4 ms·

Can you deal with the chaos without it becoming too stressful? It is incredible and terrifying how much harm stress can cause an individual, and how much the i

Can you deal with the chaos without it becoming too stressful? It is incredible and terrifying how much harm stress can cause an individual, and how much the individual may appear to change when only the stress is removed. CTOs that have no business being CTOs are interesting creatures to watch, but can be very hazardous to your health.

81redonion 4y ago
That's a good question. It's not exactly stress what I'm feeling. More of an embarrassment, since I usually take pride in my work. It's hard to advocate for good engineering practices in my team when I don't get org support. We have a junior joined our team, and I think it's best for them to start their career elsewhere. I don't bad-mouth the company and I feel dishonest when I need to play along and justify the way our organization works. Maybe it will convert to stress with time, and I hope I will be able to recognize it early to leave immediately.
- catchnear4321 4y ago
  This might be presumptuous or misreading your comment, but… Is justifying the way the org works necessary? Can you support “the business” without justifying the way it works? If I had to justify every bad order I have received, every bad process, etc, I would be incoherently babbling in a corner rather than typing on a phone.
  - 81redonion 4y ago
    Yeah, I guess I can do it to a lesser extent. Most teams were formed "organically" with no direction, and in my team I try to get us to work with higher standards than the rest of the org. What I need to justify to my team is things like "How is it acceptable that other teams connecting to the prod db on a regular basis? How come we're the only ones rotating our secrets after CircleCI's breach?". My debate is whether I should/can just chill and not worry about it too much (build shittier software) while it's not in my nature.
    - catchnear4321 4y ago
      Cut first the corners that hurt the least to cut. You may not need to cut as many as you fear. Just don’t cut the non-negotiable ones.

81redonion 4y ago

That's a good question. It's not exactly stress what I'm feeling. More of an embarrassment, since I usually take pride in my work. It's hard to advocate for good engineering practices in my team when I don't get org support. We have a junior joined our team, and I think it's best for them to start their career elsewhere. I don't bad-mouth the company and I feel dishonest when I need to play along and justify the way our organization works. Maybe it will convert to stress with time, and I hope I will be able to recognize it early to leave immediately.

catchnear4321 4y ago
This might be presumptuous or misreading your comment, but… Is justifying the way the org works necessary? Can you support “the business” without justifying the way it works? If I had to justify every bad order I have received, every bad process, etc, I would be incoherently babbling in a corner rather than typing on a phone.
- 81redonion 4y ago
  Yeah, I guess I can do it to a lesser extent. Most teams were formed "organically" with no direction, and in my team I try to get us to work with higher standards than the rest of the org. What I need to justify to my team is things like "How is it acceptable that other teams connecting to the prod db on a regular basis? How come we're the only ones rotating our secrets after CircleCI's breach?". My debate is whether I should/can just chill and not worry about it too much (build shittier software) while it's not in my nature.
  - catchnear4321 4y ago
    Cut first the corners that hurt the least to cut. You may not need to cut as many as you fear. Just don’t cut the non-negotiable ones.