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A very good read. Thanks.

No original ideas here folks, please move along.

The ideas in the article were first laid out by Demarco and Lister in "Peopleware", back in the 1990s, and have been repeated in a thousand blog posts since then. Save your time.

The author, Miguel Carrasco, is a very unethical blogger. I made a comment on that post, which made some good points. He incorporated those points into his original post, without acknowledging them or marking them as an "update", and then deleted my post to cover his tracks. I complained, and he said my post was deleted because of swearing, when the worst word I used was "crap". No he has my IP address blocked. I'm going to start a one-post blog just to expose what he did, with screenshots of the deleted posts, but in the meantime, I'll repost my comments here, where he can't delete them.

I'll reproduce here, verbatim, my first comment I left on Miguel Carrasco's blog. Bear in mind when you read it that when I made the comment, the last section of his post, entitled "The Conclusion? It's a Two Way Street!" did not exist. He added it after deleting the comment below:
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This article seems to be based on the premise that developers are infallible geniuses who are thwarted at every turn by hamfisted, clueless managers, and that is why projects flounder. When I was just a developer, I would eat stuff like this up, but now that I'm a manager/developer I see both sides of the story.

What about the developer who wants to overarchitect everything, and who will rewrite huge sections of other people's code if you don't watch him closely? Or the one who misses work every time he has a sniffle? If you think this is all because their artistic muses aren't being properly nurtured, or because there's no fooseball table in the office, you're naive.

And as far as being oh-so-careful-and-delicate about how I might ask someone to answer help desk calls (not that I would ever have a need to), give me a break. If someone's on the team, they should be willing to do whatever they're asked to do to help the team succeed, without a bunch of flattery. If they are, that makes them more valuable to me, and hence the company. If they whine about it, I'll remember come review time. If they refuse, I'll be happy to show them where the door is.

And all that crap about "helping them find themselves" was just that -- crap. A lot of developers I've worked with seem to lose sight of why they're there in the first place -- it's not to "find themselves", it's not to be flattered or challenged or fulfilled, but rather it's to further the business goals of the company. Same as with the receptionist or the janitor. And sometimes that might involve doing Crystal reports or maintaining a legacy system. If they don't like it, then certainly they should go elsewhere, but I disagree that my primary goal should be to keep them around.

And, FTR, I don't work in a coporate IT shop, but rather for an ISV, where the developers work in pleasant surroundings (or from home in some cases) and get the latest and greatest hardware.

A guy named Emiro replied to my comment, taking issue with what I said. I couldn't recover his deleted post, but he said something about my developers "wasting their time" working for me. In any case, there was nothing improper in his post. My reply to Emiro begins below:

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@Emiro,

Apparently they don't think it's a waste of time, since they're still there... Could it be the handsome salary and benefits they're getting to do work they enjoy? Perhaps.

And to be clear, I do have a good team working for me. I never said I didn't. And one of the reasons they're good is that they're not the naval-gazing, sensitive "artiste" types that have to be dealt with in the delicate fashion described in the above post. They're mature, professional adults who can handle blunt talk without having their sensitive egos bruised, or their "inner child" wounded. I don't bark orders at anyone, but I'm sure not going to talk to them in the manner shown in the laughable first "Scenario B" above.

My point in my previous comment was summed up in the first paragraph. My job is not, as the title of the post implies, to "Win Friends and Make Developers Happy". It's not even to produce software, although that's what I spend most of my time doing. It's to further the business goals of my employer, as laid out by the owners. And that applies to every developer who works for someone else. And the ones who lose sight of that, and think it's all about them, are rarely, in my experience, the best developers.

Some time after I posted my reply to Emiro, his, and both of my comments disappeared from the thread, and the final section of the post entitled "The Conclusion? It's a Two Way Street!" was added to the original post. I complained again, reposted my comments, and Miguel Carrasco re-deleted them and gave the lame excuse about "swearing" and bashing". He reposted my original comment in a bowdlerized form, with the paragraph breaks removed, making it practically unreadable.

I tried to repost another comment, but he had me blocked. The blocked reply is reproduced below:
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Sorry, Miguel Carrasco, but you're still acting unethically. You ripped off my ideas and incorporated them into your own post, and then deleted my comment without acknowledging it. And now you try to pawn off this lame excuse about flaming and swearing when neither occurred. (BTW, everyone, he's referring to my use of the word "crap" when he says I swore.) And if you don't set the record straight, I will, on a forum where you can't censor me. I kept screenshots of everything.

I made a comment which pointed out the overall absurdity of your post, so you deleted the comment, and incorporated its gist into your original post so it would look less absurd. And when you reposted my comment above, you neglected to include the original paragraph breaks, making it all but unreadable. And I had made a second post, which you didn't repost.

