I really dislike traditional hierarchical organizations. They lean too heavily on the idea that somebody with a big title should be telling everybody else what

I really dislike traditional hierarchical organizations. They lean too heavily on the idea that somebody with a big title should be telling everybody else what to do. But actually, the people with the smaller titles know more about what's going on day to day and therefore have a better perspective on how to solve the problems. They just don't have the experience to transmute that perspective into the right action. I gave up the opportunity for Staff/Principal Engineer titles because large organizations are an organizational clusterfuck hellscape and you can't see the right changes from the top. They give you one of those titles and then they take away the teams you should be working within. As a more lowly engineer in the trenches, I can see all the day to day problems and get the right people involved in the right solutions. I have to kick and scream a lot because I don't have power, but at least I know what's really going on. As long as Staff Engineer is considered just another Master-level position (like Master Electrician or Master Plumber) it has its uses. But this trend of tech navel-gazing (your own conference, your own book, your own blogs, your own slack channels) just leads down the path to silos. Let go of the trappings and just dig into problems and help the junior people find the right solutions. The more you build up the juniors, the better everything gets (within engineering; better code can't fix stupid business decisions)