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Politics is inescapable. Software engineers can't live outside of them. Whether these are the team politics, org politics, etc. I don't think engineers are uni
by vcryan 1y ago
Politics is inescapable. Software engineers can't live outside of them. Whether these are the team politics, org politics, etc.
I don't think engineers are universality bad/good at politics. It's just like anything else, takes practice.
- woadwarrior01 1y agoThere's a way out. Build your own company and make it something beneath you.
- antasvara 1y agoIf you have other people working at your company or investors, politics will come into play. It's rare to have a CEO that can decide things 100% by themselves and still retain talented employees. It's also super rare to have investors with zero desire to determine a company's direction.
- j16sdiz 1y agoOn that level, there are other policies. Politics in standards bodies, industrial organisations, regulatory issues, funding and investment, etc
- woadwarrior01 1y agoI’ve been on both sides of the table. To me, all of those are far more palatable than petty company politics (both in BigTech and startups).
- kylecazar 1y agoWhen I've reported to founders they were front and center in the politics (which is probably how it should be). Becoming a career CEO might be a way out, though.
- woadwarrior01 1y agoA fish rots from the head down.
- azemetre 1y agoThere's an even better way out, implement workplace democracy.
- eptcyka 1y agoYeah, and you can also get rid of local politics by moving to the countryside and homesteading. And you can bypass national politics by homesteading on a ship or an island that nobody cares about. And you can just move to a different planet to escape global politics. But any group of people will develop some form of politics, and to do anything meaningful longterm, you need a group of people, not just an individual, why not get better at politics? It is inevitable you will have to take part in them. But of course, I still want my hut in the woods.
- AaronAPU 1y agoI am a solo founder literally to avoid ever having to deal with politics and video calls.
- desireco42 1y agoamen brother :)
- vinnymac 1y agoI used to run my own business when I was a child, and made a lot of money from it. Paid my way through school with my earnings. There was no sales or marketing, and all I did was product and engineering, and at no point was I politicking. So no, it's possible (albeit difficult) to not be part of the meat grinder, I have done it.
- elktown 1y agoSure, to some degree it will always be there. But company size and careerist culture - both local to the company and differences between countries - makes it vastly different in presence.
- bdangubic 1y agopolitics is 100% escapable