[baz00]

As a manager we like people who actually build a house out of something other than shit and straw as we have to present that to people who don't like us and we just want a peaceful life too.

So keep it simple, quality and don't get distracted by shiny things.

[perrygeo]

Wow, my experience could not be any different. In my experience, the business side of the house is the primary driver of adopting "shiny things", by a long shot. Engineers plead for empirically-supported, simple, robust, high-quality implementations. But they're overridden by the impulse to add complex whiz-bang buzzwords. It makes a great pitch - long term viability be damned.

I'm not blaming "managers" here. This applies to anyone who sticks their nose into an engineering process without the merit or to do so.

[gautamdivgi]

I’ve had the opposite situation. I’m a PE that works with a director. Problem is he’s been a lot more keen on the “shiny” than I am. After more than 25 yrs being an IC I’m definitely over the shiny. I can smell shiny tech debt miles away. Problem is trying to get the managers out of the technical path.

[evandale]

Sometimes I need the distraction and want to try out the shiny things.

I really should find a new job because my manager has your attitude and it drives me crazy. I'm at a big corp and I can't stand the "just deal with it, there's processes and they suck but it's for the best" attitude that everyone has. I keep having the delusion that this year will be different because there has been small improvements.. but ffs. We run a Java stack and VisualVM is something I should be able to download without all the hoops. Nobody wants to help you jump through the hoops either, they just tell you to do it, and expect you to succeed.

[baz00]

I think you misjudge the situation. And I'm not that manager. If there's an enabler I'll help you get it out and keep the politics away from you. That's my job.

But most stuff out there isn't moonshot project work. It's boring ass maintenance and minor function changes. What I don't want is when someone is asked to change a web form to find a whole fucking ReactJS stack pulled in because someone is bored or it looks good on their résumé. This does happen.

[evandale]

Thanks for clarifying. Yeah, I have no interest turning a Java GUI that's been working for 20 years into a React app.

I probably have to admit I have a manager who doesn't really align with my needs. He's great at the business side but terrible at the technology side. That's why I'm still around, because he does back me up, but he won't get into battles about downloading VisualVM. We have jdk8 installed and it's in there, just use that! Why do you need the latest version? It's frustrating, but I do like my manager and my team, they just have the ability to roll over and follow the damn rules sooner than I prefer.