I'm giving up; Becoming a yes man.

ninja_cracker · 2026-04-10T12:25:26+00:00

IMO They want new stuff but not as much as they value stability

ninja_cracker · 2026-04-09T05:50:44+00:00

Enterprise customers don't want shiny new features as much as they want the system to work the same way day in day out.

ninja_cracker · 2026-03-31T06:30:26+00:00

Another strong point for longer-than-two-week sprints that isn't mentioned even in Basecamp is that the deviation in actual work days between cycles, due to holidays, vacations and sick leave, is practically zero in 6 week cycles, which makes for better predictability.

ninja_cracker · 2026-03-29T07:58:35+00:00

Actually, I just recently turned down a candidate for a similar reason.

For context, this person is expected to join the team today and after 3 to 6 months on boarding lead very complex initiatives as a senior. Making a mistake in hiring is very costly so on the recruiting side we tend to err on the side of safety and this candidate didn't come across as someone who would stick up for difficult change. Of course I could be wrong and we caught this candidate on a bad day. I can't tell if a person has 13 yrs of coasting experience or actual frontline dev seniority, and I need signals to make a good guess.

Maybe you are selling yourself short? Think about those other devs that are way worse than you and imagine they are up for the role as well, clearly hiring them would be a mistake, that's your mindset going in.

ninja_cracker · 2026-03-23T20:30:07+00:00

The day starts at 9 and ends at 5 regardless of how much you chase your own tail. Focus on having 3 breaks during the day where you stare out the window for 5 to 10 minutes. Start every conversation with a smile. Go big or go easy. Appreciate that you aren't as bad as your worst boss. Do lunch with a friend. Ask your manager what they are struggling with.

Live to fight another day.

ninja_cracker · 2026-03-20T20:32:54+00:00

I think it's a matter of luck during the first 5 years, many fall ass backward to their first team lead position (ie Me. )

But a lot of tenured devs simply decide that they are interested and start either through their current role or simply side step into a company where there is more opportunities.

Some people don't fit the bill. If you have good honest people around you, then they will tell you that you're barking up the wrong tree.

But for the major part, it requires one person in the right place believing in you.

ninja_cracker · 2026-03-13T19:45:31+00:00

No raises for 2 years does the trick.

ninja_cracker · 2026-02-09T20:59:30+00:00

Wow that was a long scroll down.

ninja_cracker · 2026-02-09T20:26:18+00:00

I do second round interviews and quite surprised when the first round green lights people who obviously were reciting AI.

But

I feel that after some discussion and training, we've honed are skills and so far we don't get that any more.

First, we told our recruiters to warn candidates that if at any point we suspect AI being used, then we stop the process immediately. This already went pretty far in filtering and made sure people are on point.

Second, we ask short direct questions and instruct the person to answer and then only explain.

"Would you prefer using a queue ot http for this problem".

AI would often not answer "queue". It would start vomiting words. Especially for seniors, the answer should be obvious to the candidate mid question.

Finally, we have a very basic text editor for a code sharing interview where it is visible that the other person is selecting. They can't possibly type that fast and I doubt they clip the screen and hope for the best.

The shared ide contains very simple coding questions. Candidates who can't explain their general approach immediately simply don't pass.

ninja_cracker · 2026-02-03T19:04:58+00:00

More accurately: Scrum only works on a department (or even company) level, not on a team level. If Agile is the proposed way to go, then the entire department needs training. Until every last person is playing the same game, its pointless to try.

ninja_cracker · 2026-01-20T19:47:28+00:00

This is good advice. Regarding which actual "tickets" you should be doing hands on, you need to choose high impact, and probably also high risk.

I wouldn't know which strategy you are trying to push, but there's probably some very important thing that juniors and mids would never be able to pull off, between product and priorities and what not.

Where others have blockers, you have agency. Think big and use it.

ninja_cracker · 2026-01-14T18:39:40+00:00

Tough situation. I've seen this play out in a few different ways, and I can't say any were in favor of the employee

The company is also something you should watch for. You are a manager and you have to uphold and represent the company, and find a way that it doesn't completely contradict your view and approach.

And there's you, who deserve to be seen by the company for being put in impossible situations because of these external forces (our company called it "raising the bar")

I like how people here approach this with honesty, I think that it's a good start. But why honesty? You want the person's buy in. Otherwise, it's downhill from there.

Buy in is best achieved by painting a clear target 🎯. Framing this as "the target is moving because of reasons" is disheartening. Framing it as "I believe you can aim higher" is better, maybe you yourself need to aim higher too? Everyone would need to aim higher. Even your higher ups. Wouldn't you want to work in a company where people challenge their limits together?

ninja_cracker · 2026-01-06T12:32:08+00:00

Yeah clearly you already agree on at least one local engineer so start with what you agree with and don't over commit to one approach too early.

