4 ms·

Nothing fixes this type of junior engineer faster than giving them some real responsibility. Let them fail then learn from it. Don't hold them back because that

• beat 10y ago
  Sadly, it's at odds with the psychology of corporations. At big companies, it's more important to not be wrong than to be right. This is not conducive to the sort of mistake-based learning that really advances people. "Move slow and don't break anything!" is what the corporation wants, whether or not they phrase it that way. So junior engineers aren't given responsibility, because they might break something. I was lucky. The first time I was given real responsibility, I broke something badly (which turned out to be an actual OS bug, but that's another story). It was a learning experience - in large part, because I had to learn why things broke in production, but not in development. That lesson sticks with me to this day, 20+ years later.
  • siquick 10y ago
    "At big companies, it's more important to not be wrong than to be right. This is not conducive to the sort of mistake-based learning that really advances people. "Move slow and don't break anything!" is what the corporation wants, whether or not they phrase it that way." This is a perfect summary of working at corporations