Project managers, ducks, and dogs!

The below article is copied from 

https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2013/06/05/duck/

There's a story I read on one of the Stack Overflow type sites a couple of years ago about a "duck". It was an answer about terms people have invented in the world of programming, and it went like this.

A company was working on a game called Battle Chess. It looks like an ordinary chess game at first, but there are some extras which become apparent as you make moves. When you select a piece and tell it to move, it morphs from a statue into more of an animated figure, and walks to the next spot. Then it goes back to being a statue.

So far, that's nice, but there's more. What happens when you make one piece encounter another? Ah, yes, that's when they fight. Both pieces come to life and start duking it out right there on the chess board. Obviously, it can only "win" according to the rules of the game, but you get to watch them hack and slash at each other.

I think the rook actually picks up and eats the queen, but it's been many years so don't hold me to that. I know there must have been a bunch of combinations of animations which I never saw.

Anyway, about the duck. As the story goes, the artists had created all of these animation cycles for their game, and it had to pass through the review stage of a project manager. One of the artists knew the way these guys tended to want to "leave their mark" on things, and did something a little extra.

Apparently, the queen was given a little companion. As she came to life and moved around, so did the duck. It would just follow her around the board.

Supposedly, the PM saw this and said "it's great... just remove the duck". So, the artist went in and removed the duck (which had been carefully placed to make that easy), and that was that. The sacrificial duck kept the meddling manager away from the stuff that was important.

When I first read this story, I figured it only applied to artistic situations like that. I've since thought about it some more and now believe it can come up far more often.

Have you ever noticed how some people want to "touch" everything which is being done on a project, even if it has nothing to do with them? It need not be huge, but it seems like they want to have just a small deviation applied to all potential changes. It's almost like they want to be able to point at any given part and say "I'm the reason that happened".

It reminded me of something else. Think about what dogs do when you take them out into the world. Show them a tree or a fire hydrant, and I bet they're going to mark it. Walk a little bit more, and find another tree or similar post, and I bet the dog will mark it, too. It's like they keep something in reserve so they can keep marking as they go.

Given this, what exactly is the difference between these people and dogs who claim territory by lifting their legs on things?

Work Culture

“A man came across three masons who were working at chipping chunks of granite from large blocks. The first seemed unhappy at his job, chipping away and frequently looking at his watch. When the man asked what it was that he was doing, the first mason responded, rather curtly, “I’m hammering this stupid rock, and I can’t wait ’til 5 when I can go home.”

”A second mason, seemingly more interested in his work, was hammering diligently and when asked what it was that he was doing, answered, “Well, I’m molding this block of rock so that it can be used with others to construct a wall. It’s not bad work, but I’ll sure be glad when it’s done.”

”A third mason was hammering at his block fervently, taking time to stand back and admire his work. He chipped off small pieces until he was satisfied that it was the best he could do. When he was questioned about his work he stopped, gazed skyward and proudly proclaimed, “I…am building a cathedral!”

“Three men, three different attitudes, all doing the same job.”

The Facebook Fallacy

You know when you look through your feed on facebook, and every single day you see that at least one of your friends has done something amazing, commendable or just interesting? That makes you feel that you aren't doing anything with your life, and that all your friends seem to be living more interesting and happier lives.

But stop and think for a moment. Approach it from the other side. If you have 365 friends, and you post one interesting post a year you are faring as well as the average of your friends. It just seems that everyone is doing more interesting things than you because you only notice the interesting things your friends post. You only see the highlights. Nobody posts a "today was boring - I did absolutely nothing" status.

Shouting When Angry

A saint was walking along the river Ganges when he noticed some family members shouting at each other. He smiled and asked his disciples, "Why do people shout when angry?"
The disciples thought for some time. Some said "because they lose their temper and calm", others said "that they want to stress upon their views" and so on. The saint was obviously not satisfied. Finally, he explained them the reason, "When two people are in love, they talk softly with each other. What happens when the love increases much more? They start whispering. And then comes a point, when they only have to look into each other's eyes to convey their thoughts. Now can you guess the answer?"
The disciples were still confused. So he continued, "when two people become angry, the distance between their hearts increases. To cover this distance, they need to shout so that they can hear each other. The more the anger, the greater the distance and hence more the shouting."