I used to work at a startup where my job was to write reports for clients. Then I spent several years doing the same thing as a freelance side project in my free time. As soon as I went solo, my work quality got WAY better. Why? Permission.
-
Show this thread
-
Working alone, I could unilaterally make improvements in my process, learn from client feedback, etc. To make those changes in a group, I’d have had to make the case to other people first. That’s harder.
2 replies 2 retweets 29 likesShow this thread -
Having to get permission before doing a thing is a trivial inconvenience that will make people much less likely to try in the first place.
1 reply 6 retweets 31 likesShow this thread -
Getting a foreign intern to work at your company, in the US, requires an application process. That means we’re not doing it this summer, because it would probably take too long to get approval. And there’s a talented British student we don’t get to work with as a result.
1 reply 1 retweet 13 likesShow this thread -
Every time you require a permission-asking step, you deter people who don’t want to deal with the process. Now maybe you want that, or maybe it’s unavoidable. But you have to account for it.
1 reply 4 retweets 39 likesShow this thread -
If you have to get a doctor’s permission to get pain medication, a lot of people are going to just do without, or self-medicate with alcohol (bad idea!) rather than let another human being judge whether they’re really disabled or just “drug-seeking.”
1 reply 3 retweets 15 likesShow this thread -
Or think of Joel Spolsky’s criterion of “can you make a build in one step?” If you have to ask someone’s permission before you can check if your code works, you’ll check FAR too infrequently.
1 reply 0 retweets 11 likesShow this thread -
I’ve heard horror stories about workplaces where you had to ask the boss’s permission, separately, for every purchase, even a 75-cent packet of nails. That did not result in smart budgeting.
2 replies 0 retweets 9 likesShow this thread -
There are a lot of contexts where boundaries are important. But you can set boundaries in ways that require less, or more, permission-asking (i.e. communication). You can give a department a budget instead of making them beg for each nail individually.
1 reply 1 retweet 7 likesShow this thread
Self-enforcing rules, like user permissions on a filesystem, waste less time and create less psychic inhibition than expecting people to “check in” with a person.
-
-
Replying to @s_r_constantin
I read that in some pre-Unix OS you'd have to ask a sysadmin to create a directory. Also, I suppose this is part of why law-enforcement/security types keep pushing for warrantless everything.
0 replies 0 retweets 2 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.