HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

zzaner

921 karma · joined July 17, 2018

submissionscomments
zzaner··on Show HN: FormGrid – Forms that can look like CLIs, pixel art, GeoCities and more
I love weird web stuff! These forms are really fun. I do think both have their place. Sometimes I just want it to get out of the way without too much cognitive overload, and looking visually boring and predictable can be a good thing here. But I can imagine it being great for more community/event/creator-type stuff.
zzaner··on Ask HN: How does your company keep track of lessons learned?
We used to try and do this in Confluence.

Felt good to know that stuff is neatly documented somewhere, but since no one ever knows where that was, it was of little value and few ever read it. People still tapped on shoulders and repeated the same mistakes.

It baffles me that an established company like Atlassian can’t get something as fundamental as search right. I can’t even find the content I myself created at times.

We have since switched to Nuclino (https://www.nuclino.com) and so far are having a better experience. It's as feature-packed, but the basics work as expected and are a lot more user-friendly.

Re-establishing a proper documentation culture in the team is still a challenge, but that’s not something a tool can solve.

zzaner··on Ask HN: How do you share/organize knowledge at work and life?
We used to use Confluence but it always felt too bloated and cluttered. It was a pain to get people to contribute and even harder to find stuff because of how slow and broken the search was.

We have since switched to Nuclino (https://www.nuclino.com/) and are pretty happy so far. Refreshingly simple, lightweight, and focused on getting the essential features right. We are now moving away from Google Docs as well and trying to consolidate all knowledge in Nuclino. It's almost perfect for our needs, only a few nice-to-have integrations are missing (and will hopefully be added soon).

Finding the right tool is only half the battle though, getting people to actually use it and keep the content up-to-date is usually the real challenge. Switching to a more user-friendly tool certainly helps, but it isn't enough to create a culture of documentation.

zzaner··on The Simple Genius of Checklists
Not that I know of but I came across this curated compilation of checklists: https://github.com/huyingjie/Checklist-Checklist
zzaner··on The Simple Genius of Checklists
I actually don't know if that detail is true or if it was added for dramatic effect in the HBO series. The official record seems to state that they simply didn't follow the approved procedures for the test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
zzaner··on Makers, Don't Let Yourself Be Forced Into the 'Manager Schedule'
I know what you mean. The Basecamp approach applies even if you don't have a physical office - we work remotely most of the time, but have similar "library rules" in place for Slack. Took some time to get people to follow them but it's not impossible.
zzaner··on Slack Is Not Where 'Deep Work' Happens
Wish we could as well, but I don't see our management giving up Slack any time soon. "So connected! So collaborative!" Ugh.
zzaner··on Open-plan office is the worst. Why can't we kill it?
Honestly, they only upside of an open office is economic. When you have empty offices in the building, putting up with it really makes no sense.

Basecamp actually designed their office around "library rules": https://m.signalvnoise.com/library-rules-how-to-make-an-open...

zzaner··on Open-plan office is the worst. Why can't we kill it?
I actually worked in sales and trust me, we DO mind the noise. Imagine trying to talk to a client on the phone when you can barely hear yourself.
zzaner··on Ask HN: Any good Confluence alternatives out there?
I think the experience with Confluence depends entirely on how it's run but I agree. Still not as bad as SharePoint.

I've recently discovered Nuclino (https://www.nuclino.com/) and rolled it out in our team in place of Confluence.

It's a pretty neat markdown wiki built on top of ProseMirror. There are some trade-offs (such as the lack of a self-hosted solution) but so far it made my life a lot easier: the UI is better, the search works as it should, the setup and maintenance are minimal.

If you're looking for a self-hosted solution, MediaWiki or DokuWiki might be better options.

zzaner··on Ask HN: Which Wiki or internal documentation tools do you use?
Agreed, we started using it too.
zzaner··on Ask HN: Which Wiki or internal documentation tools do you use?
Nuclino (https://www.nuclino.com/)

It's a minimalist wiki with markdown support and real-time collaboration features. A lot faster and more lightweight than most of the old school wikis e.g. Confluence, MediaWiki, SharePoint (ugh).

Also has a kanban board view for sprint planning.