On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 03:13:51PM -0500, Jason Guiditta wrote: > On 16/11/12 14:28 -0500, Matt Wagner wrote: > >On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 11:46:09AM +0000, Martyn Taylor wrote: > >>A guy in our office here sent this to me today, after I was > >>complaining that technical discussions generate no interest in our > >>office mailing list, but deciding "What type of biscuits we should > >>buy" generates a flood of mails. > >> > >>From time to time our list produces similar responses: > >>http://puce.bikeshed.org/ > > > >That page burns my retinas, but the bike-shed analogy is worth suffering > >through it. Bikeshedding is indeed a persistent problem (not just here). > >Recognizing it and having a name to put to it is quite worthwhile, even > >if you have to stare at a lime-green screen for a while. (The fact that > >they chose such a god-awful color is quite ironic, given the context.) > > > >I'm a big fan of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence > >People." The book is quite old, and bits and pieces of the advice are > >kind of manipulative. But there's a lot of excellent advice about how to > >optimally interact with people. > > > >One of the bits that's really stuck with me, and that seems rather > >relevant to everyone wanting to pick the color of the bikeshed, is in > >the chapter entitled "Let the other person feel that the idea is his or > >hers." The actual title is an example of things that sound a bit > >manipulative, but the insight into psychology is interesting either way. > > > >The idea is that if you dump an idea on a group of people, it's human > >nature for some of them to oppose it, and not necessarily on its merits. > >But if you lead people to think that the idea is *theirs*, in whole or > >part, they're far more likely to go along with it. > > > >I think bike-shedding gets at the same effect. People try to make ideas > >"theirs" by arguing over the bikeshed color, even if it doesn't actually > >make any difference. The challenge is how to get people to feel > >ownership of ideas without having them feel like they have to make > >changes, and without trying to dupe anyone. I think it's a question of > >involving people enough that they feel like they're part-owner of the > >idea, without letting the discussion devolve into bikeshedding. > > > >-- Matt > > Clearly, if this is for downstream, the choice is red, upstream I vote > lime green ;) > > -j
Matt Wagner's promotion to Manager is effective immediately. Matt, you have our condolences. --Hugh -- == Hugh Brock, [email protected] == == Engineering Manager, Cloud BU == == Aeolus Project: Manage virtual infrastructure across clouds. == == http://aeolusproject.org == "I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." --Robert McCloskey
