Oren Ellenbogen's Blog - Can you build software like House ?

Saturday, October 20, 2007

What is more important to you - having the brightest dude in the world in your team, doing his magic with God-like authority or real "together-will-conquer-the-world" Team work? Tricky question...

For those of you who don't know the TV series "House", this is your wake up call! Go see it. Now. Seriously.
Well, if you don't have the time or you're just too damn eager to read my post, we'll, "you're an idiot!", but that's your right so I'll give you a short summary: Dr. House, played by the genius actor Hugh Laurie, is the go-to-guy for all the rare cases where the rest of the doctors go bananas. With his extremely cynical point of view and shameless wittiness, combined with a very bright, analytic and (yet) creative thinking, he manage to solve all (we'll, almost) of these cases and still being a complete jerk to his "teammates" during the show. Just a few pearls from Wikiquote so you'll get the drift:

Dr. Cuddy: You don't prescribe medicine based on guesses. At least we don't since Tuskeegee and Mengele.
Dr. House: You're comparing me to a Nazi? [admiringly] Nice ...

Lucille: I'm not pregnant.

Dr. House: Sorry, you don't get to make that call unless you have a stethoscope. Union rules.

If you ask me, I would pick House any day. Now, if any of you know such a man, let him know that we're at Semingo are hiring; Till then, I guess that I would stick to a strong Team and real commitment instead of software-Nazi.

I'm lying. I don't think that following someone blindly is for me. I don't believe in this kind of leadership. I grew up at the court, playing Basketball since I was ~9, there is nothing I love more than genuine Team spirit. Facing the fact that "white man can't jump" quite early in my life, I realized that Michael Jordan can be rest assured, I'm not going to steal his glory. Knowing that and still being the competitive guy that I am, there is no other choice but to build a strong Team and having fun together. It worked for me so far.

Shame though, It would have been funny working with someone like House; If only life were a TV show...

Management

Sunday, October 21, 2007 8:22:44 AM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)

It can be pretty hard for a manager to expect the project team to following Agile development practices and also have a "Lets go together" team attitude. Its not impossible but its just that its rare, and more rarer when projects run for a long time line. Both tend to affect each other in some way or the other.

Shuva Brata Deb

Sunday, October 21, 2007 9:55:25 AM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)

Food for thought - what happens if you put two House's in the same building (or team)?

Ilan Assayag | ilan dot assayagAT NOSPAMgmail dot com

Monday, October 22, 2007 1:01:54 PM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)

@Shuva - I'm not sure I agree although it does require "special" kind of people in the Team. Most of the Agile practices(Scrum\XP) like Daily Standup Meetings, Sprint Retrospective, Pair Programming, Constant refactoring & code reviews etc actually encourge that Team work. You need someone that glue the Team at the beginning, this is really the hard stuff. Later on, when people starting to get used to each other, it's much easier.

@Ilan - troubles! I think that this kind of Team (or building, for that matter :)) will not last long. It will be too depressing to work in this conditions.

Oren Ellenbogen | oren dot ellenbogenAT NOSPAMgmail dot com

Monday, October 22, 2007 11:12:54 PM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)

a person like house is not a right person to hire as a developer.
But, as a problem solver, he is perfect.
i've posted about something very similar a week ago ... :)

http://www.krokhmal.com/2007/10/13/AnotherBugBitesTheDustCompleteGuideToARoadOfHappiness.aspx

Shimon krokhmal

Saturday, October 27, 2007 12:41:31 PM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)

The thing with Michael Jordan, is that in comparisson to House, he realized that in order to win (even though he could do it on his own) he needs to make his team-mates better, and he did, under the zen authority of his coach Phil Jackson...

And with that being said, a good coach is essential to succesful individual or team.