IT Quotes I Like

travisdh1

@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:

@travisdh1 said in IT Quotes I Like:

"Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

Granted this covers more than just IT, but so very relevant.

Who said that? Sounds like something I would say.

It was posted somewhere in the last week

I got it from Steve Gibson, but he was quoting someone else, and I wasn't fast enough to write down who he got it from.

I agree, sounds very much like something you'd say @scottalanmiller.

DustinB3403

This is one I hate more than anything:

"That's not how we do it, because we've always done it this (other) way"

Okay while why? What issues have happened, what reasoning is there?

scottalanmiller

Raises are given when the company is healthy, titles are given when things are going badly.

WLS-ITGuy

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

Obsolesce

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

WLS-ITGuy

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

scottalanmiller

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Depends on the contract.

scottalanmiller

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

Hours bid generally means that those hours are negotiated and the expectation is that finishing faster does not mean lower cost.

Obsolesce

@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

Hours bid generally means that those hours are negotiated and the expectation is that finishing faster does not mean lower cost.

Yeah it depends, but that's now how it seems he meant it. I took it as the customer paid for hours worked, not hours negotiated up front.

Dashrender

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

You fix this by bidding the project, not the hours. Of course, this can royally bite you in the ass.

Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

Hours bid generally means that those hours are negotiated and the expectation is that finishing faster does not mean lower cost.

It seems odd to use an hour marker in this situation, instead of just a bid dollar amount, but whatev'

scottalanmiller

@dashrender said in IT Quotes I Like:

@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

Hours bid generally means that those hours are negotiated and the expectation is that finishing faster does not mean lower cost.

It seems odd to use an hour marker in this situation, instead of just a bid dollar amount, but whatev'

Because... customers.

scottalanmiller

@dashrender said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

You fix this by bidding the project, not the hours. Of course, this can royally bite you in the ass.

It's more that you bid for a minimum.

scottalanmiller

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

Hours bid generally means that those hours are negotiated and the expectation is that finishing faster does not mean lower cost.

Yeah it depends, but that's now how it seems he meant it. I took it as the customer paid for hours worked, not hours negotiated up front.

Coming from the software dev side... I only agree with that in cases where you have total confidence that overruns would not meet with resistance. I know that that is kind of impossible to predict, but you know how it goes. If it is truly hours, there is little need for the estimate. What if the time went over by 50% or more? Would the customer have pushed back? If so, there is little or no justification for accepting fewer hours either.

In one time transactions, this is a tough situation. But I can tell you, software shops get burned by this. They have to take profit where they can get it, because there is so much refusal to pay if the estimate is off in the other direction.

Dashrender

@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:

@dashrender said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

You fix this by bidding the project, not the hours. Of course, this can royally bite you in the ass.

It's more that you bid for a minimum.

awww... so that's how all those city construction projects work... yep this road will cost $1 million and be done in 3 months.. oh.. this just a minimum, it could easily be 100x that and take 10 years.

scottalanmiller

@dashrender said in IT Quotes I Like:

@scottalanmiller said in IT Quotes I Like:

@dashrender said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

@tim_g said in IT Quotes I Like:

@wls-itguy said in IT Quotes I Like:

Had a boss when I was at my first IT job say "efficiency doesn't always pay the bills"

We were arguing over the fact that we estimated a job to be 25 hours and it only took us 19. Rather than sit at the job for another 5 hours to make the money we wrapped up. The powers that be didn't like that. I wasn't there too much longer

That could be considered stealing imo.

Happened all the time. Bid X # of hours. Finish early, drag it out until we hit the hours bid.

You fix this by bidding the project, not the hours. Of course, this can royally bite you in the ass.

It's more that you bid for a minimum.

awww... so that's how all those city construction projects work... yep this road will cost $1 million and be done in 3 months.. oh.. this just a minimum, it could easily be 100x that and take 10 years.

Of course, it is literally impossible to accurately estimate those kinds of projects. But government, being corrupt, doesn't care about fixing that process. They care about politics. So fake estimates are valuable to them, and overruns are valuable to the vendors. So "everyone" wins because the only loser is the taxpayer who has no say.