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This is why most software companies tend to ship buggy messes that need to be constantly patched and updated. Software engineers never get to fully focus on opt
by proc0 3y ago
This is why most software companies tend to ship buggy messes that need to be constantly patched and updated. Software engineers never get to fully focus on optimizing software for the long term because as they gain experience within the org. they are moved away from engineering into management of other engineers.
I think I get the motivation, an engineer managing a team of engineers can achieve "more" in less time. However I put "more" in quotes because a single expert engineer can build better, faster, and more reliable than an entire team, once they have mastered the systems and tools. That will never happen if they rarely touch code and instead attend meetings to talk about planning and scheduling.
- za3faran 3y agoThe promotion incentives at least in the bigger companies generally do not favor becoming a domain expert in the product. Everyone wants to become "staff+" and rake in the big bucks, and it's a race to build an empire at the cost of getting things done many times.
- proc0 3y agoRight, it's better for business if people can multiply their productivity... which is arguably the reason computers were invented. If only someone could dedicate themselves to unlocking this power, maybe by studying how it works... but seriously, software engineers can in theory automate anything software related. It just doesn't happen because of how things are structured in an organization, where non-technical tasks are often valued more than technical tasks. Also "growth" seems to imply more people, which I can see how this would incentivize solving problems by adding more people rather than more software.