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The amount of think time is usually proportional to how much you "own" what you're working on.
As technical lead, you might spend all your time "thinking"; assuming someone else is doing the coding.
A system / app is just a big algorithm, IMO; but if you don't get the overall right, the little ones don't matter.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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At present, most of my mental capacity is spent on refining and adding to the implementation of my novel native-variable-length hash table, part of which is covered by U.S. Patent No.: 11,254,590. But I spent many restless nights trying to devise the basic algorithm that allows the storage of multiple record types directly in a hash table; after all, that has been considered impossible since the invention of the hash table in the 1950's!
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... He opens Windows.
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Shirley you meant he breaks Windows. 
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So it be
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Kind of begs the question then... what does Linus do when he passes gas?  Oh wait. It's open source, so he shares it freely.
I have an unfortunate familiarity with noxious biological emissions, as I own greyhounds. They are the world's fastest couch potatoes, and the emitters of the most foul odors  an hour or two after mealtimes.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Tried changing their diet?
A lot of dog food contains soy beans.
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If you think Greyhounds are bad, try just-weaned-kitten farts.
For such a tiny dribble of fluff, they can produce the most monumental, room-filling (and -evacuating) stenches. Usually when they get excited because you have gone to bed.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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For me, that is Perrier, a French story since 1863. 
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A true story: Perrier virtually created a whole industry.
Back in the nineties, Perrier had over 90% of the bottled water market, worldwide. If you drank carbonated water, 9 times out of ten, you drank Perrier.
Then came the Benzene problem[^] - a small amount of product was contaminated with a small amount of Benzene, and the management sat on the info. A whistle blower didn't. A recall was needed to restore public confidence.
But ... back then, hardly anyone printed traceability info on product - certainly Perrier didn't. So to recover all the tainted water, they had to recall every bottle.
Not just in France.
Not just in Europe.
Not just in the US.
Every. Single. Bottle.
Worldwide.
It took weeks to get their water back on the shelves, and by then, the local manufacturers had ramped up production and customers had tried it, and wondered why they paid so much more for French water, when local stuff was as good or better?
After the crisis Perrier market share never got back above 10%.
And production directors trembled and shook nervously as they asked their production and maintenance guys what traceability marking their company did - and got the answer "None. You refused to give a budget for it". Huge budgets we suddenly allocated, lucrative cheques were written, and the coding and marking industry moved from a tiny market segment to a massive industry virtually overnight ...
In the mid / late '90s a UK biscuit manufacturer found that a flour sieve has broken on a regular inspection and could have released metal particles into the product. They recalled every biscuit that was manufactured on that line between 1/2 an hour before the last successful inspection and the time they shut the line, and because they traced properly, all they had to do was turn around a couple of dozen lorries and scrap pallet loads - not one biscuit reached the shops.
I entered Coding and Marking in the early '90s, coincidentally.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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That's a fantastic story! Thanks for sharing.
I'd read an entire book of that stuff. It's so instructive about how we've gotten to the world we have today -- hits & misses.
Coding & marking could be considered "boring" by some, but then explained in this way, it is fascinating. 
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raddevus wrote: I'd read an entire book of that stuff.
A classic in the field is David A. Ricks: Blunders in International Business[^].
I read the first edition, published in the early 1980s, as a student, and found it very amazing and enlightening. It is now in its 4th edition, which I haven't seen, but hopefully it is just as good as the 1st. It focuses mainly on cultural and language issues. I don't remember coding and marking being discussed, but it would certainly have fit in!
For some reason, the book title is revised along with the text; the 1st ed was called "Big Business Blunders: Mistakes in Multinational Marketing". I believe the 2nd and 3rd may have had slightly varying titles as well.
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If you ever have the chance watch Connections (British documentary) - Wikipedia[^].
Its an old documentary (I watched it when I was in high school) but its very well done. Each episode starts with some modern item (nuclear sub, gasoline engine, modern production line, etc...) then leaps back to some ancient (obviously unrelated) technical problem and traces the "connections" that ultimately lead to the modern item.
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fgs1963 wrote: If you ever have the chance watch Connections (British documentary) - Wikipedia[^].
This is the kind of stuff I'd like to see, so I looked around for it, and Voila! It is available on DVD! Connections - The Complete Series [DVD][^]. It is certainly not that expensive - 20 GBP for 3 DVDs, ten episodes is not bad. I certainly will order it.
For US guys, it seems like you have to pay somewhat more - USD 100 for the same stuff on five disks. Or ... Not quite the same. Total playing time is an hour and a half less. Probably, the original contains some 'offensive' scenes (probably from non-Western cultures) that cannot be handled by tender souls.
This is the 1978 series. The follow-up series from 1994 and 1997 seems to be available in the US at a completely crazy price (several hundred USD).
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Where do you get all this information from ?
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I have a feeling that in this case, it is real knowledge.
In many other cases, when someone is presenting information in Internet forums, it is more like googledge than knowledge. Too many times, when you ask for real knowledge, the reply is based on "I'll Google That For You", and they come back with the same information that you have found yourself, understanding even less of it than you do. They just copy what they googled. Some people are amazingly good at digging up googledge, but as you start understanding the stuff yourself, you gradually realize that those who pretended to master it, really never had the slightest clue.
To me, it looks like OG is talking out of real knowledge in this case.
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When I joined the company I was told this by the MD - in a Dallas bar on a business trip - and checked after we got home.
I like to know the "why" of things, as well as the "what".
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Much like the amazing Richard Feynman - always needed to know why.
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I was in Inspection during the 2010s, but the compnay was founded in 1995
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I recall that at the time my wife's uncle (a very successful businessman) and his family were accustomed to drinking lots of Perrier. He went to a local retailer and made him an offer for his entire stock of Perrier to "save him having to return it all". He bought several pallets at way below the normal price. He took the view that the chances of its being dangerous were well below the rewards of having made such a deal.
Phil
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of the author, especially if you find them impolite, inaccurate or inflammatory.
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The finest refined water is ![Beer | [beer]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/beer.gif)
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I do agree, however, I had to stop drinking the purest of refined waters back in 2001. So, I am stuck with 2nd and 3rd best waters. 
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I had that yesterday. At least, one of the 8 bottles was bad. At least according to my feeling today in the morning 
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Do you drink lacroix, drive a tesla and snack edamame? :-D
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Far into the 1990s, and even into the 2000s, Norwegian people were essentially laughing at people buying bottled water. What for?? Buying water?
A few (national) brands of natural mineral waters, some even naturally carbonated, had had a position for up to a hundred years as high class "party" water, accompanying finer wines, but most certainly not for everyday consumption.
When bottled water made the market here, about 25 years ago, it was essentially as a sugar-free replacement for soda pop (or whatever is the term in the various English languages  ). Even the traditional mineral water brands had to come up with variants with fruit flavor added.
So Perrier has arrived in the food stores as the high priced imported brand, for those having problems getting rid of their money. Did I ever see it before year 2000? Not that I remember. Must have been in super-high-price speciality shops (where I do not go). If you serve imported water, it is nothing but a show off.
I read Bill Bryson: A Walk in the Woods[^], which is most certainly recommendable - the book is really funny. But I hesitated when Bryson told about how he walked ahead of his mate, so that he could early start the filtering of water where they camped. Filtering water out in the wilderness? What's that? Oh well, I guess I am just wasted with Norwegian water quality...
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