[lzol]

This resonates so much and seems to be a major trend in non-traditional tech companies. I've mostly worked in the financial industry and the executives' knowledge of technology is almost always horrible. As you said, a couple buzz words and very set opinions on the ways to do things. It's like they get pet projects in their head from reading an article in a magazine and get locked into it.

I don't really have an issue with CXXs being ignorant about a subject. No one knows everything. What I do have an issue with is when they act like an expert ignoring all the people who are actually experts in a particular area. It'd be like me going into a room full of IT people and saying EBITDA a bunch of times claiming to be an accounting wizard ready to lead a major initiative. It's frustrating but I've learned all I can really do is smile and watch the show.

[noir_lord]

> It's like they get pet projects in their head from reading an article in a magazine and get locked into it.

It's not like that, it's often exactly that.

I'm extremely fortunate in that while my boss sets the goals he never specifies how they should be achieved.

That means I get to implement them as we need them.

I'll never underestimate the value of smart management :).

[alecco]

>> It's like they get pet projects in their head from reading an article in a magazine and get locked into it.

>It's not like that, it's often exactly that.

And it usually is sold also from within from know-it-all primadonnas who want to climb the ladder. Or at least put something "spectacular" on their CV.

[noir_lord]

Start a ground breaking project that will be amazing in 2 years.

Get promoted/leave for more money after 18mths.

2 years rolls around, everything is on fire but the guy with the matches is nowhere to be found.

Sounds very very familiar to me.

[TeMPOraL]

When reading these stories, part of me wants to give up and switch to the dark side. Instead of worrying about whether what we're doing is even useful for anyone, I could be earning money and prestige by leading large companies to deploy random SaaS solutions. What's not to like? I mean, except making your organization waste couple billion dollars and hundreds of man-years?

[DataWorker]

Or they just think “Tableau, Salesforce, data lakes, ERP, identity management, and "cloud" infrastructure each seem like useful tools if implemented smartly.”

[snowwrestler]

Cute. We actually built a data lake (with Python and MySQL) and immediately found problems we weren't even aware of, like (as I mentioned above) people getting the same email multiple times in the same day.

When our sysadmin left, we migrated all our websites from leased hardware servers to cloud hosting and were able to use that head count to hire a developer instead, who has built great new web apps for staff and customers.

I understand the temptation to be cynical, but these really are useful tools. I say embrace change; it's fun.

[ErikAugust]

I feel like Harvard Business Review articles are a form of keyword stuffing. Combinations of buzzwords when googled bring up a bunch of big consultancy websites.

[avgDev]

I work with a guy, that can't code, is a DBA but I have to fix his queries but when it comes to new projects, he has all the answers on how to implement everything and has not written a single line of code in an application.

Recently, I even told him just to tell me what he wants to achieve because his implementations do not make sense and its my job.

At least my boss also let's me do it my way, still annoying.

[alexhutcheson]

You'd probably really appreciate this comedy sketch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

[deanCommie]

Clients don't know what they want and don't know how to describe what they do want.

That doesn't mean they're wrong.

Actual experts get to the root of what they need, and find ways to solve the requirements, even when they seem impossible.

Mandatory response viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7MIJP90biM

[pimlottc]

That’s definitely a clever way to meet all the stated requirements, but in no way does it attempt to get to the root of the real user requirements.

Which, of course, involves talking to actual users.

[yellowapple]

> That doesn't mean they're wrong.

Perhaps not, but it does make it substantially more difficult to be right.

[geomark]

That's even more amazing.

[alecco]

While there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_vcy7I0zIM

[lzol]

This is amazing! Thank you