Anytime an engineer tells me that the only solution to something is to "bite the bullet and rewrite everything," I lose all respect for them.
> "Anytime an engineer tells me that the only solution to something is to "bite the bullet and rewrite everything," I lose all respect for them" Pretty closed minded approach. Just because it is usually not a good idea to do a rewrite, does not mean it is always true. Here is an example which indicates you are probably wrong with that type of thinking: What happens if a shop decides to store all their data in flat te…
Being an engineer myself, I know how easy it is to see things as black and white and that the right answer is "just so obvious." But the more I do, the more I see that this approach is almost always wrong or, at best, half-baked.
In most situations, there is more than one option. So, to say that rewriting everything is the only solution, especially when the guy doesn't even work at Facebook, is a classic example of engineering arrogance.
The second problem I have with the original comment is that it doesn't acknowledge that, in any situation, tradeoffs exist. The way you sell things, both to executives and potential customers, is not to just come in and say "there is only one right answer, you have to do it this way" but to provide a thorough analysis of the current situation, acknowledge the different tradeoffs and provide options based on the top few scenarios.