I worked at a place where the VP of engineering didn't understand anything about engineering nor his department. Lifers who shunned any type of responsibility were given free reign to continue their ways and made sure to spread their attitude to new hires in their teams. The VP promoted a total whack to be the overall architect which came up with one stupid idea after another disrupting all operations. A complete overflowed influx of fresh product managers and mid-level people managers with zero engineering experience created an even worse hierarchical political mess where it was now impossible to give any sort of proper feedback. Orders would come through several layers before it reached some low level grunt without a fancy title who would finally recognize that the orders made absolutely no fucking sense, yet had no way to resist them. Many of the actually talented but overworked doers left. All the problems in this organization lay squarely with the leadership and their inaptitude with regards to engineering. When a nice image of an organization is valued more than actually valuable work, this is what you get.
I've heard similar stories from other places as well, because I went looking, and I really wanted to know if what I had seen was unique. It unfortunately wasn't, although I couldn't find an example as bad as mine. Similar types of stories and situations existed in most places, but not in an as concentrated fashion it seemed.
So when I hear anyone complaining like Zuck or Pichai, I know where to look for the problem. The non-engineer managers who provide no value themselves, don't understand what makes engineering tick, and prevent those that do to get their ideas through, unless they can take credit for them and with low risk. Elon Musk is right on this point. Unfortunately they've already infested themselves so tightly in the fabric of the organization, patting each others backs, that it is impossible to get them out. These same people are now going to be put in charge of throwing the "garbage" out. Ha ha ha.
I've heard similar stories from other places as well, because I went looking, and I really wanted to know if what I had seen was unique. It unfortunately wasn't, although I couldn't find an example as bad as mine. Similar types of stories and situations existed in most places, but not in an as concentrated fashion it seemed.
So when I hear anyone complaining like Zuck or Pichai, I know where to look for the problem. The non-engineer managers who provide no value themselves, don't understand what makes engineering tick, and prevent those that do to get their ideas through, unless they can take credit for them and with low risk. Elon Musk is right on this point. Unfortunately they've already infested themselves so tightly in the fabric of the organization, patting each others backs, that it is impossible to get them out. These same people are now going to be put in charge of throwing the "garbage" out. Ha ha ha.