this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Programming

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Software engineers should be a little bit cynical (www.seangoedecke.com)
submitted 1 day ago by codeinabox@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev
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[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 15 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Politics has no place in engineering disciplines. Imagine if we talked about building bridges like this. "Sorry your entire family died when the bridge failed. My boss has an ego and we have to use the shitty bolts he designed. I'm just doing my job"

Granted not all projects carry this degree of risk but we shouldn't normalize sub standard practice. Long term risk is generated by bad code which can be and often is detrimental to the profitablity of a project. One of your jobs as a software developer is to be able to communicate this effectively with management. There are cost implications to churning out shitty code.

Bad form > poor product > unsatisfied users > loss in sales to competitors

[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 9 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Speaking up against the manager is politics though.

[–] Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

As is almost all the case when people say they don't want "politics" in things. Politics just means whatever they don't like/find valuable.

[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Politics is about influencing other people. Engineering is about managing constraints. Sometimes these constraints come from other people. If you want to influence a constraint you don’t like, then you often have to influence other people (i.e. politics).

I don’t see anything strange with this.

[–] orygin@piefed.social 1 points 4 hours ago

Politics is about influencing other people

No and you prove the parent post right. Politics is the matter of the city (or in this case, the matters of the company/office).
Influencing people is a side product of having to reach an agreement between parties, and if you successfully influence the right people, more shit gets done.