I browsed some of your other posts, and you seem to think you have a lot of wisdom to share about software development and business practices in general. What about personal integrity, Miguel Carrasco? Is that important in your world? How about simply acknowledging when you've made a mistake, and accepting responsibility for it? It sounds simple, but, in my experience, it's a very difficult for a lot of people to do, in the world of software development or business in general.

I would suppose that some of your developers follow your blog, and some may have seen the full history of this comment thread, in all of its, shall we say, "versions". Do you think they're stupid enough to buy your line about deleting comments because of "bashing" and "swearing"? I doubt it, if they're as bright as you say they are. Do you think they would respect you more if you did the right thing and acknowledged, in the post itself, what inspired you to add the section titled "The Conclusion? It's a Two Way Street!", and then put back my two original comments, in their original form, along with Emiro's comment? Personally, I think they would. And I would too.

Hi Jim,

I am just a fan of his postings. I do not work for Miguel, I have only worked with him at other companies. He is going through some family issues where his aunt is dying of cancer and started blogging more to help developers. He has a lot of young people he teaches development for free after hours at the office, they read the postings. Your posting on his blog had bad language and was a complete flame. He did not want the younger people reading this. That was all.

I am really saddened by this stand you are taking on this, and Miguel is actually extremely upset over your postings. You should really email him to chat. If you talked on the phone you would realize that he is actually one of the nicest developers, mentors, and managers I have ever met. The reason he actually removed your posting was Emiro (someone that has emailed him in the past about promoting his blog) was trying to pick a fight with you, therefore he deleted the postings to avoid anything.

Again, If you know the reason for Miguel trying to contribute to the software development community, I think you would change your tone. Miguel actually thinks you had a lot of good points.

Daniel

@danielfernandez,

The "bad language" you referred to was the word "crap". No one in their right mind will agree that that is "bad language" and justifies deleting an entire comment, but I commend you for trying.

Miguel Carrasco is a sleazeball who steals other peoples' ideas and tries to pawn them off as his own. He even deleted my second post that had no "bad words", so that excuse was just a balfaced lie.

Hi Jim,

Miguel here, I just wanted to apologize to you if I somehow offended you? I thought your comment was great. I'm sorry you feel I'm a sleezball, but honestly I was just trying to avoid you arguing on my blog with another user. I thought your comments where fantastic and thought your points where great, which is why I thought I would integrate them into my posting as a reply to what you were saying. It sounds like you have a great team, and I would love to meet them someday, who knows!

Anyway, I had wanted to email you personally, but I couldn't get your email. Anyway, I have deleted that last part of the addition I made, as I had honestly thought it would be flattering to you and your team. I guess not. Anyway, my sincerest apologies if I hurt your feelings or anything. I honestly do not have a harmless bone in my body and just looking to improve software developers everywhere! My Aunt is extremely sick, and on her death bed, and I have just been trying to take my mind of things by giving something back to the software community. I've been spending a lot of time outside of work helping kids with no computers get involved with Software Development, and been showing them blogs, etc. You are right "crap" is not a bad word, however they are younger kids and I didn’t want them seeing that kind of language... that was all... so I apologize for having to delete it.. hindsight 20 20 i should have just left it alone, but some of their parents where reading the blog and I didn’t want to start a big deal from nothing. So my apologies.

Again, sorry if I offended you, hurt you, or did anything of the sort. If you want to send me an email, I'd love to chat more. Good luck with everything and your team!

You're a liar, Miguel Carrasco, you didn't remove the stuff that you stole from your post.

And as long as your little toady danielfernandez continues to mod down my comments here, I'll continue making them.

Stop stealing other people's ideas, Miguel Carrasco.

You're a liar, Miguel Carrasco, you didn't remove the stuff that you stole from your post.

And as long as your little toady danielfernandez continues to mod down my comments here, I'll continue making them.

Stop stealing other people's ideas, Miguel Carrasco.

Please check out "About us" on the top left. It's all about the articles on dzone not about the people posting them.
Please try to get back on the right track here.

My comment is about the article. The article was written by a sleazebag named Miguel Carrasco who steals other peoples ideas.

Jim, this whole thread is way off base. It is evident that you have a personal gripe with Miguel, but DZone is not a reasonable place for you to attempt to resolve your personal issues or publicly assassinate Miguel's character. You're effectively hijacking a positively focused developer context in order to air your negative personal feelings about Miguel.

I will ask politely this one time that you please stop. Let it end here and now. Keep it above the belt, keep it focused on appropriate topics. This is not the right context to express your personal antipathy towards Miguel, regardless of the events that led you to have such negative feelings towards him.

Rick Ross