Search results matching tag 'RulesOfHoles'

Rules of Holes #7: Some Will Look Down on You.

ArnieRowland — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:28:00 GMT

I've been extoling the Rules of Holes, hoping to give you both courage to get out of your Hole, and solace for having allowed yourself to get in a Hole in the first place. How about the others, the folks that see that you are up to your neck, the folks that could guide you out, the folks that are secretly glad that it is you down in the Hole instead of them.

So this brings us to Rules of Holes #7: When you are in a hole, some will look down on you. Only a few will offer their hand, and of those, only a few will be able to provide you the help you require.

As was mentioned in Rules of Holes #6, you have to be careful when folks offer to help you out of your Hole. You need to carefully evaluate the probability of success with their help. If it is the wrong person, without the needed skills or expertise, you will just end up pulling them down in the Hole with you. And a crowded Hole can be a very unpleasant place –as well as quite unproductive. In a later Rule, I'll explore how to better identify those that can genuinely help you get out of your Hole.

But with Rule #7, you realize that some will gain delight in watching your struggle to get out of your Hole. It takes their attention away from their own struggle to escape from their own Hole. By figuratively 'looking down on you', they are able to falsely elevate their own stature. They may be telling themselves that they would never dig so deeply, or ever find themselves in such a predicament. The truth is, they are most likely indeed in a Hole. Actually, maybe by watching your plight, they can continue denying the reality of their own Hole -but that is another story...

Look up and smile, for one day, much sooner than they could imagine, the roles will be reversed. And then just maybe you will be able to extend your hand and offer the help needed, or at least assist in locating the help needed. But I hope that as a result of your experiences with your Hole, you refrain from just looking down on the hapless occupant.

(I am in the process of compiling a more complete list of 'Rules of Holes', and in upcoming weeks, I'll share them with you. And if you have developed your own 'Rules of Holes', i invite you to share them with us.)

Rules of Holes #6: Don't Draw Others Into the Hole with You

ArnieRowland — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:15:00 GMT

In the Fifth Rules of Holes, you were encouraged to seek help from others in order to extricate youself from the Hole. And it should have been clear in that Rule that you want to seek out those that can actually help you. Not everyone, or just anyone, will be able to help you get out of a Hole. Hopefully, you have a mentor, or will take the opportunity to enlist a mentor. Just be selective.

Being selective will help you with Rules of Holes #5: Drawing more people into the Hole with you is not likely to get you out.

You need someone that knows how to keep from being sucked into the Hole with you. From experience, or training, or good fortune, the ideal candidate will have learned how to avoid and even escape a Hole. You need THAT person to help you get out. That person will be better equiped to help you without getting sucked in themselves. Drawing inexperienced others into the Hole with you most likely will not serve to get you out, it only makes the Hole more crowded and confusing. Of course, there are those that would draw others into the Hole just so they can clamor over their bodies in order to escape, leaving them behind. But often that is just committing career suicide. It might work once at the cost of leaving a lot of ill will, and a lot of folks hoping, or even working, to see you fail.

You need to be strong enough that you can gently rebuff those that would be pulled into the Hole with you, and would not be able to get out themselves. Folks are generally curious, they will want to look at your Hole, they may even want to experiment with escape techniques. But if they don't have proven escape and avoidance skills, they will just be in your way, making it more difficult for you to get out of the Hole. Additional baggage that you now have to look out for since drawing them in with you was your responsibility. You could have declined their offer to help, instead seeking out someone that could truly help you without getting pulled in by your plight.

In order to escape your Hole, seek help from those capable of assisting without becoming trapped themselves.

Rules of Holes #5: Seek Help to Get Out of the Hole

ArnieRowland — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:37:00 GMT

You are moving along, doing good work, maintaining a steady pace. All seems to be going well for you. Then BAM!, a Hole just grabbed you. How the heck did that happen? What went wrong? How did you fall into a Hole?

Definitely, you will want to do a post-mortem and try to tease out what misteps led you into the Hole. Certainly you will want to use this opportunity to enhance your Hole avoidance skills.

But your first priority is to get out of this Hole right NOW..

Consider the Fifth Rule of Holes. Most likely, you will need someone's help to get out the hole.

Sure, perhaps you got yourself in this Hole without anyone's help. Perhaps you were led -or pushed. But the truth is, you are in a Hole. You didn't see it coming, or you were not skilled enough to avoid it, or you rushed in without fully considering how you were going to get out.

Most likely, You will need someone's help to get out. It may be just an observer that can give you a perspective that you can't get from down in the Hole. It may be someone that is willing to extend a lifeline to you, or it may be someone that has experience with this particular type of Hole and knows how to get out. But unless you are super-human, or incredibly lucky, you will not get out of the Hole on your own.

But you don't need just anyone's help, you need help from someone that can get you out. How do you find the right person? Well, you network; you look through your network of co-workers, and friends -with special emphasis on mentors, both past and current, and future. A mentor will have your best interest in mind. After all, they are your mentors because you have determined that they are especially capable of providing you direction and guidance, AND they have agreed to work with you in that role. Now is the time to seek the help of your mentors. Ask for their guidance in getting out of the Hole.

And if you don't have a mentor, it's time to question why not? What's keeping you from seeking out one or more mentors? Look around you, there are people that have a lot to offer you, there are people that can help you avoid or get out of a Hole. There are people that will be honored that you would consider them as one of your mentors.

Ask. What have you got to lose -except maybe staying in the Hole?

Rules of Holes #4: Do You Have the BIG Picture?

ArnieRowland — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:25:00 GMT

Some folks decry the concept of being in a 'Hole'. For them, there is no such thing as 'Technical Debt', no such thing as maintaining weak and wobbly legacy code, no such thing as bad designs, no such thing as under-skilled or poorly performing co-workers, no such thing as 'fighting fires', or no such thing as management that doesn't share the corporate vision. They just go to work and do their job, keep their head down, and do whatever is required. Mostly.

Until the day they are swallowed by the Hole.

This brings us to the Forth Rules of Holes: If you do not see the bigger picture, you just might be in a hole.

Without seeing the 'bigger picture', how can you possibly know your part of the puzzle? How can you possibly know when you are being truly successful? How can you possibly know where to spend your scarce time preparing for your future? In fact, how can you possibly know that you are NOT in a Hole?

Holes are insidious, they consume all that blindly enter. And when you are in a Hole, you can't see out, and you eventually become accustomed to thinking that everything that you see is all that there is, and that you need not be concerned with anything else. Wrong! The Hole has consumed your ability to be rational.

Technology is changing at an increasingly rapid pace. You must be watching the horizon in order to prepare and position yourself for the future. If you don't, you won't have much of a future in technology. Not so long ago, around 1999-2000, folks that could only code basic HTML were very well paid. and many were unemployable just a couple years later. Technology moves on, the Hole doesn't want you to leave -it needs you to survive.

So look for your horizon, scan for the future, pay attention to where you are and where you wish to be next year. Be prepared AND keep a big picture.

Rules of Holes #3: A Better Shovel is NOT the Answer!

ArnieRowland — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:05:00 GMT

You stopped digging. You looked around and saw that you were still in the Hole. You needed to get out.

AHA! Problem solved, you thought. You'll just get a better and more efficient shovel!

I regret to tell you that the Third Rule of Holes applies: Switching to a more efficient shovel is unlikely to help you get out of the Hole. Yes, your resumed digging may be faster, more directed, and even well planned and articulated. But you will still be in the Hole, and digging. And that's just not the solution.

A new process (scrum, kanban, whatumaykalit), or a new language (C++, C#, R, CLR, etc.), or playing 'buzzword bingo', -even a new team or manangement structure, that keeps any form of a shovel as its primary tool will not get you out of the Hole. You got in the Hole by digging -and you won't get out by only digging more.

Remember, the first step to getting out of the Hole is to STOP DIGGING. Even with a new and improved shovel!

Rules of Holes #2: You Are Still in a Hole

ArnieRowland — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 21:05:00 GMT

OK. So you followed the First Rule of Holes -you stopped digging yourself in deeper.

