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Comment by harryvederci | Hacker News Reader

The first pancake doesn't always suck, you're just not patient enough to let the pan heat up enough.

Maybe it's the same with your team members? Let them soak up the project a bit, and maybe their first contribution sucks a little less than if you didn't let them "heat up the pan"?

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I think it can also be due to having too much oil in the pan. I've started wiping the pan with a paper towel that I've tipped the oil into (so just a very small amount of oil -- as opposed to pouring in a drip of oil) and now the first pancake comes out perfectly.

Thay may also work, I personally tend to use a lot of oil to get crustier pancakes :)

To keep up with the analogy, you're doing more preparation before attempting to make the first pancake. Still counts?

I avoid my first pancake being a throwaway by using a gun thermometer. Just check the pan temp and pour the batter when it hits 350.

The traditional method that costs zero is just to pour the batter after a drop of water shows the Leidenfrost effect and before the pan starts to smoke.

Laser thermometers are fun though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect

I second this. A good onboarding process is a patient one. It should involve lots of mentorship and paired programming. Agile shops can easily onboard people during an active sprint. Then they pair with others, QA other tickets, and sit in on some code reviews. After all that they know what the expectations are and can join in on the next sprint.

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