this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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It is really really difficult to write good plain text instructions for other people to follow.
It's a great experiment to try at home, or with a coworker - write up some directions for a task that the other person doesn't already know how to do (something non-critical preferably) and ask them to try to complete the task per the directions without any other help. It is amazing how many assumptions we make about what seems obvious to us.
This is even funnier when working in a kitchen.
We have set recipes but somehow everyone makes each recipe different. It's all the same ingredients in generally the same portions yet somehow I can tell who made what just based on taste or consistency.
I get pushback at work about how I need to "be better at working with incomplete or vague instructions", but "if it's not in the spec the behavior is undefined, and you get what you get" is unacceptable.
Still mildly peeved about when product complained a list wasn't sorted alphabetically. They're lucky the order was deterministic at all
Are you not allowed to ask questions? Are the people who write the specs your team mates or are they your enemy? Of course you can play dumb, but that might result in your colleagues thinking that you are dumb.
The Analects, Book III
Always ask questions. Don't be afraid of other people thinking that you're dumb. Ask different people for the same answers. Listen to the way that they think about it.
People weren't happy that planning meetings were taking longer because of all of the "what do you want it to do if such-and-such?" questions.
Which kind of rolls into product not wanting to do their job, sometimes, but here we are.