The topic of discussion today is fallacies that effect programmers on a day to day basis, also referred to as “cognitive biases”.  A quick look on wikipedia yields us this useful description:

A cognitive bias describes a replicable pattern in perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality. They are the result of distortions in the human mind that always lead to the same pattern of poor judgment, often triggered by a particular situation.

What does this mean? It means due to emotional irrationality you are prone to make poor judgements and decisions based on previous experiences even if the opposite outcome is better for you in the long run. Even a specific way a question is worded can make you choose opposite choices.

The first fallacy i’m going to talk about is the “Sunk Cost Fallacy”. I’m going to quote Peter  Michaud‘s post here because I really like his description

Sunk Costs are costs which have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. The Sunk Cost Fallacy is a mistake in reasoning in which you consider the sunk costs of an activity (instead of the futurecosts) when you decide whether you should continue the activity or not.

As developers we experience this problem every day while coding, the language our app is written in, libraries we are using, a particular design pattern or architecture we have chosen to use. Deep down we know this is not healthy for the maintainability of our app down the road, but yet we find it hard to scrap it and start fresh. Why is this? It all boils down to loss aversion.

loss aversion refers to people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Some studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.

You see, although refactoring, or rewriting all together seems like it may be a lot of work, even though we know it’s ultimately best. It’s not the idea of that work that chooses us to continue painfully stuck in our old decisions. It’s the pain of feeling like all the time, money and resources spent on the old implementation was a complete waste, by changing to something different we have to accept the fact that we threw away all of that, it was worthless, or was it?

I really love some of the examples on You Are Not So Smart‘s article. It talks a lot about how the sunk cost fallacy and loss aversion keeps games like Farmville thriving. It’s worth the read if you can spare the extra couple of minutes. I’m going to quote an example from the article.

If you dropped your cell phone over the edge of a cruise ship, you would need James Cameron’s unmanned submarine fleet to find it again. Sure, you could spend a small fortune to retrieve it, but you wouldn’t throw good money after bad. Laid out like this, logical and rational and easy to pick apart, you can pat yourself on the back for being such a reasonable human. Unfortunately, the sunk costs in life aren’t always so easy to see. When something is gone forever it can be difficult to realize it. The past isn’t as tangible a concept as the sea floor, yet it is just as untouchable. What is left behind is just as irretrievable.

He’s right, in a situation like this the answer is clear, it’s gone, move on, but when it comes to the things we hold more dear and slaved over the decision becomes clouded.

But let’s really think about this, you replace your car every so many years, you replace warn clothes, shoes and many other things. You paid money for them, and sometimes quite a bit, but when they’ve seen their day it’s time to move on.

I’d advise that we keep this into consideration when we are deciding to deprecate whatever library, language, framework, or implementation that is no longer as usefull as it once was and is just causing more work and pain to keep stable and maintainable, just because we may feel that we wasted time and resources. The time is gone already, irretrievable. You will never get it back, and you will never get back the time you continue to poor into something that is just no longer useful.

The fact is that it was useful for a period of time, it served it’s purpose well. Pat yourself on the back for that, and then pat yourself on the back for the next rendition of it. Your time was not wasted, remember that. You performed a task to get your app to what it is today, and it was the best choice at the moment, but make sure to consider if it is still the best choice moving forward, or if it’s just going to cause you more greif than anything.

The past is irrelevant in this particular decision. What matters most is what is best for your future as well as the app / codebase. Choosing a new direction does not mean that the old choice was a bad one. It was a learning experience and something to grow on. Growing out of something is a good thing. Your users evolve, the company evolves, it grows, it adapts, and so should the code base. Your employer would not stay in the same building they invested 2 years in, and lots of money if they needed more space to accomodate all the new hires. You shouldn’t stay with the same technology decisions if the direction of your app is changing either. It served it’s purpose for the time being, and it was great. What’s next?

Fight the guy you can’t see
I recently purchased the new UFC game for PS3, which is only single player locally, 2 player online. I have been having friends over and shit talking while kicking their ass in a fighting game since I was a kid, Karate Champ allowed 2 people to fight locally in 1984. We all grew up playing Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat in the late 80′s and early 90′s. How the hell is it that it can be 2009 and we are making leaps and bounds in the technology for these systems, but removing fundamental concepts that got people into video games in the first place.

Technology
We have wireless controllers, wireless internet, live updates of firmware, updates for gameplay. Game consoles with more processing power then some computers, projects have even been created to cluster them into super computers. Video games are output in higher quality then most television channels and even some movies. Cut-scenes have become almost cinema quality. Real time lighting and shading, and physics engines that make almost any action realistic.

