sean goedecke

Large tech companies operate through complex systems of processes and incentives that determine outcomes, not individual heroics. Engineers who sacrifice career progression to fix inefficiencies beyond their job scope become "heroes" who inadvertently insulate companies from consequences of broken systems. These heroes get exploited by managers and product managers for short-term gains while being punished during promotions. Engineers should resist heroic impulses, focus on explicitly rewarded work, and accept that background inefficiency is the price of scale in large organizations.

Large tech companies don't need heroes

How heroes are forged in large tech companies

Large tech companies do not benefit from heroes

Sounds like the writing of someone who got burned one too many times. It’s the sad truth of our work environment that people will take advantage of you if you’re not careful.

fix: Large tech companies don’t deserve heroes.

We need to learn to be heroes for ourselves and for our life (that happens only once), not for large companies