Job quotes
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Contents
Arthur_Bloch
Finagle's Fourth Law
“Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse.”
- Source: Attributed to a fictional character named Finagle, reported in the book "Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong" written by Arthur Bloch, first edition published in 1977 by Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, California. ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288. Chapter Murphology, page 15.
- Notes: Often attributed to a fictional character named Finagle, its true origin remains uncertain and likely derived from multiple sources. See https://www.devx.com/terms/finagles-law/.
- Keywords: Murphy(topic)_quotes Law_quotes Job_quotes Foul_quotes Anything_quotes Do_quotes Improve_quotes Make_quotes Worse_quotes
Robert_N_Britcher
Testing Large Systems
“Many programmers do an adequate job of testing the logic of a single module. But testing an entire system is another matter. Once a module is absorbed into the mass of programs, running as part of the real world, the nature of testing changes.”
- Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 57.
Tom_DeMarco and Tim_Lister
Cheeseburgers
"Development is inherently different from production. But managers of development and allied efforts often allow their thinking to be shaped by a management philosophy derived entirely from a production environment. Imagine for the moment that you’re the manager of the local fast food franchise. It makes perfect sense for you to take any or all of the following efficient production measures: - Squeeze out error. Make the machine (the human machine) run as smoothly as possible. - Take a hard line about people goofing off on the job. - Treat workers as interchangeable pieces of the machine. - Optimize the steady state. (Don’t even think about how the operation got up to speed, or what it would take to close it down.) - Standardize procedure. Do everything by the book. - Eliminate experimentation—that’s what the folks at headquarters are paid for. These would be reasonable approaches if you were in the fast food business (or any production environment), but you’re not. The 'make a cheeseburger, sell a cheeseburger' mentality can be fatal in your development area. It can only serve to damp your people’s spirits and focus their attention away from the real problems at hand. This style of management will be directly at odds with the work. To manage thinking workers effectively, you need to take measures nearly opposite those listed above."
- Source: Book: Entitled: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Edition: 3rd. Written by: Tom DeMarco; Tim Lister. Date published: 1987; 1999; 2013. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Country: USA; GBR; CAN; DEU; FRA; ESP; ZAF; AUS; JPN; SGP; MEX. Language: en. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-321-93411-6 (alk paper); 0-321-93411-3 (alk paper). Chapter: 2 (Make a Cheeseburger, Sell a Cheeseburger).
- Keywords: Cheeseburger_quotes Differences_quotes Production_quotes Development_quotes Manager_quotes Management_quotes Thinking_quotes Philosophy_quotes Environment_quotes Fast_Food_quotes Efficiency_quotes Error_quotes Machine_quotes Humanity_quotes Job_quotes Work_quotes Goofing_Off_quotes Worker_quotes Interchangeable_quotes Fungibility_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Optimization_quotes Change_quotes Steady_State_quotes Innovation_quotes Standards_quotes Book_quotes Experiment_quotes Headquarter_quotes Mentality_quotes Fatal_quotes Damp_quotes Imagination_quotes Steady_quotes State_quotes Eliminate_quotes Reason_quotes Make_quotes Sell_quotes Problem_quotes Effective_quotes Opposite_quotes
Error Quota
"For most thinking workers, making an occasional mistake is a natural and healthy part of their work. But there can be an almost Biblical association between error on the job and sin. This is an attitude we need to take specific pains to change. Speaking to a group of software managers, we introduced a strategy for what we think of as iterative design. The idea is that some designs are intrinsically defect-prone; they ought to be rejected, not repaired. Such dead ends should be expected in the design activity. The lost effort of the dead end is a small price to pay for a clean, fresh start. To our surprise, many managers felt this would pose an impossible political problem for their own bosses: 'How can we throw away a product that our company has paid to produce?' They seemed to believe that they’d be better off salvaging the defective version even though it might cost more in the long run. Fostering an atmosphere that doesn’t allow for error simply makes people defensive. They don’t try things that may turn out badly. You encourage this defensiveness when you try to systematize the process, when you impose rigid methodologies so that staff members are not allowed to make any of the key strategic decisions lest they make them incorrectly. The average level of technology may be modestly improved by any steps you take to inhibit error. The team sociology, however, can suffer grievously. The opposite approach would be to encourage people to make some errors. You do this by asking your folks on occasion what dead-end roads they’ve been down, and by making sure they understand that 'none' is not the best answer. When people blow it, they should be congratulated — that’s part of what they’re being paid for."