Split-Screen
These days most people who can afford the expense of 7th Generation game consoles have large tv’s 50″-73″ some even bigger. We have been playing split-screen games when the biggest TV any of my friends and I had was 19″ and now that we finally have TV’s big enough that it does not matter if we split the screen we no longer have the ability to do so.

Massively Multiplayer
You can play 16 guys across the world multi-player but not the guy next to you, Some MMO’s are capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of simultaneous users. You have voice chat, and buddy-lists to accomodate you interacting with friends, but there is nothing for you and your friends if you want to hang out in the same house and have a few beers.

I am just finding it hard to believe that with all this technology, and the size of our TV’s that game producers are ignoring a fundamental feature of video games. This is why many of us started playing video games in the first place. Video games are no longer something I can do with my friends when they come over, unless everyone is up for a game of Little Big Planet. There are very few games you can enjoy with your friends.

Anti-Social or Money Hungry?
Has society become this anti-social that the only important part of games is to focus on single person interaction. We don’t want to encourage people to invite their friends over for a friendly ass kicking in the newest fighting game, or racing game? or is it just that the corporations that develop these games are so hungry for money that they put people in a position to buy more consoles and more games so they can set them up in multiple rooms in order to get somewhere close to the same interaction they had as kids?

Whatever the reason, I hope this is a short phase that will soon be over. I wont be playing many new video games until I am able to look my friend in the face while I tell him he is a shitty driver, or that i’m going to school him in the newest boxing game or whatever it may be.

/rant

I was sitting at home  and I received this email. (shortened to just useful excerpts)

Hello Erik,
Trust you are doing well. I just left you a Voice Mail.

Please let me know if you are interested in the position bellow by sending me your resume. I will call you to further discuss..

Web Developer III
Location: Orlando, FL
Job Type: Contract
Duration: 9 months
Rate: Open

.. long position summary ..
.. requirements ..
Significant experience with Content Management Systems
3-4 years of hands-on web development, including XML, DHTML, CSS, JavaScript
3 years experience with ASP/JSP/PHP or other server-side scripting language
Experience with Flash and ActionScript a strong plus
Experience with two and three tier web architecture.

Reading this I’m thinking wow, this sounds an awful lot like a position where I work, Web Developer III my work ranks our development positions I, II, III most places use Jr., Sr. etc. Ok, location Orlando, even closer. 9 month contract. Ok now this is getting eerie. Any contract position I have ever been offered is 6 or 12 months, occasionally i’ll get offered a 3 month, but 9 months is a Disney thing.

So on to the requirements, significant experience with CMS we heavily use cms’s ASP/JSP/PHP or other server-side scripting language at this point it has to be Disney, how many companies don’t care what language you have experience in? Disney has its own internally developed language so we hire from all backgrounds, but I’d guess the overwhelming majority of companies hire straight from the large pool of people that use the technology they implement.

But surely he couldn’t have emailed me an offer for a job at my current employer, after all he found me through my resume that is on monster.com (which I’d also like to mention hasn’t been updated in at least 6-9 months). I mean its the first entry in my previous experience section. Ok the suspense is killing me, lets just ask.

Dear Recruiter,

Is this position with Disney Internet Group / Disney Interactive Media Group / Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online ? Based off the contract term, the position title, skill set they are seeking, and overall job description it sounds just like it?

it did not take long to receive a reply, maybe 15 minutes.

Erik,

Thanks for your response. Yes the position is with one of the Disney groups. Would you be interested? feel free to send in your resume and I can call you back to further discuss the position with you. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. My details are listed below.

Thanks

Recruiter

This is the point where I yell some profanity, along the lines of you have to be f*in kidding me! I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. Why on earth would you not read someones resume before contacting them about a position. I’m fired up now. and as usual for me I’m pretty blunt I feel something needs to be said. So this is my reply.

I can’t tell you how much this response disappointments me. The sad truth is that this isn’t the first situation like this that has happened to me either, and is almost a daily occurrence at the office. I believe that I speak for quite a number of professionals when I ask that you please read our resume’s before contacting us regarding positions.

You are contacting me about a position that I already work in, I have been working for Disney since January of 2007, and have been a full time employee of theirs since April of 2008  and still presently working there, had anyone looked at the first entry in the employment experience section of my resume they would have noticed that.

Again, please read our resumes before contacting us about positions that we already hold, or that have nothing to do with our knowledge and previous work experience, because our resume happens to contain some sort of keyword out of the job description.

Sincerely,
Erik St. Martin

I know this probably won’t help he is probably on to his next victim, but it made me feel a little better.

