> Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately?

"Don't mind me guys, I'm barely boiling the frog."

> Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately? It can easily just be part of a SWE needing the flag in place in order to continue work without impacting anything else, even if that thing never ever launches.

Yes, because that's a such anti-consumer issue. It shouldn't exist in the first place, it should never be merged to master. There's no reason to not keep it on a separate branch if you don't intend to use it.

Honestly, if the work is going to be done (again it should not be done), I'd rather have it out in the open.

Companies don't usually make a habit of having their employees work on something they don't intend to pursue.

I wish that were true in corporate America! Think of all of the waste that would eliminate.

Yeah but then you also have to think about all the jobs that would be lost.

Yes, they actually do. Or rather, there is no "company", there are thousands of different decision makers.

My point is that at some other company (e.g. Apple) it would be done in secret on a branch somewhere, then big-bang merged later.

Google's process doesn't tend to work that way.

Yes, because a feature flag shows intent to implement it before any real discussion have taken place with privacy and non-corporate security advocates.

Oh you sweet sweet summer child.

Do you or did you work at Google? Because I did, for 10 years.

And can we retire this inane content-less quip already?

Also I'm old enough that even my children aren't children anymore. How I would dearly love for your statement to be true.

When was the last time you heard Google or anything Google-related backing down from getting their paws in deeper? It's no longer a fallacy when there's a sign next to the slippery slope.

That’s backing down from responsibility not from doing the wrong thing.

We can add www to the list.

I worked in that code base. Things were feature flagged then murdered all the time.

What you think they push the flag without the intention to make it happen?

Because I worked at Google. People get tasked on working on things that get killed later all the time.

Don't underestimate how much money they have to burn and how incompetent upper management is at making hard decisions and planning.