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by denton-scratch 1416 days ago
> just asking "gotcha" questions

I didn't read them as "gotcha" questions. They looked like straightforward and sensible questions. I wonder if the manager was expecting some kind of kickback, and was braced to be adversarial. Perhaps there's some history here, between author and his manager.
1 comments
jaywalk 1415 days ago
From a purely technical standpoint, of course they are valid questions. But from a political standpoint, when you know that your manager just read a blog post about React, I think the discussion needs to be framed differently. Starting out with something like "Oh, yeah. I'm familiar with React. What were some of the positive aspects of it that stood out to you?" will help to understand their perspective.

Again, I fully acknowledge that a React rewrite could very well be a complete waste of time and effort in this scenario. But his manager obviously thought it could be worthwhile, or he wouldn't have asked about it.

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denton-scratch 1415 days ago
> But from a political standpoint, when you know that your manager just read a blog post about React, I think the discussion needs to be framed differently.

The author only got to ask one question before he was shut-down: why do you want to do this?

That's not a criticism, it's a completely reasonable question, given that rewriting something using React is going to be expensive, and might introduce major new risks. Maybe author asked the wrong way, or in the wrong tone of voice.

If it were my manager, and he was proposing that I rewrite something that works fine in a new language, and I had real work to do, then I think my question "Why do you want to do that?" might come across as angry - because I'd be angry.

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morelisp 1415 days ago
The manager is such a blank slate in this story it's almost useless to discuss, but what stood out for me was:

"A manager came to me asking if we should rewrite the checkout of our E-Commerce platform using React... in order to make an informed decision, I needed to understand a few things: ... Why do they think a technology change is a solution? Do they understand the implications of such a switch?"

What problems such a switch might solve and what the implications are is what the manager is asking you. Why would you direct exactly those questions back to them?

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