The content is stored in text files, one per page, which means that no matter how many pages there are, page load time remains virtually the same, unlike a CMS with content stored in a database that takes longer and longer to query as more content is added.

I was shocked, they cannot be serious right? It seems as if in their opinion databases have been a waste of researchers time. I don’t know where to begin at dismissing this, I pose these questions?

• If flat files are so much better and faster why does the majority of software use databases, and why were databases invented?
• What do databases use to store their information? You guessed it files! except a huge amount of effort has been placed in making sure that I/O is optimized, as well as caching in memory things that are commonly accessed.

On to my question about your architecture, that no matter how many files its virtually the same load time! How much do you know about file I/O? If you have say 1,000 articles that have been placed on the disk through the course of 5 or 6 years I dare say these are going to be spread out across the disk, now your site that has 1,000 articles should have multiple users at the same time on, maybe in the hundreds? What do you suppose happens? There is going to be overhead while the disk seeks to all these different positions, maybe you’ll be in luck and the memory wont be reused by another process and the file will still be there for the second request.

On to scaling, when all this I/O and even just load becomes to much for one server, what is to be done? clustering should be fun, you will need to move these files to some sort of NAS device, and manage them from there.

/rant

It’s not that I don’t see this small lightweight cms as being useful, there are plenty of people out there that this is extremely useful for, but don’t play up your software by playing down proven technology. When using statements like this as benefits to your software you may want to do some research to see how accurate you are.

Is It Really A Good Opportunity?

When looking at any job offer through a recruiting firm the first and foremost thing to remember is that recruiters are sales people. Despite what any recruiter says, they are not out for your best interest. They are out to get paid and make their commission off of your placement. The rate they offer you is determined by them for maximum profit on their end, not what they feel is fair.

The person contacting you has probably merely scanned your resume looking for buzzwords and thats if your lucky. They have not paid a bit of attention to any detail inside your resume so don’t take their word about how great an opportunity is. See my previous post Trapped in Recruiter Hell for a good example of this.

Be sure to ask a lot of questions about the position. I have dealt with many recruiters who knew less about the position they were trying to fill than they knew about me. If you’re uncomfortable about any aspect of it walk away. Don’t get yourself into a bad position its not worth it.

Moving across the country for a 3 month contract with possibility for a permanent position is not a good opportunity, not for anyone. Unless maybe they are offering you a substantial amount of money and relocation help, just don’t go and sell your house. I’ll come back to this later.

Negotiate! Negotiate! Negotiate!

It still astonishes me how frequently I talk to leased workers who came in at an extremely low rate simply because thats what they were offered. A useful piece of advice is never take what they are offering, recruiters will always low ball you. Keep in mind the recruiting firm is making a lot of money off of you, the rate at which the employer pays them is far higher then what they are offering you. Tap into their profits a bit, get yourself a good rate.

Most recruiters will not give you benefits unless you ask them for them. Be sure to ask if they’re offered. If they do not, insist they furnish you with a couple more dollars an hour to account for them. I have yet to have a recruiter decline this request. My most recent encounter I ended up receiving both the benefits and the higher rate.

Payment Terms

Save yourself the hassle don’t fall in to the 1099 trap. Many recruiters will try to get you into companies under a 1099 Independent Contractor agreement. This opens up a whole can of worms you don’t want to deal with. Be prepared to pay around 15% more in taxes because your paying all the employment taxes yourself. You will want to store money throughout the year or make quarterly payments so your not in for a huge shock at the end of the year.

Try your best to work under W-2 as a standard employee so the recruiter is covering a portion of the taxes. If you cannot work under a W-2, do yourself a favor spend the $400 and form an S-Corporation. This way you can pay yourself a portion of your pay as a salary and the rest as dividends. This will save you from paying employment tax on all of your income. It will also put you in a position to be more aggressive with your deductions. I have met several contractors who will only do Corp-to-Corp billing.

Expect To Be Extended

Don’t count on being converted after your 3, 6, or 9 month contract is complete. Despite what percentage of people your recruiter tells you get converted. The facts are not in your favor. Most companies rarely hire on after the first contract especially if it’s a contract as short as 3 months. They more often then not will extend you out for a longer period of time. Be prepared. Keep in mind, a lot of employers who use leased workers have several at a time, you are competing for the same permanent positions as all the other contractors, the ones before you, and even ones after you if they are exceptional workers.

Contractors are often hired because more staff is needed to get a project / company off the ground, and far less to maintain it or continue running the project after its been launched. So as sad as it may be you have to come to the realization that not all contractors will be converted. Which brings me to the next point.

