"It looks worse before it gets better" was such a flashback to when my kid learned to read. She LOOKED like she'd suddenly gotten a lot worse at it, because when she went through books and spoke their contents aloud, it was slow and error-prone, whereas previously it had been fluent and correct. But of course before that point she had only memorized the books' contents from hearing them read aloud, whereas after that point she was genuinely sounding out the words -- a skill she wasn't very good at for a while, but which was of course absolutely foundational to everything after.
This seems confusing to me - it seems to conflate the cyclical nature of engineering and the gaining of expertise (to that particular domain) with the general idea of learning. Each company will have its own refined standards (design, implementation, QA, distribution), commercial imperatives and professional culture that will be at odds with at least some of every individual workers wishes and opinions. You can't just turn engineering practices around on a six pence based on the aspirations of, very often junior, members of staff. If you do that you'll end up with a totally dysfunctional company producing unstable products. You get paid to do a job, and that includes improving yourself more than improving the company - at some point when you've earned your stripes you can start to reverse that.
She goes over that when speaks to "performance culture". It's weird that engineers/managers believe that one has to earn "stripes" before they deserve an environment of learning.
@@adrianmalong5030 Yep. You face this at every turn starting out, and the hostility is immense. Especially if you are trying to do it non-professionally, or haven't gone to an educational institution for 4 years beforehand.
"It looks worse before it gets better" was such a flashback to when my kid learned to read. She LOOKED like she'd suddenly gotten a lot worse at it, because when she went through books and spoke their contents aloud, it was slow and error-prone, whereas previously it had been fluent and correct. But of course before that point she had only memorized the books' contents from hearing them read aloud, whereas after that point she was genuinely sounding out the words -- a skill she wasn't very good at for a while, but which was of course absolutely foundational to everything after.
Thank you for this awesome talk! It's crucial that companies and teans watch this and incorporate its insights!
This seems confusing to me - it seems to conflate the cyclical nature of engineering and the gaining of expertise (to that particular domain) with the general idea of learning.
Each company will have its own refined standards (design, implementation, QA, distribution), commercial imperatives and professional culture that will be at odds with at least some of every individual workers wishes and opinions. You can't just turn engineering practices around on a six pence based on the aspirations of, very often junior, members of staff. If you do that you'll end up with a totally dysfunctional company producing unstable products. You get paid to do a job, and that includes improving yourself more than improving the company - at some point when you've earned your stripes you can start to reverse that.
She goes over that when speaks to "performance culture". It's weird that engineers/managers believe that one has to earn "stripes" before they deserve an environment of learning.
@@adrianmalong5030 Yep. You face this at every turn starting out, and the hostility is immense. Especially if you are trying to do it non-professionally, or haven't gone to an educational institution for 4 years beforehand.