Subtract Software

reward_function.pseudo

The Reward Function

How a software team earns its points here. No ceiling, only a floor.

highlighted = the brave stuff

Team Lead

  • if hired someone smarter than themselves +50
  • if gave the weekend hero a trophy instead of fixing why −20
  • if only assigns tickets, never picks one up −50
  • if shared their own failure first, so others would too +90

Product Manager

  • if said "no" to a shiny feature +50
  • if roadmap deck > 20 slides −20
  • if hasn't talked to a customer since kickoff −50
  • if killed own pet feature when the data said so +90

Tech Lead

  • if deleted more code than they wrote +50
  • if is the only one who understands the architecture −20
  • if backlog has tickets older than the interns −50
  • if took the heat from above so the team could keep building +90

Developer

  • if the new hire ships on day one +50
  • if commit history: "fix", "fix again", "final", "final FINAL", "why" −20
  • if imported 300 packages to use one function −50
  • if refactored the module everyone is afraid of +90

Tester

  • if broke it before the customer did +50
  • if re-ran the flaky test until it went green −20
  • if entire bug report: "it's broken" −50
  • if said "not ready" on release day, and was right +90

UX Designer

  • if removed a screen instead of adding one +50
  • if invented an 11th shade of gray −20
  • if user testing = asked the designer at the next desk −50
  • if nobody ever needed the help docs +90

DevOps / SRE

  • if wrote the runbook before the outage +50
  • if paged at 3 a.m. for a disk at 81% −20
  • if deploy needs a 14-step wiki and one specific person −50
  • if ran a blameless postmortem, and meant it +90

Executive Sponsor

  • if funded a quarter to pay down tech debt +50
  • if asked "can't we just add AI to it?" −20
  • if changed priorities after reading one LinkedIn post −50
  • if said "take the time to do it right," and meant it +90

if score > 100: celebrate() // innovators earn the spotlight

if score < 0: score = 0 // two wrongs don't multiply into a right

project.excellence = team_lead × pm × tech_lead × dev × tester × designer × ops × exec

// one zero, and the whole project is zero.

Simplicity is a team sport.

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Read why it matters: Software is a superpower. Complexity is its kryptonite.