Comment by robswc
3 years ago
I think one of the most insightful things I've learned in life is that books, movies, articles, etc. have warped my perception of the "elites." When you split hairs, there is certainly a difference in skill/knowledge _but_ at the end of the day, everyone will make mistakes. (error-prone wetware, haha)
I totally get it though. I mean, as a recent example, look at FTX. I knew SBF and was close to working for Alameda (didn't want to go to Hong Kong tho). Over the years I thought that I was an idiot for missing out and that everyone there was a genius. Turns out they weren't and not only that _everyone_ got taken for a ride. VCs throwing money, celebrities signing to say anything, politicians shaking hands, etc.
Funny, I did see a leaked text when Elon was trying to buy Twitter, SBF was trying to be part of it and someone didn't actually think he had the money, so maybe someone saw the BS.
All that aside tho, yea, this is something I forget and "re-learn" all the time. A bit concerning if you think about it too much! I wonder if that's the same for other fields of work. I mean, if there was an attack on a power grid, how many people in the US would even know _how_ to fix it? Are the systems legacy? I've seen some code bases where one file could be deleted and it would take tons of hours to even figure out what went wrong, lol.
There's nothing elite about being a programmer at any of the big tech companies. It's software engineering and design. It's the same everywhere, just different problem domains.
I've worked with some of the highest ranking people in multiple large tech companies. The truth is there is no "elite". CTOs of the biggest companies in the world are just like you and me.
>There's nothing elite about being a programmer at any of the big tech companies. It's software engineering and design. It's the same everywhere
I just can't agree with this. I have worked with tons of companies and generally, the "sweet-spot" is new mid-sized firms. There is a considerable difference in quality, on almost every metric when working with a bad firm. I've worked with a Fortune 10 company and it was one of the worst applications of "software and design" I've ever seen.
1000 layers of bureaucracy and relatively bad salaries. I'm not looking to speak ill of anyone but we shouldn't pretend you can hire an army of top notch SDEs for bottom of the barrel pay.
The result is a mess.
>I've worked with some of the highest ranking people in multiple large tech companies. The truth is there is no "elite". CTOs of the biggest companies in the world are just like you and me.
I can certainly agree with this in a sense. Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody is "genius" like you see in movies. However, there is a difference in skill and experience (save nepotism or pure luck). If you want to say we all have the same potential, I 100% agree. As it stands though, if you took the "average" developer and I mean truly the _average_, not skewed by personal experience, the average FAANG dev is going to be "better."
I mean, look at how many programmers can't fizzbuzz.