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Uber was a massive example of this. The best engineers kept their head down and just tried to keep things afloat, fixing bugs, etc. However, a large and insidi
by voz_ 3y ago
Uber was a massive example of this. The best engineers kept their head down and just tried to keep things afloat, fixing bugs, etc.
However, a large and insidious cadre of B tier engineers was constantly writing docs proposing meaningless arbitrary system changes and new designs for the sake the changes themselves. These new projects were the only way to get promoted. The entire e4->5->6->7 track was written in such a way that it only ever encouraged “TL”/“architect”types to grow.
This led to constant churn, horrible codebases, and utter bullshit self made problems which could only be solved by digging a deeper hole.
There are companies who handle this well. Ultimately it comes down to engineering culture.
- nine_zeros 3y agoThe career ladder is among the biggest fuck ups of the tech industry. They incentivize bullshittery more than actual innovation. There are more rewards for BS RFCs than in keeping the ship running.
- gtirloni 3y agoI had a completely different view of RFCs before coming into contact with some peers that followed this approach to the letter. RFCs for such small issues would take 10 pages and barely mean anything. Of course they would be praised by upper management (it didn't matter the RFCs would be ignored most of the time).