Reference #57: An Elegant Puzzle

These are two options to fix a broken engineering system — that is, one that is unsustainable and leads to hero programmers.

If you have authority, you can take the blame for the situation and set a new policy. Note this only works a few times since people will lose trust in you with each failure.

Without authority, your other option is to step back and allow the system to collapse. You conserve your energy is not applying bandaid fixes. You also help the system reset more quickly; this reduces the chance of further burnout in other programmers.

Larson. An Elegant Puzzle, 2019. (164)

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