General > General Technical Chat
A Companion to the X-Y Problem - The IKEA Effect
T3sl4co1l:
(The X-Y problem: http://xyproblem.info/ )
https://stitcher.io/blog/the-ikea-effect
In context of forum activities -- remember to keep an open mind, many of us are ready to offer help but there's nothing worse than honest help that gets denied. It's common to bring a question about a proposed solution, but the better question is often the proposal itself: what is motivating that choice? Have other approaches been considered?
A good lesson, in general, is to take humility in your accomplishments. Just starting out in something, you'll greatly overvalue your effort -- the difficulty curve is steep, and climbing it takes heroic effort. But once you've climbed to that point, the next stage will come that much easier, and so on. With time and dedication, you'll find that, what was once a heroic effort, is now a mere idle thought. This isn't to demean or trivialize your effort spent; follow the zen philosophy: just try not to get attached to things.
Tim
Rerouter:
While I do catch myself falling back to the easier position, I've tried to build the habit of treating my past work like another persons work, If I did something crap in the past, call it like I would for anyone else and move on. makes things so much easier when someone is reviewing things, or making suggestions, if you treat it like someone elses work your going to come to agreement on feedback and corrections, as its no longer emotionally tied to yourself.
Also can sometimes lead to fun doubletakes from colleagues when you say "yeah that ass hat Rerouter a few months back did this, what in the heck was he thinking there"
nctnico:
--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on May 22, 2020, 11:57:22 am ---(The X-Y problem: http://xyproblem.info/ )
https://stitcher.io/blog/the-ikea-effect
--- End quote ---
Suddenly I understand Chinese equipment marketing for putting out equipment which can be hacked... >:D
Tomorokoshi:
It's interesting how those are variations of organizational foibles that have been covered in the past. "Not Invented Here" syndrome, any number of writings from Fred Brooks, Peopleware, etc. all view this problem through the lenses of the time.
A corollary to the XY Problem is what I call "Jumping to Solutions", as distinct from "Jumping to Conclusions".
Another red flag is use of the adverb "just" when describing the scope of a technical issue: "... then you just have to...", "... just have to write some software...", "... that's just a few days work...".
nfmax:
--- Quote from: Tomorokoshi on May 22, 2020, 01:34:35 pm ---A corollary to the XY Problem is what I call "Jumping to Solutions", as distinct from "Jumping to Conclusions".
--- End quote ---
Ah yes! When I worked in military R&D, the name for that was "Solutioneering"
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