Robert works in financial services and has spent many years creating and maintaining trading systems. He knows far too much about low latency data systems and garbage collection than is good for anyone. If you find yourself in a pub with him then do NOT mention phrases like "mark and sweep" or "memory profiling" as you'll be stuck there for hours and, might, be forced to break an ashtray over your own head to get away from him.
Beware the Empty Suit
They get all the pleasure and none of the pain
I've recently read a couple of books by the author Nassim Nicholas Taleb - "Fooled by Randomness" and "The Black Swan". He mainly writes about unexpected events (different from risk) in financial markets and reactions to them. These unexpected and unpredictable events can be either positive or negative for those affected. He also introduces the concept of "The Empty Suit".
The Empty Suit is a person who wears, and looks good, in a suit. They have no real skills and produce nothing except for PowerPoint presentations. They are, however, very successful. The secret to their success is to become visibly involved in many projects at the stage where they look like they can succeed and a lot of the leg work has been done. They give a couple of PowerPoint presentations (often off their own back without talking to the project team) to Senior Management on the project. If the project fails (and 75% of the time they do) they just stop mentioning it and talk about another. If the project succeeds then they trumpet their own involvement and take credit, making sure they attend the launch drinks and 'press the flesh'.
I read this and almost dropped the book to shout "Yes! Yes! I see that all the time!" but I was on a packed tube train.
I've seen a few people who obviously fit this description. Amongst them are Enterprise Architects and floating Technical Architects (and don't get me started on programme managers). This isn't to say that anyone with those titles is an Empty Suit but they do allow someone with those attributes to flourish. In particular, anyone who doesn't stay around or take part in any of the implementation is likely to be an Empty Suit.
How often have you broken your back to deliver a difficult project to impossible timescales but you're not the one to gain the benefits? So they have all the perks of success but none of the downside... Perhaps I shouldn't beware the Empty Suit; maybe I should learn and copy!
Re: Beware the Empty Suit
Still empty suits I can deal with, they never last that long. After a couple of projects running a smart company will filter out these individuals. So most of the time is just a endurance contest. Empty suits never endure that long and if they do you better ask your self. Is it worth working for a company who doesn't notice this?
What really scares me is that companies let unmotivated people work next to me. I've had some companies making me part of a project team which had no motivation what so ever. In my opinion these people are even worse than empty suits. They are the type with phrases like this:
"Why should I change it. It works doesn't it?"
or
"Maybe I can have it done by next week (while surfing the net)"
Love to hear what type of solutions there are to prevent my self from the frustration and problems these people cause.
Re: Beware the Empty Suit
Embrace the horror!
The empty suit is one corner of the gamut - all style and no substance. Certain developers might be viewed as the opposite corner - all substance and no style!
Software isn't developed in a vacuum and as architects we bridge the gap between the business and the software. We defend the team from sullen developers and the software from unrealistic requirements. And we need to defend the team from having their thunder stolen. Ideally we'd all be all substance, all style, all the time - but we're not so we've got to choose the persona that will best suit the environment we work in - all substance for the dev team, all style for the boardroom.
Hopefully the empty suit won't even get a look in.
