jevanish

That’s a very good point that you need to protect your codebase. I 100% agree.

Left to their own devices, AI can add a lot of extra code you don’t need, overbuild features and functionality, and create a lot of unintended consequences.

If you want to protect your codebase, robust review and carefully deploying changes is essential as you rightfully point out.

Ironically, that’s also what our product does (ai code analysis that runs your code), but as you can see we wrote the post from our experience with infrastructure benefits in mind.

Yeah, certainly consequences matter. The more they have to change or else X (which they really don't want), the more likely they are to change. That said, unfortunately, many will only do just enough to not get fired.

It's certainly a two way street between a manager and team member to work well together, but in my experience the best managers in Silicon Valley/tech retain great people for a long time. In fact, many bring former team members with them from company to company, being a talent magnet.

Totally agree. Trying to lead clubs and student groups in college taught me more about leading than anything I did in a classroom.

If you're doing it right as a manager, it's not about authority. Instead, you should be working to align interests and support your team.

Having someone younger than you as a manager can feel awkward, but if they actually invest in you and listen to you, it can be a great relationship...especially if you know you don't want to be a manager. Then, it's like this person is doing you a favor, so you can stick to the IC work you like.

Knowing what to do is a hugely uphill battle on its own, but then actually being brave and making the time to have the necessary discussions with your team is another level. Many managers are afraid of doing so or fear the time commitment.

The counter intuitive lesson many leaders have to learn is that when you proactively have these discussions that align interests between employee and company, while also showing some empathy for your team, you fix many problems when they're super easy, instead of massive fires to fight.

With all that in mind, that is exactly why I started Lighthouse; knowing what to do and then actually doing it are two separate things. Keeping it all in Google docs and making your own system from scratch rarely holds together as well as someone automating things and reminding you of the right things to do.

This^. Well said.

Certainly finance has its own terrible reputation and problems, but that does not absolve Silicon Valley / Tech companies from doing better. They absolutely have the knowledge, funding, resources to do better.

The reason the Valley is different is because if you have 35% turnover at most companies, you're out of business.

In Silicon Valley, you can hide it behind more recruiters and funding. I've talked to multiple companies with first hand accounts of that level of turnover, which is rare in other industries because they'd go out of business losing that many people.