Mitigate Risk

Recruiters lie, they embellish. They try to make your opportunities with the company out to be more then they really are. I’d say 75% of contract workers are only working under contract for the chance to take the permanent position. A recruiter will not tell you your chances are slim. So you need to mitigate the risk of being left unemployed.

Make sure you save money, don’t take all that money you’re making and throw it away on new gadgets and toys. Contract positions come and go, they are risky thats why you make more then a salaried employee.

Don’t sell your house and move out of state, or across the state. You don’t want to be left in a position in 6 months where you don’t get that permanent position you were counting on, and now you need to find a new job, and find a new home. The converse of this is also true. Don’t up and by a house near your contract position to have the chance that in 6-9 months you will need to find your next contract position and close a lot of doors for yourself because you are unable to sell your house.

Do not wait until the last minute to look for something else, give yourself at least a month, preferably 1 1/2 to 2 months to find a new job. If it gets this close to the end of your contract without any traction being made to convert you or extend your contract its not worth the risk. It is their fault for not keeping up on it. Always keep your options open.

Prevent Resume Rot

Resume Rot is a horrible thing. You end up in a contract position using all these out dated skill sets and before you know it the industry has changed, and your left back out in the job market hunting. Keep yourself up to date on current industry standards and technologies. This will keep you in a good position if things don’t work out where your at.

Follow Up

Be sure to follow up regurally with your recruiter about the status of your contract. Don’t count on them to contact you. It’s unreliable. Make sure you jump on their case to find out about an extension with plenty of notice in advance. They may drop the ball.

This interaction irritates me quite frequently. Who am I kidding it irritates me about 90% of the time. Dealing with these people is rarely a good experience.

Never Ending Phone Calls & Emails

First and foremost you have to deal with the never ending calls from about 30 of these places at a time. That of course is provided that there are not multiple recruiters from the same office calling you about the same position which seems to happen more frequently then you’d expect. They will continue to call you and / or email you until they reach you. The greatest part about this is as an 8+ year web developer I will get phone calls about a Sales Floor Manager at a car dealership. Which brings me to my second point.

Lack of Knowledge

It’s quite amazing that a recruiter would not try to have at least a brief understanding of a field they are recruiting for. They call you about positions you are either completely over qualified for or under qualified for. It’s become quite apparent they only scan your resume for keywords before calling or emailing you telling you that after “reviewing” your resume they feel you are a perfect fit for a position they have. I can have a description of a previous job that says I use an internal language that is java based and I will be determined to be a perfect candidate for a Sr Java Developer position with a minimum of 5 years experience. Don’t even attempt to tell me you feel I’m a perfect match for a position you have with a client until you have actually read my resume.

Whats Best for “You”

Honesty is a trait you should never expect to find in a recruiter. Most of their effort is spent trying to convince you how great of an opportunity they have for you. When in reality they mean a great opportunity for them. I had a great example of this happen to me a few months ago.

I received a phone call from a head hunter about a position in Miami, FL. I currently live in Clearwater, FL this position is on the other side of the state. Through numerous phone calls and emails I tried to inform the head hunter that I was not at all interested in the position. She always had a rebuttal for how it wasn’t an issue. I have both a Doberman and a Pit Bull which are banned breeds in that city, of course that wasn’t a problem because there is a town about an hour outside of Miami where they are allowed. Transportation to and from this city isn’t that big of a deal because there is a bus running in and out. It continued over and over. “I really would hate to see you miss out on such a great opportunity”. After probably about ten emails I had enough, and informed her “A great opportunity for me? how can you say this is a great opportunity for me. I have to move across the state, with no help with relocation. Receive a salary lower then what I currently make, at a higher cost of living. I’ll have a longer commute to work. I’ll work for a company I have never heard of when I currently work for a prestigious name. How exactly is this a great opportunity for me? What makes it so great? The only person who benefits from this so called opportunity is you.”. Needless to say I never received anymore replies.

Disappearing Act

Once the head hunter lands you in the position don’t expect to hear from them again. Mission accomplished they collect their commission and move on to the next victim. Almost every placement I have ever gone through I either never heard from my recruiter again, or maybe once every 3-6 months. I once had a position where my recruiter didn’t even keep track of my contract end date. I ended up being informed by the employer at the time that it was the last day of my contract and I wouldn’t be coming back after the break. My recruiter should have known this already, but apparently didn’t want to be bothered to make a phone call to let me know. Amazingly enough about 9 months later I received an email from this same recruiter with another “great opportunity”. I hope he isn’t waiting by the phone.

Update: As a follow up I have posted a list of 7 Tips for Deailing with Recruiters