Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
blog.ycombinator.com
Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
1–10 of 17 posts
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#2> standing in as SRE for 24×7 hour shifts… for over a year.
1. Should that be 7x24 since it is followed by hour?
2. Hero worship is toxic. It like the ultra thin models used for advertising. This just perpetuates unhealthy attitudes toward work.
Edit: changed phrasing of 1
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#3> standing in as SRE for 24×7 hour shifts… for over a year. 1. Should that be 7x24 since it is followed by hour? 2. Hero worship is toxic. It like the ultra thin models used for advertising. This just perpetuates unhealthy attitudes toward work. Edit: changed phrasing of 1
Agreed, this is not just disturbing but embarrassing. Really, they couldn't hire an SRE to cover like, half a shift, enough to sleep? 24x7 shifts for over a year? So you're cofounding a company, making horrible and unsustainable decisions as a leader to the point that you're probably sabotaging it and someone is giving you the platform to by proxy advise others to do the same?
How is someone supposed to come to a conclusion that such companies are successful in spite of and not because of such environments? What a backwards way to build an organization.
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#4> standing in as SRE for 24×7 hour shifts… for over a year. 1. Should that be 7x24 since it is followed by hour? 2. Hero worship is toxic. It like the ultra thin models used for advertising. This just perpetuates unhealthy attitudes toward work. Edit: changed phrasing of 1
Agreed, this is not just disturbing but embarrassing. Really, they couldn't hire an SRE to cover like, half a shift, enough to sleep? 24x7 shifts for over a year? So you're cofounding a company, making horrible and unsustainable decisions as a leader to the point that you're probably sabotaging it and someone is giving you the platform to by proxy advise others to do the same? How is someone supposed to come to a con…
Agreed^2. Grab a highly qualified, talented person in India or Australia (or wherever is +12ish) from TopTal: solve the [first level] overnight issue, use them and onshore talent to drive the process of improving security and documentation while saving $$$, moving to supporting a global talent pool and improving the life of an offshore worker. Seems like a no-brainer to me (as long as the costs incurred are recaptured as benefits to the system/organization). Why would you tire and distract a _core_ contributor?
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#5> standing in as SRE for 24×7 hour shifts… for over a year. 1. Should that be 7x24 since it is followed by hour? 2. Hero worship is toxic. It like the ultra thin models used for advertising. This just perpetuates unhealthy attitudes toward work. Edit: changed phrasing of 1
Agreed, this is not just disturbing but embarrassing. Really, they couldn't hire an SRE to cover like, half a shift, enough to sleep? 24x7 shifts for over a year? So you're cofounding a company, making horrible and unsustainable decisions as a leader to the point that you're probably sabotaging it and someone is giving you the platform to by proxy advise others to do the same? How is someone supposed to come to a con…
In the extremely early days of a startup one doesn't have much optionality. With only three people at the company it really did not make any sense to hire a full time SRE for a pre PMF startup. I'm glad we made those trade offs back in 2011-2012 so that Firebase could be here today to be backed by a dedicated Google SRE team.
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#6Will copy the office hours on Friday! I love the focus on fixing tooling and enabling others.
Checking out Gold Fig Labs now :).
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, this is not just disturbing but embarrassing. Really, they couldn't hire an SRE to cover like, half a shift, enough to sleep? 24x7 shifts for over a year? So you're cofounding a company, making horrible and unsustainable decisions as a leader to the point that you're probably sabotaging it and someone is giving you the platform to by proxy advise others to do the same? How is someone supposed to come to a con…
In the extremely early days of a startup one doesn't have much optionality. With only three people at the company it really did not make any sense to hire a full time SRE for a pre PMF startup. I'm glad we made those trade offs back in 2011-2012 so that Firebase could be here today to be backed by a dedicated Google SRE team.
Obviously nobody can take away your contributions towards making Firebase successful. I think many people may not realize the kind of fanaticism that it takes to get a startup off the ground, considering the odds are stacked against you.
I am curious though, how well did you sleep that year?
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#824/7 shift for over a year is a big red flag and toxic behavior.
I guess he hasn't a family
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, this is not just disturbing but embarrassing. Really, they couldn't hire an SRE to cover like, half a shift, enough to sleep? 24x7 shifts for over a year? So you're cofounding a company, making horrible and unsustainable decisions as a leader to the point that you're probably sabotaging it and someone is giving you the platform to by proxy advise others to do the same? How is someone supposed to come to a con…
Agreed^2. Grab a highly qualified, talented person in India or Australia (or wherever is +12ish) from TopTal: solve the [first level] overnight issue, use them and onshore talent to drive the process of improving security and documentation while saving $$$, moving to supporting a global talent pool and improving the life of an offshore worker. Seems like a no-brainer to me (as long as the costs incurred are recapture…
You cannot often outsource such things in a startup's early years. Things change fast, and a remote worker - does not matter how qualified - who is hired only for a specific purpose, especially something like SRE, might not have enough insight or context to fix things when they go wrong.
It's fine to be idealistic and say that everything should be documented, communicated over email/Slack/hangouts whatever - but that does not work in practice when you are just focused on getting the product out, and dealing with multiple fires at the same time.
Re: Vikrum Nijjar: Engineer #1 at Firebase and Founder of Gold Fig Labs (YC S19)
#10> standing in as SRE for 24×7 hour shifts… for over a year. 1. Should that be 7x24 since it is followed by hour? 2. Hero worship is toxic. It like the ultra thin models used for advertising. This just perpetuates unhealthy attitudes toward work. Edit: changed phrasing of 1
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