Re:Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
by hinkley on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @07:32PM
(#21653656)
I've heard a similar commentary about Microsoft millionaires founding startups and having absolutely no clue how hard logistics is.
Because if you have a guy showing up on Monday, there's an office already set up and ready for him by close of business the previous Thursday.
I like to solve problems at work with openly available tools. I will often file patches or add comments to tickets or StackOverflow so that when I am at a new place all of that information is still documented somewhere I can get at it.
In house tools are a siren's call. And the fact of the matter is that if you wrote a tool because you had a need for it before anyone else did, that eventually others will want it too, and there will absolutely come a day when their version eclipses yours. You have to have a way to run your systems without tying them that tightly to a specific tool. And you have to accept that the 4 years of utility you got out of that tool was money well spent and you can retire it now with a clean conscience.
Because if you have a guy showing up on Monday, there's an office already set up and ready for him by close of business the previous Thursday.
I like to solve problems at work with openly available tools. I will often file patches or add comments to tickets or StackOverflow so that when I am at a new place all of that information is still documented somewhere I can get at it.
In house tools are a siren's call. And the fact of the matter is that if you wrote a tool because you had a need for it before anyone else did, that eventually others will want it too, and there will absolutely come a day when their version eclipses yours. You have to have a way to run your systems without tying them that tightly to a specific tool. And you have to accept that the 4 years of utility you got out of that tool was money well spent and you can retire it now with a clean conscience.