That ‘David Laura’ System We Got Stuck With
So, I figured I’d talk about this weird phase, this method we ended up calling the ‘David Laura’ system. Not like it was some official, documented process, you know? It was just… the way things were done in that corner of the office, and I got dragged right into it. Honestly, it was a bit of a mess, but you learn from messes, right?
This all kicked off when I was put on this project with David and Laura. They were the big brains, supposedly, but they worked in completely opposite ways. David, he’d just code stuff, tons of it, fast. Then he’d be like, “Here, integrate this.” No real plan, just… output. Laura, she was all about these grand, vague ideas. She’d send an email with two lines, and expect a miracle. My job, or my ‘practice’ as it turned out, was to somehow make these two ends meet. It felt like trying to mix oil and water, every single day.
I remember spending my mornings just trying to figure out what Laura actually wanted. It was like detective work. Then I’d go to David, and he’d already built something totally different because, well, he just felt like it. It was pure chaos. We didn’t have proper tools for this, no Jira, no decent specs. It was all verbal, or scribbled notes. I’d be running back and forth, trying to get them to even talk to each other properly. Most of the time, they wouldn’t.
- I started keeping my own crazy detailed notes, almost like a diary of who said what, just to cover my own back.
- I tried to set up little meetings, but they’d often get sidetracked or one of them wouldn’t show up.
- I basically became a full-time negotiator and mind-reader, instead of just a developer. That wasn’t in the job description, I tell you.
The whole thing was a testament to how disorganized that place could be. Letting two senior people dictate a workflow just based on their quirks? Yeah, not a great sign. We’d hear about ‘agile’ and ‘best practices’ in company meetings, but then you’d have this ‘David Laura’ thing happening in broad daylight. It was frustrating, super frustrating. We wasted so much time.
We did get that project out, somehow. Probably through sheer willpower and a lot of caffeine. But looking back, while I learned a lot about handling difficult people and unclear requirements, it wasn’t because the system was good. It was because it was broken, and I had to survive it. It taught me to spot dysfunctional setups pretty quick, I’ll give it that. So, yeah, the ‘David Laura’ system. Wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy, but hey, it’s a story to tell, I guess.
