[ianbutler]

> I strongly believe that you cannot evaluate how good a system design is if you don't implement it by hand.

Fwiw we both agree that LLMs should not design systems. I do the design, but otherwise I don't get how this is true, the success of a design is indicated by long term success in the system it built. You can measure this against success in the task it was deployed for via performance metrics for one. And then from a developer standpoint how easy it was to maintain later on. Success of a system is a measurement over time, but it's not some quality that can only be measured by those who built it.

> Off-topic but having worked in other companies as well, I can guarantee you that this is not the case. The skill of engineers in FAANGs and other "top tier" companies is much higher than average.

I have first hand knowledge of this so I agree to disagree. Being surrounded by google, aws, and meta folks my understanding is the best people leave faang when they get the itch to do something better with their time.

[iLoveOncall]

> my understanding is the best people leave faang when they get the itch to do something better with their time.

Your understanding is wrong. The extreme majority of people who leave FAANGs don't leave willingly, and are not the best, unless it's to go to even better companies like Jane Street and the like, but those are rare.

Turns out for most people, there's not much better to do during your 9 to 5 than solving problems for half a million a year.

[ianbutler]

> Turns out for most people, there's not much better to do during your 9 to 5 than solving problems for half a million a year.

Lol. I don't know I was talking with a guy yesterday who left a FAANG clearing 1.4 million / yr who's now running his own successful startup. My sample is successful founders backed by top tier VCs or exited founders who have done much better than FAANG. If you can't do more you stick around the FAANG, those who can go and do it.

[skjfjnflw]

You're talking about what happens to engineers who decide they want to be small business owners rather than engineers. That's orthogonal to this thread about where engineers with the best technical skills end up.

[ianbutler]

Most of the best engineers I know leave faang because the work at faang sucks. It is not orthogonal. The majority of faang work is not highly impactful work like trivially because the amount of work outstrips the amount of interesting work by an easy oom.

FAANG doesn't straightforwardly retain the best technical talent, and the median task there is routine.