I had my weekly catchup with my direct report, Felipe, this afternoon. It’s the first time I have had a structured program around juniors on my team, and honestly, it’s a bit daunting. Felipe is a smart guy, but it’s a precarious time, and the opportunities he has in his home country aren’t incredible. A lot is hanging on this; for both of us.
In our session, I was very eager for it to be a two way street when it came to feedback. His comments were excellent; essentially, I wanted to move too fast, which meant that we were cutting too many corners. I agree.
I didn’t grow up building software, I am just riding the VibeCode wave with a mug of coffee and a jug of curiosity. This means I don’t THINK like an engineer, and instead focus on getting from 0->1, rather than 0->N. If what we are trying to build is to scale, and thus be useful, we need to make sure that we’re building upon solid foundations.
What was interesting was that a few hours later, my boss mentioned more or less the same thing. I love working for a fast moving company, but I don’t want to careen out of control.
Sometimes you gotta pump the breaks.