<story><title>One way a builder culture can fail</title><url>http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2021/12/02/build/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>0xFACEFEED</author><text>&amp;gt; I will now point out that whether X makes it to production can become disconnected from the notion of whether X actually belongs in production.&lt;p&gt;... is the crux of her point.&lt;p&gt;So, um, who decides what belongs in production?&lt;p&gt;I generally like her essays but this has a weird senseless negative tone to it.&lt;p&gt;Look... I get it. We&amp;#x27;ve all come across bozos. A lot of these bozos aren&amp;#x27;t the derpy clowns we (hope? wish?) they would be. No - they&amp;#x27;re usually very confident, very aggressive, and very very goal oriented. Yes it&amp;#x27;s absolutely infuriating watching them somehow gain the confidence of the C-level folks, obtain a lot of resources, and burn everything to the ground all while claiming plausible deniability. Wishing that they&amp;#x27;d get filtered out by the hiring process is &amp;lt;insert idiom of improbability&amp;gt;.&lt;p&gt;The real culprit is your director of engineering. That person is making terrible decisions but is so good at avoiding accountability that you place your blame on the bozo. Hot take: if your company keeps hiring bozos then your executives are doo-doo. Leave the company. Oh, you can&amp;#x27;t because you&amp;#x27;re making 300k base + 2 years away from 800k in RSUs? Congrats. You&amp;#x27;re part of the problem (it&amp;#x27;s not your fault).&lt;p&gt;The same reason why you won&amp;#x27;t leave your company is the same reason Mr. Bozo gets a crack at &amp;quot;innovating&amp;quot; at that same company.&lt;p&gt;People like Rachael (who obviously love this work at their very core) are doomed to end up a jaded curmudgeon unless they 1) start their own company 2) join a tiny company. Big tech is hell. Make your money and GTFO.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stayux</author><text>&amp;gt;People like Rachael (who obviously love this work at their very core) are doomed to end up a jaded curmudgeon unless they 1) start their own company 2) join a tiny company. Big tech is hell. Make your money and GTFO.&lt;p&gt;Absolutely correct. This reflects perfectly with my professional career. In the early 2000s I worked at a place which started hiring &amp;quot;bozos&amp;quot; in frightening rate. They killed an internal project for CMS (I was the PM) and proceed to hire external agency for content management, because - &amp;quot;Nobody of our clients is willing to do this complicated technical stuff&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;After a heated &amp;quot;debate&amp;quot; with the &amp;quot;bozos&amp;quot;, management and CEO of the company, I quitted my well payed job. 
I created my own company and hired all of my team. For the next 10 years most of my ex company clients came to me by simple word of mouth marketing.</text></comment>
<story><title>One way a builder culture can fail</title><url>http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2021/12/02/build/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>0xFACEFEED</author><text>&amp;gt; I will now point out that whether X makes it to production can become disconnected from the notion of whether X actually belongs in production.&lt;p&gt;... is the crux of her point.&lt;p&gt;So, um, who decides what belongs in production?&lt;p&gt;I generally like her essays but this has a weird senseless negative tone to it.&lt;p&gt;Look... I get it. We&amp;#x27;ve all come across bozos. A lot of these bozos aren&amp;#x27;t the derpy clowns we (hope? wish?) they would be. No - they&amp;#x27;re usually very confident, very aggressive, and very very goal oriented. Yes it&amp;#x27;s absolutely infuriating watching them somehow gain the confidence of the C-level folks, obtain a lot of resources, and burn everything to the ground all while claiming plausible deniability. Wishing that they&amp;#x27;d get filtered out by the hiring process is &amp;lt;insert idiom of improbability&amp;gt;.&lt;p&gt;The real culprit is your director of engineering. That person is making terrible decisions but is so good at avoiding accountability that you place your blame on the bozo. Hot take: if your company keeps hiring bozos then your executives are doo-doo. Leave the company. Oh, you can&amp;#x27;t because you&amp;#x27;re making 300k base + 2 years away from 800k in RSUs? Congrats. You&amp;#x27;re part of the problem (it&amp;#x27;s not your fault).&lt;p&gt;The same reason why you won&amp;#x27;t leave your company is the same reason Mr. Bozo gets a crack at &amp;quot;innovating&amp;quot; at that same company.&lt;p&gt;People like Rachael (who obviously love this work at their very core) are doomed to end up a jaded curmudgeon unless they 1) start their own company 2) join a tiny company. Big tech is hell. Make your money and GTFO.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tda</author><text>&amp;gt;  Yes it&amp;#x27;s absolutely infuriating watching them somehow gain the confidence of the C-level folks, obtain a lot of resources, and burn everything to the ground all while claiming plausible deniability.&lt;p&gt;Thanks for summarizing my biggest gripe with my current employer so clearly! It is going on, and all the senior all the engineers see it and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. Only make sure you stay away from whatever these bozo&amp;#x27;s fancy, as someone will have to clean up or take the blame when everything falls apart.&lt;p&gt;Anyone know an alternative GTFO? After a few years of complain&amp;#x2F;ignore&amp;#x2F;avoid if feel that is my only option.</text></comment>