Just to give a different, concrete, perspective (and push a hot button HN issue), I've spent a fair amount of time working on extremely large web applications, and by far the #1 "WTF WTF WTF" thing that new hires say is "what do you mean you aren't using $TODAYS_HOT_JS_FRAMEWORK??"
Once you get away from "should we use version control" and into actually difficult software engineering questions, it's not clear how to balance a fresh perspective vs. an experienced (normalized? tainted?) view. I wish the article went into this more.
Like, how does the new hire (or anyone else) know the difference between "learning the complexity of the new system" and "internalizing/normalizing the deviance of this culture"?
Once you get away from "should we use version control" and into actually difficult software engineering questions, it's not clear how to balance a fresh perspective vs. an experienced (normalized? tainted?) view. I wish the article went into this more.
Like, how does the new hire (or anyone else) know the difference between "learning the complexity of the new system" and "internalizing/normalizing the deviance of this culture"?