mindset too.

That started to end in the 60’s, 70’s when companies had no compunction about ditching loyal employees after 20, 30 years with nothing – just out the door (been there, done that).

So Gen Xer’s, Millenials, etc. came into the work place seeing what had happened to mothers and fathers and approach the work force differently. No longer the faith and loyalty in the company because you now knew they were only in it for what they could get, so there is a thought process that formed similarly – I’m with the company as long as it serves my needs, and if something better comes along, there I go.

Tied to this is the idea of work/life balance – not going to put the company first like my Dad or Mom often did.

Put this together with a radical shift in technology and information availability, and you have created a very different approach to work in the more recent generations. The huge shifts in how the world is perceived and the technology with which we interact create ever larger shifts in how folks approach life and work. Wait until you can get to a phone to make a call – unheard of. Wait until 6PM to see the news – that’s nuts. Hour or two to prepare dinner – OMG. A week or two to get a written communication to someone? Three TV channels? Walk across the room to change a channel? 5 new movies in the theaters a year?

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Definitely. Millennials (and post-Millennials) have radically different histories than pre-Millennials - the same is true of Baby Boomers vs the Greatest Generation.

To Baby Boomers the Great Depression was history. To Millennials Watergate and Jimmy Carter deprivation years were history.

My grandmother remembered when there were no cars. My kids don’t remember TVs without remote controls. Whole technologies were born, developed and died in the generations leaving subsequent ones unaware of their seminal impact. The Centennials have not been self-aware when there wasn’t ubiquitous connectivity (Internet) and smarthphones (many were born before cellphones but most weren’t in a position that the technology would or wouldn’t impact them until it was created and they were teenager +). The GF is magic to our parents. It’s going to be “why doesn’t everyone have one” to our kids.

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I would add social-networks. As a Gen-Xer we certainly had computers growing up (or at least had access by high-school) so we certainly had to idea of looking up information via computer, but millennials could always actively and easily reach out to the crowd for knowledge. Of course I am always fascinated when I am teaching high-schoolers and they reach out to their friends; are their friends more knowledgable in anatomy, physiology or making? For programming, my era goes to stack overflow, they ask their friends (I can tell you which gives you a better/faster answer, and it’s not their instagram crowd).

I am of course struck by the irony here of being on a social forum, but the difference here is there are true experts in various areas, so this is more like a study group than a Facebook group or instagram feed…

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Google Home scared the crap out of my in laws and they aren’t even that old.

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Google home scares me precisely because I am not that old… :grinning:

Oh, that’s another key difference, millennials aren’t as concerned with privacy.

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My 12-year-old once asked if I was born in the days before CD players. The 8-year-old asked, “What’s a CD player?”

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I remember when grandpa’s big Christmas present was an 8-track player. ka-chunk, ka-chunk.

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Mention a laser disc or cassette or an 8-track or a transistor radio :relaxed: Throw in Super 8 movies, no such thing as microwaves, and party line telephones and they will be incredulous, and that only goes back to the middle of the last century :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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