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How to be a -10x Engineer

taylor.town

161–170 of 514 posts

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#161
post #12
post #8

The "don't rock boats" is really what can slowly destroy companies. The -nx engineers know a lot of other -nx engineers that can come onboard until the stable boat just sinks.

Sometimes things just need to fail naturally and some rando on a mission to “rock the boat” is a net negative. Picking your fights is an important thing to learn too, throwing a fit over everything “wrong” can be terrible for everyone… even if you’re right every time.

> Picking your fights is an important thing to learn too, throwing a fit over everything “wrong” can be terrible for everyone… even if you’re right every time.

Agreed, most of the times it does not even make any sense in the grand scheme of things to go on those kind of crusades. Also, don't be the saviour no one is asking for.

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#162
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. For me this outlines the caveats and pitfalls of software development and management. There is real truth to some of the authors points showing real paths that emerge naturally. If you're going to gaslight him by inferring anyone who is critical is an asshole, maybe you should ask yourself why you're taking the article so personally...

Am I saying that anyone who is critical is an asshole? Where? Seriously? I find that the article hides a deep aggressivity towards overall mediocrity behind a thin veil of office-space-like humour. And I think that aggressivity is contagious and so not a good thing to spread.

You didn't say it outright, but it was exactly what I inferred from your comment as well. You said "toxic negativity" which comes across as a moral judgement, and anything that follows comes across as the result of that judgement.

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#163
post #152
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of projection going on here, as far as I can tell. The author is about as neutral as possible in describing these traits / behaviors. None of these traits are mutually exclusive with being a jerk, and in my experience, more often than not the people that exhibit these traits tend to also be jerks to compensate for their inability to get high quality work done!

If you can't see the negative bias in calling anyone a "-10x engineer", I just can't discuss the matter with you...

If it were directed at a particular person, sure. Otherwise, the author is describing negative traits and behaviors. Have you ever taken any management training? This is the quintessential way of discussing these sorts of things neutrally. Yes, you'd never want to call an individual a -10x engineer, but this is a random article on the internet. It's okay to be a bit headline-attention-grabby and stylistic so the article isn't dry and corporate.

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#164
post #127

From my experience the lowest productivity engineers are the ones that just never talk. I understand being an introvert but we all chat about things we have passion for. Anyways ive seen so many "programmers" that sit silently in meetings and also just do not produce good code. Usually they produce bad code that I have to revert.

I have corrected design (that fortunately were not implemented yet) where an API were to make parallel calls to the same table, and after all of them returns, calculate the pagination via combination and math.

I replaced it with an index, it was a pretty straightforward index as well, imagine the pain if the original design was somehow implemented.

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#165
post #98
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step 11: Call out any attempt to make engineering more productive as toxic negativity.

Step 12: have a meeting about it Step 13: have a blogpost about how inclusive and equitable your company is.

Step 14: Hire an entire team who’s only job is increase office drama and reduce colleagues trust

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#166
Good list. Should be called "How to be a -10x Manager" though, since the majority of the bad decisions listed there are under the manager's purview.

Reminds me of the CIA sabotage field manual: https://www.hsdl.org/c/abstract/?docid=750070

On another note, many of the items there are "create pointless X". It's actually a thin line between "important X" and "pointless X" and many people will disagree where it actually lies (as evidenced in the comments here).

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#167
post #58
post #38

"Explain code in private messages. Write wikis that nobody uses." What the reasonable alternative though? What's the happy medium?

>>Explain code in private messages. ...and this is the natural result of the 'no comments allowed in the code' nazi's that seem to permeate lots of organizations. For the life of me I could never understand that particular bandwagon. I for one love it when I go back into my code after a few years and a few well placed comments remind me why I did what I did last time I worked on it.

I took over leadership of a project where the previous CTO was a "code should be self documenting" proponent and enforced a comment limit with a precommit hook. I think I made some of the developers cry when I asked why there were so few comments.

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#168
post #21

A lot of toxic negativity in that post. Sure bad engineers exist, but you know what is even worse than the -10x engineer: the contagious jerk. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/studies-being-a-jerk-is... Yep being an asshole spreads like a disease within organizations. Avoid these guys like the plague.

the "contagious jerk" is simply the result of a bad environment

the first one to denounce it encourages other colleagues to speak up, like it happened with the metoo movement.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/13/13d4f6f146baa91dbc0946651ca0...

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#169
post #21

A lot of toxic negativity in that post. Sure bad engineers exist, but you know what is even worse than the -10x engineer: the contagious jerk. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/studies-being-a-jerk-is... Yep being an asshole spreads like a disease within organizations. Avoid these guys like the plague.

Author here. I don't want to empower jerks. Anything particular I should change? Or is the structure of the essay too cynical overall?

No changes needed, it grabbed my attention and stood out. You clearly know what you are talking about.

But assuming your goal is to make a positive impact in the industry, managers need to be able to read this and get actionable takeaways.

You’ve got my attention as an engineer, but a follow up post for each of these examples would be the place to close the deal. They of course would have to be written with a different (and dare I say more constructive) slant. It needs to be something someone can take to a manager and get a chance of some good conversations. It can still be persuasive, but in order to be actionable I would expect specific examples, clear definitions of the issue, and recommendations that tend to be familiar or standard.

I would do plenty of research too. Because for one thing you need to ensure you are giving correct advice. But it will provide a massive boost to your credibility to include that research in the posts. It will also save your reader the trouble of doing independent research (which they likely would not have done in the first place but still require it for actionable change, or the idea gets shelved). -10x engineers can leave managers no time to do that kind of diligence, but the managers still know better than to blindly trust what someone says on the Internet. Back up your arguments with evidence where possible.

I know it’s a tall order but if you have the time to put that much quality into a series from this, it could be great. I only say this because from what I can see, you do know what you are talking about, and clearly have passion about this.

I look forward to reading anything you do come up with, whatever the approach :)

Re: How to be a -10x Engineer

#170
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I saying that anyone who is critical is an asshole? Where? Seriously? I find that the article hides a deep aggressivity towards overall mediocrity behind a thin veil of office-space-like humour. And I think that aggressivity is contagious and so not a good thing to spread.

You didn't say it outright, but it was exactly what I inferred from your comment as well. You said "toxic negativity" which comes across as a moral judgement, and anything that follows comes across as the result of that judgement.

It was a judgement. I do think the author is being a jerk here. But people can be critical without sounding like jerks.
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