Dare Obasanjo

Microsoft performance reviews ask how have you leveraged the work of others and how have you helped other people. This actively incentivizes collaboration and reduces not invented here.

It’s an effective way to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to culture.

Mar 30, 2023 at 11:53amWeb
Show threadDare ObasanjoMar 30, 2023

Most tech company performance reviews ask questions that are more like how have you self promoted and empire built this year?

This is how you end up with situations like Deepmind & Google Brain fighting each other instead of collaborating.

Show threadAlex StamosMar 30, 2023
@carnage4life Almost every Big Tech culture pathology can be traced back to what the perf review system rewards. At FB, it’s metrics.
Show threadKevin MarksMar 30, 2023
@alex @carnage4life A friend at MSFT had a bonus based on bugs fixed and QA had one based on bugs found. This meant every time they found a tiny glitch they didn't fix it, but tipped off a QA colleague to log it so they could both get paid.
Show threadBrian GawaltMar 30, 2023
@KevinMarks @alex @carnage4life can really kick this into high gear if you start sneaking in the bugs on purpose
Show threadshulhanMar 30, 2023
@KevinMarks @alex @carnage4life This remind me an anecdote about cobra effect in India.
Show threadKevin MarksMar 30, 2023
@shuLhan @alex @carnage4life see also https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7103882-rats-had-featured-largely-in-the-history-of-ankh-morpork-shortly
A quote from Soul Music

Rats had featured largely in the history of Ankh-Morpork. Shortly before the Patrician came to power there was a terrible plague of rats. The city counci...

Show threadTimo GeuschMar 30, 2023

@carnage4life doesn't Google do this intentionally? ISTR reading somewhere that this kind of internal "competition" was SOP at Google.

Those seven competing messengers aren't going to write themselves, after all.

Show threadLukas NevilleMar 30, 2023

@carnage4life It sounds like Microsoft has come a long way since the political jostling over managers' stack ranking described here.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mojo-steve-ballmer

Is there an article or summary anywhere describing the current state of appraisal at MSFT?

Show threadJ.P. StewartMar 30, 2023
@carnage4life yes! Also, more than being listed on the form, it takes encouragement throughout the year as well asking engineers to both contribute to and learn from their peers.
Show threadGretchen AndersonMar 30, 2023
@carnage4life yes…and msft has a history of grading on a bell curve which has serious problems causing competition also