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There's this huge difference in quality between execs who work in writing and execs who NEVER write _anything_ down, which is surprisingly common. In my experience it correlates closely with toxic behaviour and I don't know why it's common for senior management in many orgs to allow people to operate in this style.


Most modern companies drift toward the non-written style (effectively managing by the seat of the pants) because it has the appearance of being more effective, even when it is in fact the opposite. Business myth makes the guy who is always having meetings to appear more dynamic and effective, and is consequently rewarded by upper management.


Ye there are multiple such fallacies. E.g. making brittle systems and later save the day makes you seem competent and important.

Also the opposite effect, where the most productive and important engineers seem to cause most problems and seem incompetent.


As parent already hinted at, writing down stuff makes you vulnerable to criticism. Just stay vague, and you have a lot of wiggle room left...


An exec writing down minutes can also come back to bite them in the ass if there's a lawsuit or criminal investigation. Email can have retention policies. That's harder to enforce with paper, especially when it's someone's personal notes.


Ya, it quite simply boils down to Plausible deniability.


Totally agree with this. Took me a while to realise my manager who never writes anything down was doing it on purpose.




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