Comments on: J.Ello Sets the Geek>Corporate Record Straight http://salomesays.com/blog/2009/09/jello-sets-the-geek-record-straight/ A Blog About Art, Shopping, & Virtual Living In Second Life and Other Formats. Fri, 11 May 2012 03:57:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Karl Elvis http://salomesays.com/blog/2009/09/jello-sets-the-geek-record-straight/comment-page-1/#comment-426 Karl Elvis Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:34:38 +0000 http://salomesays.com/blog/?p=790#comment-426 I"ve worked either in, or closely with, IT my entire career, so it's with some weight of authority I say, this dude gets it. Sure, he makes some sweeping generalizations that don't always apply, but on the grand scale, he gets how IT people work and think, and how people outside IT need to deal with IT. The one place where he misses the mark is with the credit whoring thing, where he misses the whole reason for the behavior. The point he misses there is that, when IT work is done to absolute perfection, IT is invisible. Few other jobs (aside from utility works) are completely invisible when they do perfect work, so IT teams have to use any and every chance to get credit for what they do. They have to make damn fucking sure people know about it when they make your job easier or prevent disaster. Users just expect a system that's infinitely fast, infinitely reliable, and effortless to use; when IT does something to move you toward that goal, they need to wave a flag, otherwise you'll simply say "yeah but that's how it's supposed to be, why should they get credit for things working?" But that's a nit; it's a great piece, and should be required reading for every non-IT manager in tech. I”ve worked either in, or closely with, IT my entire career, so it’s with some weight of authority I say, this dude gets it. Sure, he makes some sweeping generalizations that don’t always apply, but on the grand scale, he gets how IT people work and think, and how people outside IT need to deal with IT.

The one place where he misses the mark is with the credit whoring thing, where he misses the whole reason for the behavior. The point he misses there is that, when IT work is done to absolute perfection, IT is invisible. Few other jobs (aside from utility works) are completely invisible when they do perfect work, so IT teams have to use any and every chance to get credit for what they do. They have to make damn fucking sure people know about it when they make your job easier or prevent disaster. Users just expect a system that’s infinitely fast, infinitely reliable, and effortless to use; when IT does something to move you toward that goal, they need to wave a flag, otherwise you’ll simply say “yeah but that’s how it’s supposed to be, why should they get credit for things working?”

But that’s a nit; it’s a great piece, and should be required reading for every non-IT manager in tech.

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