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"No, it's less effort than that"

(smartguess.is)
388 points replyifuagree | 1 comments | 21 Oct 23 04:43 UTC | HN request time: 0.314s | source
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_rm ◴[21 Oct 23 14:12 UTC] No.37966921[source]▶
It's more Machiavellian than that. What the middleman wants is a heads I win, tails you lose deal.

He wants to present a low number, to encourage whoever he's dealing with on his end to do what he wants, gaining the benefit from that.

So he'll use every technique under the sun to encourage devs to give him a number he likes more, while never making it look like an order or coercion (which would make it his number - spoiling the whole play).

But when it inevitably takes much longer, he can point at the numbers the devs provided and say he was just communicating what they told him, so he's not responsible.

The only language these types understand is for requests for estimates to be "reviewed" to result in them always going up, to send a message.

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1. 2devnull ◴[21 Oct 23 15:02 UTC] No.37967375[source]▶
But it’s easy working for such people once you identify them. They are “goes to 11” people. Like that amp in spinal tap you just make your regular output max level be a 9, then you have room to go 1 more when they want you to. Of course that means working slower than you otherwise would. But if they want a dev that “goes to 11” it’s pretty obvious to some of us that there’s only one way that works.