'Moving very, very fast' for me personally doesn't imply breakneck speed, burning bridges, breaking things, etc. You can still take time to think AND move quickly. Far too many (software) engineers can dwell endlessly on 'The Best Solution' and never get anything done.
That said, I'm pretty sure if you are a tech company, time and timing is of the essence to get your products to market and find out what needs to be changed asap.
Also, there will always be a never-ending backlog. That's why you make decisions and prioritise.
> Am I alone here in feeling like that all sounds incredibly exhausting and like a pretty draining place to work, and not-so-subtly seeks to attract workaholics?
Yes, but if someone loves what they do why wouldn't they want to immerse themselves in it and get paid well for it?
Re:Building Products at Stripe
by mikeortman on Wednesday May 19, 2021 @12:19AM
(#27204529)
How to burnout 101. Setting an unrealistic performance expectation by doing what you love is fine, but that expectation won’t cease once you are asked to do something uninteresting or frustrating.
It's like there's lip-service to things that we as software engineers enjoy about our profession (eg craftsmanship, deep thinking, high-quality work), but it comes across as just throat clearing before hammering in "moving very, very fast". I read that constant repetition of "moving fast" as "you will always have an endless backlog of work that you will nonetheless have to endlessly crank through with all your energy, and our hiring/retention policy only selects for that"