- Source: Book: Entitled: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Edition: 3rd. Written by: Tom DeMarco; Tim Lister. Date published: 1987; 1999; 2013. Publisher: Addison-Wesley. Country: USA; GBR; CAN; DEU; FRA; ESP; ZAF; AUS; JPN; SGP; MEX. Language: en. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0-321-93411-6 (alk paper); 0-321-93411-3 (alk paper). Chapter: 2 (Make a Cheeseburger, Sell a Cheeseburger).
- Keywords: Thinking_quotes Worker_quotes Mistake_quotes Work_quotes Natural_quotes Biblical_quotes Error_quotes Job_quotes Sin_quotes Attitude_quotes Change_quotes Software_quotes Manager_quotes Strategy_quotes Iterative_quotes Design_quotes Defect_quotes Intrinsic_quotes Rejection_quotes Repair_quotes Dead_End_quotes Failure_quotes Fail_Early_quotes Activity_quotes Effort_quotes Cost_quotes Clean_quotes Fresh_quotes Impossibility_quotes Political_quotes Problem_quotes Environment_quotes Atmosphere_quotes Defensive_quotes Try_quotes Systematic_quotes Process_quotes Rigidity_quotes Methodology_quotes Technology_quotes Team_quotes Sociology_quotes Suffering_quotes Encouragement_quotes Congratulate_quotes
W_Edwards_Deming
Handicapped by the System
"The supposition is prevalent the world over that there would be no problems in production or service if only our production workers would do their jobs in the way that they were taught. Pleasant dreams. The workers are handicapped by the system, and the system belongs to the management."
- Source: W. Edwards Deming (1982) Out Of The Crisis. The MIT Press. (2e ed. 1986) p. 134.
Peter_Drucker
Mistakes
“The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make - for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.”
- Source: Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management New York,: Harper, 1st ed. 1954 ; Routledge, 2012, p. 147.
Education
“Tomorrow everybody - or practically everybody - will have had the education of the upper class of yesterday, and will expect equivalent opportunities. That is why we face the problem of making every kind of job meaningful and capable of satisfying every educated man.”
- Source: Peter F. Drucker, “Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World”, New York: Harper & Row, 1959. p. 121.
A Better Tool
“A tool is not necessarily better because it is bigger. A tool is best if it does the job required with a minimum of effort, with a minimum of complexity, and with a minimum of power.”
- Source: Peter F. Drucker, “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices”, New York: Harper & Row, 1973. p. 224.
Subordinate Job
“The subordinate's job is not to reform or reeducate the boss, not to make him conform to what the business schools or the management book say bosses should be like. It is to enable a particular boss to perform as a unique individual.”
- Source: Peter Drucker, “Managing for the Future: The 1990's and Beyond” (1992). p. 138.
Knowledge Workers
“The newly emerging dominant group is 'knowledge workers.' The very term was unknown forty years ago. (I coined it in a 1959 book, Landmarks of Tomorrow.) By the end of this century knowledge workers will make up a third or more of the work force in the United States-- as large a proportion as manufacturing workers ever made up, except in wartime. The majority of them will be paid at least as well as, or better than, manufacturing workers ever were. And the new jobs offer much greater opportunities.”
- Source: Peter Drucker, “The Age of Social Transformation”, The Atlantic Monthly; Nov. 1994; Vol. 274, No. 5. p. 53-80.
- Keywords: Emergence_quotes Domination_quotes Group_quotes Knowledge_quotes Worker_quotes Term_quotes Unknown_quotes Year_quotes Coin_quotes Book_quotes Tomorrow_quotes End_quotes Century_quotes Work_quotes Force_quotes United_States_quotes Large_quotes Proportion_quotes Manufacture_quotes Wartime_quotes Majority_quotes Pay_quotes Better_quotes Job_quotes Great_quotes Opportunity_quotes
Henry_Ford
Capital
“Capital that is not constantly creating more and better jobs is more useless than sand. Capital that is not constantly making conditions of daily labour better and the reward of daily labour more just, is not fulfilling its highest function. The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more service for the betterment of life. Unless we in our industries are helping to solve the social problem, we are not doing our principal work.”
- Source: Henry Ford. A book. Entitled My Life and Work. Written by Henry Ford in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Published 1922, Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Chapter XIII.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Capital_quotes Create_quotes Constant_quotes Better_quotes Job_quotes Uselessness_quotes Sand_quotes Labor_quotes Justice_quotes Fulfill_quotes Function_quotes High_quotes Money_quotes Life_quotes Industry_quotes Society_quotes Problem_quotes Work_quotes Principal_quotes Reward_quotes Daily_quotes Service_quotes Help_quotes Solve_quotes
Douglas_T_Ross
Requirements Prespecification
“The most deadly thing in software is the concept, which almost universally seems to be followed, that you are going to specify what you are going to do, and then do it. And that is where most of our troubles come from. The projects that are called successful, have met their specifications. But those specifications were based upon the designers’ ignorance before they started the job.”
- Source: Douglas T. Ross in a report entitled Software Engineering: Report of a Conference Sponsored by the NATO Science Committee. Chaired by Friedrich Ludwig Bauer. Edited by P. Naur; B. Randell. Conference held 1968-10-07 through 1968-10-11 in Garmisch, Germany. OCLC: 35337842. See http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/index.html ; http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/brian.randell/NATO/nato1968.PDF ; https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1102020 ; https://books.google.com/books/about/Software_engineering.html?id=Uc9QAAAAYAAJ . Page 21.
Alfred_P_Sloan
Greatest Thrill
“The greatest real thrill that life offers is to create, to construct, to develop something useful. Too often we fail to recognize and pay tribute to the creative spirit. It is that spirit that creates our jobs. There has to be this pioneer, the individual who has the courage, the ambition to overcome the obstacles that always develop when one tries to do something worthwhile, especially when it is new and different.”
- Source:
- Alfred P. Sloan in his book “Adventures of a White-Collar Man”, published in 1941 by Doubleday Press, New York, NY. First edition. Also quoted in: John Bourne (2000), Learning Effectiveness and Faculty Satisfaction. p. 11.
- Keywords: Thrill_quotes Life_quotes Offer_quotes Create_quotes Construct_quotes Develop_quotes Useful_quotes Fail_quotes Recognize_quotes Pay_quotes Tribute_quotes Creative_quotes Spirit_quotes Job_quotes Pioneer_quotes Individual_quotes Courage_quotes Ambition_quotes Overcome_quotes Obstacle_quotes Try_quotes Do_quotes Worthwhile_quotes New_quotes Different_quotes
Gerald_Weinberg
Faster Programming Demands Better Programmers
“If we have to have the program faster, we shall have to hire a better man for the job.”
- Source: Chapter 5. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
- See Also:
- Keywords: Fast_quotes Programming_quotes Programmer_quotes Hiring_quotes Better_quotes Man_quotes Job_quotes
Amateur and Professional Programmers
“The amateur... is looking for a way to get the job done. If he runs into difficulty, all he wants is to surmount it — the manner of doing so is of little consequence. Not so, however, for the professional. She may well be aware of numerous ways of circumnavigating the problem at hand. She may even employ one of them for the immediate purpose of getting the job done. But her work does not stop there; it begins there. It begins because she must understand why she did not understand, in order that she may prepare herself for the programs she may someday write which will require that understanding. The amateur, then, is learning about his problem... The professional, conversely, is learning about her profession — programming — and the problem being programmed is only one incidental step in her process of development.”
- Source: Chapter 7. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
- Keywords: Amateur_quotes Professional_quotes Job_quotes Difficulty_quotes Circumnavigation_quotes Problem_quotes Work_quotes Understanding_quotes Program_quotes Programming_quotes Programmer_quotes Preparation_quotes Process_quotes Development_quotes Look_quotes Way_quotes Surmount_quotes Manner_quotes Do_quotes Little_quotes Consequence_quotes Numerous_quotes Hand_quotes Employ_quotes Immediate_quotes Purpose_quotes Stop_quotes Begin_quotes Order_quotes Write_quotes Someday_quotes Require_quotes Learning_quotes Converse_quotes Profession_quotes Incidental_quotes Step_quotes
Shoshana_Zuboff
Diminished Worker
“In diminishing the role of the worker's body in the labor process, industrial technology has also tended to diminish the importance of the worker. In creating jobs that require less human effort, industrial technology has also been used to create jobs that require less human talent.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 22. ISBN:0465032125.
