Re:Things they didn’t teach you about Software Engineering
by bitexploder on Saturday January 07, 2023 @10:09AM
(#34288654)
The irony is, I started and sold a consulting business. We got to do some things our way, but we still had to make money. Overall, I say do it, but I made choices I never imagined I would have to make. So it goes.
Re:Things they didn’t teach you about Software Engineering
by KyeRussell on Saturday January 07, 2023 @10:55AM
(#34289195)
This is really the next layer up in the ‘galaxy brain meme’ of this thread. The understanding that the people that dissuade you from gold plated engineering solutions are not some inherently different monsters. Rather, they’re doing at least roughly what you’d do in the same situation.
Re:Things they didn’t teach you about Software Engineering
by bitexploder on Saturday January 07, 2023 @11:01AM
(#34289274)
It’s the central tension we always had. Can you do enough your way, and as you grow, your teams way while still making money. Hackers have an ethos and working for big corporate behemoths often means compromising that ethos. I feel we did, and still do, a good job. You can get rid of so much red tape, focus on quality, have a really fun culture etc. and if you hire pragmatic folks who accept they get all of that in return for doing the make money part of consulting it can be a ton of fun and very rewarding. But the owners and managers in the business are always balancing it.
For me, the game theory gets pretty advanced at this level.
My strategy now relies on enriching myself via equity and careful product decisions so that I can then go start my own software studio and do things my way. Presumably, this is what our leadership wanted all along.
Trying to get my rush experimenting with new ideas under the current employer is really only shooting myself in the foot with regard to this long term plan. Any experimentation is reserved for side projects and weekends. At this point, I only bring "code" ideas to the team if I think they will legitimately improve the business in some eventual way that a non-wizard can understand.