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Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by hinkley on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @01:04PM (#38382703)
I have a long list of ways to improve processes and when I was young, energetic, and didn’t know any better, I got very, very lucky getting many or most of them through. As I’ve gotten older I’ve found more things that I “need” to improve and there’s been more time for me to forget how I need to justify things I consider “the right way” and so I don’t always win those arguments.

But the bigger thing I’m coming to grips with is that I have to stop entertaining offers from companies that give me an “I can fix them” vibe because I will only be able to fix half the things I know to fix before everyone else decides they’ve changed “enough” and would I kindly shut up now. Hello ossification.

Eventually having half good, half bad is going to drive me nuts and take other people with me. I need a higher bar where they are already doing at least half and I can settle for reaching 2/3 or 3/4 instead of fighting uphill to get to 50%, only to give up and start the cycle earlier. If this were dating I was talking about, someone would have sat me down by now for an intervention.

Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by henham on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @04:21PM (#38385292)
How do you distinguish "I can fix them" companies that will not improve because they are where they are because of organisational and human issues and the ones you can actual improve and are ready for you?
Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by Aeolun on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @07:54PM (#38387685)
It’s simple, you just assume none are ready for change, and you’ll have a pretty much 100% accurate heuristic.
Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by hinkley on Thursday November 23, 2023 @12:30PM (#38395164)
I think my thesis is that rather than looking for diamonds in the rough I need to reset my sense of good enough at least high enough that the exchange of new wisdom is somewhat proportional. I can teach you things and you can teach me things.

As a polymath my natural instinct is to learn by observation and doing rather than engage a teacher directly. Fortunately I can also learn by interviewing, so I’m not completely hopeless. If I’m asking you a ton of questions odds are good I think you’re a mentor or I think you need one.

The problem is that I’ve worked for a couple places that I thought could teach me a lot more than they did, I mistook individual attributes as a pattern that wasn’t there, and what I saw was more (or less) what I got. So at the end of the day I am probably the wrong person to ask. Thankfully other people replied.

Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by busterarm on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @01:17PM (#38382918)
I feel so much exactly what you're describing here...
Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by tazjin on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @02:28PM (#38383921)
This reminds me of the "Explore/Exploit" chapter from "Algorithms to live by" :)
Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by Aeolun on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @07:57PM (#38387711)
I joined my current company 5 years ago, and I feel like we’ve ‘fixed’ a lot of things, but the effort to do so is so absurd.

And then it’s suddenly invalidated by some high-up rando on the other side of the world deciding we need to go back to the bad old way of doing things.

Re:Reflecting on 18 Years at Google by hinkley on Thursday November 23, 2023 @12:33PM (#38395191)
How do you cope with Told Ya So? I’ve found it’s never as cathartic as I think and keeping it to myself is somewhat stressful, so nobody wins no matter which option I choose.