i've been moved to help on a different project at work while still helping to manage iterations on my former project. i find myself struggling to balance "project 1 time" and "project 2 time" and "freaking out about stuff time" and "what if i never figure this out time" and
@cssgirl also funny: i get shaming emails and now _snail mail_ telling me how much more energy i use compared to similar houses nearby. i live in a town with a lot of vacation property, and a large religious group that generally doesn't use tv, computers, or air conditioning. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
try to do something that makes you feel competent every day. even if it's not related to your job; it could be the victory you build from, or it could be the only victory you have that day.
i saw an oval sticker on a car that said "NDA" i guess they may have ran an unspecified distance in the past, but are not able to talk about it publicly
a company having an extended 'vacation/retreat' is only going to benefit and promote people of a certain situation in life, who are able and willing to suspend their responsibilities and routine in order to attend. it will both directly and indirectly punish those who cannot go.
just in case you're having a bad day, a person in a car behind me this morning went ballistic that i pulled over and stopped for an oncoming emergency vehicle with their lights & sirens on.
that thing where your partner had been out of town for a while and you’re cleaning up before they return and you have to find a balance between “there is still so much work to do” and “everything is done and is easier when you’re not here”
None of these Internet mattress companies innovate in the correct way — we need a square mattress with square fitted sheets so it doesn’t matter which direction you try to put them on
one really great thing about this '10x' nonsense is that i can add it to the keyword list in my email rule that filters out and deletes linkedin requests from recruiters (adding to the list that already contains 'ninja' and 'rockstar' etc)
be careful which golden cow you hitch your wagon to. unless you’re a crummy early stage investor who only cares about meteoric early growth and plans an exit strategy before things turn sour. enjoy your “10x” engineer. /rant
and also the repercussions on the rest of your team - tolerating people like this will drive any conscientious person away - whether they work with them directly or not. having a bratty “golden child” in engineering will ruin your company’s appeal to marketing, ops, etc
the original post is not wrong though - having someone on your team like this can speed your product to market. as long as you and your investors are willing to accept the risk of trusting the stability, usability, extensibility, and scale of your application to one fickle person
yes they are responsible for a lot of the code because they wrote it without input or exposition or documentation or review. of course they’re the only one who can fix it because sometimes it’s a tangled mess that they created and only they can understand.
in all seriousness i’ve worked with “10x” people like this, exactly as described. yes they produce a lot of code. yes they fix the bugs we discover in production. yes they caused the bugs in the first place by being “above” peer code reviews and working in a vacuum.
i’m glad i learned this week how to spot a “10x engineer” now i know what to look for when hiring to make sure i never have a person like this on my team
I’m going to make a video game for my kids called “Don’t Wake up Mom” in this game you have to get dressed, get yourself a snack, without screaming or fighting with your brother. If you Wake up Mom, you lose, the game quits, the computer shuts down, the computer is sold on eBay
