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Software engineers should be a little bit cynical (www.seangoedecke.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/programming@programming.dev
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[–] 3 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

I don't get what your bridge example is supposed to show, nor what normalizing substandard practice has to do with politics or lack thereof.

Depending on where you look there's plenty of shoddy construction work and cutting corners for cost, big projects are notorious for taking longer and costing more in the end. Construction had more time to develop and be regulated, and has more physical limitations compared to software development. Both, in the end, can be (theoretically) held accountable before court.

is to be able to communicate this effectively with management

Isn't this politics? Why are you saying politics has no place in engineering principles?

Software engineers are much more replaceable than construction engineers/architects, both in-discipline and with less expertise.

I do my part in what I can influence and control, delivering good and sound products, but it's obvious depending on individuality doesn't work across our whole industry.

/edit: The linked article talks about how in-company politics are necessary to coordinate and deliver features. I don't see that addressed here either? How would you deliver - taking the example from the article - Latex in Markdown on GitHub without politics?

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

    Communication ≠ politics.

    Communication in engineering should rely on empirical data not personal opinion or vibes.

    The post above only has one sentence where they make a unsupported claim that being involved in politics was necessary to have completed the feature.

    The bridge example is to show that personal opinion has no place in projects and that workers should not capitulate to their superiors when they determine unsafe situations are occuring. The "shoddy bolt my boss designed" would be a stand in for whatever crummy practice people are being political about in a software project. From a shitty tech stack to bad project management practices.

    Ego and politics is the death of a project.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Except, how do you convince all the other engineers the tech stack is both shitty and that switching off is worth the switching costs? That your data is empirical and also not the "lies, damned lies and statistics" thing where you cherry pick data in your favor so you can look empirical when you are actually just going off your own vibes and ego? Even if your intentions are pure, others might not think so (whether because they have ulterior motives of their own or not).

    Unfortunately, that is politics.

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