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I've learned that sharing those items you mentioned, it's very important to choose the right people to share them with.
There are coworkers for technical discussions, though frankly I have in the past found it more fruitful to simply ask a question here.
There are the right kind of managers that will take my idea and promote it. Rarely is it fruitful to do this with coworkers, as they have no influence.
Observations and opinions fall into the b*tch session category, and the squirrel on the picnic bench or the friend who doesn't work at the company is the best person to share those with.
And then there's "talking to myself", particularly when it comes to adding value. I first want to make my life easier, and if I do something useful, I'll share it with others that use the same processes and would appreciate an improvement.
And in the final analysis, whether I share anything at all depends on the gestalt of the entire company -- are the coworkers burnt out and just collecting a paycheck? Are the managers terrified of change or just morons? Are there so many regulatory processes in place that any improvement gets drowned in forms, procedures, approvals, etc.?
Having worked in that kind of environment, and hating it, I share nothing -- I still do things to make my life easier, but nobody knows about it, and when I leave, those improvements are gone forever.
Happily where I work now, ideas, opinions, observations and questions are welcome, though it's still important to voice them to the right people.
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As a senior developer you should be sharing nearly everything you can with the juniors, not doing so handicaps their learning. Even the world burning opinions should be aired, let them decide if you are an old idjit.
When you get far enough up the skill/knowledge ladder and become basically bullet proof you really do not need to be delicate about expressing yourself, even or especially to management.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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 I once told a VP that, if he expected us to deliver on an unrealistic expectation, he should be polishing his resume.
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I'm disappointed that the Software Cheerleader concept never really took off.
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Never heard of it. Please enlighten us. Does it involve actual babes?! 
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Bob Mazanec wrote: Just me?
I don't hold back, even it is costs my job. And it did, a few times.
Bob Mazanec wrote: * What is(are) the reason(s) for stopping yourself?
I don't hold back. I prefer the battle.
I deal in realism, not in making believe. That's what I'm paid to do. That's part of the contract.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Precisely. It never cost me my job, but only because they must truly have known that I was right. 
And knowing you, I was probably a little more diplomatic. 
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We have too many. Internal wikis all over the place, forums, intranet, internal reports, internal chat, dedicated internal web portals, sharepoint (yet another masterpiece of failed software, do not get me started on it). I'd spend at least half of my work time reading everything that is published every day, uncoordinated, unlimited ; sometimes development teams race for their tool to be THE tool used in the company worldwide - the amount of money spent in these is just insane, all of this to be a modern web x.0 (replace x by whatever is the last industry bullshit version) company.
I wish people would rather actually work instead of being talked into "enterprise social media", because that's what we hired them for first place.
You want to share ? No problem, but then please only when you are down with everything else - until then, keep it for you and try to get some work done.
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I worked at a company who had an internal message board something from Microsoft.
Can't remember the name, but I think it's now discontinued?
Anyway, people could post whatever, but it wasn't used a lot.
When I first started working there I posted some interesting new tech on there, or some cool code I found.
Stuff like an upcoming Visual Studio, new Windows Server or SQL Server, I even remember posting something about COBOL.NET just for fun.
Unfortunately, I rarely got any replies or I got them from the same people who I also talked to face-to-face.
We had an official person who's job it was to investigate new tech for the company, but all he posted on there where new versions of Oracle.
At one point some people said to me I was doing that guys job more than the guy himself.
Unfortunately, I already let management know I was available for the position as it was worth an extra €500 a month, but they only needed one and the current guy was the boss' cousin or something.
Ultimately, I realized no one really had any interest in tech and the company was just doing what they did for the past 30 years with very few innovations.
I stopped posting and found another job, just like some of my younger coworkers
I think the current average age at that company is well over 40 and maybe even nearing 50 (about 30 employees, mostly programmers) 
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check on google
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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I play it company by company. Some firms are open to suggestions and advice and have various platforms and methods to receive feedback, but some firms are very closed off to it, believe it or not. If I'm in one of the former companies then I tend to use the available opportunities to leave feedback, if I'm in the latter then I'll speak up if it's something egregious but I'll rarely fight too hard for change, I consider the fact that I spoke up as having fulfilled by duty and if the company want to ignore my advice they're free to do so.