Know-How
“The agenda for scientific management was to increase productivity by streamlining and rationalizing factory operation from cost accounting and supervision to the dullest job on the shop floor. Efficiency was the mania, and to achieve efficiency, it would be necessary to penetrate the labor process and force it to yield up its secrets. In order that effort be rationalized, the worker's skills had to be made explicit. In many cases, workers' perceptions of their own interests prevented them from articulating their know-how, but there was yet another involuntary barrier. These skills did not easily yield themselves to explication; they were embedded in the ways of the body, in the knacks and know-how of the craftworker.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 42. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Knowledge_quotes Requirements_quotes Agenda_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Productivity_quotes Reason_quotes Efficiency_quotes Drudgery_quotes Mania_quotes Achievement_quotes Labor_quotes Process_quotes Secret_quotes Rational_quotes Worker_quotes Skill_quotes Explicit_quotes Perception_quotes Interest_quotes Articulation_quotes Involuntary_quotes Barrier_quotes Embedded_quotes Body_quotes Subconscious_quotes Mind_quotes Craft_quotes Taylorism_quotes Science_quotes Management_quotes Increase_quotes Streamline_quotes Factory_quotes Operation_quotes Cost_quotes Accounting_quotes Supervision_quotes Dull_quotes Job_quotes Shop_quotes Floor_quotes Penetrate_quotes Force_quotes Yield_quotes Case_quotes Prevent_quotes Know-how_quotes Explication_quotes Knack_quotes Craftworker_quotes
Information and Automating
“To the extent that technology is used only to intensify the automaticity of work, it can reduce skill levels and dampen the urge toward more participatory and decentralized forms of management... However, this approach cannot exploit the unique power of an informating technology. In contrast, an approach to technology deployment that emphasizes its informating capacity uses technology to do far more than routinize, fragment, or eliminate jobs. It uses the new technology to increase the intellectual content of work at virtually every organizational level, as the ability to decipher explicit information and make decisions informed by that understanding becomes broadly distributed among organizational members.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 243. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Informating_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes Automation_quotes Skill_quotes Deskilling_quotes Participation_quotes Decentralization_quotes Management_quotes Work_quotes Intensity_quotes Exploitation_quotes Elimination_quotes Employment_quotes Deployment_quotes Job_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Organization_quotes Decision_quotes Explicit_quotes Understanding_quotes Comprehension_quotes Distributed_quotes Empowerment_quotes Extent_quotes Intensify_quotes Reduce_quotes Dampen_quotes Urge_quotes Form_quotes Approach_quotes Exploit_quotes Unique_quotes Power_quotes Informate_quotes Emphasizes_quotes Capacity_quotes Far_quotes Routine_quotes Fragment_quotes Eliminate_quotes Increase_quotes Level_quotes Ability_quotes Decipher_quotes Broad_quotes Member_quotes
Breed of American Worker
“There is a breed of American worker who cherishes the autonomy and sense of self-control afforded by his or her skills and protected by the union contract. When these workers contemplate the prospect of the socially integrated high-technology workplace, they feel despair. They anticipate a loss of their unique identities, of freedom and autonomy, and of well-defined rights and responsibilities. They fear that without the traditional sources of protection provided by their job descriptions and their contract, they will become prey to every capricious whim of their superiors. They understand that the managers' world requires the body as a political instrument for self-presentation and influence, but they know that these are talents they have not developed and toward which they feel more than a little distaste.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 404. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: America_quotes Worker_quotes Autonomy_quotes Self_quotes Control_quotes Skill_quotes Protection_quotes Union_quotes Society_quotes Integration_quotes Technology_quotes Workplace_quotes Despair_quotes Anticipation_quotes Loss_quotes Uniqueness_quotes Identity_quotes Freedom_quotes Rights_quotes Responsibility_quotes Fear_quotes Tradition_quotes Job_quotes Description_quotes Contract_quotes Prey_quotes Supervision_quotes Management_quotes World_quotes Requirements_quotes Body_quotes Political_quotes Instrument_quotes Preservation_quotes Influence_quotes Talent_quotes Development_quotes Disgust_quotes Breed_quotes Capricious_quotes Whim_quotes Superior_quotes Distaste_quotes
Automated Evaluation
“The system automatically computed efficiency ratings for each worker by comparing the amount of time it took to complete a job had been priced. Such calculations with the amount of time for which it could have been generated only by a computer system, since 'we could never have enough clerks to compute these kinds of ratios.' The ratings were considered management information and were not accessible to the craftworkers. Many foremen cautioned against taking the ratings at face value. The most experienced craftsperson frequently was loaded with the most difficult assignments. That individual might show the worst efficiency rating simply because his or her assignments were the most complex and required more than the assigned time.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 331. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: System_quotes Automation_quotes Evaluation_quotes Efficiency_quotes Rating_quotes Time_quotes Calculation_quotes Computer_quotes Management_quotes Information_quotes Accessibility_quotes Transparency_quotes Worker_quotes Craft_quotes Supervision_quotes Surveillance_quotes Experience_quotes Difficulty_quotes Assignment_quotes Individuality_quotes Complexity_quotes Requirements_quotes Computation_quotes Compare_quotes Amount_quotes Job_quotes Price_quotes Clerk_quotes Ratio_quotes Craftworker_quotes Foremen_quotes Face_quotes Value_quotes Frequent_quotes Load_quotes Worse_quotes
