4 ms·

I've always thought that historically engineers cared more about working on things they had more emotional investment in rather than working on things they had

I've always thought that historically engineers cared more about working on things they had more emotional investment in rather than working on things they had no passion for that makes money as an established business like ad tech or dog dating social networks.

tostitos1979 10y ago
Your comment made me think of the episode of the show Silicon Valley (in the current season), where the engineers want to build a scalable platform rather than a box (appliance). The negotiate with mgmt to let them work on the platform after they have worked on the box :) As an aside, I thought this episode was very well done. The engineers believe their algorithm will get better over time as it ingests more data (hence, a scalable platform is the way to go). A box won't learn, and benefit from these improvements. However, large companies want boxes (servers/appliances in their data center) and aren't in a position to have their data leak out (for statutory or competitive reasons in many cases).
_delirium 10y ago
In recent years I think that too might make big companies more attractive. Companies like Google are solving a lot of interesting technical challenges, and produce interesting software (even some open-source) like Kubernetes and deep-learning frameworks. And there are many jobs you can have there there are purely about solving those tech challenges (the business side is someone else's job). While a lot of startups are less about tech and more about specific business plays, "AirBnB for x" or "Uber for x". Which, yes, to be an AirBnB-for-X you do need some tech, like a website and payment processing system, but the real innovation at these startups (in cases where there is any) is around business models, not technology, while the technology is relatively pedestrian.

4 ms·

I've always thought that historically engineers cared more about working on things they had more emotional investment in rather than working on things they had

by devonkim 10y ago

tostitos1979 10y ago
Your comment made me think of the episode of the show Silicon Valley (in the current season), where the engineers want to build a scalable platform rather than a box (appliance). The negotiate with mgmt to let them work on the platform after they have worked on the box :) As an aside, I thought this episode was very well done. The engineers believe their algorithm will get better over time as it ingests more data (hence, a scalable platform is the way to go). A box won't learn, and benefit from these improvements. However, large companies want boxes (servers/appliances in their data center) and aren't in a position to have their data leak out (for statutory or competitive reasons in many cases).
_delirium 10y ago
In recent years I think that too might make big companies more attractive. Companies like Google are solving a lot of interesting technical challenges, and produce interesting software (even some open-source) like Kubernetes and deep-learning frameworks. And there are many jobs you can have there there are purely about solving those tech challenges (the business side is someone else's job). While a lot of startups are less about tech and more about specific business plays, "AirBnB for x" or "Uber for x". Which, yes, to be an AirBnB-for-X you do need some tech, like a website and payment processing system, but the real innovation at these startups (in cases where there is any) is around business models, not technology, while the technology is relatively pedestrian.