
The weird language of SV - gpsgay
So.. I&#x27;ve been here a couple of months now, and here&#x27;s a few things I learnt about the language in Silicon Valley:<p>- Full-stack engineer: fancy name for a true engineer that actually went to college and studied for at least 4-5 years to become one...<p>- Engineer: apparently anyone who can do a little programming on a computer?<p>- Fundraising: a process that <i>everybody</i> knows and says that takes at least a couple of months, but you are not supposed to say that you are fundraising when you actually start talking with people about fundraising, because if you’ve been “fundraising” for a couple of months, it will be frowned upon.<p>- Hacker: basically anybody that can do a little programming, or can do a little of anything I guess, like marketing if you are a “growth hacker” (WTF?!)<p>- UX expert: good graphic designer that actually studied for a few years (not someone who just knows how to use photoshop)<p>- Entrepreneur: someone who no matter what he&#x2F;she is doing, is “changing the world” (as if the world wasn’t constantly changing?)<p>I definitely appreciate suggestions of how to make best use of the language here for non-natives ;)
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greenyoda
_" Full-stack engineer: fancy name for a true engineer that actually went to
college and studied for at least 4-5 years to become one."_

No, "full-stack" means that someone knows both the back-end and front-end
pieces of the technology stack.

You can certainly be a real engineer without being "full-stack". For example,
I like back-end development and have little interest in becoming an expert on
the ever-changing browser or mobile environments (although I have a
generalist's understanding of the technology, since my code needs to interact
with it). I'm happy to leave that to the equally talented engineers who like
that stuff better than back-end stuff, and in a company that's bigger than a
startup, there will be plenty of specialists on both sides.

