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by ProfMeowsworth 1074 days ago
I’d expect from someone making 300kUSD a year to come up with their own ideas instead of spinning their wheels. Reading the article and some of the comments here, that seems to be an unpopular opinion, at least in tech.
4 comments
ericmcer 1074 days ago
It can be pretty stifling on giant teams to make any actual change.

Sure it sounds romantic to sit down with a cup of coffee and write some amazing code that makes things better. The reality is writing documents, hunting down code owners and stakeholders, organizing meetings and running into tons of adversity just so you can attempt something very risky as it is impossible to have full context on everything.

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cmrdporcupine 1074 days ago
Consider that companies like these can afford to pay $300k USD precisely to just spin their wheels, because they simply don't want them going elsewhere where they might compete...
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ticviking 1073 days ago
That’s been my theory for a long time now.

They don’t care what devs do as long as nobody else can hire them

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cmrdporcupine 1073 days ago
This equation changed this year, I think. The pendulum is swinging the other way. I suspect we'll see a lot more PIPs at Google.

So glad I got out of there before it got ugly.

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mrguyorama 1073 days ago
Sounds to me like they aren't paying enough for talent if they can afford to leave it unused. Very similar to landlords being able to afford leaving a property empty rather than lowering the rent.
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arbitrage 1073 days ago
One doesn't get paid $300k/year to fuck around and choose what you work on yourself. Very often you will get punished for making management decisions above your pay grade at this level.
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lupire 1073 days ago
Especially if your decisions are better and more popular than your manager's.
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kevinventullo 1072 days ago
As a manager in big tech, it’s fantastic when folks come up with their own ideas. But the hard part is not just coming up with the idea: you have to evangelize it horizontally and vertically, and be open to the possibility that there are valid reasons not to do your idea. Helping folks sell their idea or convincing them it might be a hard sell is part of my job.
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