How good engineers write bad code at big companies • Hacker News Board

Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies

#331

Post by alliao » Thu, Dec 04, 2025, 7:27 PM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #323

alliao wrote: post #218

it's just the mindset of management 101.. you do not ever let your engineer be bored. literally the first thing they teach in 101 is you deliberately overburden them with crazy THEN set impossible deadline so that they build only the very core and you ship it immediately then refine later. sure the method might be different now, but the spirit of such process is the same, you do not ever let your engineer be bored as…

Can you expand further on that, and maybe send some sources? Interested to learn more about this.

just what i was taught when i took a management 101 class in my university years.. it was one of my elective papers outside of my core curriculum quite enlightening and helped me manage my managers...

Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies

#332

Post by alephnerd » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 12:23 AM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #316

alephnerd wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ime, a lot of the onus falls on Engineering and Product Management failing to make a case for why certain engineering decisions (eg. Investing in continual tech debt grooming) have business value. The point of a business is to generate revenue. The point of employees is to do work that helps generate revenue. As such, any decision needs to ensure it has a business case aligned with revenue generation. Good engineerin…

Well maybe you get hit with the gray arrows because you first make a sweeping generalization and then say "I have no sympathy for you". Food for thought? I have communicated the business value in addressing tech debt, as in I have pointed out how many critical customer features got delayed by it and we churn customers we really can't afford to. Still got overruled. The tech lead stepped in and threw his weight around…

I think we are both operating on our priors. At least here in the Bay Area, those kinds of workplaces don't survive over the long term due to their incompetence and toxicity dragging down execution. I can't speak for where you might be.

Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies

#333

Post by ethan0456 » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 5:20 PM UTC

This post highlights a deeper reason many people choose engineering: they want to build good things. Engineers who care about the craft get bothered by bad code.

But management optimises for profit and speed. When engineers are treated as a commodity, control ends up with management, and they use it to push for delivery over long term quality.

Engineers who think more like managers are not “impure engineers.” They just understand the trade off between cleaning up bad code and getting a project across the finish line.