> I would define "staff" as "here is a vaguely understood problem we believe has to be solved; find out what it is, whether it actually is a thing, why it happened, whether it is worth the time to solve, and finally guide others to solve it for us."
I would define that as "software engineering". What else are any of us doing all day? The compiler's job?
Re:The Staff Engineer's Path – Book Review
by jmchuster on Wednesday May 17, 2023 @04:12PM
(#35980630)
It's the scale of it.
"Here is a vaguely understood problem, that might take 2 hours to solve."
"Here is a vaguely understood problem, that might take 2 years to solve."
Though if you're used to the latter timescale, you might not consider the former as all that "vaguely" understood.
The creators of the software you mentioned are rarely in a role defined as such. If you really want to go the hard-core coding path, the startup scene is the best place to look.