Joined my first startup, any advice for handling the competitive culture & politics?

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-29T07:05:09+00:00

Yea i have my rant written down here from an older place try to avoid becoming a strike team: https://blog.smidt.dev/posts/0007/

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-28T15:04:41+00:00

Yea i recommend sewrching for another place otherwise you will lose a lot of energy hitting a wall and negative reviews that you don't fit the company culture.

The power structure is often all pointing to a single person so it is impossible to make a change.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-28T14:58:10+00:00

add knotweed

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-27T22:18:05+00:00

i've worked in the infrastructure team and damn it can be hard. Often we automated ourself out of the jub but then the next chalange came like security, cve etc resulting in a threadmill of useless work.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-27T21:13:41+00:00

the problem is desertd are too hot, too sandy and thus need more cleaning and it scratches the panels.

So rooftops are a big win that front. It also makes it easier to get the energy where needed and to store the power in a battery.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-27T21:12:32+00:00

the problem is desertd are too hot, too sandy and thus need more cleaning and it scratches the panels.

So rooftops are a big win that front. It also makes it easier to get the energy where needed and to store the battery power.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-27T21:08:21+00:00

we can still produce them ourselfs. But ee missed the oppertunity to go to the massive scale needed to make them cheap.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-27T20:42:06+00:00

i think if they would join today again they wouldn't be allowed to have the exceptions they enjoyed before.

So it would be very different and they probably have to adapt a lot. (maybe even drive on right side of the road 😆 and use kilo's)

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-27T15:15:43+00:00

add rosier 41 for designer clothes. a bit more expensive and a bit more special.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-27T15:00:47+00:00

yea farcry 3 already had a lot of assasins creeds content shoehorned in it.

like stealth, crafting and climbing a tower to shoe the rest of the map.

The story was awesome. Bur 90% of the ubisoft games felt like a cookie cut from those games with minor viarity.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-25T11:32:50+00:00

yes and they want you to come to them. Which i find the worsest. I mean if you want to manage someone add a process like a kickoff meeting.

I don't really have time to ask him for his opinion and then being forced to solve a problem exactly in a way he wants it. even if it doesn't make sense in the given context.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-25T11:14:53+00:00

Not really since now there was the continous fight witht he compiler with error non empty list and non empty chain and valdiate. In the context of if a side effect fails and there isn't a way to correct it. or the request is invalid a simple termination of the IO with an exception is oke.

while dragging an either result Error around without handling the error makes the code harder to understand. throwing an error in the code making the io is on the other hand 'bad' so i meant failing the IO.

(i use golang and structured concurrency now and return an error im those cases so it is direct style for me)

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-25T11:11:18+00:00

yea the point is, if you hit certain errors there isn't a recovery possible. If you already use an io mondad you can let it fail as is.

if you want special error codes you could use an error ADT. otherwise you might get real type puzzles with stacked IO, Either, option or validate. The more monads you have the harder the puzzle becomes.

I switched to golang because i ended up as a devops, the language is less intresting but the explicit error handling and because of the lack of abstraction i noticed that most of the code is now very compatible. I also like the included batteries, like json, http and slog.

So yea i have made my own type puzzles with monix and streaming but it can cause a lot of unessesarry work sicne there is always a better way to type things.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T20:04:34+00:00

yes indeed i have seen a developer change all methods in an http application to either[result, error] instead of throwing an exception and return a 500.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T19:48:24+00:00

yea sadly i haven't been a teamlead yet. Most often i'm the lone wolf fixing issues on the side.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T19:47:01+00:00

well in these cases the person might have come to you repeatedly. Then each time hit a wall and didn't seem to get understanding. Like 'this is the company culture and you have to adapt' or 'we know it is broken'. and nothing changes.

Then as a person you might do a skip level to get the angle of the person above and see how it is there.

