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by 0xedd 1530 days ago
Have yet to meet a company where a developer's opinion is taken into account in software architecture and solution design. And, usually, like some other guy here said, they aren't invited to these types of meetings, at all.

The best line I heard, from a team lead that wouldn't back a "don't implement a task queue using postgresql", was "because I don't understand it/am not familiar with it [the alternative solution, RabbitMQ/whateverelse Q], we're not doing it". Other times it's just silence and, then, in an email or through somebody else "we don't want to do the incorrect solution". Without offering alternatives or what's "incorrect" about them.

These are common scenarios in mega corps. The above couple of anectodes were from one of the largest payment processing company and one of the largest b2b security company.

Oh, and you'll forgive my endless rant, the best one was out of some multi-billion nasdaq blabla company: CTO was absolutely ADAMANT how to implement encryption at rest. Using some tool from his college days. But, that tool wasn't maintained for years and didn't make use of Intel's AES-NI. Even though we explained him about latter, showed him the numbers using simple Linux tools, he kept scheduling meetings "to show us". Needless to say, using Intel's AES-NI was a good approach, compared to software-level encryption. Absolute waste of a couple of weeks.

2 comments

Why do you care ? If top monkey want to spend money on stupid shit, I'll happily indulge it. It is not my money that is badly spent anyway.
I envy you if you can go through your whole career like that.
But perhaps there is a middle way. Many of us care too much, and each subsequent difficult - or bad - decision drives us deeper into burnout. It's not healthy. In which case GP's attitude is the right one.
To extend further perhaps it is only useful to care as far as your influence, motivation, and energy reach. And perhaps the happiest of us at all levels of the ladder are the ones who understand their capabilities and match their care accordingly.
I have yet to work at a company where the developer’s wasn’t the primary opinion that mattered.

Pro tip: avoid working working at companies that follow HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion).