4 ms·
One of the sad side-effects of moving upwards in the programmer career path can be the loss of direct contact with system users. It was greatly gratifying to si
by stareatgoats 9y ago
One of the sad side-effects of moving upwards in the programmer career path can be the loss of direct contact with system users. It was greatly gratifying to sit beside users in the office where I started to develop, to see what their actual needs were and to be able to provide solutions.
As part of a larger team of programmers one is shielded from those situations, and explicitly not allowed to make those decisions. It can probably not be any other way, but something is lost in translation.
- TAForObvReasons 9y agoI think it's possible to move up and still maintain empathy. The problem is the Silicon Valley mentality captured by the expression "move fast and break things". This frees you to disregard externalities and do what you want. As a result of that mentality, you actively try to forget the people on the other side. And "things" slowly expands to include everything from laws to social norms to human life.
- Retra 9y agoThis has nothing to do with Silicon Valley. That's just standard faceless corporation fare everywhere.
- blasdel 9y agoFor better or worse the opposite happens at AWS The upper parts of the developer career path as an individual contributor have more direct contact with system users
- funkymike 9y agoThis is one reason why I feel so satisfied when I can work on internal tools. If I build something for other people in the office I can get direct feedback and see how I have helped them.