Bloodgain

Not buying this. My company rarely even interviews for a single specific position, but if somebody asked "I'd really like to work with X technology using Y language. Would this position be that?", he would explain our process clearly, but say that he will inquire with our leads if we have any such work available and ensure that they are scheduled to interview with someone on that project.

@ciabatta I graduated summa cum laude, got a 4.0 GPA from middle school through my Master's, have been doing this for about 14 years with plenty of praise from others, and interview people for my company nearly weekly. I also have a bit of a superiority complex (don't worry, I can usually keep it bottled up now). I still get impostor syndrome!

@ciabatta I know you think this isn't impostor syndrome, but everything about it screams it is. You indicate that you feel like part of the impression is being a woman in an industry and team of all men, which is extremely common. You just joined a new company/project. You have a history of overperforming. You have 20 years of experience and are "level 4" at this company, where at many companies that would likely be a "level 5" developer. You just lucked out getting onto a strong team, which will make you stronger. Give it at least 6 months to a year before you undervalue yourself.

To elaborate on what @MJ713 said, recipes are not copyrightable, so you can at least post the ingredients list here. Here's a link that goes over the whole history of it: paleoflourish.com/recipe-copyright

I like DJ's non-confrontational approach to addressing the situation, but I gave this an upvote for the suggestion of avoiding cliquish behavior. I was concerned about that myself, but it sounds like the OP's concerns go much further than "we don't want to invite these 1 or 2 people" into logistics and losing the enjoyment of a lunch with a smaller group.

@Voldemort'sWrath We do know he took it with him, because it's the wand Draco disarms from him (that's the setup for the whole "who controls the wand" thing). They run into Draco right after returning from the cave, so Dumbledore didn't have time to retrieve the Elder Wand from anywhere. (Though I will grant it's been a while since I read the book, so my recollection could be a bit off.)

Ditto IDE commands. Between your IDE's keyboard shortcuts and Vim's select/edit/etc and customizable key commands, mousing can be quite optional, freeing up the hand(s) for use.

Others have recommended emacs, but I would also recommend giving Vim or your IDE's Vim plugin a try. Jetbrains' plugin is very good, and there are a couple decent Eclipse ones, too. The modal editing style greatly reduces the need to use the mouse with a little practice, and combined with a one-handed keyboard, you might not even lose much speed. I actually find having to mouse-highlight and Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V (or worse, right-click + Copy/Paste) frustrating now that I'm so used to Vim's commands.

@Draco18s You only charged $20/hr? You need to charge way more, especially since you should have charged a contractor rate. Consider that you have to pay payroll taxes (15.3%) and income taxes on that. Plus, you're undervaluing everyone else who does contract work. $50/hr minimum for experienced, specialized work, more like $100/hr for most people over 10 years, and higher depending on your area; my entry level contractor rate was $30/hr, 10+ years ago.

@Flater that said, you might consider clarifying that you're defending Rick's position generally, rather than referring to the specific case.

The problem might be the monitor, but it might be something completely different. I've had to dig to find out what the problem is: turning on the computer results in a blank screen.

Everyone is focusing too much on the specific problem. Anyone who has spent much time working a tech help desk or assisting less experienced devs or coached other engineers in using dev tools has seen much worse XY problems crop up. That's what Flater is calling out here, not necessarily this specific instance, where the proposed solution does hint at the underlying problem (I found a memory leak, and valgrind says this specific pointer is leaky).

@bobo2000 And to be fair, there is a developer bias on almost any related Stackexchange. And we've all been in the same place as those developers with new PMs brought in by bad managers to be either a bully or their scapegoat. Since it's unlikely a tech lead isn't capable and a whole team of developers is just unmanageable, we went with those assumptions. All we had to go on was your version of things, after all. We had to make some assumptions.

@bobo2000 It's funny that you chose the metaphor "inmates running the jail", because that's exactly what it feels like your attitude toward your developers is. We've tried to help, but you just keep deflecting responsibility. You just want to hear that you're doing everything right, and the developers/lead/everyone else is wrong. Everyone else has stopped responding. Maybe I should follow their lead.

@bobo2000 I didn't say you did so directly. I said management had caused the problem, and that you, having been there only a few weeks, are still viewed as part of that force. I did make the assumption that from your attitude (i.e. it's always the developers' fault) that when this group leaves and you hire a new one, you won't make it any better for them, either.

@bobo2000 If you want to improve things, you will have to convince them that you're on their side and get buy-in on your process. Otherwise, you're not going to get them to do what they see right now as "stupid busywork management wants to make us do when we're already behind schedule and stressed out." They're not making it harder, it's just hard. Stop trying to find malice and try to find the people behind the employees.

@bobo2000 That's a symptom of the toxic environment, not a cause. Yes, these sorts of environments tend to create a feedback loop of negativity, so they aren't helping, but it's not on purpose. It's a defense mechanism. They probably view you as part of the "management problem" and may even see you as hostile. You probably aren't helping that image, but again, you're probably not doing that on purpose.

@bobo2000 @bobo2000 So he was good enough to become a tech lead, but clearly "not that good" at his job. How likely do you really think that is? Could he have been a bit of curmudgeon that had a poor attitude toward management? Sure, I've met lots of developers, including leads, who are just plain misanthropes. They can really test your communication skills...

@bobo2000 Whose definition of "a timely manner" are you using? Yours or the development team's? Because one of the biggest problems in project management is PMs who think they should dictate what the development schedule should be instead of working with their development experts. That's the point of this answer: all of your complaints may be valid, but it's hard to be sure from the information we have. He's suggesting that you evaluate your own position objectively before assuming you're not part of the problem. People are bad at communicating on both sides, and being new makes it harder.