[ChrisMarshallNY]

> added software complexity that is the result of job justification.

I have found that some folks like to be "high priest gatekeepers." They want to be The Only One That Understands The System, so they are indispensable, and it also strokes their own ego.

If possible, they might customize the system, so they are the only ones that can comprehend it, and they can often be extremely rude to folks that don't have their prowess.

I suspect that we've all run into this, at one time or another. It's fairly prevalent, in tech.

[jodacola]

> high priest gatekeepers

I like that! I'll be adding that to my back pocket for an appropriate conversation in the future.

I've absolutely experienced this, and, to a degree, I'm dealing with it now in supporting a huge enterprise platform that's a few decades old.

The really interesting (frustrating?) piece is that the "high priest gatekeepers" are on both sides of the equation - the people who have used the system for years and know the appropriate incantations and the people who have developed it for years and understand the convoluted systems on the backend.

This dynamic (along with other things, because organizations are complex) has led to a very bureaucratic organization that could be far more efficient.

[specialist]

Totally.

TIL 2024: Systems justification theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_justification

https://www.volts.wtf/p/why-social-change-is-so-excruciating...

I wish I'd know anything about this stuff back during the 90's "learning organization" mania. I wasted so much of my life believing I/we could make things better (head on).

[jodacola]

I enjoy learning of a concept that so eloquently brings together a bunch of gut thoughts and intuitions I've built over time.

Thank you for sharing; I'll be diving down this rabbit hole.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I remember an xkcd, that was talking about releasing a version that fixes a keyboard mapping bug, and a user complaining, because they had learned to compensate for the mapping error.

You can't please everyone.

[psd1]

Worse than that: https://xkcd.com/1172/

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I think that's the one I had in mind.

[Suppafly]

>I have found that some folks like to be "high priest gatekeepers." They want to be The Only One That Understands The System, so they are indispensable, and it also strokes their own ego.

I agree that that happens, but I suspect a lot of times it's not a conscious decision by the person who is doing the gatekeeping. The end result is more or less the same, but often those people feel like they are the only one that understands, not that they intentionally want to be the only one that understands.

It seems like a trivial difference, but having some empathy for these people and finding out which is which makes it possible to deal with at least a subset of these people.

[Terr_]

> I suspect a lot of times it's not a conscious decision by the person who is doing the gatekeeping

Also, it might not always/only be about seeking status but also a safety/trauma situation, where the high-priest has a lonely duty to prevent some danger that others don't truly understand.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

That’s a really good point, and I’ll try to keep that PoV in mind, the next time I run into it.

[lupire]

Considering your choice of metaphor, it's clear that the phenomenon existed long before "tech". It is a hallmark of bureaucracy through the ages.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Oh, yeah. Basic human nature.

[psychoslave]

I don’t know, I tend to prefer honing my skill at crafting simpler solutions. And if some colleague come with something simpler than my proposal, I will rather be pleased and honored to be able to work with bright minds that can cast more lights for me on path to more elegant patterns.