Too many mayors not enough citizens



  • I work in a PHP software developer firm. I've been here a little over a year now. I was hired as a junior developer but, to be honest, I was overqualified for the job but, lacking a university degree, I was eager to take anything I could get in the way of permanent work. Ten months on the job, I speak to the owner/managing director about a pay rise and job title change. I was expecting 30k which, in Ireland, is industry standard with someone with as much experience as I have. I got 27k, ok not too bad, I can deal. The senior at the time was only, after all, on 32k (3-13k below standard DOE).

    A month later: the senior hands in his notice and the Project Manager, who has seen my work and my efficiency, recommends me for the role. The owner agrees and gives me the job title, the responsibilities and the payrise. "You've just been given a payrise so we'll discuss it again during your pay review in January" was my response to "but it's extra responsibility, work and hassle" when asking for a payrise. Either way, January is only three and a half months away, I can cope.

    A month later, they hire a new developer "on the same level as me". Two senior developers, one junior. Dread begins to sink in. I've been meeting project deadlines, producing the same high quality tiered code and doing an all round good job but instead of hiring me a developer to add to my team of, currently, two.

    Anyway, the guy comes in, he's a fairly competant programmer. Looks over our code base for certain of the newer projects, as the resident senior I have ownership over the legacy code (much of which is deserving of a post of its own). Because of this, any time a problem comes up with any of it and the junior can't handle it, I get moved off development work and onto fixing the problem. Because of this I don't get to design any new projects. I think we all see where this is going.

    During a meeting one day, we were asked about what engine we should move over to from Oracle. "Great!", I think to myself, "no more using sqlplus". We're on oracle 8. Sqlplus for oracle 8 is poor.
    "I really strongly recommend PostgreSQL", says I,  "It's on a par with Oracle and it's free. It's a robust, secure, strong choice."
    "I really strongly recommend MySQL" says the new guy.
    "I really think MySQL is not the right choice for anything which is going to get serious usage. It's not as powerful as PostgreSQL and it lacks some of the basic functionality of the relational database." I reply.
    "Most people in Country X use MySQL" he replies. Now he's Country X, and this is where his experience base is.
    "With all due respect, that's appeal to popularity and a logical fallacy. Most people use Windows XP, that doesn't make it superior to Mac OS X. Just because most people use something doesn't make it better. PostgreSQL is, in my experience, a vastly superior database" I respond
    "No, most people know the term MySQL", the owner/managing-director chimes in, "we can sell the product better if we use MySQL". 



  • Where're the WTFs?

    Delay in payrise?

    Promotion moving you further from the actual design work?

    A difference of opinion over MySQL vs PostgreSQL?

    The MD favouring popularity?

    None of that is WTF worthy. The MD actually has a point: the choice of database may well influence sales in ways related to things other than the pure technical merits of the database. If you're selling to county X, you'll almost certainly have an easier time selling with MySQL.
     



  • [quote user="m0ffx"]Promotion moving you further from the actual design work?[/quote]
    I would certainly call having one of the senior developers doing all of the design a WTF, both on a managerial level and a code basis level. It means that rather than learning from each other's design approaches, as they apply to our design pattern and it also means that one of the SDs is doing all of the grunt work while the other is doing all of the design work. In a company where both SDs have stated an interest in the design aspect, that's a bad HR call.

    [quote user="m0ffx"]A difference of opinion over MySQL vs PostgreSQL?[/quote]
    I gave explicit reasons that mySQL is inferior to PostgreSQL. He retorted with "but it's used more".


    [quote user="m0ffx"]The MD favouring popularity?

    None of that is WTF worthy.[/quote]
    None of that is WTF worthy in your opinion which, thankfully, is not a marker for objective reality. WTF is a subjective reaction, not an objective one. And I hate to tell you this but, your subjective opinion does not affect objective reality.


    [quote user="m0ffx"]The MD actually has a point: the choice of database may well influence sales in ways related to things other than the pure technical merits of the database. If you're selling to county X, you'll almost certainly have an easier time selling with MySQL.[/quote]
    We're not. Had we been, or if our system was compatible with the way things are done in Country X, I would not have raised the appeal to popularity as it wouldn't have been a logical fallacy.



  • [quote user="wing"]

    None of that is WTF worthy in your opinion which, thankfully, is not a marker for objective reality. WTF is a subjective reaction, not an objective one. And I hate to tell you this but, your subjective opinion does not affect objective reality.

    [/quote]

    In my subjective opinion, your subjective opinion, which states that his subjective opinion does not affect objective reality, is not true, as it affected objectively existing forum. (Or does it exist only in my subjective opinion?)

    PS. I've got it! How many subjective opinions are needed to affect objective reality? 42. How about that? :)
    PPS. I also think it's typical manager's stupidity and adapting to stupid market reality, rather than to reasonable decisions - happens thousands of times every second somewhere in the world - not a big WTF.
     



