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Ways to annoy your senior engineer

thecaringtechie.com

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Re: Ways to annoy your senior engineer

#2
This is what is going on in the enterprise. I wonder why I mostly see posts from people in this type of environment here on Hacker News.

I would love something like Hacker News, but for indie makers, entrepreneurs and bootstrapped startups. Is there something like this?

Re: Ways to annoy your senior engineer

#4
I'm the 'pointy-haired' boss and I usually don't take my engineering teams estimates at face value. I've learned to multiply the estimates to know when I can reasonably expect something to be completed. The multiplier is never less than 1.5.

And I can see if they are making progress and where they might be hitting difficulties. (Most roadblocks have nothing to do with the tech. It's usually either some organisational barrier or a personal issue.)

Re: Ways to annoy your senior engineer

#5
post #2

This is what is going on in the enterprise. I wonder why I mostly see posts from people in this type of environment here on Hacker News. I would love something like Hacker News, but for indie makers, entrepreneurs and bootstrapped startups. Is there something like this?

It seems that people in these kinds of positions feel very powerless, frustrated, and cranky. And they love to vote for posts that say these kinds of things. They validate the frustration that they experience working in these enterprise environments.

In theory, you're asking for hacker news, it just happens to be that there's many different communities represented here.

The tyranny of the front page means you're probably missing a lot of the posts that you might want to see. And people aren't making many of those posts because they know they won't get seen by many people.

Re: Ways to annoy your senior engineer

#7
First reaction: Has this person been my coworker? I feel like someone’s been taking notes on places I’ve worked.

Second: But OK, those ones about shifting priorities? That’s startup life. Sometimes you throw something out the door because a customer wants to pay you $12M if you can salve over that one pain point. You know darn well that hack’s going to be there until The Rewrite (which, if you’re lucky, will never come). It’s ugly, you’re ashamed to have your name on the git blame, but your stock options went up 8% the moment you deployed to prod. The customer rarely pays you to be an artisan. They just want that feature before they write the check.

I’m still highly sympathetic to the sense of pride and ownership we all want to feel over our work. That’s the best! But getting paid’s pretty cool, too. Get a hobby project you can polish into a masterpiece after work.

Re: Ways to annoy your senior engineer

#8
I find these complaints to be symptoms of taking yourself too seriously, which is not only a poor way to act at a company but also a poor way to live your life.

Yes you’re an engineer and your time is valuable but you don’t have to act like it! Even if getting distracted causes you to lose some threads, you can’t ignore that you’re helping other people in the meantime. If you’re emotionally upset when you’re helping people they’re going to feel that and not want to try their best.

A company is not successful because of individuals, it’s the cooperation that causes the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts.

Re: Ways to annoy your senior engineer

#9
post #2

This is what is going on in the enterprise. I wonder why I mostly see posts from people in this type of environment here on Hacker News. I would love something like Hacker News, but for indie makers, entrepreneurs and bootstrapped startups. Is there something like this?

cynical take: those people are typically too busy working 50+ hours a week and have worse work-life-balance. they might spend less time on hacker news.

Re: Ways to annoy your senior engineer

#10
post #2

This is what is going on in the enterprise. I wonder why I mostly see posts from people in this type of environment here on Hacker News. I would love something like Hacker News, but for indie makers, entrepreneurs and bootstrapped startups. Is there something like this?

I would recommend you attend a TiE event, but mostly to listen rather than talk. It is important to understand what "investors" actually typically do, and what people say to try to convince other people their ideas are viable.

https://tie.org/

It can be kind of sad to see firms at that stage, but worth learning about what other people are doing in your area.

Best of luck =3

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