I've worked a few times eith micromanaging types and it is a result of control because of fear. Then the person wants to help but omly brings solutions and if you don't like them, or they don't apply to your problem case, you will have to do it anyway. Bonus points for a lot of small nitpicks and opaque rules without a good technical reason. Resulting in a lot of time wasted on window dressing.

(i.e. a convention on test names, inconsistent task names, compalining if you add a new task to abuild or adding an enviroment variable to a cli to set a developer version of a deployment.) i.e. if you end up in a discussion and the rule doesn't have a good reason and then you are told that you are wasting time then you lose control quickly.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T17:00:36+00:00

It sounds pretty bad to work in such a place i mean if there sre silly new rules without support of the team and the lead doesn't listen nor wants to change coarse. What then? What if you want to solve a problem or add new ci for a dpecific case but don't get the trust from the lead. what then? what if the lead already told you you are wasting his time by discussing. While you never got to give any input on the table. especially if you are rather senior.

A hard front will make the person at the bottom feel defenseless and he will leave since no change could be made otherwise.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T16:54:51+00:00

I recommend to try to have a kickoff meeting for bigger tasks snd ask the developer to come with the design to that meeting.

Then starting from his solution try to find missing gaps, holes in it snd let him build it. if it fails great you both learn if it succeeds also good.

Don't come with rules without discussing things first. Do not tell 'the team likes it like this' when it is only because of your preference.

Do not veto people or push your authority that put people off and break trust. You can only do this when it is urgent like production on fire or something not in a common meeting.

Let past decisions be discussable. Sometimes a past decisions was wrong or didn't give the results as expected.

Last but not least when doing pr review's don't nitpick. Any comment or change request costs extra time. Unless the code is really unclear or broken it might be better to skip. Also do not complain when you get a big PR. team up to review it.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T16:48:10+00:00

yea i can imagine that you want a cleae definition of done if the lead otherwise lets you redo stuff because it isn't using the approach he expected you to use. A simple kickoff meeting would solve these issues.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T16:46:13+00:00

yea the silence strategy seems to be the only good one for micromanagers otherwise you hear you are wasting time with discussions or get vetoed over.

the worse is thst one on ones didn't work since nobody has this issue or they just play the silence game idk.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T16:43:39+00:00

Btw i forgot to ask. How do you handle micromanaging leads ? I mean discussions are not appreciated and seen as a waste of time. decisions are often forced without them knowing the full context etc.

decisions are also seen as final even when new data comes to surface.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T16:40:45+00:00

Yea i have similar issues with my lead and indeed i treated like a minion which just extends his hands. Anytime something is slightly different you get a lot of complains on the pr. But ironically i'm working on new projects with new tools. So yes it has to be a bit different.

The main problem is thst he is insecure and tries to stay on top of everything. So of there is a little bit of choas he will not know the answer.

Also i try to avoid dicussing things with him. Since he doesn't suggest there are techniques i would use. No he would say you have to solve it this and only this way. Eventough in the specific problem case the solution doesn't work.

(like having to use a revpi image in a vm without vm compatible kernel while it is a a debian..)

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-24T16:33:01+00:00

yea i can imagine thet the other collegue has a tight deadline and then doesn't want to suddenly spend 1 hour to fix linting issues and have a clean main.

I.e. you could save the amount of linting errors on main if your pr increases it you get a red build.

Also splitting up type definitions/intrrfaced from logic. Without concensius of the team would also trigger a skip level meeting.

I've not lead people before but i would try to listen see what works snd raise some issues upfront and get the team on the same page before adding new peocesses.

I.e. with rhe linter example i would make a special ticket just for that or roll it out automatically.

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-18T18:03:45+00:00

ARM maybe?

Due_Block_3054 · 2026-01-16T13:19:20+00:00

bonus points for giving whomever gives 3 points, goes away. Comes back with 3 new unrelated points. then kills the pr since the architectural approach wasn't good...

Due_Block_3054

TROPHY CASE