  • [quote user="viraptor"]In my subjective opinion, your subjective opinion, which states that his subjective opinion does not affect objective reality, is not true, as it affected objectively existing forum. (Or does it exist only in my subjective opinion?)[/quote]
    In objective fact, you are misinterpreting the words objective and subjective.
    The objectively existing forum is not objective reality. It is something which exists within objective reality. Affecting a property of a subset of a set does not affect the property of the set and since I explicitly referred to the entity "objective reality as it pertains to his opinion on what is and is not a WTF", you are wrong in this instance. But only since you're being pedantic ;)
     

    [quote user="viraptor"]PS. I've got it! How many subjective opinions are needed to affect objective reality? 42. How about that? :)[/quote]
    It is, by definition, not possible.
    That, again, is an appeal to popularity. How many people need to think the world is flat in order for it to be flat? Subjective and objective. Since it is an objective opinion, if anyone else thinks it's a WTF then, in their subjective opinion, it is. So what we have here is a false analogy.

    [quote user="viraptor"]PPS. I also think it's typical manager's stupidity and adapting to stupid market reality, rather than to reasonable decisions - happens thousands of times every second somewhere in the world - not a big WTF.[/quote]
    Not a big WTF, in and of itself, the hiring of a senior developer in a company with one senior developer and one junior developer is a WTF, in my subjective opinion, and disregarding the opinion of someone who has proven themselves to a company to the point that in ten months they've received two promotions because the new guy suggests something based on market dominance in a foreign country is a WTF.



  • [quote user="wing"]

    But only since you're being pedantic ;)

    [/quote]

    Just trying to be subjectively funny, not objectively correct ;) 

    [quote user="wing"][quote user="viraptor"]PS. I've got it! How many subjective opinions are needed to affect objective reality? 42. How about that? :)[/quote]
    It is, by definition, not possible.
    That, again, is an appeal to popularity. How many people need to think the world is flat in order for it to be flat? Subjective and objective. Since it is an objective opinion, if anyone else thinks it's a WTF then, in their subjective opinion, it is. So what we have here is a false analogy.
    [/quote]

    It's subjectively more appealing to A.Douglas fans :)

    [quote user="wing"]Not a big WTF, in and of itself, the hiring of a senior developer in a company with one senior developer and one junior developer is a WTF, in my subjective opinion, and disregarding the opinion of someone who has proven themselves to a company to the point that in ten months they've received two promotions because the new guy suggests something based on market dominance in a foreign country is a WTF.[/quote]

    In short => life sucks and most people are mistreated. That's why code wtfs are funny and management wtfs are sad and everyone had one in their life... happens.



  • [quote user="viraptor"][quote user="wing"]

    But only since you're being pedantic ;)

    [/quote]

    Just trying to be subjectively funny, not objectively correct ;) [/quote]

    Well, subjectively, you succeeded. 

    [quote user="viraptor"]It's subjectively more appealing to A.Douglas fans :)[/quote]
    more oppealing to some A. Douglas fans ;p

    [quote user="viraptor"]In short => life sucks and most people are mistreated. That's why code wtfs are funny and management wtfs are sad and everyone had one in their life... happens.[/quote]
    I think the entire thing is hilarious.
     



  • [quote user="viraptor"]PPS. I also think it's typical manager's stupidity and adapting to stupid market reality, rather than to reasonable decisions - happens thousands of times every second somewhere in the world - not a big WTF.
     [/quote]

     

    C'mon the REAL WTF here is using a PPS!

    Happy holidays everyone!



  • The real wtf is this thread.



  • Well it amused me... reminds me of the existential flame war.

     FWIW I think the OP clearly has passion and technical talent, but may be simply too young to have experienced commercial realities like technical-excellence-never-sold-anything.  Every techie wakes up one grim day and realises that money matters... I did and I'm now working for myself turning over thrice what my ex colleagues are earning, which is giving me time to actually achieve the technical excellence I've always dreamed of.
     



  • [quote user="wing"][quote user="viraptor"]It's subjectively more appealing to A.Douglas fans :)[/quote]

    more oppealing to some A. Douglas fans ;p

    [/quote]

    Who's A. Douglas? Is he a friend of D. Adams?
     



  • Not having a degree hurts in so many ways I want to kick my own ass. I'm trying to alleviate that problem though. Hopefully having that stupid piece of paper will make others aknowledge that my opinion isn't worthless. Sorry to say though that until that happens that's what it will be perceived as by some. It's a simple yet stupid fact of life. That dude is a dumbass to recommend MySQL just because of it's buzziness. It should be common knowledge that MySQL while fast, does lack some of the major features of relational databases. I have heard though that recent versions are fixing the holes while retaining the speed. I still think you were probably making the more educated decision though.



  • It's not just having the paper, what tends to be a quite big factor is where it's from.  Getting a degree from a well known university will usually beat someone elses of a similar level (or sometimes higher level) from some backwater uni.  You could always just make your own, I photoshoped a degree for a friend who needed a higher qualification than he had, think he had a 3rd but wanted/needed a 1st.  Changed the text and just printed the wax stamp on to some uni watermarked paper.  The trick was that he put all his paperwork in seperate plastic sleeves in a folder for the interview so when they waded through it all they saw the degree but didn't actuall handle it.  'course you're screwed if they happen to of attended the uni you're faking the degree for :¬)


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