A STAFF MEMBER'S MANIFESTO
OR CLICHES TO WORK BY
- If it's not worth doing well, it's not worth doing.
Compare:
John Marshall's Maxim: If it's not worth doing, it's
not worth doing well.
Tom West's Rule: Not all things worth doing are worth doing well.
- However, good enough is perfect.
Pareto's Rule: 80% of needs can be taken care of by 20% of cost.
- If it's not written down, it doesn't exist.
- Doing well comes not from being right but from making good choices.
- (In re ``Toilet Paper'':) Shitting, too, is necessary and important, but
don't spend much time at it.
- Don't get jerked around second hand.
- Everybody needs feedback.
- There's always something interesting to do.
- Everything's an opportunity.
- A good man is more important than a good idea.
- It takes 4 (or sometimes 1) to do the work of 2.
- Work with good people, not despite mediocre ones.
- People don't change; but you can adapt to them.
- Don't be jealous of full-time hackers; contributing real data takes time.
- If you think you know more about someone else's experiments than they do,
something is wrong.
- Remember the difference: policy, process, and practice.
- Safety primarily comes from individual responsibility.
- Instead of conceiving only one error, imagine many, and so become the slave
of none. --- Eco
- Leaders are engaged both in doing the right things and in doing things
right. --- H. C. Luce, III
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Cris W. Barnes
Los Alamos National Laboratory
P-24 MS-E526
Los Alamos, NM 87545
October 3, 1997