Medicate – How to heal cheatcodes

… Recap

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Some people thrive at Tech companies without doing any meaningful work. They cheat their way through. As part of the blog series, we discuss this phenomenon.

Such people use tricks to game the system. We refer to these tricks as cheatcodes.

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We’ve discussed:

Now we discuss – how to cure cheatcode culture.

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Once again – below list is more of a recommendation set than a solution template. Feel free to read, research, investigate and take common sense steps, or reachout to me to discuss more.

User discretion is advised before using a method.

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Avoid

First and foremost – Avoid creating any more cheatcodes 😃😃. Simple enough !

To do that – use all ideas discussed in the previous blog. Next …

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Look at things AS IS

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People look at things through the glasses of their upbringing, family, culture, education, personal biases and more. e.g. Indians do not mind being late, sometimes by hours. Japanese on the other hand take great offence at being even a minute late. Same reality, different perceptions !

People and organizations tend to deny reality; reasons aplenty.

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This is a common challenge.

For cheatcode infested organizations – the first step I recommend is:

Have the strength/ courage to look at things AS IS. This might sound simple. But, human emotions drive simple things to complexity.

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Organizations imagine reasons for poor performances, to be …

And do not accept the real reasons like …

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Essentially .. look at issues as THEY ARE and not as we’d like them to be. Too often, we ( myself included ) do not challenge things we observe on a daily basis. We “train” ourselves into believing that, it is the way things are supposed to be.

I’ve mentioned this earlier – I believed that Managers relax and developers toil. This is an example of how reality is incorrectly perceived.

Sometimes outsiders can help. A fresh perspective shines light on things we take for granted.

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And once we look at things AS IS, we realize …

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Looking at things as they ARE ( even with someone else’s help ) will help separate the signal from the noise. This is the first step in getting rid of cheatcodes.

Next steps are to understand what’s going on, and what to do …

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80/ 20 Principle

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The 80/ 20 principle ( also called Pareto’s principle ) states that most results are caused by very few causes. These causes are also called the vital few. e.g.

Extrapolating the principle for our use, we will find that:

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Therefore, most cheatcoding can be resolved by fixing few people, processes or systems. Get to the vital few first. So,

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Resolving the vital few will give the most benefit.

The few will give 80% results immediately. Results will cascade across the organization. Remaining 20 % will take a much longer time.

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Resulting

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Poker has a concept called “resulting”. In simple words it means that sometimes …

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Resolving cheatcoding will cause short term pain. The person responsible for fixing the team needs to understand the concept of resulting.

Extrapolating resulting into the real world – sometimes …

But, if I drive drunk all the time, then I am almost certain to end up in an accident, jail or worse.

In the short term, the end result is NOT always related to the quality of the decision itself.

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In our context …

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Poor decisions sometimes result in good outcomes. They end up becoming the norm. E.g.

Decisions need to be evaluated objectively. The person responsible to fix an organization needs to understand the concept of resulting. He cannot drive only based on the results.

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Remember:

Poor bets will inherently encourage cheatcoding … even if they benefit in the short term.

Good bets will automatically discourage cheatcoding … even if they lose in the short term.

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Common Sense

Integrity, Energy and Intellect

I read this phrase in a Naval Ravikant book. It has stuck with me since. Techies need to have these skills : Integrity, Energy and Intellect.

More importantly in the same order.

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Let’s be honest … It’s impossible for any of us to look at every single corner all the time. Rather it is possible, but too inefficient for any organization to function profitably.

That being the case, the highest priority skill is Integrity. Dishonest, but smart, folks will always find creative ways to cheat the system.

Next … high integrity but lazy people will find ways ( honest ways ) to NOT work. They need to be replaced by high energy individuals.

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Finally comes intellect. Like a good tool, intellect is great. But only when used at the right place and controlled by a good handler.

Intellect without integrity and energy, is of no value to an organization.

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Conclusion

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“Just as for the fish moving inside the water, it cannot be known as to when they are drinking water”

It cannot be fully known when techies use, and when they abuse the freedom given to them. Discomforting but true !

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This blog series was to help discuss a common issue. This issue is hardly discussed, rarely understood and seldom solved at software organizations.

My intent was to help everyone in the industry understand the issue; possibly help resolve them too.

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In the beginning of the series, I mentioned that I would consider my information successful, when:

Coming to the end, I hope I have measured to my own standards.

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Take care and feel free to reachout to discuss more on the subject.