Ooph, and here I was hoping it was going to be something that I've lately found: "Get under the right manager and manager's manager." But now I see it's a bit more cynical and ... well ... real. :(
> So your job isn't to make good decisions to improve company metrics. It's to look good. That means you must understand basic tenets of human nature and learn to manipulate them.
This feels like the real tl;dr. Anyone who has worked at multiple dysfunctional companies will probably know this though. Applies for IC and management tracks AFAICT.
> The work will invent itself. Your job isn't the work— it's to grow headcount and make it appear well-managed. That latter part is nearly entirely performative.
Ugh. Kill me, man, I just got back from my two week vacation. I formulated this recently as I started being quite cynical with a peer over the phone - and we just realized the fact we can't figure out what the hell management is doing is exactly their goal. And then it kinda clicked once you realized they were acting in bad faith as nothing made sense with good faith intentions. Growth for sake of getting large promotions. In the sense of a startup - you can have some title but what matters is how many people are under you. So, they are trying to explode the amount so that when they do leave - they will get a larger compensation package at the next place because they can say they managed X people.
> So your job isn't to make good decisions to improve company metrics. It's to look good. That means you must understand basic tenets of human nature and learn to manipulate them.
This feels like the real tl;dr. Anyone who has worked at multiple dysfunctional companies will probably know this though. Applies for IC and management tracks AFAICT.
> The work will invent itself. Your job isn't the work— it's to grow headcount and make it appear well-managed. That latter part is nearly entirely performative.
Ugh. Kill me, man, I just got back from my two week vacation. I formulated this recently as I started being quite cynical with a peer over the phone - and we just realized the fact we can't figure out what the hell management is doing is exactly their goal. And then it kinda clicked once you realized they were acting in bad faith as nothing made sense with good faith intentions. Growth for sake of getting large promotions. In the sense of a startup - you can have some title but what matters is how many people are under you. So, they are trying to explode the amount so that when they do leave - they will get a larger compensation package at the next place because they can say they managed X people.