"Become a part of the culture before trying to influence it" This is a tricky balancing act, because sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can be helpful, but OMG! I

"Become a part of the culture before trying to influence it" This is a tricky balancing act, because sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can be helpful, but OMG! I have recent experience with a new hire that needed to be shown that point. Everything he saw he declared the stupidest thing ever. "Why is X built with Y, when it could just be done with Z?" He changed his tune after a month or two and gained some background knowledge of the engineering tradeoffs involved... but not before he burned many bridges in the process. Were I to give him a word of advice back then, it would be to archive his rants in a text file, sit on them for 6 months, THEN go off at the mouth. He'd have more background to prevent him from committing some serious newbie faux pas, and enough credibility for his better arguments to be heard.