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>> engineers go extreme in designing things/code for future cases which are not yet known >They're afraid. In many companies (think FAANG), engineers, especia
by flak48 6y ago
>> engineers go extreme in designing things/code for future cases which are not yet known
>They're afraid.
In many companies (think FAANG), engineers, especially senior engineers are incentivized/forced to show fancy design docs as part of the annual appraisal process. The more complicated the design, the more 'foresight', the better.
If it sounds kind of ridiculous (TPS reports from Office Space anyone?) it is. But on the other hand, taking a bit less cynical look, the more massive a company gets, the more the voices which demand objectivity in all these promotion/bonus multiplier processes. So a kind of obsession about such weird 'measurable' metrics gradually builds up in the name of objectivity.
And as soon as there are metrics, you can bet everyone in the system will do their best to game them (it only makes too much sense to do so).
And thus you end up with over engineered systems all over the place.
A lot of the 'not-invented-here, let's reinvent it' style culture also develops similarly - you have too many smart people in a room where the work is just not that demanding. Even if you were to get over your personal existential crisis (why am I writing yet another crud app?!), if you're the type that wants to see a promotion every other year, your're forced to invent work this way.
- pydry 6y agoI think it's a bit more than a desire to show "fancy design docs" or metric gaming. I've seen a lot of engineers prioritize fixing as yet hypothetical future problems over problems that are burning them right now even when there is no need for design docs and no metrics to game. I think some problems are just seen as sexier than others.
- flak48 6y agoFor sure. I just wanted to shed a light on some unfortunate external pressures faced by a subset of engineers, which contributes to this problem. Didn't meant to come across as cynical.
- danielheath 6y agoPeople who do this get promoted because overengineering results in the manager getting more headcount. My solution was to work someplace that can’t afford to waste money on bullshit. Has worked well so far.
- ex_amazon_sde 6y ago> In many companies (think FAANG) > The more complicated the design, the more 'foresight', the better. Certainly not in Amazon. Surely there can be exceptions but in general the company has a culture of simplifying stuff anywhere is possible.
- numlock86 6y ago>simplifying stuff anywhere is possible https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws-samples/aws-refarch-wordpress/master/images/aws-refarch-wordpress-v20171026.jpeg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws-samples/aws-refarch-wo... Ironically, that's how you are supposed to run Wordpress on AWS.
- alharith 6y agoUnironically, this is one of the simpler setups for a multi-node WP setup I have seen, and I have set up prod WP many times. Anyone with associate level knowledge of AWS can do this. There is a reason there are entire companies (pantheon) dedicated to hosting Wordpress for you: doing it with speed, resiliency and redundancy is hard.
- owenmarshall 6y agoMeta: I've vouched for this comment. You appear to be shadowbanned.
- alharith 6y agoThey don't like conservative opinions here, so I am not surprised.
- ex_amazon_sde 6y agoYou seem to be confusing Amazon's internal infrastructure and its development model to how AWS is used by customers.
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- N1H1L 6y agoFetishization of objectivity It's a great concept, and is often what irritates people. I work at a national lab, and senior management is absolutely obsessed with metrics, often to the detriment of the purpose of the organization itself. There needs to be some humility too - especially in our modern data driven world. All that is important, you may not be able to measure, and all that is measurable may not be important.