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Just like Eddy above, I share everything significant.
What would be the point of keeping important stuff under a blanket?
To look good at the expense of others?? A very short-sighted way of survival.
Revenge on those who didn't share with me? I wouldn't want to work in such a work atmosphere.
Revenge on the company? I wouldn't want to work in such a company.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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It depends on the customer/employer. IF I believe there is a value in speaking up, then I do so. If not, I don't waste my time.
The only caveat to the above is if management (or a coworker) is doing something stupid or ill-advised, in which case I document what the perceived problems are, as CYA.
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One of the lessons I've learned early on in my career as a software developer is that if I have a suggestion for a feature that people actually want, the response is very often along the lines of "great, when can you demo it?"
I always have more items on my plate than I have time to complete, so when I know a suggestion means an additional work item for myself, when I'm already swamped...I either withhold the idea, even if (IMO) it might turn out to be a great feature, or I discuss it with a coworker and let him bring it up with The Powers That Be (even if it means he gets credited with the idea).
It's often the case that I'm still the one who's going to end up implementing it anyway, but at least they are the ones asking me to do it; it's not me offering to take on the additional work. So that gives me a little room to negotiate some extra time.
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was going to respond to someone's post about being high enough up and talking to those that will listen. here is the starting paragraph.
"
your never as far up the ladder as you think you are. I ended up looking for a job earlier this year because said manager who said she would appreciate candor did not really appreciate candor at all. Of course the entire team is now disbanded and she herself has been moved to another location in another country far from here. And if only someone would have listened with an open mind. Especially those that in positions of authority. "
In my 20+ years of experience. It depends. The manager you can trust today is certainly not trustworthy tomorrow when his/her boss changes. The co-workers are almost always there for themselves and to make their jobs easier. ASk yourself this. If my co-workers win the lotto, Would then offer to take me in as an employee of a new company they might start or would they be in Tahiti tomorrow and not accepting my phone calls? I am better on Tahiti for each and every co-worker.
I share when I think it will be well received and will directly help an others job and they will recognize that help. Most of the time I keep my trap shut and do my job and avoid politics or anything else really.
And the sad part is. I like people. I am an outgoing fun person to be around. Sad to be this careful.
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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I've got a little over 20 years in the industry.
At first I was hot headed and spoke my mind more; now I sit back and weigh the options or opinions.
Currently we are in a debate of which project management tools to use.
*We have option A, bundled with other apps that's already paid for. it's not the greatest yet it is being upgraded later in Q3.
*Option B, free tier doesn't work for us, paid version has some nice features, but we are in a tight budget this year. Second, B has limited layouts.
*Option C, is only paid for. looks nice, integrates into other apps like Slack or Teams, but might be too much overhead to manage
*Option D through what ever, same sort of things.
Coming from a single developer standpoint, it's all too much overhead, and you spend too much time everyday updating the stupid things. But now I'm on a Team of two others, and I understand more communications between us and what our own projects are. Since we will rarely ever work on the same project at the same time, my vote is to use something more of a developer log; just something we can share and organize notes in and day to day tasks.
But others are pushing for kanban boards with statistics for job completion time. I'm against this, because we are a support team for a small community college so we take care of a lot of different things over the week, it's hard to put down a time or completion estimate were we could have an hour or 40 to work on a given project during the week.
I'm keeping the last part to myself for the time being since I still want to be considered a team player. Management will have to figure out the rest the hard way
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Is anarchy the type of boat you load up with animals when there is a floody?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I'd dove to explain and rain in your enthusiasm, but that might further pair down you posting frequency.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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A flood? I'll check with NOAA Noah.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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A plus for that. I'm sure other posts will be much verse.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: I'm sure other posts will be much verse.
Oh god. Water we going to do?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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True, but they'll likely be a testament to the old ways.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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No, it's what aqueducties are built from.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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It's what happens when you try to narrow the field to just 2.
I'm not sure how many cookies it makes to be happy, but so far it's not 27.
JaxCoder.com
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There can only be one!
-- Kim Jong Un
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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