Bartosz Pranczke Notes

Epigrams

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14 ways to spoil the culture of an organization.

  1. Whenever something is not clear, assume malice.
  2. Instead of asking for clarification, show your worst interpretation, but only on the backchannel.
  3. Ask "What the company can do for me" instead of "How can I contribute".
  4. Never show gratitude for somebody's work.
  5. Speak freely about other people's incompetence, preferably behind their backs.
  6. Don't even consider that things around you are the sum of all people's behavior, it's all management's or other department's fault after all.
  7. Think that management is there to make your life in the organization miserable and to exploit you.
  8. Since you despise the organization, just focus on complaining about salaries as it should be paid more for working in a rotten culture.
  9. Try to enforce your vision for fixing social problems. Bonus points for polarizing the whole organization.
  10. Put the spotlight only on bad things. Be the most pessimistic person in the room.
  11. Be proud whenever something goes bad, and you can tell "I told you so".
  12. Drain the energy of other people. It’s a zero sum game.
  13. Don't trust other people. Don't try to understand their context.
  14. Even though you no longer accept the organization, don't leave.

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There are two types of programmers.

One asks questions while the other thinks he or she knows all the answers.

One is open to all kinds of solutions while the other thinks that the code is the only solution.

One tries to understand the business domain of the project while the other doesn’t care.

One validates whether a problem is worth solving while the other blindly solves all problems.

One makes sure his or her feature works well on production while the other makes sure it’s some other team’s responsibility.

One is curious while the other is detached.

One listens when a client talks while the other just uses that time to prepare answers.

One is happy to use his or her IT knowledge in a not IT-related field while the other thinks that this is just a distraction.

One is proud of how many lines of code he or she has avoided writing while the other is proud of how many lines he or she has written.

One wants to achieve the greatest possible outcome while the other just wants mark the task as done.

One takes ownership while the other blames others.

One is a pleasure to work with while the other is a burden.

One is called a consultant while the other is merely a task-taker.

You choose which one you want to be.


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