How good engineers write bad code at big companies
seangoedecke.com
How good engineers write bad code at big companies
1–10 of 333 posts
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#2The referenced article Pure and Impure Engineering was discussed a few months back here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45165753
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#3I don't really buy that this is the main reason. A good senior engineer is for the most part able to not write bad code from day one, just at a very low speed and with the need to ask other people frequenyly. Even if you do not know the code base or domain yet there are a lot of things you can do to avoid writing bad code. Yes, as someone new you will make mistakes and misunderstand things but a lot of the bad code I have personally seen has not been caused by that. Most bad code I have seen has been caused by people rushing and not having their fundamentals in order. Like not actually doing reviews, not spending a few extra hours to think about architecture, etc. Also a big issue is that people just let the complexity of systems explode for the gain of short term projects.
I think the issue is more that engineers face unreasonable pressure to deliver short term value and that there is no respect for the craft/engineering from many managers or even engineers.
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#4> They are almost certainly working to a deadline, or to a series of overlapping deadlines for different projects.
I think this is crucial. Even old hands working on their area of expertise can be compromised by deadlines.
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#5> Big companies know that treating engineers as fungible and moving them around destroys their ability to develop long-term expertise in a single codebase. That’s a deliberate tradeoff. They’re giving up some amount of expertise and software quality in order to gain the ability to rapidly deploy skilled engineers onto whatever the problem-of-the-month is.
And also to "keep the balance of power tilted away from engineers and towards tech company leadership." The author touched on that and forgot about it. You don't want key projects depending on a group of engineers that might get hit by a bus or unionize or demonstrate against Israel or something. Network effects and moats and the occasional lobbying/collusion mean the quality of your product is less important.
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#6I'm just gonna drop this funny roast song here. Hope it's heard lightheartedly:
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#7The referenced article Pure and Impure Engineering was discussed a few months back here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45165753
I find these drive-by-attacks on CQRS to be particularly frustrating. Some people know CQRS or CQS are fairly straightforward ideas that can be nice to use and give you some benefits. Some people believe CQRS is some kind of elitist architecture authoritarianism bogeyman in the same category as the microservice pushback.
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#8Maybe I have it wrong but the very essence of "engineering" is managing the constraints of (1) providing an acceptable solution to a problem (2) within some fixed parameters of time and cost.
The code may look "bad" in a vacuum but if it yielded a successful outcome then the engineer was able to achieve his/her goal for the business.
The stories shared in this article are exactly what you'd expect from big tech. These are some of the most successful firms in the history of capitalism. As an engineer you are just grist in the mill. If you want to reliably produce "good" code then IMO become an artist. And no ... working at a research facility or non-profit wont save you.
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#9I don’t think the underlying point is true: big companies don’t necessarily write bad code.
A big company is like a collection of small companies. Code quality varies depending on where you are in it.
Similarly, nothing leads me to believe small companies are any better. Some are excellent. Some are nightmare spaghetti.
Re: How good engineers write bad code at big companies
#10It’s always a trade off between raising the bar and making a deadline. The deadline always wins since the boss doesn’t know how to read code