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That actually reminds me of a great story, for when I had to do exactly what the title is suggesting.. back when I worked at Amazon as a software engineer, the CRAZIEST thing happened to me. Here’s the story… I was working from home with my girlfriend (at the time), when suddenly I get an urgent ping from my coworker: “Our service is experiencing a SEV 2! We need all hands on deck!” Uh oh, our team’s application has…
That actually reminds me of a great story, for when I had to do exactly what the title is suggesting.. back when I worked at Amazon as a software engineer, the CRAZIEST thing happened to me. Here’s the story… I was working from home with my girlfriend (at the time), when suddenly I get an urgent ping from my coworker: “Our service is experiencing a SEV 2! We need all hands on deck!” Uh oh, our team’s application has…
It all feels like theatre. Been working in many companies in “war mode” and they all think that in order to become profitable (none of them were) you need to push the most “important” features out of the door asap, otherwise your competitors will eat you alive. It’s a lie. Executives and VPs and all those folks that earn 5x what a normal engineer earns, don’t really care about the company they work for. All they care…
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The code review process is quite literally “you need a stamp from anyone because of some regulations we follow”. Definitely nothing thorough.
The seriousness of any code review process can be determined by whether it diffuses liability from the original code author for any bugs. So far in my career this has never been the case.
I have a shelf full of histories of British science and engineering during WW2, so I feel like I have some remote idea of what being an engineer in an actual “wartime mode” is like. Think about, e.g., working in the lab trying to improve radar to be able to stop the daily bombing raids. It’s hard to imagine “wartime mode” as being an appropriate metaphor for any US company, other than as a sort of fantasy role play.…
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I have an (actual) engineering buddy who occasionally has small fires flare up in the factory he works at. Ever since talking with him about it, I’m very much off put when someone at my cushy software company talks about ‘a fire’. No, some system is down or throwing errors- there is no fire.
The executive reaction is the same as when a factory is on fire though. Whether we can’t produce due to system down or due to hazardous environment makes little difference.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ex-coal-chief-gets-one-y...
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on average, everyone will follow the path of maximum reward/lowest risk. Management has a job to do, but is aware that they may lack any choice or path to success. They still have a job to do in e.g. allocating engineers work, managing performance, promotions, and morale... so they do it, meanwhile they may also be looking for the exit. As an IC, never believe a manager at face value - they will promote you if it's g…
Wild, I would literally never work for a company where I had this kind of relationship with my direct manager. My direct manager should be in my corner and on my side always. They will get me the highest pay, highest title, best perks, lowest amount of stress and work, most time off, best benefits they can and anything they ask me to do is in service of that. If I find out that my direct manager is the one gating a r…
In my experience, pay increases linearly with soul drainage. As I started working for larger and larger companies the amount of nonsense and pay increase by the same order.
Responsibility decreases by the same magnitude, so while I was responsible for the whole IT operation/decisions of a small company for the lowest pay I ever had, I’d now be able to coast for half a year without anyone really noticing. BigCo is fucking weird.
Pull the fire alarm and evacuate the building? Or, just stop using over-bloviated metaphors for first world marketing creating fictional scheduling crises. Not making you dev schedule is not a "fire", much less a "war". Maybe try getting outside once in awhile and clearing your head of this make believe bullshit...
It's a vile way to treat people.
I have a shelf full of histories of British science and engineering during WW2, so I feel like I have some remote idea of what being an engineer in an actual “wartime mode” is like. Think about, e.g., working in the lab trying to improve radar to be able to stop the daily bombing raids. It’s hard to imagine “wartime mode” as being an appropriate metaphor for any US company, other than as a sort of fantasy role play.…
If you're 4th and 10, that's when you cut your losses and attempt to kick a field goal so you can at least score something before the ball changes hands. (My wife took me to a Saints game for my birthday, so I'm actually learning stuff about the game as she is actually played.) I guess the equivalent in a software shop would be adjust expectations way lower and focus on what's achievable without running the team ragg…
And maybe that means that now is the time for your star playmaking quarterback and receivers to be on the bench planning the play for when the pendulum swings back, and some different players should be center stage.
Or maybe metaphors are just metaphors.
I have a shelf full of histories of British science and engineering during WW2, so I feel like I have some remote idea of what being an engineer in an actual “wartime mode” is like. Think about, e.g., working in the lab trying to improve radar to be able to stop the daily bombing raids. It’s hard to imagine “wartime mode” as being an appropriate metaphor for any US company, other than as a sort of fantasy role play.…
Those books about British science/engineering during WW2 sound interesting. Any recommendations?