3 ms·

Those are equally terrifying statements to what the user above said.

m0zg 7y ago
Those statements aren't "terrifying" in the least once you consider that your relationship with the employer is a _business_ relationship. If the employer didn't want career games, they wouldn't reward them. As simple as that. If your company's official party line diverges from its reward structure, the best thing you can do for yourself is to follow the reward structure and ignore the exhortations to be doing things the company obviously doesn't give a shit about (as measured in dollars, the only reliable measure). Fundamentally your only rational goal in the situation is to maximize your expected return over the duration of your employment. At Google or FB you maximize it by launching stuff that looks good in a promo packet (with metrics and numbers, too; if you can't measure something it's worthless at promo time), and never, ever working on anything "legacy" related. Those are, at a basic level, the rules of the game. Your _rational_ choices are: play the game well, or play some other variant of the game somewhere else. Not playing the game is not an option. Playing the game poorly is irrational. Here's the authoritative guide for Google specifically: http://piaw.blogspot.com/2010/08/tips-for-noogler-engineers.html http://piaw.blogspot.com/2010/08/tips-for-noogler-engineers..... It should serve you well at other, similar companies, with only minor tweaks.
- vonseel 7y ago
  I will have to take a look at that link. Interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing. I don’t think the game is limited to the tech industry. What scares me is it seems pretty much all office jobs eventually turn into corporate politics / bs. On one hand, I can see how the politicking and playing the game seems to be in the best interest of the company - look! We’re getting stuff done and it looks awesome! OTOH, I worry that less obvious ideas (and good people) are neglected and like you said, The Game promotes the wrong behavior. I guess if you get to that top “Fellow” developer level at a comfortable place maybe you don’t have to worry bout it anymore. Or maybe it becomes more important than ever... I hope not!
  - amznthrowaway5 7y ago
    On one hand, I can see how the politicking and playing the game seems to be in the best interest of the company - look! We’re getting stuff done and it looks awesome! Often, behind the smoke and mirrors, not much is actually done. And then you may end up with a disastrous product launch like Google Stadia. Unfortunately most projects don't have similarly useful public evaluations to show how poorly they are actually delivering. Those who would put in the time to develop a good product wouldn't be promoted.
rb808 7y ago
One thing I was going to add but didn't makes it less terrifying. Often people what people think is benefiting the company isnt. eg being a hero working long hours is great in the very short term, but a better solution is managing a more sustainable process that consistently delivers.

m0zg 7y ago

Those statements aren't "terrifying" in the least once you consider that your relationship with the employer is a _business_ relationship. If the employer didn't want career games, they wouldn't reward them. As simple as that. If your company's official party line diverges from its reward structure, the best thing you can do for yourself is to follow the reward structure and ignore the exhortations to be doing things the company obviously doesn't give a shit about (as measured in dollars, the only reliable measure). Fundamentally your only rational goal in the situation is to maximize your expected return over the duration of your employment. At Google or FB you maximize it by launching stuff that looks good in a promo packet (with metrics and numbers, too; if you can't measure something it's worthless at promo time), and never, ever working on anything "legacy" related. Those are, at a basic level, the rules of the game. Your _rational_ choices are: play the game well, or play some other variant of the game somewhere else. Not playing the game is not an option. Playing the game poorly is irrational. Here's the authoritative guide for Google specifically: http://piaw.blogspot.com/2010/08/tips-for-noogler-engineers.html http://piaw.blogspot.com/2010/08/tips-for-noogler-engineers..... It should serve you well at other, similar companies, with only minor tweaks.

vonseel 7y ago
I will have to take a look at that link. Interesting thoughts, thanks for sharing. I don’t think the game is limited to the tech industry. What scares me is it seems pretty much all office jobs eventually turn into corporate politics / bs. On one hand, I can see how the politicking and playing the game seems to be in the best interest of the company - look! We’re getting stuff done and it looks awesome! OTOH, I worry that less obvious ideas (and good people) are neglected and like you said, The Game promotes the wrong behavior. I guess if you get to that top “Fellow” developer level at a comfortable place maybe you don’t have to worry bout it anymore. Or maybe it becomes more important than ever... I hope not!
- amznthrowaway5 7y ago
  On one hand, I can see how the politicking and playing the game seems to be in the best interest of the company - look! We’re getting stuff done and it looks awesome! Often, behind the smoke and mirrors, not much is actually done. And then you may end up with a disastrous product launch like Google Stadia. Unfortunately most projects don't have similarly useful public evaluations to show how poorly they are actually delivering. Those who would put in the time to develop a good product wouldn't be promoted.

rb808 7y ago

One thing I was going to add but didn't makes it less terrifying. Often people what people think is benefiting the company isnt. eg being a hero working long hours is great in the very short term, but a better solution is managing a more sustainable process that consistently delivers.