Motivation of software professionals
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From: Branimir Maksimovic on 16 Feb 2010 19:36 Richard Heathfield wrote: > > I literally had to dictate every single thing I wanted him to type, > starting with Dee Ee Bee Yew Gee... > I admire you ;) Greets
From: Lew on 16 Feb 2010 19:51 Richard Heathfield wrote: >> I literally had to dictate every single thing I wanted him to type, >> starting with Dee Ee Bee Yew Gee... Branimir Maksimovic wrote: > I admire you ;) I used to walk secretaries through swapping out or otherwise repairing motherboard components over the phone back in the early 90s as part of my tech-support role. Our customers also often had very weird software issues that we'd help with. They would only call my employer after having at least one other "expert" make the problem worse. The key was to make them take a break of at least an hour before I would help them, usually out of their office at a park or some other nice place. People aren't usually stupid, and if they're highly motivated to solve a problem you can get them through almost anything if you are kind, empathetic and very, very patient. There was a science to it also - my techniques were not random. Starting with assuming competence on the part of the customer. There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity; the former is curable. I compare it to being the guy in the airport control tower who talks young Timmy through how to land the plane after the pilot has a heart attack. -- Lew
From: Branimir Maksimovic on 17 Feb 2010 02:43 Lew wrote: > Richard Heathfield wrote: >>> I literally had to dictate every single thing I wanted him to type, >>> starting with Dee Ee Bee Yew Gee... > > Branimir Maksimovic wrote: >> I admire you ;) > > I used to walk secretaries through swapping out or otherwise repairing > motherboard components over the phone back in the early 90s as part of > my tech-support role. Our customers also often had very weird software > issues that we'd help with. > > They would only call my employer after having at least one other > "expert" make the problem worse. > Well, usually customers are better educated than support, in my experience. I don;t have direct contact with customers rather customer support. > The key was to make them take a break of at least an hour before I would > help them, usually out of their office at a park or some other nice place. > > People aren't usually stupid, and if they're highly motivated to solve a ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I think that this is most important factor. Customer support where I live is not very well motivated... But then again money is not most motivating factor ;) Well, look some girl that claimed that is expert for C network programming (university education), wanted to get job at current firm where I work. She said "currently my computer is not working cause window is broken") Other guy that claimed C/C++ expert (worked in Portugal for military) asked did C have function pointer. When we showed question from Stroustrups book (duffs device), he dind;t know what is all about. No one of fifty computer scientist masters dind't recognized duffs device (even guy which was borne in 63'). So I concluded if I see university diploma "master of computer scinece" that's sure sine of ignorance or something similar in country where I live. One guy who claimed wrote sw for robots dind;t knew how much is 2^32 ;) I think that are very few people who know ho to program computers these days. Blame educations system, because "C is not safe" and "stay away from assembler". Soon no one will know how to program, and older guys will earn lot of money , but there would be not enough of them... Greets
From: Nick Keighley on 17 Feb 2010 03:19 On 16 Feb, 20:25, Branimir Maksimovic <bm...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Richard Heathfield wrote: > > Nick Keighley wrote: > >> try dictating hex patches down a phone line. the phone line wasn't good. As well as the Alpha, Bravo, Charlie stuff it seemed to help if you spoke like a boxing referee "one-a, two-a, three-a" > > Done that. Well, kind of. I once had to dictate assembly language > > instructions down a phone line to a non-techie (broker), for him to type > > into DEBUG, and then assemble and run. Fortunately, the program was very > > short. (Although email and the Web both existed at the time, neither of > > us had access to either of them, and the broker needed an instant > > solution, so I couldn't just snail him a diskette.) > > > It wasn't easy! > > That guy was pretty techie, because it contradicts my experience. > For example one guy was not capable to just find and change > parameter in config file, and I mailed him that. > Problem was that config file had about 1000 lines and > he didn;t knew how to apply case insensitive search. > In my experince lot of them don;t even know what is text > editor let alone debugger. So that guy was techie for, sure.... my mum had problems with instructions dictated by some some sort of technical support because her interpretation of the terms "forward- slash" and "backward-slash" were the exact opposite of most (technical) people's
From: Nick Keighley on 17 Feb 2010 03:27
On 17 Feb, 07:43, Branimir Maksimovic <bm...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Lew wrote: > > Richard Heathfield wrote: <snip> > > People aren't usually stupid, and if they're highly motivated to solve a > > [problem] > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > I think that this is most important factor. Customer support where > I live is not very well motivated... <snip> > Other guy that claimed C/C++ expert (worked in Portugal for > military) asked did C have function pointer. When we > showed question from Stroustrups book (duffs device), > he dind;t know what is all about. well it looks pretty weird the first time you see it. "can you really do /that/ in a switch?!" was my reaction. Is Duff's device important? > No one of fifty computer > scientist masters dind't recognized duffs device (even guy which > was borne in 63'). '63 was a good year? Programmers are like wines? > So I concluded if I see university diploma "master of computer scinece" > that's sure sine of ignorance or something similar in country where I live. I didn't learn Duff's device at university. > One guy who claimed wrote sw for robots dind;t knew how much is 2^32 ;) nor do I if you want the exact value. I'd look it up if I needed it (I just use hex!) > I think that are very few people who know ho to program computers these > days. "The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents ... and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." -- Assyrian stone tablet, c.2800bc > Blame educations system, because "C is not safe" and > "stay away from assembler". Soon no one will know how to program, > and older guys will earn lot of money , but there would be not enough of > them... sounds good to me! |