Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies
The most important lesson for people in power in big tech companies: FORMAL PROCESS IS THE ENEMY. Don&#x27;t let the accumulation of gatekeepers and approvers and other capital-P Process let things become 100x harder than they need to be.<p>Do not confuse difficulty with prudence. Your organization will become slow and ossified <i>by default</i> unless you take specific steps to maintain flexibility. One of these steps is to install a culture of change. Things that are easily undone should not require approval to be done in the first place.<p>Do not allow long-timers in your organization use &quot;caution&quot; or &quot;good engineering practice&quot; as an excuse to slow everyone else down. Emphasize that the most important part of software development is moving fast. Let new people try new things. Minimize the number of people who can say &quot;no&quot;.<p>Most of all, do not just _believe_ people who talk about best practices and software &quot;quality&quot; and stuff like that.  Most of the time, they&#x27;re just finding fancy-sounding ways of saying &quot;nothing should change unless I say so&quot;.