This is an interesting chapter. I have been in many different
types of high pressure situations, some that required in the moment think on
your toes stuff in the military and other just plain old the boss or company
wants this and wants it yesterday type stuff, but to be honest I have never given
it much thought as far as what I do in or out of crisis. I like how he keeps
hammering home to not make commitments you cannot keep though, that will cause
a crisis for sure. A good bit of his points are in my opinion common sense ways
to avoid unneeded pressure. Keep your code clean, keep your system and design
clean etc., but others I had never given thought to, especially in th crisis
part where he says, “You know what you believe by observing yourself in a
crisis.”, so true. Thinking back on my life and some of the situations I have
been in I have thrown out the norm of doing things and switched to a whole new
set of rules, but I think in some cases that needs to happen. I do agree though
that in this field you should stick with what works for you in and out of
crisis as there should be no need to change how you do things as long as you
have a system that is efficient and clean.
He gives some great tips that should be lived by, don’t
panic, communicate, rely on your discipline, and get help. Those are great tips
and I like. I mean I guess it is easier said than done, but practicing these things
outside of crisis will make you handle them better. The biggest pieces of
advice I could give from this and he says also is “SLOW DOWN, COMMUNICATE, and
get HELP!!”. There is nothing worth a heart attack or stress related illness
over a job. Calm, cool and collective they say. Communication is huge and goes
hand in hand with the get help part. Speak up, don’t be afraid to ask questions
or for help, this isn’t grade school and no one is going to blow you off or
laugh at you. I think the best tip is avoid pressure if you can.
The more of the book that I read the more I think it grows on
me in a way. I see so much of what he has gone through in my own life and the
trials I have endured. It fascinates me that no matter what industry you are
in, it seems like you run into the same scenarios or strategies. I know this
chapter is about collaboration and I agree with him in that working together as
a team is usually better than by yourself no matter how much you think working
alone may be better for you. In my opinion the more heads the better off you
are to an extent. I mean of course the people on the team have to have a
similar mindset and all striving towards one goal, but as long as that is the
case things usually go a bit better. The team keeps itself in check and egos
are hard to get in the way. I do get though that most of us computer guys and
gals are geeks and don’t work well with others in a normal sort of way (whatever
the definition of normal is) but we do however work together well with one
another I think. Like he says though, there are of course times when it is
right to work alone and that is fine, but I like his idea of it being best to
collaborate with others and pair a large fraction of the time.
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