7.12.2002
on the lighter side of things...
the flannel fairy and i went up to boulder to see richard iii at the colorado shakespeare festival yesterday. i love a villain like him; his fatal flaw though, is to start feeling encumbered by his conscience at the end. yes, us fairies make this mistake too... :(
the costuming was part klingon kast-offs and part leftover junque drawer. at the end of the play, richard's front "armor" panel looked like he'd rolled in my extra stash of motherboards and VGA cards, then polished up the look with borg-style silver hardware and tubing encasing his left arm. however, it was VERY well-acted, so you really didn't mind how wacky the outfits got.
and the guy who plays richmond is a MAJOR hottie. ;>
more fun with hall-kinion...
today i get a ping call (this is when a recruiter calls you just to see how things are going every 3 - 6 months, as opposed to when they actually want you for a position) and they "wanted my updated resume". a nice pretext. what the recruiter never seems to be aware of is that i just DID update my resume on their site - and there were two positions they had open which actually fit my qualifications.
so of course i sent them my updated resume - plus, at their insistence - "three managerial references". aha. that was the catch; i knew then what they were after. this was the recruiting equivalent of a booty call. they were only after the names and numbers of three of my former managers, who they would then press for openings and to place their candidates.
now that i think about it, those "openings" probably weren't even real. they're just looking to talk to people, get the names and numbers of their former managers (anyone with hiring authority), and see if there are openings where they can place candidates. the jobs probably only exist in the imagination of some recruiter.
oh well - doesn't matter - i gave them the phone numbers of the aquamarine fairy, the green fairy, and the fairy of utter goodness and light, who is now working for the fairy of utter darkness. they're well-trained; they'll know exactly what to say. i almost feel sorry for the poor little recruiter who will only be wasting their own time with phone calls to fairies like these...!
7.9.2002Solving the problem of prima donna developers(?)
"Fire ’em
As manager of information systems security for Kindred Healthcare, Jeff Luckett works closely with programmers, and he has managed several development teams during his IT career. When asked how he handles an employee who is technically gifted but has a less-than-helpful attitude, Luckett’s first response is “Fire ‘em.”
“I'd rather have a team of B-players who will do what I say than a superstar who is causing trouble,” Luckett said. “Teamwork above all else is most important. I've had people working for me who were gifted but they weren't worth the maintenance.
Mediating problems between showboat developers and aggravated teammates gets old too.
“It takes a lot of my time to listen to [the problem developer] whine or listen to other people complain,” he said. “It's just not worth it.”"
That's it, in a nutshell. Managers want someone who only does what they say. They don't place any value on your talent at all. B-Players are better than the gifted in their book. It's rare to see a manager being this brutally honest. I don't even think, though, that this gentleman fully understands the ramifications of what he's asking for. B-Players, who are docile and more easily managed, turn out mediocre code for mediocre companies. In order to achieve the best, you have to be willing to deal with the prima donna developers and all the accompanying risk - and no - you will not always have total control of the environment. It takes... effort.
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