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Glue Work Considered Harmful

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Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#11

Post by apwell23 »

neilv wrote: post #2

This is one reason that I like early startups: I can greatly influence how things are done, so that we have a high level of efficiency, so that we can remain on-mission.

Maybe you have influence on trival stuff like which testing framework to use. In my experience working at many small and medium startups is that most of the impactful decisions are still made by the in-group boysclub.

For some reason lots of people seem to have this misconception that startups are somehow more meritocratic than big corporates. I found the opposite to be true.

Your job working at startup is to get into that group and be one of the boys.

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#12

Post by hresvelgr »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #3

Another perspective is that "glue work" is one of the best ways you can generate outsized returns for your effort. Your own efforts scale linearly because you're just one person. Improving everyone's efforts scales multiplicatively, and compounds iteratively.

I agree with this, though the article presents an unfortunately realistic issue within larger orgs: optics. Glue work is ultimately a bet and convincing management that doing said work will result in magnified/bettered future outcomes is difficult. Glue work is easier to do when management trusts engineering.

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#13

Post by darth_avocado »

Glue work doesn’t get rewarded. That I agree with. However I don’t agree with the conclusion.

Do Glue Work for projects that you are leading, projects that you are accountable for. As a senior+ engineer that is all your projects. So should you prioritize glue work for all of them?

From my experience, there is a delicate balance. There’s Glue work that you need to get right every time, else risk getting fired. E.g. Technical specifications for your project. There’s glue work that you need to put on the back burner every time until it becomes a visible problem that management will appreciate you take care of. E.g tech debt, addressing strands that are getting dropped. Then there is glue work that you do to make your own life easier. E.g. Onboarding docs, demos etc.

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#14

Post by incrudible »

topspin wrote: post #8

With the possible exception of art, all work is glue work. If you believe your work isn't glue work, you're indulging hubris.

Regardless of terminology, clearly there is a distinction between different types of work, as discussed in the article. If you take umbrage at the coining of that term, file a semantic dispute.

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#15

Post by neilv »

apwell23 wrote: post #11
neilv wrote: post #2

This is one reason that I like early startups: I can greatly influence how things are done, so that we have a high level of efficiency, so that we can remain on-mission.

Maybe you have influence on trival stuff like which testing framework to use. In my experience working at many small and medium startups is that most of the impactful decisions are still made by the in-group boysclub. For some reason lots of people seem to have this misconception that startups are somehow more meritocratic than big corporates. I found the opposite to be true. Your job working at startup is to get int…

Exactly. But can we rename it to non-gender-specific "old children's club" or "the cool kids"? :)

But seriously, I think probably I need to be technical co-founder, or a trusted first/veryearly hire. Then, as we grow, I'd try to hire rare smart and aligned people, so we can empower them to make decisions without them quickly fudging up the highly effective company that the "old fogies club" started.

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#16

Post by sieabahlpark »

neilv wrote: post #4

> Your job is to execute the mission of your company’s leadership. In a large company, aren't workers incentived to please their immediate manager and whatever higher metrics/appearances they're exposed to. Neither of these guiding incentives necessarily has much to do with the mission of company leadership. Isn't the job whatever the incentives say it is? Maybe the difference between incentives -- and what the autho…

[dead]

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#17

Post by palata »

apwell23 wrote: post #11
neilv wrote: post #2

This is one reason that I like early startups: I can greatly influence how things are done, so that we have a high level of efficiency, so that we can remain on-mission.

Maybe you have influence on trival stuff like which testing framework to use. In my experience working at many small and medium startups is that most of the impactful decisions are still made by the in-group boysclub. For some reason lots of people seem to have this misconception that startups are somehow more meritocratic than big corporates. I found the opposite to be true. Your job working at startup is to get int…

Similar experience here.

Also becoming one of the boys is not about technical ability at all: it's marketing. What you need to do to get in the boysclub will depend on the group, but I have never seen a startup where it was about being good at what you do.

Conversely, there seems to be this misconception that corporates are boring, slow, full of useless processes. But my experience is that "slow" may be another word for "healthy", and "useless processes" may be a way to call "the cool kids can't make the rules". I find it more rewarding.

And if you have a ton of energy to work on projects that you find exciting, better do it in your free time and own it. Startups are a Ponzi scheme: unless you are one of the founders, you won't get compensated for all the extra work. So make sure you "own" (or at least benefit from) it: maybe it means that you have to do it at home and never talk about it at work, maybe it means that you can do it open source in your free time, and the best is if you can do it open source at work.

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#19

Post by scarface_74 »

For people who haven’t worked at BigTech and adjacent companies. They all focus on “scope”, “impact” and “dealing with ambiguity”. They state it in different ways. But it all boils down to those three at some level

https://www.levels.fyi/blog/swe-level-framework.html

You don’t get ahead by doing “glue work” or maintenance programming. That’s the main reason that Google has the attention span of a crack addled flea and at one point has 5 different messaging apps and cancels initiatives left and right.

You can’t put anything related to glue work on your promo doc.

Re: Glue Work Considered Harmful

#20

Post by spookie »

This kind of perspective exemplifies how mediocre most companies become if they don't value being a well oiled machine.

Someone said it here, but all engineering work is glue work. Might as well value those thinking smarter about it.

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