Bait And Switch (Part 2/2)

There will be times when a project you're working on is put under periodic review. Attending the meeting, invariably, will be one or two senior personnel whose sole purpose is to make suggestions which sound productive, but, more often than not, are a frivolous waste of time. Don't get me wrong - honest, constructive feedback is always welcome and if this results in extra hours or even weeks of re-work, so be it. But while the feedback is often honest enough, it tends to be hardly constructive.

These people tend to talk for the sake of talking. Because they're in a senior position and therefore feel they have to somehow justify their presence at the meeting. Thus, they say the first thing that comes to mind, and this sometimes has appalling consequences as implementing their suggested changes may involve excruciating hours of software surgery they think should be easy for you. They're not doing it on purpose, mind you - that would require technical know-how. They're just trying to hit their KPI, which often just amounts to making themselves look like part of the creative process, however nominally.

One countermeasure for times like this, is The Chaff.

Guided missiles at the ready.

The Chaff

During my time in the Republic of Singapore Navy, we were trained in missile countermeasures. This involved something known as the chaff. In layman's terms, this involves confusing the lock-on of an incoming guided missile by dispersing false targets, useless bits of matter known as "chaff", to cause the missile to detonate early and (hopefully) away from its intended target.

It's classic misdirection - distract the enemy with something totally unrelated to what he's aiming at, and prevent him from doing real damage.

So if, for example, you're performing a presentation for an audience which you know includes the people mentioned at the top, the same principle applies. Their motive is to find something to criticize. So give them something to criticize. Something they can point out for you to change. Preferably something obvious enough that will look like a sizeable contribution to the project.And, most importantly, something that is totally unconnected to the delicate parts of your project.

You could make the title headers of your pages a few sizes too big - not enough for it to feel deliberate, but enough for people to say "we need to make those headers smaller". A CSS change, and you're done.

Or you could choose colors that don't exactly clash, but are either too faint or too striking, enough to lead these people into saying "the color scheme needs to change". Again, the resultant change makes the project look almost completely different.

Or cram your pages with loads and loads of information, to the point where they say "can we do away with this, or just hide it?" Comment out some code, and you're golden.

They meet their objective - they get to look like they're involved and important to the process. You meet your objective - you draw their attention away from frivolous changes to delicate parts of the project, and in the process you preserve your sanity. Win-win!

For a more classic example of this, follow this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality\

Isn't this unethical?

That depends on what you use it for. If you do it to mask some very real issues with your system design, then yes it is horribly unethical and you need to stop. But if you're just intending to stop people from suggesting drastic change for the sake of change, then no, you've actually just done everyone a big favor. The changes proposed would have been a lot of work for no discernible benefit. The company is paying for your time and it is imperative that your time is used wisely.

Donald Trump does this too!

It's the Year of the Trump, and our boy has been up to some attention-grabbing shenanigans lately. From the Twitter wars over Melanie Griffith's infamous acceptance speech to the hoo-ha over crowd sizes at his inauguration, Donald Trump has been the topic of many memes and Social Media wars for his apparent pettiness. Seriously, does any of this look familiar to you? They appear to be the hallmarks of a raving madman who has messed up his priorities, but to me they look like clear attempts at misdirection.

I can just imagine him saying "Hey, these guys want to feel like their voices matter, right? Let's give them something to talk about. Make them feel all involved and shit."

And, unfortunately, it seems to be working. Many have taken the bait - hook, line and sinker. They stay awake at 3am waiting for the predictable inflammatory tweet so they can rage over it. They lose no time refuting and obsessing over everything his team says and does, even if it looks trivial. In their zeal, they compare themselves to activists and freedom fighters.

No, Donald old boy. I see what you're doing there. I've pulled this stunt too often in the last ten years to be taken in. I understand that what you allow people to see is often less alarming than what you don't. The Titanic wasn't sunk by the visible tip of the iceberg. She was sunk by the part of the iceberg beneath the water.

I'm watching you, dude. Like a hawk.

Conclusion

Neither of these tactics are particularly admirable. It may end with your superiors feeling foolish when they realize they've been had, and you know how sensitive these people get. Sudden unemployment may not be the worst of it. Some of the management people I've spoken to on this, get incredibly defensive when these tactics are revealed. Not that I blame them - as mentioned earlier, people hate being manipulated, especially by those occupying the lower rungs of the hierarchy.

Hey, look, a UFO!
T___T