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The focus hasn't changed; only the rose-colored glasses looking into a few gems of the past. Whenever there are more than two people together, there are politi

The focus hasn't changed; only the rose-colored glasses looking into a few gems of the past. Whenever there are more than two people together, there are politics - even if you try to pretend there aren't. There's no escaping it.

Attummm 2y ago
The focus has changed, and the outcomes of that are felt throughout the industry. Even today, they are being discussed on HN in another thread[0]. I'll post an excerpt from the current highest-voted comment. > Like why didn't anyone catch the issue with the logs? Because it doesn't matter, every data team is a cost-centre that unscrupulous managers use to launch their careers by saying they're big on AI. So nothing works, no-one cares it doesn't work, most the data engineers are incapable of coding fizzbuzz but it doesn't matter. People always wonder why banks etc. use old mainframes. There's like a 0% success rate for new data projects. And that 0% includes projects which had launch parties etc. but no-one ever used the data or noticed how broken it was. I don't think a lot of orgs which use data as core-infra could modernize, the industry is just so broken at this point I don't think we can do what we did 30 years ago. [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42010249 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42010249
- theamk 2y ago
  Was this ever different? I bet ever since first COBOL app was written, there were failed projects, or projects which appeared successful but were just barely limping along. "Mythical Man Month" was published in 1975.
User23 2y ago
No, it’s definitely changed. As tech has become bigger and bigger the demographics of the field have approached the demographics of the overall population. Back in the 90s the tiny subset of self-selected people involved were almost all mission oriented true believers. As it grew and became extremely lucrative the folks with other priorities were attracted. As you say, there is always politics, but the difference in quantity is large enough to have a quality of its own.
- kstenerud 2y ago
  Really? I must have been working for the wrong tech companies in the 90s then...
harpiaharpyja 2y ago
> Whenever there are more than two people together, there are politics - even if you try to pretend there aren't. There's no escaping it. This is an equivocation. Sure, any time there is a group there will be "politics," but that doesn't have to mean the kind of social dynamics many people associate with the word. A group built on trust and cooperation is just as possible.

Attummm 2y ago

The focus has changed, and the outcomes of that are felt throughout the industry. Even today, they are being discussed on HN in another thread[0]. I'll post an excerpt from the current highest-voted comment. > Like why didn't anyone catch the issue with the logs? Because it doesn't matter, every data team is a cost-centre that unscrupulous managers use to launch their careers by saying they're big on AI. So nothing works, no-one cares it doesn't work, most the data engineers are incapable of coding fizzbuzz but it doesn't matter. People always wonder why banks etc. use old mainframes. There's like a 0% success rate for new data projects. And that 0% includes projects which had launch parties etc. but no-one ever used the data or noticed how broken it was. I don't think a lot of orgs which use data as core-infra could modernize, the industry is just so broken at this point I don't think we can do what we did 30 years ago. [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42010249 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42010249

theamk 2y ago
Was this ever different? I bet ever since first COBOL app was written, there were failed projects, or projects which appeared successful but were just barely limping along. "Mythical Man Month" was published in 1975.

User23 2y ago

No, it’s definitely changed. As tech has become bigger and bigger the demographics of the field have approached the demographics of the overall population. Back in the 90s the tiny subset of self-selected people involved were almost all mission oriented true believers. As it grew and became extremely lucrative the folks with other priorities were attracted. As you say, there is always politics, but the difference in quantity is large enough to have a quality of its own.

kstenerud 2y ago
Really? I must have been working for the wrong tech companies in the 90s then...

harpiaharpyja 2y ago

> Whenever there are more than two people together, there are politics - even if you try to pretend there aren't. There's no escaping it. This is an equivocation. Sure, any time there is a group there will be "politics," but that doesn't have to mean the kind of social dynamics many people associate with the word. A group built on trust and cooperation is just as possible.