Programmers are the new gunslingers
September 2nd, 2008
As we've been searching for new hires for Goodreads, I've had a few thoughts about engineers. In traditional big companies, engineers are the workers, getting things done, and being managed by managers. Their skill-sets were rare enough to make them often highly paid, but also so focused that the engineers were just building a small cog in a bigger product.
But I think the internet has changed, and frameworks like Ruby on Rails have made it so a good engineer can now make the whole product. A good engineer can now make a website front-to-back in a relatively short amount of time. What does this mean? It means having product managers to organize things isn't necessary in a small company. Especially if the engineer can think about product and user interface too. These last things are where most Engineers fail however. For a consumer focused website they are critical, and so any engineer who has learned these skills is head and shoulders above the rest.
Programmers no longer have to be a small cog in the machine - they can build the whole thing. And this means we hold all the keys. We are the gunslingers in the wild west that is the internet. I think more engineers are recognizing this, but I think it requires a mental shift in many engineers' thinking. It requires thinking more like an entrepreneur (I know, it's a dirty word) - thinking about the bigger picture and how you can make a difference. Paul Graham and his YCombinator fund are only giving money to technical founders - and I think this is why. It's also why its so hard to find those good engineers - they're all out doing their own exciting things. I'm still trying to figure out how to find those that aren't - and suggestions are welcome!
But I think the internet has changed, and frameworks like Ruby on Rails have made it so a good engineer can now make the whole product. A good engineer can now make a website front-to-back in a relatively short amount of time. What does this mean? It means having product managers to organize things isn't necessary in a small company. Especially if the engineer can think about product and user interface too. These last things are where most Engineers fail however. For a consumer focused website they are critical, and so any engineer who has learned these skills is head and shoulders above the rest.
Programmers no longer have to be a small cog in the machine - they can build the whole thing. And this means we hold all the keys. We are the gunslingers in the wild west that is the internet. I think more engineers are recognizing this, but I think it requires a mental shift in many engineers' thinking. It requires thinking more like an entrepreneur (I know, it's a dirty word) - thinking about the bigger picture and how you can make a difference. Paul Graham and his YCombinator fund are only giving money to technical founders - and I think this is why. It's also why its so hard to find those good engineers - they're all out doing their own exciting things. I'm still trying to figure out how to find those that aren't - and suggestions are welcome!
2 Responses to “Programmers are the new gunslingers”
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September 3rd, 2008 at 02:15 AM "any engineer who has learned these skills is head and shoulders above the rest." Any good ideas on how to go about effectively learning those coveted skills?
September 10th, 2008 at 12:16 PM Don't confuse "Project Manager" with "Product Manager". A project manager "Organizes Things", a "Product Manager" thinks in a strategic way about the business, spends most of his time figuring out what, why, how and how much to do. Yes, engineers can do this but its an interrupt driven enterprise and its rare to find an engineer who can think in a holistic way about a product, find customers, build relationships, drive the business forward and code it up at the same time. That said, Engineers who make a transition from Engineering to Product Manager often make the -best- product managers as they can speak with authority and know what can be delivered, when and with what quality.