[nrp]

Actually, Apple is siloed internally as well. I worked there for a little over three years and had friends there in other departments with whom we could mutually not share what we were working on. It both makes for a worse working culture and causes issues in practice as people relearn the same lessons and reinvent the same solutions in different areas.

[egsmi]

Apple is a huge company so certainly experiences will vary but all the anecdotes, podcasts, and books written by former employees mention the highly collaborative environment, even within very secrete siloed projects [1].

Honestly, the reality is most engineering is tedious and boring and mired in context. The old 10% inspiration 90% perspiration quote always rung true for me. I think you’ll struggle to have anything other than a superficial conversation of any hard problem or question with any engineer whose not closely associated with your team.

[1] Examples abound but this is my favorite: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37638098-creative-select...

[nrp]

My other reference point for big tech companies is Facebook, which is mostly open internally. There were many times over the years where I was able to search around and find someone who had worked with a specific external partner or tool I was evaluating or developed something relevant internally, where I could reach out and get insights and pointers from them. Occasionally that turned into longer collaborations and a couple of times even people switching teams.