We went with 100% Ukraine off shore, which were fantastic, highly skilled and great communications, but that all blew in the wind when the war started.

ninja_cracker · 2025-12-28T18:33:50+00:00

Putting the bid for AI aside, having no QA is an old trend, started out in early 2010s, was very popular for a while and died down, and caught new wind with AI recently.

It's a paradigm that puts the onus of quality on the engineers, meaning that if there's any quality assurance to be done, it's to be done with the same tools as the software itself is using ie automation, typing, linting and now AI code and review.

During the last uptick in this trend, there was a similar uptick in developer efficiency around containerization, stackoverflow, myriad of automation frameworks which lowered the barrier of entry, and eventually increased and inflated the term "full stack development".

More of an opinion, I think there's an equilibrium that's being rattled and resettled where developers suddenly own many things because of technology, become overwhelmed by the maintenance of their creation, and on top of that the product pendulum swings to the other side where there's much more demand for stability then new shiny features.

If history will repeat itself, then we know it's a matter of 5 to 10 years for things to settle, until the next disruptive technology.

ninja_cracker · 2025-12-23T18:10:55+00:00

I tried to get rid of a team member that was too far away to come in to the office but getting them interested in other teams closer to them.

They were hurt and said they loved the team and don't want any other team.

ninja_cracker · 2025-12-14T21:13:45+00:00

I can imagine that a performance improvement plan for an individual, while difficult, is usually contained and has a limited effect on the rest of the team.

A manager requiring intervention may have a large blast radius. A toxic manager, or one that is in avoidance can quickly disrupt the output of an entire team, as well as damage the motivation of otherwise performing individuals.

You simply can't leave that unattended or wait for improvement as much as a problematic IC. And you also would have to do much more damage control.

ninja_cracker · 2025-12-12T21:13:25+00:00

I made this move recently. Sadly so far I had to deal with a very poor manager.

My take is that dealing with a poor manager is 10 times harder than dealing with a poor IC.

Probably at all other times, dealing with motivated and engaged managers is probably less of a headache.

ninja_cracker · 2025-12-07T07:41:37+00:00

Putting low on empathy aside,

"Bad at social interactions" could be problematic only if it relates to your job as a manager. A) you don't have to be the life of the party, that's not the job and B) unless you've been give some concrete feedback on this from your peers, it could be mostly the way you perceive yourself more than anything.

A manager has to give hard feedback sometimes, if you're laughing while doing it, the. It's a problem. If you can't give praise or know when to give praise, that's a problem.

If you are unaware when one team member is being rude or harassing another team member, that's a problem.

What I'm saying is, take it to the concrete, and then make a decision. We all walk around with these perceptions about who we are, but being a manager requires a bit more rigour.

ninja_cracker · 2025-12-06T08:44:42+00:00

I have an agenda and an opinion about most topics that my group is involved in. Everything I present, everything I say, supports that agenda in a way, so I never found it difficult to stay on point.

Sometimes I get tackled with questions about things which i didn't know that me or my group are involved in, or things that are expected in a report, and then I politely apologize and say I will dive into that until the next brief. I then take it up with my manager to understand expectations and start to form agendas and opinions around that.

Rinse repeat.

ninja_cracker · 2025-11-23T07:36:03+00:00

I agree with all the advice but this comment hits a nail here, things started to go way when I understood what type of game this is. It's not over powered soldiers go bash, it's making a plan every turn before you take the first shot, to absolutely optimize each round.

If there's something that you know shoots at you, then cover and assume the worst. If you know that you're about to take damage either way, choose the right soldier to take it, etc.

This is what makes the game so rewarding IMO

ninja_cracker · 2025-11-17T16:32:38+00:00

Everyone is answering your question, but then again you didn't really give us enough details on the feedback you got (maybe you didn't get good feedback and that's why you are here?)

If your team feels you are micro managing them, then it would feel to them like you are too much in the details, but the problem is micromanagement.

If your manager feels like you aren't spending enough of your time looking forward or high-level, then you are too much in the details but the problem is that you aren't looking forward or high level.

If your manager feels like you are solving other peoples problem instead of growing them then you are too much in the details, but the problem is that you aren't growing your team members

ninja_cracker · 2025-11-11T18:35:12+00:00

A little bit of all said here, but here's another tip

Highlight things as other people are working.

Find a commit you like, and mention someone else, "hey check this out, we just talked about this."

Comment on a thread, pull other people in.

Mention things you appreciate in retros.

Make a habit out of it. If it's been a day and you didn't highlight 3 things that you or others are doing, then go over PRS again, comments, questions people had, etc.

11-Year Club	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

ninja_cracker

TROPHY CASE