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xantronixyesterday at 5:01 PM1 replyview on HN

Mind if I use this as a copypasta for the future? This checks off every point people bring on LinkedIn and elsewhere.

In all seriousness though, writing code, or even sitting down and properly architecting things, have never been bottlenecks for me. It has either been artificial deadlines preventing me from writing proper unit tests, or the requirement for code review from people on my team who don't even work on the same codebase as I do on a daily basis. I have often stated and stand by the assertion that I develop at the speed of my own understanding, and I think that is a good virtue to carry forth that I think will stand the test of time and bring about the best organisational outcomes. It's just a matter of finding the right place that values this approach.

Edit for context: My team is an ops team that needed a couple developers; I was picked to implement some internal tooling. The deadlines I was given for the initial development are tied directly to my performance evaluation. My boss has only ever been a manager for almost two years. He has only ever had development headcount for less than a year. He has never been on a development team himself. The man does not take breaks and micromanages at every opportunity he gets. He is paranoid for his job, thinking he is going to be imminently replaced by our (cheaper) EU counterparts. His management style and verbal admonitions reflect this; he frequently projects these insecurities onto others, using unnecessarily accusatory speech. I am not the only developer on my team who has had such interactions with him. I have screenshots of conversations with him that I felt necessary to present to a therapist. This degree of time pressure is entirely unprecedented in my 20 year career. Yes, this is a dysfunctional environment.


Replies

mikebenfieldyesterday at 5:18 PM

> artificial deadlines preventing me from writing proper unit tests, or the requirement for code review from people on my team who don't even work on the same codebase as I do on a daily basis

I have never experienced this, and it sounds remarkably dysfunctional to me.

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