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If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

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Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#401

Post by khazhoux »

Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #249
khazhoux wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an org with thousands of software engineers, shouldn’t most of them be writing code? Feels like everyone wants to be the exception, and just assumes “someone else” should do actual hands-on work

No, and this is a core misunderstanding of the profession. The job of software engineers is to design and implement solutions to business problems with technology. The job of a software engineer is not merely "write code." Writing code will almost certainly be the smallest percentage of a skilled engineer's time. They need to be spending their time thinking and designing. We're talking about solving extreme scaling p…

I am not misunderstanding the profession. At a small or a large SW company, engineers should —by and large, with some exceptions— be writing code. I don’t care (and never mentioned) how much time the writing of code takes… whether people spend one hour a day typing or 8.

But while engineers obviously have to spend time thinking and designing, it’s the code that does the actual work and embodies the value of the engineer’s plans. I simply fail to see how a software org could exist where only a small minority of engineers are coding. Makes no sense to me, sorry.

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#402

Post by lsy »

I don't understand the strategy behind creating an atmosphere where the threat of termination is so regularly deployed to drive action. When I think of the best engineers I have ever worked with, I suspect every one would be turned off by Musk's behavior and leave, not just because of how they themselves were being treated unprofessionally, but because of a strong sense of decency regarding how their coworkers are being treated. If this goes on long enough, who will be left to work at this company? Can engineers effectively collaborate to create great products that appeal to a broad global market, if they are all self-proclaimed "hardcore rockstars" who are at least willing to overlook, if not excited about the mistreatment of their colleagues?

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#403

Post by nunez »

butterlesstoast wrote: post #15

Elon has this bizarre conspiracy in his head where he thinks software engineers don't do anything until he realizes they do everything. Btw, a dev build is in prod right now. Or someone forgot to minimize the JS. Tons of import map issues.

holy shit you're totally right.

not sure if this is normal but tons of resources link to ton.local.twitter.com which NXDOMAINs against quad-8

also you're totally right; none of the JS is minified!

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#404

Post by khazhoux »

dboreham wrote: post #180
khazhoux wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an org with thousands of software engineers, shouldn’t most of them be writing code? Feels like everyone wants to be the exception, and just assumes “someone else” should do actual hands-on work

> shouldn’t most of them be writing code In an org of that size, there's much work just in stopping other people writing really bad code.

I definitely agree with this. But if an org is full of people doing nothing but this, you got a real problem on your hands.

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#405

Post by artificial »

DabbyDabberson wrote: post #114
jimbob45 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that true of most CEOs though? When a CEO comes around, you have nothing to gain and your entire employment to lose. Edit: The point is not that we all reside in toxic workplaces. The point is that there is no upside to interacting with a CEO. A parallel situation might be giving a loaded pistol with a child. In that case, the upside is that they now have one thousand and one chew toys instead of one thousand.…

I've never felt that way at the 3 tech companies I've worked at. More to the contrary, I'd want the CEO or CTO to know me, who i am, and what I've done.

How large are the companies approximately? I've worked for small to large. The visibility was possible on the smaller companies, the larger was increasingly difficult (oceans of smaller teams). I haven't worked at a company where I've feared the CEO.

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#406

Post by m_ke »

Balgair wrote: post #340

Now he's saying that he wants people to fly in to present their code to him by midnight. On the Friday before Thanksgiving. Into one of United's big hubs. With 14 hours notice. And a lot of cold fronts over the eastern seaboard. Likely more like 10 hours with travel times and the line of potential people that are presenting. I'm honestly gobsmacked. Look, if you're on of those engineers and are unfortunate enough to…

He's really asking all 5 of the remaining engineers to come meet him at his office.

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#407

Post by tqi »

haolez wrote: post #58

What if Twitter actually succeeds after this? I'm not saying that it's likely, but what if? Let's imagine it as a thought exercise. What will this say about the current state of software engineering in startups and big techs?

Well the most plausible path to salvation is probably to issue a shitcoin that he can pump and dump a shitcoin, so I don't think that will have much salience to the rest of the industry....

That said, I do think it's very likely that 80% of the present value of any given company is derived from work that was done on the very first version. Twitter the product can likely coast as is for a long time. However I think the reason for having large product teams at mature companies working on marginal projects is because the stock price depends on it. Your potential for discovering new S-curves is priced into your revenue multiple. So while a private twitter might be able to find profitability as a 700 person company, theres (probably) no way for them to achieve meaningful growth. As a result, public companies probably wouldn't view this as a viable playbook.

However I feel like Elon's public statements (and track record as an eng focused leader) make me doubt this will happen. He seems much more enamored of Hardcore Engineers who can ship new features (ie fart pillows[1]) rather than the ops/business side, so I don't think creating a glorified lifestyle business is something he's interested in pursuing.

[1] https://electrek.co/2021/01/19/how-to-make-your-tesla-fart/

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#408

Post by googlryas »

karaterobot wrote: post #161
haolez wrote: post #58

What if Twitter actually succeeds after this? I'm not saying that it's likely, but what if? Let's imagine it as a thought exercise. What will this say about the current state of software engineering in startups and big techs?

That's a really good question, and much more interesting to me than just commenting on an ongoing train wreck. I suppose that we would need to first decide whether (in this scenario where he succeeded) Elon had actually fixed Twitter , or whether he tore it down to the studs and built a different company out of it, one which happened to be called Twitter, but did something completely different, with new people and ne…

Isn't Twitter about sending short messages to the world or to people who are listening to you? How different are you envisioning Twitter could be?

I really just want to make sure this isn't a cop out in the chances his stunts succeed(ie yeah it's successful now but it's different!)

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#409

Post by Raz2 »

Xylakant wrote: post #325
erulabs wrote: post #270

I think people miss the point with the "tell me what code you've written in the last 6 months" task. The idea is hopefully not to qualitatively quantify anyones work - the idea is to find folks who have nothing whatsoever to show, and yet have titles like "staff software engineer". Anyone who has worked at a large enough company knows there is a solid 10-15% of folks doing nothing. The new leadership probably asked t…

No sane infrastructure team will answer „easily“ to that question. Things break, all of the time. And infra will need developer input to figure out some of the breakage, let alone fix it. And that‘s not even considering deliberate attacks, fixes for critical security/stability issues etc.

Not during the code freeze. Using the same container image that worked before for a while doesn’t need dev input.

Re: If you (still) work at Twitter and you can code, head to the HQ now

#410

Post by Teandw »

qwytw wrote: post #349
Teandw wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He literally says if you can't, you're excused from needing to. It's important to not lie.

> those who cannot physically get to Twitter HQ are excused Probably means that if there are no actual flights from where you're to SF and that you couldn't get there in time no matter how much you wanted. Not exactly the same thing...

There is literally no reason to think he means that. That seems more like a deep personal hatred of someone and just trying to find the worst in everything they say or do.
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