RE: Workplace issues

[quills -at- airmail -dot- net]

I remember an apocryphal story about why Microsoft produced such 
buggy, bloated code. The reason, according to the story is that each 
software engineer was expected to write x number lines of code a day, 
every day.

So they did, regardless of whether that code was valid, could 
compile, or actually did anything.

You get what you pay for. When a client says they want something bad, 
I'm always tempted to ask them just how bad do they want it? Or would 
they rather get the product complete, and accurate?

Scott

At 3:56 PM -0400 7/22/08, McLauchlan, Kevin wrote:
>Yeah.  Unfortunately, non-writer-types, seeing the estimates worded that
>way, tend to ask for "the hundred-and-eighty-seven pages you should have
>done by now, according to the proposal/estimate..."
>
>Then you have to explain that those pages are busy coalescing in your
>head - but you can start a brain-dump-to-paper just for the requestor,
>and it'll be ready in ... oh... about as many weeks as would bring us to
>the scheduled release date.  Such a coincidence.
>
>Kevin
>
>Laura Praderio Lynn [mailto:lpraderio -at- alpineclimbs -dot- com] said:
>>
>>  hi kevin,
>>  these are for budget numbers; naturally the process varies according
>to
>>  product and writer and resources available. in reality everyone works
>>  differently so some may build a skeleton of a document one week, then
>>  research for awhile, then write like mad...in any given order.
>>  again...i should have delineated more clearly...for budgeting
>purposes,
>>  it's an easy way to ballpark doc costs.
>>  cheers,
>  > laura
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