> You ought to know that crushing JIRA tickets is rarely a path to promotion (at least above mid-level), that glue work can be a trap, that you will be judged on the results of your projects, and therefore getting good at shipping projects is the path to career success.

Notice that the author didn't write "getting good at delivering value." They wrote "getting good at shipping projects" because

> Shipping is a social construct within a company.

Delivering solid software that helps people get work done is a platonic ideal. Unfortunately there are many companies that value whipping stuff out the door more highly. As corny as this sounds the iron triangle ("good, fast, cheap - pick two") is a thing for a reason. Crapping something out as quickly as possible and leaving others to deal with the fallout of a bad data model and chaotic on-call isn't something to be rewarded but it's how many companies seem to work.

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nlawalker 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>Shipping is a social construct within a company.

Thanks for flagging this, this was an epiphany for me today, so for anyone else struck by it I'm linking directly to the article it's from (same author, and linked from the article in the context the parent mentions, just not linked directly in their post above):

"How I ship projects at big tech companies" https://www.seangoedecke.com/how-to-ship/

Also the HN comments on it from when it was originally posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42111031

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casualscience 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Crapping something out as quickly as possible and leaving somebody else to deal with the fallout of a bad data model and violent on-call isn't something to be rewarded IMO.

Sadly you've described precisely the optimal engineering strategy for promotion at my FAANG

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ytoawwhra92 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> FAANG

And yet those five companies are among the most valuable in the world.

There's a cognitive dissonance that arises when you join a company that is performing extraordinarily well only to perceive dysfunction and incompetence everywhere you look.

It's so hard to reconcile the reality that companies can be embarrassingly wasteful, political, and arbitrary in how they run and yet can still dominate markets and print money hand-over-fist.

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drivebyhooting 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That’s because FAANGs are successful due to monopolization and network effects. Not by the quality of their work.

This is especially true for Meta.

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ytoawwhra92 5 hours ago | parent [-]

How did they get there?

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strange_quark 4 hours ago | parent [-]

By being in the right place and right time once, making it impossible for users to leave, and buying up all their competition before they become a serious threat.

	▲	woooooo 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Also, they typically started with much more of a high quality culture when they were small and people's contributions were legible. Once it turns into a giant bureaucracy with people you've never met judging a promo packet by rubrics, while they're unfamiliar with your whole org.. the incentives get diffierent.

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casualscience 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

People succeed in spite of these systems. They have resources, tremendous network advantages, and the people at the very top crust of engineers are indeed quite good at their job.

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cdf 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because big companies can crush competition, either via lobbying for government regulations, acquiring the competitors, or driving the competition out of business by offering something comparable but cheaper or free.

It's the old Microsoft playbook of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish, but with more finesse.

It is also why their acquisitions tend to just die, because once the big company inefficiencies get integrated, the acquired startups just cannot function.

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onion2k 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

And yet those five companies are among the most valuable in the world.

... after Nvidia.

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teeray 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Crapping something out as quickly as possible…

I suppose that makes AI Taco Bell for companies.

	▲	5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

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OutOfHere 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Crapping something out as quickly as possible and leaving others to deal with the fallout of a bad data model and chaotic on-call isn't something to be rewarded but it's how many companies seem to work.

Engineers who do this leave nothing but ashes in their wake even if they keep getting promoted for it.