Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern

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Published Sunday, January 18, 2004 1:14 AM by RoyOsherove
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Saturday, January 17, 2004 1:54 PM by TrackBack

# Learning from mistakes: the Don Kihote pattern

Monday, January 19, 2004 12:11 AM by Greg Pyatt

# ADSI Hell

Hey Osherove,

ADSI has been a royal pain for me too. It's one of those things that MS doesn't provide adequate tools with which to teach yourself. I mean, how many developers out there are going to has access to a DNS or Exchange server so that the connection strings can be set up properly? Most admins just don't have the time to teach or show a programmer how these things are done.

I remember when ASP first came out what a chore setting up file DSNs and connection strings were. Finally a MVP put up a website with very clear directions on the dozens of different connection string settings for all the databases out there. It was a lifesaver! Someone seriously needs to do the same thing with ADSI, but MS seems to have a wishy-washy relationship with it. Now that .NET is out there, ADSI will get even less attention, which is sort of tough for those of us who love .NET, but have to work in classic ASP.

-GP
Monday, January 19, 2004 11:07 PM by Addy Santo

# re: Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern


Look up a previous post of mine named "Anti-Patterns"... There are many examples of wrong practices, their effects and possible solutions. You can take comfort in the fact that they have far worse errors there than anything you or I could ever think of :)
Tuesday, January 20, 2004 2:08 AM by Roy Osherove

# re: Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern

I actually have the "Anti Patterns" book. Should help out..
Friday, January 23, 2004 5:02 AM by TrackBack

# Visible Progress

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 6:46 AM by SBC

# re: Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern

http://weblogs.asp.net/sbchatterjee/archive/2004/01/18/59854.aspx
Thursday, February 05, 2004 3:44 PM by Jason

# re: Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern

Roy

I read with interest your story as a similar thing happend to me recently. I didn't get fired but I feel that as a result there has been a slight loss of confidence in me. I was tasked with some complex work to do and thought that I had thoroughly read the specifications. Due to the way I sometimes speed read I later realised that there were parts which I skipped over which were considerably complex. This also led me to grossly underestimate the time it would take. One of the problems I had was that in my company I am the so called "resident expert" so there wasn't really anyone to turn to for advice. Granted there are plenty of technical forums but that was not the problem. The difficulty was the design. In retrospect I should have 1. read the spec in detail, 2. spent even more time thinking about the problem in advance (I spent a weekend dwelling on it) and 3. Perhaps overestimated the time frames. I would be interested to hear what others would have done to prevent this happening or how they would have approached this.
Thursday, February 05, 2004 5:10 PM by Roy Osherove

# re: Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern

Jason. Very interesting. I think the most important thing to know is that this sometimes happens to the best of us. The main thing to do when this has already happened is to be brave enough to admit your mistakes to those who have the exectations of you. You need to communicate the problems. In time you will build confidence of your peers in you again, as long as you are totally honest about what you're doing.
As for how to avoid this: Yeah, you need to up your estimation abilities but that takes a good while to measure.Estimate at the start nd see at the end how accurate you were. Do this each and every time and you'll see this ability getting better and better. In any case be prepared to say the first thing you should always say when faced with the "how long" question: "I'll get back to you". Take your time. Don't be too hasty, and yes. Never speed read.