> Don’t conflate corporate size with engineering competency. It’s counter-intuitive, but oh so common to see this. That’s why so many engineers want to work for start ups!
I thought start ups were all about letting tech debt pile up like there's no tomorrow, since there might literally be no tomorrow for them.
The truth of the matter is that I've never seen anywhere where this isn't the case to some degree. Long term thinking is rare.
I think it's very safe to assume the level of technical rigor in a given undertaking just falls to the minimum required unless there's a very strong force keeping it in a higher state. Maybe places like NASA JPL or Apple manage to float above the minimum because of a really unified and powerful culture, but outside of that I'm thinking it's more or less universal. e.g. the 737 MAX debacle illustrates Boeing's stochastic search for the lower bound of technical rigor when it comes to flight control software quality.
> I think it's very safe to assume the level of technical rigor in a given undertaking just falls to the minimum required unless there's a very strong force keeping it in a higher state.
It really depends on who's setting the tone. If it's an owner or manager taking an active interest, I think your observation is true.
> Maybe places like NASA JPL or Apple manage to float above the minimum because of a really unified and powerful culture, but outside of that I'm thinking it's more or less universal. e.g. the 737 MAX debacle illustrates Boeing's stochastic search for the lower bound of technical rigor when it comes to flight control software quality.
IIRC, Boeing has made a years-long effort to cripple their unionized engineering workforce. I don't remember exactly where I read this, but for a long time they had a very effective, rigorous organization, but management (from McDonnell Douglas. IIRC) make a lot of changes that messed it up.
Bloomberg Quicktake (which is one of the few news outlet Youtube channels I recommend) did a good 20 minutes piece on Boeing's internal cultural demise [1].
I had an experience at a startup where the team was mostly experienced people who had been at larger companies and didn't tend to cut corners. It was a pretty good balance. We focused on doing the job well but didn't have big company meeting culture, etc.
I wouldn't want to work at a place like you described.
I thought start ups were all about letting tech debt pile up like there's no tomorrow, since there might literally be no tomorrow for them.