[nvarsj]

Sean, I wonder why people are so negative here. I think they’ve never worked in big tech.

As a staff swe in big tech your blog posts resonate strongly and reflect my own experience. But I can see if I didn’t have that experience I’d be unable to relate or even understand.

Maybe it is nihilism - but I think that’s also a natural result of working for big corps.

[ronbenton]

I agree with this. I don’t even this Sean says anything controversial in the article so I’m not sure what the negativity is about.

[rednafi]

"Their experience is different from mine; therefore, they haven't worked in big tech" is a bit reductionist.

While it's true that in large companies you typically have much less agency than you think and sometimes have to work on things that don’t resonate with you, large companies also have many different teams you can switch to.

So saying this should be the norm is what people have a problem with. Plus, moving to a different workplace is always an option.

If you decide to collect the paycheck and do the work, that’s okay too. But touting it as the norm and saying everyone should do it is gaslighting.

[nvarsj]

Yeah it was a bit reductionist. I guess it was my reaction to the negativity.

I think his experience is quite common in big tech, and even swapping teams doesn’t seem to help in my own experience. It’s the rare teams that have any agency, or even clear ownership over the code. It seems by design but as a craftsman it is very frustrating.

I haven’t read anyone put it in words quite as well as Sean’s posts. This really is the nihilistic side of big tech that is rarely written about.

So I think it’s a unique insight - hence why I’m kind of baffled at the reaction. I think if you can relate to what he’s saying (it hits really close to home for me), it’s easy to sympathise with.

[jckahn]

> moving to a different workplace is always an option.

This is, very often, not a practical option for many people.

Have you seen the market lately?

[oncallthrow]

Maybe you should vote with your feet and work somewhere that isn’t like this.

[nvarsj]

Everyone's circumstances are different right? It's not always so simple.

Big tech was a bit of an experiment for me in my 40s, I always worked at small/med size companies before. I think it was worth it (for the learnings and comp). I get a lot more choices in the future when I'm financially secure.