this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
330 points (100.0% liked)
TechTakes
1377 readers
170 users here now
Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.
For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I highlighted another nice dig by weizenbaum this afternoon which your "broken by design" reminded me of:
"These gigantic computer systems have usually been put together (one cannot always use the word designed) by teams of programmers, whose work is often spread over many years. By the time these systems come into use, most of the original programmers have left or turned their attention to other pursuits. It is precisely when such systems begin to be used that their inner workings can no longer be understood by any single person or by a small team of individuals."
I think that sequence of events happens sometimes but not all the times. the generational-departed programmer thing happens more in bigger orgs or teams with a bit of a more established presence/footprint. and I don't really get the impression proton is that big yet
this one smells more like the other kind of ratfuckery I've seen in shartups: some particular bugbear/feature-idea "driven" by a C-level/owner/teamlead (where "driven", n.: "someone said go do it"), enabled by complicit PM/POs doing some goalwashing, with devs either just keeping their head down, or actively participating in creation
also I believe you'll greatly enjoy reading https://lemming-articlestash.blogspot.com/2011/12/institutional-memory-and-reverse.html