4 ms·

Unfortunately, larger tech companies in the US have become increasingly (in the last 5-10 years) political inside and a desire to ship things fast has ultimatel

Unfortunately, larger tech companies in the US have become increasingly (in the last 5-10 years) political inside and a desire to ship things fast has ultimately meant building extremely high performance scalable infra that's foundational enough to be OSS-able is just not a priority since compute is cheap enough and it's not worth the cost of generalizing it to make it OSS. It's just very hard to pitch these kinds of investments. Documentation follows this pattern-- engineers just don't get promoted or rewarded for writing documentation and with IC's constantly being pushed to deliver faster and faster it just won't take priority. And that's a big problem. In short, it's my impression it's an engineering culture problem in large part caused by bad leadership at the types of companies where these projects could be possible.

yodsanklai 4y ago
Playing devil's advocate, but why is that a big problem? large tech companies aren't altruistic and leadership isn't stupid. If shipping fast gives them a better competitive advantage than writing OSS, why should they invest in OSS?
- ThalesX 4y ago
  Not GP but attempting an answer. It really depends on the perspective you're looking at the situation from. If you're concerned with better competitive advantages and the final bottom line for company X or Y, in this current market, in the short term, sure, that sounds amazing, sign me up on that moon rocket! If your concern is a bit more hard to quantify, for example maximizing human potential, allowing individuals access to high quality technological infrastructure so that we may develop as a species and reach new heights, then you might feel like this approach is a bit short sighted.
  - lostcolony 4y ago
    Or even long term investment in the company. Look at where IBM is now vs where they were 50 years ago; Microsoft would be in the same place except for Satya Nadella completely reinvigorating the company. Who knows where some of the big tech companies now will end up in a decade or two given the shortsightedness that seems endemic.
  - chii 4y ago
    > so that we may develop as a species and reach new heights unless the company doing this can reap exclusively those new heights, no one will be altruistic enough to make such an investment to the betterment of mankind! This role is left up to the publicly funded institutions such as gov'ts.
  - taneq 4y ago
    All else (strategy, technical skill etc. ) being equal, the latter group get out-competed by the former group. Amorphous long term ideals are great but if you go broke tomorrow you aren’t doing much OSS development next month.
  - register 4y ago
    Ehm, which company is working to maximize human potential as an higher objective? Seriously mention to me one! I'll send my CV there immediately!
    - celdon25 4y ago
      "maximizing human potential" is not terribly specific and can mean different things to different people. I'm not looking to be a shill in this thread but we might be what you're looking for, and even if it isn't, I'd love to keep in touch as my own life goals involve leveling humanity up in some capacity. Happy to share details and answer questions if you want to shoot me an email (info is on my user page).
    - aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
      Heaven’s Gate. Unfortunately they got acquired in 1997. Also, some say they were cult-like.
- trollski 4y ago
ThalesX 4y ago
I recently had the displeasure of consulting a start-up whose pitch was a heavy technical infrastructure solution for other developers. I can't really give details, but their pitch felt to me like hearing about AWS in 2010... then I go into the nitty gritty of how they work. 0 engineering. Just rushed out non-fleshed ideas turned into one-line tickets and sent off to devs around the world without any instruction or guidance. Their employees were producing massive amounts of code, infrastructure, deployments etc. Their concern was the low velocity which felt insane to me because velocity was huge but in an unfocused direction. I am scared of this new world where paper CEO think truly grand visions come to life by half-assing it and playing the part only to the surface level; like I get it if that's your thing, mooning a company and exiting, it's just so hypocritical to act like you believe in the mission statement when you can't even verbalize it, let alone push it forward. I am hopeful for a new wave of Venture Capitalism with a focus on fundamentals and truly hard problems that are not going to bring in a 3000% ROI in 2 - 3 week-long sprints.
usrnm 4y ago
I can assure you that everything you write is just as true for Yandex as it is for any other big tech company. Disclosure: used to work there.

yodsanklai 4y ago

Playing devil's advocate, but why is that a big problem? large tech companies aren't altruistic and leadership isn't stupid. If shipping fast gives them a better competitive advantage than writing OSS, why should they invest in OSS?

ThalesX 4y ago
Not GP but attempting an answer. It really depends on the perspective you're looking at the situation from. If you're concerned with better competitive advantages and the final bottom line for company X or Y, in this current market, in the short term, sure, that sounds amazing, sign me up on that moon rocket! If your concern is a bit more hard to quantify, for example maximizing human potential, allowing individuals access to high quality technological infrastructure so that we may develop as a species and reach new heights, then you might feel like this approach is a bit short sighted.
- lostcolony 4y ago
  Or even long term investment in the company. Look at where IBM is now vs where they were 50 years ago; Microsoft would be in the same place except for Satya Nadella completely reinvigorating the company. Who knows where some of the big tech companies now will end up in a decade or two given the shortsightedness that seems endemic.
- chii 4y ago
  > so that we may develop as a species and reach new heights unless the company doing this can reap exclusively those new heights, no one will be altruistic enough to make such an investment to the betterment of mankind! This role is left up to the publicly funded institutions such as gov'ts.
- taneq 4y ago
  All else (strategy, technical skill etc. ) being equal, the latter group get out-competed by the former group. Amorphous long term ideals are great but if you go broke tomorrow you aren’t doing much OSS development next month.
- register 4y ago
  Ehm, which company is working to maximize human potential as an higher objective? Seriously mention to me one! I'll send my CV there immediately!
  - celdon25 4y ago
    "maximizing human potential" is not terribly specific and can mean different things to different people. I'm not looking to be a shill in this thread but we might be what you're looking for, and even if it isn't, I'd love to keep in touch as my own life goals involve leveling humanity up in some capacity. Happy to share details and answer questions if you want to shoot me an email (info is on my user page).
  - aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
    Heaven’s Gate. Unfortunately they got acquired in 1997. Also, some say they were cult-like.
trollski 4y ago

ThalesX 4y ago

I recently had the displeasure of consulting a start-up whose pitch was a heavy technical infrastructure solution for other developers. I can't really give details, but their pitch felt to me like hearing about AWS in 2010... then I go into the nitty gritty of how they work. 0 engineering. Just rushed out non-fleshed ideas turned into one-line tickets and sent off to devs around the world without any instruction or guidance. Their employees were producing massive amounts of code, infrastructure, deployments etc. Their concern was the low velocity which felt insane to me because velocity was huge but in an unfocused direction. I am scared of this new world where paper CEO think truly grand visions come to life by half-assing it and playing the part only to the surface level; like I get it if that's your thing, mooning a company and exiting, it's just so hypocritical to act like you believe in the mission statement when you can't even verbalize it, let alone push it forward. I am hopeful for a new wave of Venture Capitalism with a focus on fundamentals and truly hard problems that are not going to bring in a 3000% ROI in 2 - 3 week-long sprints.

usrnm 4y ago

I can assure you that everything you write is just as true for Yandex as it is for any other big tech company. Disclosure: used to work there.