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IMO: pretending a team of senior engineers is stable and universally knowledgeable and talented leaves a team with a disconnected patchwork of people who lose skill at teaching and transferring knowledge, like a network of trains wholly unaware of each other https://twitter.com/raganwald/status/1353701221509509120
That isn't necessarily the situation that @raganwald describesâbut when you add in junior engineers, you *cannot* miss recognizing the failures of the train[ing] networks to connect to each other
That is a crucial benefit of junior engineers
That is a crucial benefit of junior engineers
A team of senior engineers can absolutely build robust knowledge bases and highly interconnected training networks, and practice knowledge transfer.
But without junior engineers, they don't necessarily have the awareness or incentive to do so
But without junior engineers, they don't necessarily have the awareness or incentive to do so
I think of this supposition like an iterated scenario, which has a lottery with average high-but-degrading returns when the team is all seniors
... whereas the team reliably maintains moderate-but-stable returns when the team includes juniors https://twitter.com/raganwald/status/1353701221509509120?s=19
... whereas the team reliably maintains moderate-but-stable returns when the team includes juniors https://twitter.com/raganwald/status/1353701221509509120?s=19
Tech startups again and again aim for the "dream team" of a set of senior software engineers that operate almost independently with flawless coordination and low communication, probably because that's how the 2 co-founders worked
It seems to work for a while, then ...
It seems to work for a while, then ...
Let's suppose you have this dream team: high expertise, high productivity, smooth coordination, low communication
Maybe startup, maybe an isolated team. You run with that a few years.
Then someone needs to take leave or quits. Are you burned by loss of institutional knowledge?
Maybe startup, maybe an isolated team. You run with that a few years.
Then someone needs to take leave or quits. Are you burned by loss of institutional knowledge?
You roll 20 to save against loss of institutional knowledge like "what even is D&D5?"
Your isolated team is being steamrolled by their antiquated insistence on outdated storage techniques
You realize you need a fresh team, so you spin up a new storage team
Your isolated team is being steamrolled by their antiquated insistence on outdated storage techniques
You realize you need a fresh team, so you spin up a new storage team
Your new storage team has amazing-shiny-bedazzled storage technologies
The old team won't talk to them; they don't know the nuances of your organization or infra through institutional knowledge
You now have neat toys that are poorly wired into and becoming additional tech debt
The old team won't talk to them; they don't know the nuances of your organization or infra through institutional knowledge
You now have neat toys that are poorly wired into and becoming additional tech debt
Leadership lessons of many kinds abound across tech, but for hiring teams, "hire juniors and develop a bell curve of years-of-seniority" is quick shorthand to evade many pitfalls
Definitely horror novel territory, but I hope by reading history we aren't doomed to repeat it
How often do we see recruiters inviting us to greenfield new features/infra with a newly hired manager hiring a fresh team to ⊠Oh I just described all of them https://twitter.com/PJDavidowicz/status/1353763759416868864?s=19
How often do we see recruiters inviting us to greenfield new features/infra with a newly hired manager hiring a fresh team to ⊠Oh I just described all of them https://twitter.com/PJDavidowicz/status/1353763759416868864?s=19
But the worst part of greenfield teams building greenfield tech is not the tech they build
It's the complete disconnect from company culture and institutional knowledge: either a recipe for brewing toxicity or for stewing innocents in toxicity https://twitter.com/saraislet/status/1353762390890831872?s=19
It's the complete disconnect from company culture and institutional knowledge: either a recipe for brewing toxicity or for stewing innocents in toxicity https://twitter.com/saraislet/status/1353762390890831872?s=19
