[rednafi]

Do you ever get tired of playing this “visibility,” “impact,” “promo politics” game and think, “I came into this industry because I like computers, not… whatever this is”?

[bartread]

All the time, my friend: all the damn time.

I've been all the way up to CTO in a mid-size company (650ish people), and I've felt like this in every role I've had at different times. Some places more than others. Where I was CTO wasn't too bad but that came at the cost of me not touching code at the company for several years because, at that level, and in the kind of company it was, you just really can't - not without finding yourself becoming a blocker anyway.

But I've worked in a couple of larger organisations - one of them, probably 90k employees, although it wasn't a tech company - and these issues are rife there as well. To some extent, I think it's just big company behaviour, not specific only to big tech companies.

[rednafi]

Yeah. I’m not saying software work needs to happen in a silo, but man, the politics at large companies - where a certain group of people are constantly trying to get "ahead" of everyone else by yapping and backstabbing - get really tiring after a few years.

[edmundsauto]

At most organizational sizes, the hard problems are that of coordinating people and not software. It’s a hard decision, but ultimately if you want to scale the size of your impact - you have to make these tradeoffs.

Some folks want to scale impact. Some want to be bespoke crafters. Both are okay, you just have to accept they are mutually exclusive.

[wmf]

He somewhat addresses that at the end. Maybe soon enough we can replace management with AI and just download Pliny's latest promotion jailbreak.

[rednafi]

I dearly hope so. Not that I am saying software development shouldn't be a social activity, but does it have to be this performative & toxic?

[jacquesm]

That already makes you an exception. Most people come into this industry because they like shiny rocks.

[0ckpuppet]

promo politics generate legions oflickspittles when managers don't have the chops to evaluate the work and are just looking for "wins"

[ThrowawayB7]

Yes, absolutely yes. But it's the price of playing in the big leagues. In exchange, you get to work on cutting edge tech used by millions.

[bravetraveler]

Every fucking day