3 ms·

I don't understand why you're being downvoted. Even though it might not the case with all tech companies, there's the possibility there might be significant blo

I don't understand why you're being downvoted. Even though it might not the case with all tech companies, there's the possibility there might be significant bloat with some of them.

_djo_ 4y ago
80% bloat though? Given that Twitter had a team whose job it was to analyse the usage of running services to identify savings opportunities? I don’t believe it.
- sidibe 4y ago
  Well that's because you're starting from a premise that there are competent people that aren't named Elon Musk. From first principles you are already off to a bad start, most of the world is just flailing around waiting for him to come simplify their obvious mistakes.
dntrkv 4y ago
Because "there might be bloat in some companies" is not a very useful, interesting, or enlightening comment. Almost every large company in the world will have some "bloat" Also, "How does Company X have Y engineers? What do they all do?" Is one of the most common and annoying comments that constantly appear in HN threads.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  It's only annoying if you don't try think about it. If you've been in the industry long enough you have experience and you get at least a feel whether x engineers seem a lot or whether y microservices seem a lot. Now in this case we also know that Musk has cut half the workforce so, rightly or wrongly, he has concluded that there is a lot of bloat at Twitter (not 'some company'). I can only take this as a significant piece of evidence as I don't know Twitter. More profoundly I think this has been a consequence of the cult of 'growth'. You have to show that you're growing so you have to grow the team, you have to keep hiring and justify it by 'growth' because if you don't your company will look badly in itself and compared to peers, your IPO will not be so great, your share price will tank. Once you're down that rabbit hole you're stuck. Maybe younger engineers who have only lived professionally through this period actually believe the hype. So I think the current wave of tech lay-offs is partly caused by this no longer being the case so that companies can be more realistic and cut bloat without fear of being seen as a lame duck. Of course a bloated number of engineers means bloated software because all those people were busy doing something, may something not useful at all but something (including perhaps thousands of microservices...).

I don't understand why you're being downvoted. Even though it might not the case with all tech companies, there's the possibility there might be significant bloat with some of them.

_djo_ 4y ago

80% bloat though? Given that Twitter had a team whose job it was to analyse the usage of running services to identify savings opportunities? I don’t believe it.

sidibe 4y ago
Well that's because you're starting from a premise that there are competent people that aren't named Elon Musk. From first principles you are already off to a bad start, most of the world is just flailing around waiting for him to come simplify their obvious mistakes.

dntrkv 4y ago

Because "there might be bloat in some companies" is not a very useful, interesting, or enlightening comment. Almost every large company in the world will have some "bloat" Also, "How does Company X have Y engineers? What do they all do?" Is one of the most common and annoying comments that constantly appear in HN threads.

mytailorisrich 4y ago
It's only annoying if you don't try think about it. If you've been in the industry long enough you have experience and you get at least a feel whether x engineers seem a lot or whether y microservices seem a lot. Now in this case we also know that Musk has cut half the workforce so, rightly or wrongly, he has concluded that there is a lot of bloat at Twitter (not 'some company'). I can only take this as a significant piece of evidence as I don't know Twitter. More profoundly I think this has been a consequence of the cult of 'growth'. You have to show that you're growing so you have to grow the team, you have to keep hiring and justify it by 'growth' because if you don't your company will look badly in itself and compared to peers, your IPO will not be so great, your share price will tank. Once you're down that rabbit hole you're stuck. Maybe younger engineers who have only lived professionally through this period actually believe the hype. So I think the current wave of tech lay-offs is partly caused by this no longer being the case so that companies can be more realistic and cut bloat without fear of being seen as a lame duck. Of course a bloated number of engineers means bloated software because all those people were busy doing something, may something not useful at all but something (including perhaps thousands of microservices...).