5 ms·

>I would LOVE for this to be a thing. It is a thing, just not at that company. Seriously, get a year or two, then look for escape options. There's a Mt. Ever

>I would LOVE for this to be a thing. It is a thing, just not at that company. Seriously, get a year or two, then look for escape options. There's a Mt. Everest climb's worth of distance and effort between "it works" and "best practices", and like successfully climbing Everest, very few companies are doing all of the best practices, and I suspect your dude going the opposite direction by digging with a spoon.

iamdave 9y ago
Seriously, get a year or two, then look for escape options. Been a year and a half. Have a 2nd round interview lined up for Thursday to get off this crazy train. I also happen to be reading The Phoenix Project. Which is...strangely therapeutic ;)
- hinkley 9y ago
  There was a job when I was still green where they had fired an architect and they were bringing in more hands on people with a hope someone would step up. Someone opined that architects have a half-life of about 12 months. I ended up splitting lead duties with another person and she and I split the architectural oversight. Since then the same patterns (alas, minus the diversity) have worked out a number of times and I’m adamant that adding another lead is far better than consolidating that under one person, at least until you have half a dozen leads. In fact my most useful mentor and boss said to me look, I trust you guys to sort this out. I want to hear the plans and ask questions but I only need to be involved when you can’t come to an agreement. And then I can be your tie breaker. I think a lot of things would go better if folks in these positions would audit and break ties and worry about bigger picture stuff most of the time.
  - iamdave 9y ago
    In fact my most useful mentor and boss said to me look, I trust you guys to sort this out. I want to hear the plans and ask questions but I only need to be involved when you can’t come to an agreement. And then I can be your tie breaker. I had a boss like this and very much believed in that sort of autonomy, only getting involved-as you said to be the 'tie breaker', but still lead a great engineering team and was a great source of knowledge and mentorship. I say 'had' for a reason. That reason is mentioned in the post that started this comment chain. Now what's that tell you? Heh...heh :(
    - hinkley 9y ago
      I had a different boss who trusted us implicitly but essentially we were managing ourselves. Unlike Mr Mentor we didn’t talk shop and he didn’t challenge us very much or at least concretely to do better. In fact I was only ever aware of him doing about 20 hours of work a week and half of that was meetings (the other half administravia). Given the politics there I suspect the rest of his time was kissing butts or covering them. Since the end of the dotcom era I’ve never seen a more high minded bunch of Emperors New Clothes types all in one spot. Woof.
- Terr_ 9y ago
  > I also happen to be reading The Phoenix Project. Which is...strangely therapeutic ;) Huh, I started reading that earlier today. Between the book and replaying levels in Infinifactory, the words "bottleneck" and "backpressure" loom large in my mind.
hinkley 9y ago
Some people get ahold of tunnel boring equipment and go as fast as possible in the wrong direction. With this mountain in the way we can’t tel if there’s anything cool on the other side, but damn are we hopeful.

iamdave 9y ago

Seriously, get a year or two, then look for escape options. Been a year and a half. Have a 2nd round interview lined up for Thursday to get off this crazy train. I also happen to be reading The Phoenix Project. Which is...strangely therapeutic ;)

hinkley 9y ago
There was a job when I was still green where they had fired an architect and they were bringing in more hands on people with a hope someone would step up. Someone opined that architects have a half-life of about 12 months. I ended up splitting lead duties with another person and she and I split the architectural oversight. Since then the same patterns (alas, minus the diversity) have worked out a number of times and I’m adamant that adding another lead is far better than consolidating that under one person, at least until you have half a dozen leads. In fact my most useful mentor and boss said to me look, I trust you guys to sort this out. I want to hear the plans and ask questions but I only need to be involved when you can’t come to an agreement. And then I can be your tie breaker. I think a lot of things would go better if folks in these positions would audit and break ties and worry about bigger picture stuff most of the time.
- iamdave 9y ago
  In fact my most useful mentor and boss said to me look, I trust you guys to sort this out. I want to hear the plans and ask questions but I only need to be involved when you can’t come to an agreement. And then I can be your tie breaker. I had a boss like this and very much believed in that sort of autonomy, only getting involved-as you said to be the 'tie breaker', but still lead a great engineering team and was a great source of knowledge and mentorship. I say 'had' for a reason. That reason is mentioned in the post that started this comment chain. Now what's that tell you? Heh...heh :(
  - hinkley 9y ago
    I had a different boss who trusted us implicitly but essentially we were managing ourselves. Unlike Mr Mentor we didn’t talk shop and he didn’t challenge us very much or at least concretely to do better. In fact I was only ever aware of him doing about 20 hours of work a week and half of that was meetings (the other half administravia). Given the politics there I suspect the rest of his time was kissing butts or covering them. Since the end of the dotcom era I’ve never seen a more high minded bunch of Emperors New Clothes types all in one spot. Woof.
Terr_ 9y ago
> I also happen to be reading The Phoenix Project. Which is...strangely therapeutic ;) Huh, I started reading that earlier today. Between the book and replaying levels in Infinifactory, the words "bottleneck" and "backpressure" loom large in my mind.

hinkley 9y ago

Some people get ahold of tunnel boring equipment and go as fast as possible in the wrong direction. With this mountain in the way we can’t tel if there’s anything cool on the other side, but damn are we hopeful.