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The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

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Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#11

Post by pjmlp »

rjzzleep wrote: post #2

i've been more and more inclined to write about engineering management myself. if you think about this post, it's is essentially how big open source software projects work. some open source projects have the responsibility to read commit logs once you gain commit access. that way the more you get involved into the project the more your responsibility to review your peers grows. other projects like linux have people t…

You are forgetting that open source projects don't have deadlines, pissed customers that might go elsewhere, people that get fired by not fulfilling the quarter targets, ...

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#12

Post by rjzzleep »

pjmlp wrote: post #11
rjzzleep wrote: post #2

i've been more and more inclined to write about engineering management myself. if you think about this post, it's is essentially how big open source software projects work. some open source projects have the responsibility to read commit logs once you gain commit access. that way the more you get involved into the project the more your responsibility to review your peers grows. other projects like linux have people t…

You are forgetting that open source projects don't have deadlines, pissed customers that might go elsewhere, people that get fired by not fulfilling the quarter targets, ...

i'm not so sure that's true. if you fail to deliver in time your open source project will become vaporware and people including developers will go elsewhere for satisfaction

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#13

Post by alttab »

toolslive wrote: post #7

a quote comes to mind: """ If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. """ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

This was in Quick and Nimble in the second chapter. Always a good quote.

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#14

Post by bigchewy »

GeneralMayhem wrote: post #6
jerf wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was a knee-jerk reaction to the word "ownership". That is not the sense used here. There is no contradiction in being given ownership of some task while having no ownership stake in the company; it's two quite different senses of the term.

I disagree - the distinction is still significant in that it's important not to let the responsibilities of ownership land on your plate when you're not getting any of the benefits.

does a salary count as a benefit?

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#15

Post by pjmlp »

rjzzleep wrote: post #12
pjmlp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting that open source projects don't have deadlines, pissed customers that might go elsewhere, people that get fired by not fulfilling the quarter targets, ...

i'm not so sure that's true. if you fail to deliver in time your open source project will become vaporware and people including developers will go elsewhere for satisfaction

Partly true, as usually there are no monetary consequences.

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#16

Post by Sivart13 »

Right, so you gave "cowboy coding" a different name, then.

"Not surprisingly, others understand their code. It integrates well with the code base."

Actually, that IS surprising. You are literally saying that if sic some engineer on a problem and tell them to think really hard before they commit anything, they'll get it right.

Maybe you got lucky and that's working out with the hires you have so far, or maybe your scale is still small enough that new features can be developed in isolation without becoming incomprehensible. But I wouldn't pretend this is a successful process.

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#17

Post by gress »

jerf wrote: post #5
brewski wrote: post #4

"They take ownership..." Reminder: Unless you have an actual stake in the company, you do not own anything you produce for the company. Keep that in mind the next time code you worked on causes a 2am production server crash or is responsible for increasing revenue x10. It is not your code that caused the events but the owner's of the company.

I think that was a knee-jerk reaction to the word "ownership". That is not the sense used here. There is no contradiction in being given ownership of some task while having no ownership stake in the company; it's two quite different senses of the term.

Sort of. The sense that's being used here is a corporatism that means 'act with the level of commitment implied by owning something even though you have none of the rights benefits or responsibilities' - i.e. It is a form of doublethink required by the corporate hierarchy.

It is quite reasonable to ask 'why should I act as if I own think, when actually I do not?'

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#18

Post by scrabble »

Sivart13 wrote: post #16

Right, so you gave "cowboy coding" a different name, then. "Not surprisingly, others understand their code. It integrates well with the code base." Actually, that IS surprising. You are literally saying that if sic some engineer on a problem and tell them to think really hard before they commit anything, they'll get it right. Maybe you got lucky and that's working out with the hires you have so far, or maybe your sca…

The article also stated that all of the code is peer reviewed and QA'd. So it's not really cowboy coding.

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#19

Post by tdumitrescu »

"The team is expected to churn through a backlog of dozens of insignificantly small bits of larger features, which often lack foresight into the constraints that will be discovered and the interdepencies between smaller bits that result in developer deadlock."

Yep. This is where a crappy product manager can turn "incremental" into "myopic and inflexible" under the banner of Agile. Just trust your engineers a bit already.

Re: The 10x Engineer and Delegated Responsibility

#20

Post by Iftheshoefits »

bigchewy wrote: post #14
GeneralMayhem wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree - the distinction is still significant in that it's important not to let the responsibilities of ownership land on your plate when you're not getting any of the benefits.

does a salary count as a benefit?

Salary is compensation for quantums of a person's life spent doing something for which he has (presumably) the skills to do. That's not a "benefit;" it's an exchange of value.

"Ownership" is a poor way to express the differences in meaning(s) indicated in this article.

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