I think this is mostly right, but my biggest problem is that it feels like we spend time arguing the same things over and over. Which DB to use, which language is best, nulls or not in code and in DB, API formatting, log formatting, etc.
These aren't particularly interesting, and sure it's good to revisit them time and again, but these are the types of time sinks I find myself in in the last 3 companies I've worked for that feel like they should be mostly solved.
In fact, a company with a strong mindset, even if questionable, is probably way more productive. If it was set in stone we use Perl, MongoDB, CGI... I'd probably ultimately be more productive than I've been lately despite the stack.
> “If it was set in stone we use Perl, MongoDB, CGI... I'd probably ultimately be more productive than I've been lately despite the stack.”
Facebook decided to stick with PHP and MySQL from their early days rather than rewrite, and they’re still today on a stack derived from the original one.
It was the right decision IMO. They prioritized product velocity and trusted that issues with the stack could be resolved with money when the time comes.
And that’s what they’ve done by any metric. While nominally a PHP family language, Meta’s Hack and its associated homegrown ecosystem provides one of the best developer experiences on the planet, and has scaled up to three billion active users.
I disagree! These decisions are fundamental in the engineering process.
Should I use steel, concrete or wood to build this bridge?
The mindless coding part starts one year later when you found that your mongoDB does not do joins, and you start implementing this as an extra layer in the client side.
What you're referring to is politics. Different people have different preferences, often because they're more familiar with one of them, or for other possibly good reasons. Somehow you have to decide who wins.
These aren't particularly interesting, and sure it's good to revisit them time and again, but these are the types of time sinks I find myself in in the last 3 companies I've worked for that feel like they should be mostly solved.
In fact, a company with a strong mindset, even if questionable, is probably way more productive. If it was set in stone we use Perl, MongoDB, CGI... I'd probably ultimately be more productive than I've been lately despite the stack.