Well said! I wonder if it is like this in the mechanical / electrical engineering space or if the Math n Physics is scary enough to keep the riff-raff out. We've made it too easy for the non-engineering folks and now they're getting involved and disrupting our flow of work. Just like the author (a psych major who's never written a line of production code in life).
I’ve always been vocal about this ... engineers are at the core of our business because they build and ship. Everyone else, myself included as an engineering manager exists to support them in doing exactly that. We don’t create value by holding meetings, drafting roadmaps, or removing blockers ... those are simply the means to an end. We create value when a product is built and shipped.
It really is that simple.
The writing gives the impression of someone speaking about hands-on technical work without a clear understanding of what that actually entails. After reviewing the author’s public LinkedIn profile, it appears their background may be more aligned with product and process management than with hands-on engineering, which could explain the disconnect.
"We've had bathroom scales for over a century, yet as a society, we are more obese than ever."
Exactly! Couple decades ago they blamed human stupidity on lack of information. Look at us now with all the data available at our fingertips. We are so well informed that we should be better humans but we aren't.
Coming back to the Apple Watch (and alternatives) perhaps what we need along with all these "insights" are a shock collar (yes, like the one for a dog) that serves as a motivation to get off one's ass and get in to better shape. I'll bet that'll sell like hotcakes /s
In at least one case it wasn’t released by management because it was absurdly embarrassing. Productivity compared between 2019 and 2023 had statistics similar to the following; average yearly CLs decreased from approximately 70 to under 10, significant revisions pushed in comparable products changed from 26 to 4, meeting time increased by a multiple, email volume decreased similarity. All this with significant increases in seniority and pay among the average employee. Contrapositive scenarios argue that there is a huge opportunity cost to the tech efforts from WFH.
"CL" is a Google-ism for a code change ("change list"). What we'd normally refer to as a pull request I suppose. Googlers like to think the whole world is in on their lingo, but CL is a very unusual acronym outside the Googlosphere.
So they are seriously saying that Google developers on average went from about 70 PRs per year to less than 10 PRs per year when working from home? That seems such an absurdly large decrease that it's hard to believe.
