[HN Gopher] NASA and Open-Source Software
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       NASA and Open-Source Software
        
       Author : pabs3
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2023-02-16 05:24 UTC (17 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lwn.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lwn.net)
        
       | yosito wrote:
       | > Another challenge is NASA's famous bureaucracy
       | 
       | For awhile, I was working at NASA on an open source project. I
       | had idealized NASA based on movies, and thought it was the kind
       | of place where one could be bold with coming up with novel
       | solutions to hard problems. I was naive enough to think that if I
       | had good solutions I could ignore the bureaucracy. I was
       | extremely productive and often speaking up and contributing
       | confidently in meetings. I ruffled feathers, and thought it was
       | fine as long as my work was good. Around a year in, a middle
       | manager started to micromanage who I was allowed to communicate
       | with. I recall a point when I asked a superior, who had a cubicle
       | next to mine, and who I had a positive relationship with up to
       | that point, how his weekend was. He didn't respond and later that
       | day the manager called me into the office and reprimanded me
       | literally to the point of tears, for "going outside the chain of
       | command". Eventually, despite being the most productive member of
       | our open source team, in terms of open issues resolved, new
       | features shipped, and tech debt paid off, I got fired for "low
       | performance".
       | 
       | The lesson I took away is that I shouldn't work for bureaucratic
       | organizations like NASA.
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-16 23:00 UTC)