Zach Leatherman

There is an incredible danger with increasing seniority that you deal entirely in abstractions and don’t build things. Or worse—you think that building things is for juniors.

🚩 You build the platform but nothing on the platform.

🚩 You build the framework but nothing with the framework.

🚩 You devrel but it becomes 100% rel and 0% dev.

Don’t fall into this trap! Be your own customer—keep building 🏆

Jun 29, 2023 at 3:44pmWeb
Show threadZach LeathermanJun 29, 2023
this toot has incredible but accidental “hair club for men” marketing energy
Show threadPK_infoJun 29, 2023
@zachleat this 100%
Show threadazJun 29, 2023
@zachleat this is not just a programming problem
Show threadelle mundyJun 29, 2023
@zachleat i might be a weirdo but i came up thinking seniority (of position, not time) correlated with skill
Show threadZach LeathermanJun 29, 2023
@exchgr seniority is only a measure of power 😅
Show threadelle mundyJun 29, 2023
@zachleat my puny junior mind was blown when i first fully internalized this lol
Show threadhaliphax 👾Jun 29, 2023
@zachleat @exchgr for a lot of folks at my last gig, it was literally just how long you'd been there, regardless of your (lack of) output or progress
Show threadelle mundyJun 29, 2023
@haliphax @zachleat a recipe for success if i ever saw one!
Show threadPaul HouleJun 29, 2023
@zachleat … reminds me of application frameworks developed by systems programmers who don’t really have application development experience.
Show threadMatt SteeleJun 29, 2023

@zachleat agreed, though there’s a corollary risk I’ve seen with leads who go super deep building a tool for their own purposes, then lambast folks who have trouble using it in a different context as “holding it wrong”

“Architecture astronauts” are bad, but beware of “Titan Submersible devs” as well

Show threadSimon MacDonaldJun 29, 2023
@zachleat co-signed
Show thread🍄🌈🎮💻🚲🥓🎃💀🏴🛻🇺🇸Jun 29, 2023

@zachleat

don’t build thingsWEN?

25 years I've ben building things! When do I get to build the abstractions!?

Show threadKevin PennekampJun 30, 2023
@zachleat “engineering manager” without engineering
Show threadJan DJul 3, 2023
@zachleat This is a common problem in professions, which Andrew Abbott calls "Professional Regression" aka.: Prestige being given to "pure" forms of activity that do not deal with the core tasks – which, solving problems of people-not-from-the-profession, are professionally impure and messy.