4 ms·
Bad engineering or impossible constraints?
by threatofrain 1y ago
Bad engineering or impossible constraints?
- short_sells_poo 1y agoWhy not both?
- ImPostingOnHN 1y agopotentially both, driven by misaligned incentives misaligned incentives between different government fiefdoms led to nearly impossible constraints, which led to a design silly from an engineering perspective meanwhile, I wouldn't be surprised if the engineers had to choose between refusing to design something silly, vs putting food on the table for their family
- yieldcrv 1y agoI periodically get told by my Product Manager that I’m thinking with my managerial hat on, again. I joined a company as lead [software] engineer because I prefer that track while I have experience in management and C-Suite. dumb product and marketing decisions impact some engineering work, and I know the solutions for I mostly avoid saying anything except when solving those things is the answer to the goals the PM keeps asking me about. When I do say things I’m told not to. Enjoy your proverbial 90 degree turns!
- bluefirebrand 1y agoI have this problem two, in both directions! When I don't bring things up, I wind up sitting in a tedious and insulting retrospective meeting about "what went wrong" When I do bring things up I get told "don't worry too much about that, that's the PMs job and they have it all figured out"
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- pkaye 1y agoThat is why I build a "paper trail" via email or chat when I predict things might go wrong and managers still insist to doing things.
- rsynnott 1y agoPotentially both. If there are impossible constraints, then at a certain point you do _not_ build the impossible bridge, you say no instead.
- spacemadness 1y agoI am at a loss with all of the “well they were forced into it” comments. Don’t build it.
- david-gpu 1y agoIs it possible that the people who set the constraints are different from the people who design the bridge, who again are different from the people who approve the design? Yes, that's how it works in the real world. As a design engineer, all you can do is explain to the stakeholders how the constraints will affect the outcome and suggest alternatives. Ultimately, the engineers will have to work with what they are given, and as long as the outcome is safe and its limitations are communicated, they can't be blamed.
- mathiaspoint 1y agoNo one is going to pay you to work on something nice. They'd just do it themselves.
- AnimalMuppet 1y agoThe results weren't safe, so the engineers definitely can still be blamed.
- darth_avocado 1y agoHave you never worked on projects where the management wants to do things a certain way but you know it’s just plain wrong. The only option sometimes is to let the slow rolling disaster unfold or risk your own job. Obviously this only applies where you aren’t risking people’s lives, but there is an entire subreddit dedicated for this. (r/maliciouscompliance)
- darth_avocado 1y agoIt is not a 90 degree bridge but more of a 120 degree bridge as seen here: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/action-taken-against-eight-engineers-who-designed-overbridge-with-near-90-turn-in-india-01-07-2025/ https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/action-taken-against... It is most definitely bad engineering as having a more gradual curve would’ve made it completely acceptable. Elements of corruption and “not my job” mindset.
- ChoGGi 1y agoI believe you meant more of a 60 not 120.