October 29, 2008
trees, forest
I have discovered a new pet peeve that I never knew even existed until now.
People who cannot flip their brains from trees to forests — even when you explicitly ask them to think about the big picture — and continue to blithely discuss the implementation details of how instead of why deserve a face stabbing.
I can figure out how on my own. But your job is to explain why you’re experiencing your problems.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Oh lordy. Where to begin with this one?
Project managers, ok, I get it, that’s why they are project managers…
Low-level engineers, ok, I get it, that’s why…
But in technology I see this rampant push that ends up in the promotion of good technical people who have no clue about big picture, even the ones who are politically astute. I have been in meetings with directors and VPs who have no clue about direction, business cases, large scale ramifications, etc.
Perhaps this is a little bigger picture than you had intended, but that drives me insane when people at my level are better informed and astute about the industry, big picture project costs and benefits, and in general, about what it takes to do something start to finish.
I think this happens because of culture that is complacent, rewards loyalty over performance, and is unable to separate the technical performers from the world view and leader types (or some combination thereof).