> “Product-first” engineers are obsessed with using code to solve a user problem and they see code as just a means to an end.
> “Code-first” engineers are obsessed with the abstractions, architecture, tools and libraries in the code. Elegant code is the end.
Then aren't basically all professional software engineers "product-first" engineers?
Consumers or clients are the users to "product" engineers, who in turn are the users to "infrastructure" engineers. If the infrastructure engineers spend their time building elegant abstractions, tools, and libraries that don't solve the product engineers' problems, the product engineers will get their infrastructure needs met elsewhere (i.e. off the shelve, roll their own, or outsource) and the infrastructure engineers won't be necessary.
(I'm not arguing against infrastructure engineers per se, just that their primary goal isn't elegant code.)
> “Code-first” engineers are obsessed with the abstractions, architecture, tools and libraries in the code. Elegant code is the end.
Then aren't basically all professional software engineers "product-first" engineers?
Consumers or clients are the users to "product" engineers, who in turn are the users to "infrastructure" engineers. If the infrastructure engineers spend their time building elegant abstractions, tools, and libraries that don't solve the product engineers' problems, the product engineers will get their infrastructure needs met elsewhere (i.e. off the shelve, roll their own, or outsource) and the infrastructure engineers won't be necessary.
(I'm not arguing against infrastructure engineers per se, just that their primary goal isn't elegant code.)