But now what? You are still in a Hole. Your situation has not changed much, but at least you are no longer making it worse. You need to redirect the digging effort into escape and avoidance efforts. The Hole has a singular purpose -consuming all of your time and effort. AND it has succeeded! But now you are going to redirect your efforts for your own survival.

You have encountered the Second Rule of Holes: When you stop digging, you’re still in the hole.

You need to look around, take stock of the situation. Try to understand how you got in the Hole. Learn from your previous digging. When did you first start feeling that you were in a Hole? What kept you from taking action on those feelings when they were fresh? Why did it take so long for you to decide to put the shovel down? Make notes to better provide yourself an early alarm the next time you start digging.

We can't help getting in Holes. Sometimes it happens because we were not paying attention to our direction. Sometimes we strayed from our path. Sometimes we blindly followed someone else into the Hole -or we were pushed.. And sometimes, it was just a matter of timing -the Hole opened up and swallowed us just as we came by.

If you are very, very lucky, the Hole is still relatively shallow. You just might be successful in scampering out on your own. But if you have been digging efficently, and not paying attention to your environment, you just may be in so deep that you cannot get out by yourself.

You have two equally important and separate tasks now. (1) You have to marshall the resources to get yourself out of this Hole, and (2), you need to assess how you got here so that you are better prepared to avoid the next Hole that comes along. Sometimes these are intertwined goals, such as learning new coding paradigms or techniques -useful for getting out of the current Hole as well as better avoiding furture Holes..

As you survey the situation, look around for resources to enlist in your effort to get out. Is there someone that can give you a hand? Or toss you a rope? Do you have a lifeline? Someone to reach out to and talk with? If you had a mentor, you could have leaned on her/his experience and perhaps you would not have blindly fallen into this Hole. Assess what you need to get out and stay out of Holes. Can you do that on your own, or do you need guidance? Maybe you will have to expand your network of contacts to have better resources to draw upon. Maybe, just maybe, someone is positioned to extend their hand to you and you couldn't see it while you were busily digging.

Stopping the digging was just the first step.

But you are still in the Hole. And will remain in the Hole until you decide to take further action.

Rules of Holes #1: Stop Digging

ArnieRowland — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:03:00 GMT

You may have heard of the 'First Rule of Holes'. It goes something like this:

"When you suspect you might be in a hole, stop digging."

That seems like obvious, and good advice, but what does it really mean? How does the Rule of Holes apply to you? How does it apply to your job?

When things are not going right, stop doing the "same ol', same ol'"

You find yourself involved in doing the same type of coding over and over. Maybe it's time to stop, step back, take a little time and learn something new. There just may be a better way.
Your team spends hours in meetings, yet the results are always less then spectacular. Don't continue doing that type of meeting -do something different.
You find yourself doing the same re-engineering over and over again. Stop. Spend more time in educating and mentoring.
You are constantly restarting a failed replication subscription. Stop, Examine the objectives. Perhaps there is a more robust and better method.
As a DBA, you find yourself in the same conversations with developers over and over. Stop arguing and defending. Try to understand their needs and help them be successful. They will be more likely to work with you to understand your needs.
As a Developer, you are constantly pushing the DBA(s) to remove some of the impediments to being successful in completing your tasks on time. Ask the DBA(s) to help you understand their pressures, try to understand their job. They too, have an important part to play in being successful.
You are still using cursors for non-administrative tasks? Stop it! Explore. There may be a better way.(Maybe not, but in exploring alternatives, you will learn a lot that will be useful elsewhere.)

The point is to explore doing things differently. Your solution should be a rational decision for the problem at hand, at this moment, in this environment. Not what worked last year, or even last month, or on a different server. Avoid digging holes, and when you realize that you are in one, stop digging. Do something different.

I am in the process of compiling a more complete list of 'Rules of Holes', and in upcoming weeks, I'll share them with you. And if you have developed your own 'Rules of Holes', i invite you to share them with us.

Meanwhile, stop digging.