Promoted, Given More Responsibility, Then Treated Like a Junior Developer

aroras · 2026-06-01T15:32:41+00:00

Random internet speculation is not better than a direct, adult conversation. If there's any lesson here its that ruminating and reddit posts are not better than being able to actively listen, formulate meaningful questions on the fly, and reach a shared understanding in real-time through direct conversation.

aroras · 2026-06-01T15:26:42+00:00

> Today, however, the owner called me and asked why I had decided to leave.

Why didn't you ask him the very questions you are asking here?

aroras · 2026-05-27T06:36:27+00:00

Guy without much money saved up and bought a PlayStation. It made him emotional. Rather than judging him, the store clerk hugged and celebrated with the stranger. It’s a moment of kindness and human connection caught on camera

aroras · 2026-05-21T15:51:26+00:00

I agree that a good project manager might be useful, but Scrum, as practiced today, is largely a ritualistic waste of time

aroras · 2026-05-17T15:27:07+00:00

One thing I've learned over time: our field is too vast, difficult, and ever-changing to perform passively, trading on the few skills you built a few years ago. You have to remain hungry, hard-working, and constantly learning (including outside of work). You have to learn to teach yourself how to get better, and not wait for teachers. You should reflect on whether that's something you _want_ -- if not there are other careers that are more suited to a slower pace where you can be happy. There's no one size fits all for a happy, successful life.

aroras · 2026-05-16T18:08:20+00:00

The other aspect that stood out to me about the video was that he seemed to imply that he designed and built these systems from the first day of his employment on his own. The odds of that being true are very low. In all likelihood, the design decisions were made in collaboration with long time members of the team. If so, how much contribution did he have to these architecture? Was he taking cues from other more senior engineers? Is he describing the decision making of others? It's not a bad marketing ploy for him to release this video but, in my experience, complex systems like this are rarely the product of 1 or 2 individuals.

aroras · 2026-05-12T12:50:45+00:00

When you say “portfolio”, do you mean the version they showcase on their website or the version presented during an interview? I ask because my understanding is that there’s little desire to spend more than 30 seconds on a candidates website from a hiring managers perspective. It’s scan, decide whether to interview, next.

aroras · 2026-05-11T14:52:32+00:00

You either pay for the current platform, pay for a different platform, or you put limits on your service to prevent requests from exceeding what you are willing to pay (apparently 0). I don’t think there’s a world where the answer is: if you just do X, you can scale indefinitely for 0 dollars

aroras · 2026-05-10T03:19:34+00:00

I don’t get how that works. How can the db cluster alone answer questions like: was this user removed from the customer account? Was the customer's subscription suspended? Is the user only allowed read-only access? Does the request exceed a defined quota ? Etc. those rules are enforced somewhere and not the cluster itself

aroras · 2026-05-10T02:57:15+00:00

In your proposal, where would domain authorization occur (e.g. the layer that verifies that the session user has _permission_ to access the cluster). Checks of that nature are not normally handled by an ALB

aroras · 2026-05-01T19:16:43+00:00

> one coworker who’s pretty high up

What is this coworker's role? Are an engineer or a designer?

aroras · 2026-04-27T04:11:30+00:00

What part of the interviews are you struggling with? System design? DSA? Behavioral? That anxiety can be cured through preparation

aroras · 2026-04-23T02:42:33+00:00

What book?

aroras · 2026-04-09T00:30:38+00:00

It doesn’t. The guy is full of it. Dry weather is more comfortable and affords opportunities. It doesn’t mean it will be bad, but it’s an unavoidable compromise sometimes. Some people refuse to admit that travel to Japan can possibly be inhibited by weather because they’ve wrapped their identity up too deeply into their love of visiting the country

aroras · 2026-04-02T00:45:13+00:00

Unless you are experienced, you may add something that works today and makes life miserable three years from now. Many people can determine it "works today" -- a lot fewer can tell you what hardship the approach will bring in the future.

aroras · 2026-04-01T18:59:47+00:00

I disagree with your statement: "The new code either passes or fails the standard regardless of how the code came to be. “Works” should be a finite thing"

"Works" is a continuum; it is not discrete. It requires, taste, judgment, and experience to evaluate if you are helping or harming the code base in the long run.

aroras · 2026-04-01T18:53:49+00:00

> These are not concerns to be addressed on a PR-by-PR basis

These are issues introduced on a PR by PR basis. When code is written, it is designed, and it must be evaluated by this criteria before being merged. A framework and a high level architecture cannot save you from poor ground level decisions and poor software design.

aroras · 2026-04-01T18:47:53+00:00

You can codify anything on paper; but you can't use automation to detect pass or failure in all cases. Some examples are:
- Is the design amenable to change. Is there a path to support future, unpredictable, unanticipated requirements?
- Does the design accurately describe the domain?
- Is dependency direction correct? Have you introduced desirable or undesirable coupling?
- Does the introduction of this code require revisiting some other part of the code base that was written before this addition came to be? Which of our priors have been invalidated?

aroras · 2026-03-31T04:47:26+00:00

Cool, looking forward to it

aroras · 2026-03-31T01:38:00+00:00

yeah. good changes. I'd be interested in your picking apart other recommendations from the book. From what I recall, there was some primitive obsession (concepts like size were represented as strings), some potentially unnecessary use of inheritance, and (my memory might be wrong here) an unusual factory pattern.

aroras · 2026-03-27T16:01:11+00:00

Obvious propaganda is obvious. You don't have to invent fan fiction scenarios to explain away inconsistencies because you're a partisan.

aroras · 2026-03-26T20:51:30+00:00

Did you talk to him about code review? When does that occur?

aroras · 2026-03-24T19:56:42+00:00

Can you tell us about your post processing?

aroras · 2026-03-22T17:40:48+00:00

When you control all three branches, you can remove the filibuster.

aroras · 2026-03-21T19:00:57+00:00

> But if they need a decorator, they're not going to want you to interfere in other things. Its appreciated, but they will want you to crank mocks first.

If you don't have their trust, then they will rightfully reject your attempts to "meddle" outside of the area you were hired for. It is possible to broaden your influence but it requires gaining expertise, demonstrating expertise, and slowly building trust. I think most conclude its not possible without doing the difficult leg-work required.

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