Matthew Turland
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elazar.phpc.social.ap.brid.gy
Matthew Turland
@elazar.phpc.social.ap.brid.gy
❤️ @BeeTurland. #Polyamorous #MentalHealth #SoftwareDevelopment #ComputerScience #PHP #JavaScript #Node #OpenSource #OpenAPI #Obsidian #Writing #PublicSpeaking […]

[bridged from https://phpc.social/@elazar on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
Sometimes we just need to pick up the fax machine | Unconscious Agile https://unconsciousagile.com/2025/11/18/just-pick-up-the-fax-machine.html
Sometimes we just need to pick up the fax machine
My friend Dave once got brought in to help with a large project. The company was purchasing a large fax system from a vendor and then planned to extensively customize it to work in their environment. As is his habit, Dave started asking questions about who the customers were, and why they wanted this fax system. He wanted to understand not just the specific details of what he was asked to do, but more importantly what problem they were trying to solve, and who they were solving it for. Everyone was focused on just their part and so it took some time to figure out the big picture. Eventually he discovered that one person in the building was unable or unwilling to walk up two flights of stairs to get the daily faxes, and that had somehow escalated into this massive project. So Dave walked upstairs, picked up the fax machine and physically moved it down to their desk, completely eliminating the need for a multi-million dollar project. At this point you must be thinking that is so insane that I must have made this story up. Except that I didn’t, it really happened. The question is why Dave was the only person in a long line of people who had actually looked at the real need. Probably dozens of people had been involved in discussions and planning around this project. Why had nobody else moved the fax machine? I don’t know the real reason, but I can speculate. It’s likely that when someone first identified that there was a need to make faxes available, someone else saw an opportunity to do something that either made them look good or was intellectually challenging, and they chose to ignore the fact that it wasn’t really needed. Then as they added to that, they found more and more places that it could be used, whether or not those extra things were important to do. So the scope continued to grow and grow. Before long, they were looking at a multi-million dollar project, with insignificant business value. Despite the lack of value, you can be sure that someone was going to get credit for delivering this large project though. Then we couple that with the tendency of people to focus purely on the parts that they are personally responsible for, rather than the larger picture. In some cases, that’s because we’ve deferred to some expert that we assume already did the due diligence, and sometimes its because we just don’t want to. I worked with one guy who strongly argued with me that he shouldn’t have to update XML files because he was hired to write Java, and another who wouldn’t update a ticket in Jira unless their formal job description explicitly stated that they had to. Some people develop tunnel vision and don’t want to focus on anything other than their own part. Clearly, this project never should have got off the ground but once it did, other problems appeared. > **Commitment bias** , also known as the escalation of commitment, describes our tendency to remain committed to our past behaviors, particularly those exhibited publicly, even if they do not have desirable outcomes. … Someone experiencing commitment bias might think _“I need to stick with this decision because backing out now would be highly embarrassing.”_ — The Decision Lab The one thing I do know is that when the fax machine was moved and the project was cancelled, there were a number of people who were now very unhappy with Dave. They were embarrassed, now that their earlier decisions were under review, and it was obvious that this project never should have been funded. Not a great outcome for Dave, as the work he’d been brought in for was now cancelled, however it was certainly the correct outcome for the company. They could now refocus on things that actually were important. There are multiple lessons we can take from this: 1. Sometimes we just need to pick up the fax machine. Look for the simple solution, and that means looking at the bigger picture, not just the piece we were asked to do. Anybody can create something complex but it often takes real experience to make something simple. 2. The more committed we are in a direction, the harder it will be to admit, even to ourselves, that it was a mistake. Commitment bias and the related Sunk Cost Fallacy are very real. The earlier we can make the right go/no-go decision, the easier it will be. 3. It often takes real courage to step up and call out the problems. Building an environment of psychological safety will reduce the amount of courage required, but not eliminate it completely. We still need people like Dave, who are willing to say those things that are hard to say.
unconsciousagile.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Matthew Turland
Generally I think of Europe and even the UK as being far more employee friendly - humane PTO policies, none of this rationed sick days nonsense - but in my entire US career I’ve never worked in a company that doesn’t give dads proper parental leave. In my UK jobs it was two weeks.
November 21, 2025 at 1:59 PM
November 19, 2025 at 1:53 AM
November 14, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Matthew Turland
OK let's say I do finally decide to move my personal computer over to Linux - I have two questions:

Is it easy enough to run Windows inside a VM in Linux, if I want to test with NVDA or JAWS screen readers?

Which will be the simplest distro to go to, with the above in mind? It doesn't have to […]
Original post on front-end.social
front-end.social
November 13, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Matthew Turland
Considering this format is used to encode & archive most of modern research/knowledge/information, I also see this inherent complexity as a gigantic threat in terms of #permacomputing, #collapsecomputing, #frugalcomputing. I think there's a need for something like https://qoiformat.org/, i.e […]
Original post on mastodon.thi.ng
mastodon.thi.ng
November 13, 2025 at 11:00 AM
🤣💀
October 22, 2025 at 2:26 PM
October 22, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Matthew Turland
When you must write code solo, I find it helpful to confer with my past & future selves:

- Record questions, prompts, guesses & hypotheses to followup on later.

- Document actions til you're confident your distant-future self will know what you were thinking.

- Iteratively refine future work […]
Original post on phpc.social
phpc.social
October 10, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Matthew Turland
I'm old enough to remember when I could use the Internet without every site asking to violate my privacy with extra cookies and a useless Google sign in.
October 10, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Amusing, seasonally appropriate, and providing visibility to real social issues and government malfeasance. What's not to like?

They did the Monster Slash
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4Iu3gJ5Kirk

#thanksihateit #government #trump #politics #uspol #budgetcuts #fiscalfailures #environmentalism […]
Original post on phpc.social
phpc.social
October 8, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Because fuck the fascists, that's why.

#fascism #resistance #uspol #trump #fun #happiness #joy #whimsy
October 6, 2025 at 8:07 PM
"It's the same old lies
In 2025..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_(The_Cranberries_song)

The Cranberries - Zombie (rock cover by State of Mine & Drew Jacobs)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OFVM5Nxz_Hg

#war #violence #murder #terrorism #politics #propaganda #government #militarism […]
Original post on phpc.social
phpc.social
October 4, 2025 at 6:07 PM
"Terrible things are happening
outside. Poor helpless people
are being dragged out of their
homes. Families are torn apart.
Men, women, and children are
separated. Children come home
from school to find that their
parents have disappeared."
Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

#fascism #history […]
Original post on phpc.social
phpc.social
October 4, 2025 at 3:40 PM
October 4, 2025 at 2:59 PM
If you haven't already, I highly recommend getting tickets to @longhorn.

#php conferences in North America have dwindled in recent years; it's vital to support those that remain.

@longhorn is top-notch, run by passionate community members with a great line-up of speakers and sponsors; it […]
Original post on phpc.social
phpc.social
October 3, 2025 at 12:43 PM
October 2, 2025 at 12:01 PM
October 1, 2025 at 12:07 PM
I went looking on YouTube this morning for a Snoop Dogg parody called "Drop It Like It's Fall" thinking that I couldn't be the first person to have the idea that such a thing should exist.

But, it was for naught.

Internet, I'm very disappointed in you.
September 19, 2025 at 12:25 PM