4 ms·

I've followed people managing tech teams and I think, like anyone else, engineers spend more time doing things they like and are interested in and slow-walk thi

by pfranz 8y ago

I've followed people managing tech teams and I think, like anyone else, engineers spend more time doing things they like and are interested in and slow-walk things they aren't. Trying to align those incentives with the bigger project or the company is what managers do. Looking at new tech is way more interesting than doing the same thing you've been doing for 10 years. Its good to have some mechanism in place to vet that since I know I don't trust myself to always make a good choice (and in my opinion I have excellent taste).

ng12 8y ago
A perverse incentive I've noticed at almost every company I've worked for is that the guy who spends every day slugging it out in a bash terminal to keep a ten year old service running won't ever get promoted. However, but the guy who tries to rewrite it in Apache Flamboozle and AWS Fuzzworks will get promoted long before his house of cards tumbles down. The end result is that not only is the routine stuff boring but it's also career-limiting.
- pfranz 8y ago
  I think any support department (tech or not) has what I think I've heard others call the "janitor problem." If you're doing your job and the trash is taken out, nobody notices. I got advice when switching jobs that I had to be my own advocate and nobody was going to do it for you. I think the advice was meant specifically for that company, but I think it applies to most behind the scenes roles. Similarly, everyone is excited about a new UI while a bad backend can only drive you away. Massive improvements and scaling can only really be measured by new dollars brought in (but that was due to sales and marketing, right?)
- chucksmash 8y ago
  Is the guy who is slugging it out doing ops to keep something from falling over or is he adding features to the "legacy" (i.e. was already deployed before we were hired) implementation. I'm probably being a little naive, but if feature work isn't ongoing, I'd expect that guy heroically slugging it out to make incremental progress in stabilizing the thing so that he didn't need to spend all day at a terminal babysitting a computer program.

by pfranz 8y ago

ng12 8y ago

A perverse incentive I've noticed at almost every company I've worked for is that the guy who spends every day slugging it out in a bash terminal to keep a ten year old service running won't ever get promoted. However, but the guy who tries to rewrite it in Apache Flamboozle and AWS Fuzzworks will get promoted long before his house of cards tumbles down. The end result is that not only is the routine stuff boring but it's also career-limiting.

pfranz 8y ago
I think any support department (tech or not) has what I think I've heard others call the "janitor problem." If you're doing your job and the trash is taken out, nobody notices. I got advice when switching jobs that I had to be my own advocate and nobody was going to do it for you. I think the advice was meant specifically for that company, but I think it applies to most behind the scenes roles. Similarly, everyone is excited about a new UI while a bad backend can only drive you away. Massive improvements and scaling can only really be measured by new dollars brought in (but that was due to sales and marketing, right?)
chucksmash 8y ago
Is the guy who is slugging it out doing ops to keep something from falling over or is he adding features to the "legacy" (i.e. was already deployed before we were hired) implementation. I'm probably being a little naive, but if feature work isn't ongoing, I'd expect that guy heroically slugging it out to make incremental progress in stabilizing the thing so that he didn't need to spend all day at a terminal babysitting a computer program.