Re:Imaginary Problems Are the Root of Bad Software
by nine_zeros on Sunday June 18, 2023 @06:02PM
(#36384976)
The career ladder is among the biggest fuck ups of the tech industry. They incentivize bullshittery more than actual innovation. There are more rewards for BS RFCs than in keeping the ship running.
Re:Imaginary Problems Are the Root of Bad Software
by gtirloni on Sunday June 18, 2023 @10:27PM
(#36386668)
I had a completely different view of RFCs before coming into contact with some peers that followed this approach to the letter. RFCs for such small issues would take 10 pages and barely mean anything. Of course they would be praised by upper management (it didn't matter the RFCs would be ignored most of the time).
However, a large and insidious cadre of B tier engineers was constantly writing docs proposing meaningless arbitrary system changes and new designs for the sake the changes themselves. These new projects were the only way to get promoted. The entire e4->5->6->7 track was written in such a way that it only ever encouraged “TL”/“architect”types to grow.
This led to constant churn, horrible codebases, and utter bullshit self made problems which could only be solved by digging a deeper hole.
There are companies who handle this well. Ultimately it comes down to engineering culture.