4 ms·

> The time always comes when a new leader and their lieutenants come into the org and prioritize new features over maintenance, at which point your moat is null

by jonahx 2y ago

> The time always comes when a new leader and their lieutenants come into the org and prioritize new features over maintenance, at which point your moat is null and void and you’re on borrowed time. The "on borrowed time" is an odd conclusion. When someone takes over, it's typically a priority change ("We want everyone working on new projects, just freeze this old stuff") rather than some kind revenge path against anyone who worked successfully on the old stuff when it was a priority. And a good engineer who is able to handle legacy code will typically be even better when working with greenfield code, because the latter is easier, all else equal. So unless you are refusing the priority change, why would you be on borrowed time?

shermantanktop 2y ago
It does happen that the new leader ends up saying out loud "everything we have is terrible," which is easily taken as "everyone who worked on it is terrible." And to be fair, sometimes that's true. And sometimes it's not true but the leader wants to bring over their crew of loyalists and needs to make room somehow. Long-term ownership and careerist jockeying don't go well together.
- jonahx 2y ago
  Ah, that's definitely true. But that feels like an orthogonal concern to you being an existing dev working on legacy stuff vs greenfield stuff... unless the new boss likes the greenfield stuff for some reason. What you are talking about is more of an ever-present possibility of "new management fallout" in almost any field.
- mianos 2y ago
  My recent experience is that a lot of the system was not as good as it could have been because it's a hard problem. The company got bought out and all the new bosses come in and say all the existing code and way things are done is crap. Then, a year later, with everyone sacked and new people brought in, once again, these guys say the same thing and promise they are the top guns to fix it all up. I just checked out on the third round.

by jonahx 2y ago

shermantanktop 2y ago

It does happen that the new leader ends up saying out loud "everything we have is terrible," which is easily taken as "everyone who worked on it is terrible." And to be fair, sometimes that's true. And sometimes it's not true but the leader wants to bring over their crew of loyalists and needs to make room somehow. Long-term ownership and careerist jockeying don't go well together.

jonahx 2y ago
Ah, that's definitely true. But that feels like an orthogonal concern to you being an existing dev working on legacy stuff vs greenfield stuff... unless the new boss likes the greenfield stuff for some reason. What you are talking about is more of an ever-present possibility of "new management fallout" in almost any field.
mianos 2y ago
My recent experience is that a lot of the system was not as good as it could have been because it's a hard problem. The company got bought out and all the new bosses come in and say all the existing code and way things are done is crap. Then, a year later, with everyone sacked and new people brought in, once again, these guys say the same thing and promise they are the top guns to fix it all up. I just checked out on the third round.