Re:Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters
by stcredzero on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @04:48PM
(#13700368)
I absolutely don't disagree with optimizing when it's obvious (two for loops instead of one, etc.)
What we disagree with, is the expansion of one's knowledge of what constitutes "obvious." Many people would say that the scam nature of "Solar Freakin Roadways" was far from obvious. Other people would smack their foreheads and ask why some people didn't pay attention in middle school and high school physics!
I absolutely don't disagree with optimizing when it's obvious (two for loops instead of one, etc.) All I'm saying is that, when you have thousands of lines of code (millions?) and even more complicated/intricate connections in your head of different modules, all the while when trying to reach a deadline, things aren't as obvious. You have to make compromises, it's inevitable.
Amazon or Google did not scale up magically in one go by following established guidelines. I am very certain they had growing pains and I know that they had "hacks"[0] while figuring out the right solution for the problem at hand.
[0] As attested by a former Googler who works at my current workplace