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0 pointsOhMeadhbh2mo ago0 comments

i agree. but. there's something in the behaviour of these unicorns that should be examined.

the idea that an engineer can be a ninja, 10x or unicorn independent of the processes of their environment and working group is laughable. i have known several people who were identified as "highly productive" and they all had some individual traits like a) they were very good with individual time management, b) were not afraid to say when they didn't understand something and c) were all pretty smart. (and d, knew how to give good code review comments without pissing people off.)

but... they also needed an environment where they could push back and say things like "i do not feel participating in today's 1-on-1 meeting (or meeting with product management) is a good use of my time", where task design gave them chunks of work that were appropriate and they were given the freedom to identify (and avoid) "wicked" problems.

which is to say... i don't think the story of the ninja/unicorn is complete fantasy, but management has to understand how it's real and craft an environment where an engineer's inner-unicorn can emerge.

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tyre2mo ago

I've been an early employee (sub 10 and 20) in two unicorns and another (a presidential campaign) that didn't have a valuation but did the equivalent. People did not work 40 hours per week, and I feel comfortable saying that the companies could not have been as successful if people had.

The common threads were:

- incredible ICs

- founders who spiked in the most important areas for that market

- a mission that everyone truly believed in

- a culture of people who deeply cared about one another but were comfortable pushing back (as you said!)

It's incredibly rare to find all of these together. I agree that management is responsible for helping others thrive, but not necessarily that they should shape the environment to fit any engineer. Some people want things (projects, challenges, roles) that don't make sense in that company's context. It's okay, especially when it's hard, to agree that this isn't the place for someone.

appellations2mo ago

Are you saying people worked less than 40 hours a week or more than 40 hours a week in those organizations? I’m assuming over, but it’s unclear to me from the tone of your post.

snovv_crash2mo ago

Been there too, and for me it was under 40 hours. Sometimes you'd have to cut people off and say they needed to go home if they were trying to pull more. But the whole 'strategy' is that cleaning up mistakes takes way more time than getting it right the first time, so keeping people fresh and without distractions is the most important thing.

tyre2mo ago

Over 40 hours and it wasn’t particularly close.

hhmc2mo ago

What is a ‘wicked’ problem?

OhMeadhbhOP2mo ago

I think this is for a different domain than software engineering, but it describes the basics, mostly difficult to get consensus on detailed requirements, often due to "personal" or "group political" reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem

I sometimes use the term to describe heisenbugs, which is probably incorrect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug

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0 pointsOhMeadhbh2mo ago0 comments

i agree. but. there's something in the behaviour of these unicorns that should be examined.

0 comments

tyre2mo ago

The common threads were:

- incredible ICs

- founders who spiked in the most important areas for that market

- a mission that everyone truly believed in

- a culture of people who deeply cared about one another but were comfortable pushing back (as you said!)

appellations2mo ago

Are you saying people worked less than 40 hours a week or more than 40 hours a week in those organizations? I’m assuming over, but it’s unclear to me from the tone of your post.

snovv_crash2mo ago

tyre2mo ago

Over 40 hours and it wasn’t particularly close.

hhmc2mo ago

What is a ‘wicked’ problem?

OhMeadhbhOP2mo ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem

I sometimes use the term to describe heisenbugs, which is probably incorrect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse