Ask HN: Companies that reject Agile cultism?

Smaller companies that aren't "tech" companies are more likely to not be followers of the theology of FrAgile. However, in such cases, you may have to put in effort to advocate against those who want the team to adopt some variant of it. This is not just because FrAgile is usually a waste of time, but because it can end up being nothing but a micromanagement tool at small to medium size companies.

> and instead prioritize high IQ

It's interesting that you say that, because I believe it juxtaposes your desire to avoid FrAgile, since that is a concept embraced by many people with higher than average IQs.

On the contrary, I'd rather be at a company that values practicality and excellence (while respecting work-life balance) over intelligence. I find raw intelligence to be massively overrated, and the worst teams I've had to work with are ones full of geniuses, most of whom inevitably waste time on poppycock that creates development friction and doesn't deliver value to customers. I'd rather work with people with maybe a bit higher than average intelligence who can see the forest for the trees, while also avoiding FrAgile-adjacent methodologies.

Meta, Shopify - both companies reject the Agile + Microservice cult

In my experience many organisations do Agile even if they don’t call it that. Agile is just a series of sensible principles to get stuff done. The problems start when people mistake the process for the goal.

This makes me curious. What about Agile is it that you don’t like?

Do you dislike SAFe[0] specifically or Agile in general?

The original Twelve Principles of Agile Software[1] doesn’t seem very controversial to me. Of course, anything that people follow blindly without even knowing why, can lead to bad situations.

[0] “The scaled agile framework”

[1] https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html