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0 pointsbusterarm4y ago0 comments

Everyone has gaps in experience.

I've worked in both of these kinds of domains and different kinds of people thrive at doing each. The kind of problems you face are different.

Most of the backend C++ types I've worked with aren't so great at "design for failure" types of environments whereas on the web development side of things I've found people are much more receptive.

I'm working with a few hundred backend engineers who all have a hard time with thinking infrastructure is always available and can handle infinite throughput. They absolutely stink at reasoning about the network. And these aren't dummies -- they're all MIT/Waterloo/etc grads.

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pedrosorio4y ago

> I'm working with a few hundred backend engineers who all have a hard time with thinking infrastructure is always available and can handle infinite throughput.

Could you clarify this statement? Are you saying you work with hundreds of backend engineers:

- who all believe infra is always available and can handle infinite throughput (???)

- who can't wrap their head around an environment where infra is so scalable / high availability that it might as well be "infinite" and so they are always looking designing for tradeoffs that don't exist in your environment?

If the former, where do these people work? If the latter, where do these people work?

busterarmOP4y ago

You don't have to look hard to find stories of people running up huge cloud infrastructure bills by using it improperly.

Engineers in general poorly understand the connection between their code and resources consumed. Until something bites them and they learn.

I'd say that this is pretty widespread throughout the industry.

pedrosorio4y ago

I know there are plenty of engineers with those gaps, and they learn from experience, as one does.

My issue was with the statement that all backend engineers you work with (hundreds of them!) have this weakness. Does not match my experience, so I was wondering where you work.

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0 pointsbusterarm4y ago0 comments

Everyone has gaps in experience.

I've worked in both of these kinds of domains and different kinds of people thrive at doing each. The kind of problems you face are different.

Most of the backend C++ types I've worked with aren't so great at "design for failure" types of environments whereas on the web development side of things I've found people are much more receptive.

0 comments

pedrosorio4y ago

> I'm working with a few hundred backend engineers who all have a hard time with thinking infrastructure is always available and can handle infinite throughput.

Could you clarify this statement? Are you saying you work with hundreds of backend engineers:

- who all believe infra is always available and can handle infinite throughput (???)

If the former, where do these people work? If the latter, where do these people work?

busterarmOP4y ago

You don't have to look hard to find stories of people running up huge cloud infrastructure bills by using it improperly.

Engineers in general poorly understand the connection between their code and resources consumed. Until something bites them and they learn.

I'd say that this is pretty widespread throughout the industry.

pedrosorio4y ago

I know there are plenty of engineers with those gaps, and they learn from experience, as one does.

My issue was with the statement that all backend engineers you work with (hundreds of them!) have this weakness. Does not match my experience, so I was wondering where you work.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse