I’ve only worked for two tech companies, in radically different fields.
That’s a fairly limited data set, I think. I’ve worked for dozens in various capacities over the years, and I’d hate to think of forming my views on the industry based on the first two. But to each her own, I guess.
I identify a lot with the author. I have worked at more than two companies and have found the basic problem to be the same: resolving problems over and over again, maintaining legacy or, if you’re lucky, migrating from legacy. Some people love it. When I was younger I enjoyed it too and I see many of my coworkers, especially younger ones, enjoying it. But for myself, I don’t feel satisfied having spent a day working around bugs and feeling the frustration of trying to get something working that shouldn’t be broken in the first place. I general, I don’t enjoy patting myself on the back because I found a clever solution to a terrible problem that never needed to exist.
It’s not all that bad, but pretty much every company that has existed for more than a few years has these rough edges. And it isn’t the case that my employers have been been, most of them have been really great with excellent colleagues, it’s just the nature of any company. I hope to leave the software industry, hopefully sooner rather than later. I’d enjoy just working on things that interest me.
what i really enjoy about working at google is that i can at least try to find principled solutions to problems that were “dumped into my lap along with a canvas sack of money”. i’ve realised over time that i don’t need to find problem domains that interest me so much as problem domains that don’t make my eyes glaze over, with interesting problems embedded in them. i used to think i’d rather have the chance to work with a blank slate where i was defining both the problem and the solution, but really, it’s the process of problem solving that interests me, not the raison d'etre behind the software. (ironically, while james hague is one of the tech industry people i really look up to, he espouses precisely the opposite viewpoint.)
I’ve only worked for two tech companies, in radically different fields.
That’s a fairly limited data set, I think. I’ve worked for dozens in various capacities over the years, and I’d hate to think of forming my views on the industry based on the first two. But to each her own, I guess.
I identify a lot with the author. I have worked at more than two companies and have found the basic problem to be the same: resolving problems over and over again, maintaining legacy or, if you’re lucky, migrating from legacy. Some people love it. When I was younger I enjoyed it too and I see many of my coworkers, especially younger ones, enjoying it. But for myself, I don’t feel satisfied having spent a day working around bugs and feeling the frustration of trying to get something working that shouldn’t be broken in the first place. I general, I don’t enjoy patting myself on the back because I found a clever solution to a terrible problem that never needed to exist.
It’s not all that bad, but pretty much every company that has existed for more than a few years has these rough edges. And it isn’t the case that my employers have been been, most of them have been really great with excellent colleagues, it’s just the nature of any company. I hope to leave the software industry, hopefully sooner rather than later. I’d enjoy just working on things that interest me.
what i really enjoy about working at google is that i can at least try to find principled solutions to problems that were “dumped into my lap along with a canvas sack of money”. i’ve realised over time that i don’t need to find problem domains that interest me so much as problem domains that don’t make my eyes glaze over, with interesting problems embedded in them. i used to think i’d rather have the chance to work with a blank slate where i was defining both the problem and the solution, but really, it’s the process of problem solving that interests me, not the raison d'etre behind the software. (ironically, while james hague is one of the tech industry people i really look up to, he espouses precisely the opposite viewpoint.)