[derrekl]

I often institute a “just” $1 jar. Anytime “why don’t we just” or “it’s just” is uttered you have to put a dollar into the jar. This applies to engineers, managers, myself, everyone. The idea is breaking the habit of trivializing work that isn’t. Something like a dollar jar is fairly effective as a notifier but doesn’t necessarily replace the habit with a better one. Nevertheless the game itself seems to help even if dollars aren’t transferred into the jar.

[the-pigeon]

Hmm isn't that just like a swear jar? You don't get rid of the swears or the trivializing but rather you just replace the particular words being used for the trivializing.

So what's the benefit?

[zorak]

Swear jar is a great analogy. Also, that'll be $2.

It's a game mechanic that encourages people to be more thoughtful about how they think about a problem. Not perfect, like the swear jar, but it has some value in changing behavior.

[derrekl]

I think being called out for a bad habit is a step in the direction of replacing/improving it. In some cases it’s enough and the person caught figures out a better habit themselves. In other cases more techniques/actions are necessary. As it relates to this article the context was nicely set to illustrate the jar technique. Other contexts would need to be set to illustrate techniques related to situations where calling out is not enough.

[BeetleB]

You owe the "just" jar $2.

[chuckcode]

I like this idea. I wish more of the places I have worked had explicit guidelines around how to work as a team (e.g. don't trivialize work that isn't). It doesn't take many poor timed comments to shut down a team's discussion.