# Trust. Pay. Lose.
Source: https://www.yegor256.com/2017/11/21/trust-pay-lose.html
"Listen up, dude," a friend of mine said when he called yesterday, "I trusted them
for over a year---we've been partners. They've been programming it all
and I was busy doing business development. Now they've quit and
I'm left with nothing! What am I supposed to do with all these
JavaScript files? How do I even know they are mine? Moreover, they don't even
want to cooperate. I feel like a hostage. Please, help me out!"
What could I say? "It's too late, dude," was my answer, "but the
good news is---you are not the first to have this problem."
{% jb_picture_body %}
"Trust, pay, lose" is what I would call this very typical scenario.
First, you _trust_ your programmers. You call them partners.
You believe in them. You are sure that you picked the best ones. They seem
to be very reliable. You look at their
[resumes]({% pst 2016/mar/2016-03-08-pimp-up-your-resume %}) and feel excited. They
know JavaScript, and DevOps, and GitHub, and even Big Data. They definitely
are the best. Moreover, they've been in this business for ten years. What else
do you need, right?
{% quote Finally, you lose when you realize that it's their software, not yours %}
Second, you _pay_ them. How else would they work, right? True talent
is expensive, we all [know that]({% pst 2014/oct/2014-10-29-how-much-do-you-cost %}).
They bill you [regularly]({% pst 2014/oct/2014-10-21-incremental-billing %})
for [the time]({% pst 2015/jul/2015-07-21-hourly-pay-modern-slavery %}) they
spend working on your project. You
[feel excited]({% pst 2015/jan/2015-01-26-happy-boss-false-objective %})
to see how your money
turns into the software that works. They
demonstrate new versions regularly. There are bugs, of course, but this is how it
[should be]({% pst 2015/jun/2015-06-18-good-programmers-bug-free %}),
right? They [explain]({% pst 2017/jan/2017-01-10-how-to-teach-customers %})
everything to you and you keep paying.
Finally, you _lose_ when you realize that it's their software,
[not yours]({% pst 2015/may/2015-05-04-how-to-protect-business-idea %}).
They quit because of some business reasons and you're left with nothing.
You can't understand those files. You don't even have them, since they
are somewhere in the programmers' Git repository. You hire some more people
to help you save what's left, but they say that it's time to start
everything from scratch. Your frustration is enormous and you're ready
to go back to the first step---you trust these new guys, because they
definitely seem legit, not like those previous crooks.
Seems familiar?
What is the alternative, you ask?
Don't trust.
Instead, before you start a project, hire an
[independent expert]({% pst 2014/dec/2014-12-18-independent-technical-reviews %}),
who will regularly (ideally, every two weeks) review everything
these guys are doing and tell you where and how you _may_ lose.
This expert will maintain a Risk List for you. You will take necessary
preemptive actions.
Don't trust us programmers. We are smart, lazy and spoiled.
You will lose.