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0 pointsgen2205y ago0 comments

This is, IMO, one of the most underrated aspects of the monorepo, that has such a valuable impact over time.

It only takes a handful of extremely passionate engineers (and I really mean a handful, like less that 2% of engineers in an org) to raise the quality-floor of the entire codebase.

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lifeisstillgood5y ago

For sanity, sustainability and fairness I would rather that read

It only takes a handful of extremely passionate engineers > It only takes a handful of paid engineers, full time assigned to the task

gen220OP5y ago

Anecdotally (I don't work at Google, and this might not apply there because it's such a large company): At the monorepo companies I've worked at, of the 2% passionate I mentioned, maybe half have naturally gravitated towards working FT on the infra teams, the other half make very occasional but astronomical contributions, while working full-time on an actual product.

What I mean to say is that with a monorepo, you leave the door open to essentially passion-driven contributions made by the other half of that 2%. In non-monorepo environments, the barrier to uniform adoption is too high for someone that isn't full-time assigned to the task to justify.

Some people are genuinely passionate about this stuff, and want to take on the task of migrating the entire code base, because it's a fun challenge and it'll improve their day-to-day work every day for the remainder of their employment. They're very rare, but they do exist, and with a monorepo those people are better-equipped to drag the company forward.

lifeisstillgood5y ago

I don't get this - changing the code is not the problem - this is a political / marketing issue.

I have some news - passion is not enough, and there are more than 2% of people working on things they are passionate about - it only 2% get lucky.

I can think of a few instances in my recent career at large monorepo company where I have built something on the scale of "passionate, could improve our working lives"

One died because ... well I gave up, two are used locally by my team and those I could persuade, whilst other solutions built by others for the same fix have gone on to be blessed officially, (ie replaced by grassroots competition) and one was replaced by a fully mandated and funded project that spotted the need and just steamrollered over all the local fixes.

One is still outstanding and I think well worth pushing still.

But I don't dream of the big win where suddenly the Board says "why, without your glasses Miss Moneypenny you look ravishing".

I get paid, I work, and I try and make the world a bit better where I can. I am passionate about it. But i don't write blog posts about how passionate I am.

Maybe I should :-)

randall5y ago

Ya, fb feels the same way fwiw. I'm very sold on the benefits of monorepos now.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

lifeisstillgood5y ago

For sanity, sustainability and fairness I would rather that read

It only takes a handful of extremely passionate engineers > It only takes a handful of paid engineers, full time assigned to the task

gen220OP5y ago

lifeisstillgood5y ago

I don't get this - changing the code is not the problem - this is a political / marketing issue.

I have some news - passion is not enough, and there are more than 2% of people working on things they are passionate about - it only 2% get lucky.

I can think of a few instances in my recent career at large monorepo company where I have built something on the scale of "passionate, could improve our working lives"

One is still outstanding and I think well worth pushing still.

But I don't dream of the big win where suddenly the Board says "why, without your glasses Miss Moneypenny you look ravishing".

I get paid, I work, and I try and make the world a bit better where I can. I am passionate about it. But i don't write blog posts about how passionate I am.

Maybe I should :-)

randall5y ago

Ya, fb feels the same way fwiw. I'm very sold on the benefits of monorepos now.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse