Comment by throwarayes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwarayes | Hacker News Reader

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Rot sets in when:

- teams no longer have a real customer, such as “big rewrites” that will ship in 3 years

- teams accept low quality and slack off. One PR isn’t called out and that gives a permission structure for lower quality

- a bad egg gets on the team the wrecks the feelings of emotional safety. The brilliant narcissist the company feels they need to let his/her abusiveness slide

- we throw new hires “into the deep end” because they have to “take their lumps” like we did

- people get territorial over code because they’re insecure and maybe not great developers.

- the customer is ignored to chase the latest cool new thing

- hiring standards are lowered and anybody with a pulse that walked by the tech section in the bookstore is hired

- good developers stop seeing peers, and realize they do all the work, so leave for a healthier team

- tech illiteracy outside the team trumps tech competency in the team. When the manager says “stop writing unit tests, just get the feature done”

- any rumor “hire cheaper labor” causes your best to flee and your least qualified to jockey for status

- Bureaucrats who mask their power hunger with fake noble goals take over the team and call high performers brilliant narcissists.

- Bureaucrats cannot code, therefore they needlessly churn around and associate themselves with other people's creations. People objecting get called territorial and lose the political battle to the mediocrity.

As you see, it all depends on the exact circumstances. Sometimes your points are correct, sometimes mine.

What’s worse is when some of these make their way into a company that has barely gotten off the ground. Especially the narcissist.

>not too much catering to “super stars”. 1-2 heros does not a team make, the senior people make it their job to lift everyone up. The team doesn’t obsess over their high performers.

>good developers stop seeing peers, and realize they do all the work, so leave for a healthier team

These seem like alternative framings of or reactions to the same situation.

>teams no longer have a real customer, such as “big rewrites” that will ship in 3 years

"Real customer" is a luxury. In consumer facing tech, the core stuff was all written years ago, and most teams are responsible for some features of / enhancements to the overall product. UXR can put together surveys and focus groups with people in your treatment group, but you are lucky if they even clearly remember the part that your team changed. Most of their opinions will have nothing to do with you.

Can you expand on "any rumor hire cheaper labor"? Im too new to understand that one.

Likely rumors that the company will be hiring or contracting overseas.

"Now that you're all working from home anyway, I might as well outsource your job to India! That will save me a truckload of money too!"

Our company recently did this and our best developer left. I now have no one to talk to about best coding practices, new technologies, or other fun concepts. Just a bunch of overseas ticket jockeys trying to avoid lashings.

Sounds like that's your cue to leave if you ask me.

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