SaraMGJun 12, 2023

Hiring a software engineer in their late 40s:

Pros:
* Understands your stack better than you do after glancing through the repo for five minutes.
* Will rewrite said stack 2x as fast, and half as buggy if you let them.

Cons:
* Gives zero fucks.
* Knows we're not *really* like family here.
* No, seriously, absolutely zero fucks given.

Do not cite the deep magic to me, product manager, I was there when it was written.

Show threadThe Long TailJun 13, 2023
@saramg Wait till you get to your fifties.
Show threadScott GallowayJun 13, 2023
@sleepyfox @saramg 50s is knowing that if you rewrite the stack you'll be stuck writing code for the rest of eternity as you're beyond even your senior devs level.
Show threadScott GallowayJun 13, 2023
That sounds arrogant but honestly if you've been writing code 20+ years longer than your senior devs if you're NOT working at a different level then 🤷
Show threadSimon FrankauJun 13, 2023

@scottgal My take was "rewrite the stack" was hyperbole for a ju-jitsu-like "make the right set of changes to dramatically change things" rather than a literal Musk "we need a total rewrite!!!" which sounds like NIH.

Often that's still a challenging project, like a rewrite of a key component, but yeah, not an end-to-end rewrite.

(Maybe I was overly generous in my interpretation of the post. :)

Show threadHLGEM
@sgf @scottgal
I took it as an actual rewrite as that is what has happened in my experience. We hired one guy who took it on himself to completely redesign and rewrite the entire code base. He did it in a week end and it immeasurably better.
Jun 14, 2023 at 9:14pmWeb
Show threadSimon FrankauJun 14, 2023

@HLGEM @scottgal Woah. I mean, partly it needs to be of a scale & style where that's practical, but also just because stereotypical knee-jerk rewrites tend to be "because I wouldn't do it like that" and leave the rest of the team befuddled, so it's pretty great that it worked.

I've seen systems that needed killing with fire, but they got that way through political bun-fights that no amounts of solo not-giving-a-fuck will bypass. Do you reckon you lucked out on corporate culture on that one?

Show threadScott GallowayJun 14, 2023
@sgf @HLGEM Yeah that's SUPER RARE.