Anti-pattern: Theory XOR Practice

Hiring one guy to do the planning, but not documenting it in excruciating detail, and then hiring another guy to do the execution.

This only works properly if the first guy's plan was documented in very high detail, because it would have to be able to handle exceptions to an initial vector, as encountered by the second guy. As soon as you hire a second guy, without a detailed plan, you'd better be budgeting for the second guy to reiterate the planning operations in great detail, and that you'd be able to retain the second guy long enough to execute the new plans.

This is starting to become a familiar scene. Practice doesn't displace theory. It just looks that way to a lot bad theorists, because they don't budget for both.

Every job I've seen where people complain about "theory" "practice" "consultants" "JFDI". It's a fallacy.

The real problem is budgeting and talent management.

By Day 4 on Vaca

• Ensuring proper resignation from a board of a strange company.
• Catching up on a few months of personal paper work.
• Meeting with friends and acquaintances.
• Removing the bodies of dead animals from my neglected flat.
• Overall getting sorted... making up for lost time.

That's in addition to having had to

• Clean a rental room, vacate it, and reclaim deposits.
• Move into a rental room, furnish it, and place deposits.
• Wrap up handover at the previous job, and ensure proper termination procedures.
• Help two friendly companies with new work.
• Register a company for tax minimisation.
• Maintain a relationship with a woman.

Tired of Nasty Counterparties

Recent events bring to mind, an adventure from many moons ago. Yet, though we shall we walk through the valley of the shadow of litigation, we shall fear no criminal. Though we shall fall, bankrupt, maimed, and in disrepute, we shall seek peace in the knowledge that this is the fate of our nature. These times have made my heart heavy.