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Ask HN: Advice for a first-time Engineering Manager

3 points·by young_hopper·4 anni fa·3 comments

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young_hopper
·3 anni fa·discuss
> Is kubernetes worth learning if you don't use microservices at work?

Maybe. K8s makes orchestration better. (If you disagree look at the last time marathon/mesos/dcos released and propose a better replacement.) Do you need container orchestration? That's a much better question. If you do, reach for k8s, if you don't, don't.
young_hopper
·3 anni fa·discuss
My gut would say it's not really your responsibility to prompt the cancellation as long as you're not actively trying to make it hard to do. That is, in this situation you'd be accountable but not responsible.

On the flip side, as a consumer, doing something like automatically pausing a subscription if it's not actively being used would make me think highly of your company
young_hopper
·4 anni fa·discuss
Reminds me of high school. We also had locked down computers, but one day I noticed that one of the programs on the system had a directory structure of hundreds, if not thousands, of executable plugins that needed run-access for the program to execute properly.

My hypothesis was that the IT guys were lazy and just unblocked anything in that directory. Even if a networked computer didn't have this program on it, you could just recreate the directory structure and drop any portable executable there and run it. Pretty soon we were all playing brood war in every free period.
young_hopper
·4 anni fa·discuss
I wasn't arguing with the utility of the site. I was agreeing with the commenter's sentiment that films these days often coddle their viewers in a way I find uninspiring.

Not being provocative at all.
young_hopper
·4 anni fa·discuss
I'd tend to agree.

Most movies these days are self-indulgent, following a simple pattern that has made money for the industry before. Imo, these tend to be uninspired and not worth watching.

The fact that a pet does or does not perish within a film should not be a prerequisite for enjoyment
young_hopper
·4 anni fa·discuss
> Do you think the situation is different in more specialized niches

Yes, but honestly it really depends on what you want to do.

As an example, I'm currently starting to hire for a small tech company in the life-sciences space. A candidate with real lab experience would be significant differentiator though its not super necessary for the position. On top of that having a PhD is a strong signal in favor of a candidate. That being said, given my position I would likely just pick a more-technically competent candidate if one is available, though that won't be the case everywhere you look.

The closer you get to the bigger biotechs, I'd imagine the more your PhD will be worth in terms of differentiating you as well. If you need to talk to scientists on a daily basis, you'll need to know how speak the same language, and thats not something you can get from a bootcamp.

My best advice would be to learn a breadth of technical skills and to start honing the ones that make sense for you personally. Don't let any tell you "you need to focus on X to be successful in biotech." There is a lot of innovation going on in the space right now, and if you look in the right places I'm sure you'll find that niche that makes sense for you.
young_hopper
·4 anni fa·discuss
My grandfather (born Philadelphia 1932) always told a story about how kids in his town would go to the train tracks in the winter and throw rocks at the engines. This would prompt the conductor to throw back pieces of coal from the engine to shoo them away. They would then pick up the coal and run away to use it to heat their homes. The conductors always knew what was going on, but it was the railway's coal, so they just always played along.

Anyway, always found that interesting.
young_hopper
·4 anni fa·discuss
Thanks for the response, all great advice!

> Eventually we all recognized I was the team's manager

Yeah, definitely feels the same for me at the moment.

> I make sure everyone knows how much money we make, how much we spend, what our customers want, what techs we use, what I think we have as tech debt, etc...

I've been on a mission this last week or two to increase platform observability, especially how it relates to revenue impact. We've got a long ways to go, but I'm optimistic!

> I still do engineering work

Curious as to whether you experienced any friction wearing the multiple hats. I'll definitely be in this position, and I'm a little nervous that any development work I do, or code reviews I give will seem more dictator-like, which I think is antithetical to a high performing team. Maybe just strong communication here is the key as well.
young_hopper
·4 anni fa·discuss
I have lived in a US city with pretty decent public transportation without a car for several years until recently. The problem is just complete lack of flexibility.

Want to do anything an hour out of the city - you're either begging for a ride or trying to fight the absurdities of renting a car.

I now live in a cheaper area, more outside the city where it makes even more sense to own a vehicle, and its definitely worth it. All that being said, all of the shops I most frequently patron are walkable from my home or work.
young_hopper
·5 anni fa·discuss
Just curious, why does reality have to be "cured?"

Living means feeling pain and pleasure, triumph and defeat, love and hate, grief and bliss. I would challenge anyone to prove that you can have any one of those without its opposite.

Borrible, your reality does not have to be feared. You can embrace it. Only then can you experience.
young_hopper
·5 anni fa·discuss
I will be the first to admit that I often think cynically about things.

I also think complaining about something is completely counter-intuitive to a cynical disposition.

Wikipedia might not be the best place to look for a definition, but doing so reveals that a cynic lives a life "in virtue, in agreement with nature."[1]

What the OP posted is much closer to a contemporary misunderstanding of the history of cynicism[2]. Cynically, I do not agree with this classification of cynicism, and although I may not change your mind I think we should stop conflating the process of attempting to see the harmonies[3] of our current ecosystem with the pessimism of a disillusioned generation[4] (of which I am one).

If what you do is counter to optimism, pessimism, and realism, while having a "fixed mindset" (as the article reads), imo you are not a cynic, you are just the stereotype of a millennial.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism_(philosophy)

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism_(contemporary)

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic

4. https://phys.org/news/2020-10-democracy-millennials-disillus...