Back in 6th grade, I was introduced to a card game Magic the Gathering. I drifted in and out of the game by high school. When a few of my friends picked up the game out of nostalgia in college, I played a few matches and I got decent enough to tag along with them to official tournaments.
I did ok. I don’t remember my DCI number or my rating today. What I do remember was interacting with opponents who were “rules lawyering” – they would attempt to nail you for an infraction or a call a judge to squeeze an advantage. Let’s say you forgot a trigger off a card or misread the text on a card. Anything you say, you’ve committed. No take-backs if you’re playing in any competitive setting against an unforgiving opponent. There’s money, card packs, and rating points on the line.
I learned how to talk in a clipped and transactional manner. Don’t say or do anything until you’re absolutely sure because nothing can be reversed. That mode is stressful and awful to deal with in a casual environment. I’ve had to tone that behavior down when playing with my friends. Sorry Mike – I’m really anal around Netrunner clicks.
The work equivalent is an engineer who finds any loophole in a ticket or document to avoid fixing a problem.
- “As per the requirement, there was no mention of the code having to work for more than 2 users simultaneously. Not an issue. Closed.”
- “Database transactions were not mentioned in the design doc. The product manager didn’t write a good spec. Not my problem.”
Yes they are technically correct. I can’t argue with them about the letter of the law given how the spec or ticket was written. We’re not building a space battlecruiser so I don’t expect to have a contractual agreement spelled out. And I’ve been around long enough to see weaseling around “air-tight” contracts.
I’d focus on improving the mindset towards reading a spec. A spec cannot possibly cover every edge condition or corner case, otherwise we might as well write code as the spec. This is the classic spirit of the law interpretation. Next, firmly indicate the project isn’t working and the impact. Users can’t use the product and we are losing money due to unhappy customers.
They need to go back and fix the issue. Re-open the ticket!
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