May 30, 2026

A seemingly arbitrary client decision

A few people replied to my last message to ask for an example of a “seemingly arbitrary client decision”.

Here’s a fictionalized story based on a real-life example...

Let’s say you’re working on an internal software system for the HR department of a huge consumer electronics company.

In the course of your work, you discover that they have been losing millions of dollars every year for the last decade because they had some mistaken assumptions in their business logic related to tax regulations.

Now, let’s say you approach the head of HR and say something like:

Great news! I found a way to save you millions of dollars per year! There are some errors in your business logic that are costing the company a fortune. What if we spin up a side project to fix it? I’d only be $50k, and it’d save you at least two million bucks this year alone.

Then, instead of the client giving you a big sloppy kiss and writing you a fat check, they say:

“Thanks for the info, but... don’t worry about it.”

Don’t worry about flushing millions of dollars a year down the toilet?!

Yup. Don’t worry about it. Not a priority.

Here’s the thing...

You might think that a client like this is making an irrational, arbitrary, or otherwise capricious decision.

But in fact, they had a perfectly rational - but very subjective -reason.

(Any guesses as to what the reason was?)

Yours,

—J