3 ms·
I think software engineering is inherently a management job. When you write code, you write company policy, but that policy isn't followed by human employees, i
by cjs_ac 2y ago
I think software engineering is inherently a management job. When you write code, you write company policy, but that policy isn't followed by human employees, it's followed by electronic employees - computers.
These electronic employees are very good at following very simple instructions. They enable the business to handle enormous numbers of customers concurrently, but those customers can only be handled in the way that the software engineers planned for.
The author complains about businesses that operate two-sided markets, which is an economic function traditionally handled by governments. Governments imposed lots of regulations, but Uber, DoorDash and their ilk decided to do away with all that. This resulted in litanies of scandals, and the businesses rapidly putting these poorly-implemented policies in place. It turns out that all those regulations, accumulated over centuries, were actually necessary to ensure that the markets functioned properly. The wunderkind founders made their billions by burning Chesterton's fences.
Generation Z, I understand, is increasingly abandoning dating apps, because the apps aren't optimised for connecting their users with compatible partners. If all the cool kids are finding their relationships offline, then eventually it'll just be the uncool looking for love on the internet (just like in the dial-up days).
In a similar way, if it's too much of a pain in the arse to deal with a delivery app, then some restaurants will stop dealing with them, and rely on word of mouth. If every other restaurant is on the delivery apps, then the restaurant that isn't on the apps suddenly becomes the 'hidden gem', the place you hear about from that colleague who likes to drop names to show everyone that they're cool.
(On the other hand, if you're running the slightly-below-average pizza place that people call when they can't be bothered to cook, then you should probably be on the apps. This is a matter of market positioning.)
- 3739574849 2y agoThis seems like it breaks down when you consider a lot of the regulations are ideological. Doordash was a better service before regulation, and in it's most heavily regulated areas has become both less accessible to aspiring workers and more expensive for customers. The main lesson if anything seems to be that there's little benefit to preemptively handicapping yourself with that sort of thing because society will impose it anyway.
- mxuribe 2y ago> ...Doordash was a better service before regulation, and in it's most heavily regulated areas has become both less accessible to aspiring workers and more expensive for customers... Maybe you're not totally wrong...but that statement almost sounds like when a young person ventures off on their own to get their very first apartment...and has a job that allows them to afford only up to a maximum of USD$100 rent per month (I'm using low figure for ease)...but then this same person did not think to budget additional monthly costs like electricity, water, heating, etc...and of course blows way past their hard limit of $100/month....and then this same person cries that they didn't know about facts of life like paying for electricity, water, etc...or how businesses cry because they didn't think that they might have to conform with typical/normal regulations/costs of doing business and such...and that *that unexpected cost** is what is ruining them. ;-)
- 3739574849 2y agoOr maybe I actually worked the job and went into it with realistic expectations? I've been in the system long enough that the changes don't impact me as far as hiring but personally I thought it was more convenient as a worker when I didn't have scheduling windows and all the added hurdles keeping me from working when I want to. The added taxes and service fees similarly did me no favors as far as the actual number of orders available. But by all means belittle the people with actual experience in the field.
- mxuribe 2y agoMy apologies if you felt I was belittling you or people in the field. That was not my intent. I was simply disagreeing with you, that's all.
- numpad0 2y agoIt's not management. It's lawmaking without any control. Typical management can't blatantly defy laws because the public will grow suspicions and law enforcement will eventually intervene(or the public will in form of a violent uprising). But law enforcement has little to no leverages against software, which makes code law.
- spwa4 2y agoPolice and government have always worked in the same way: they don't enforce laws. They wait until people complain and convict the party at fault. They have stopped doing that. Especially in cases where the government is at fault, but essentially in a lot of interactions. And where there is a conviction, it's either unenforceable, or just outright unenforced. You only see legal convictions and consequences in cases between companies anymore. The result is a lawless society. Not just on the internet.
- drewcoo 2y agoThe people who design policies and processes and factory lines are not the managers anywhere except at tiny startups. Those are completely different skill sets.