<https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/546936.Up_the_Organizationhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/546936.Up_the_Organization> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle>
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Michael Oujesky <reflect...@oujesky.net> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2024 4:23 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Learning one's tools Wonder how he made senior. Politics and not skills or expertise. At 03:19 PM 3/15/2024, Farley, Peter wrote: >Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64+1 from me on >continuing to learn the tools of our >profession. I use STRING and UNSTRING where >they make sense, and I am still learning new >things about their use every now and >then. Life-long learning is the only path to happiness and success. > >I got the same ridiculous pushback from a senior >manager one time on the use of “sophisticated” >SORT verbs like JOIN because “. . . no one but >you will know how to fix it when it breaks . . . >let someone do it in COBOL instead . . .”. > >Peter > >From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List ><IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDUÛ€ Behalf Of Bob Bridges >Sent: Friday, March 15, 2024 12:38 PM >To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU >Subject: Learning one's tools > > >To rant on a related subject, I once worked at a >company that instituted code reviews; a new >program would be gone over by a half-dozen >coworkers to be sure it adhered to local >standards. This sort of thing is always painful >to the coder, and nevertheless (I admit >reluctantly) can have considerable value if done >right. One problem I had with it, though, is >that the standards we created for ourselves >admitted that there are times when exceptions >should be made for special cases, and yet when >those cases arose no exceptions were ever >allowed; the team invariably flinched, leaned >back in their seats and said "no, that's not according to our standards". > > > >One particular example always rankled: Whenever >someone felt the need to use a STRING or >UNSTRING command (I should have said we were >COBOL developers), the team always struck it >down on the grounds that STRING and UNSTRING are >unusual commands and some COBOL coders would be >unfamiliar with it. My contention here is that >that's absolutely true, and it's the job of the >COBOL coder to ~learn~ the STRING and UNSTRING >statements, as tools of his profession. I never >persuaded anyone to that view, though. > > > >--- > > > >This message and any attachments are intended >only for the use of the addressee and may >contain information that is privileged and >confidential. If the reader of the message is >not the intended recipient or an authorized >representative of the intended recipient, you >are hereby notified that any dissemination of >this communication is strictly prohibited. If >you have received this communication in error, >please notify us immediately by e-mail and >delete the message and any attachments from your system. > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
