[HN Gopher] Mitchell Hashimoto takes on a new individual contrib...
___________________________________________________________________
Mitchell Hashimoto takes on a new individual contributor role at
HashiCorp
Author : tosh
Score : 96 points
Date : 2021-07-22 21:03 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hashicorp.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hashicorp.com)
| flurie wrote:
| It's interesting to see that this decision was made years ago,
| because it feels like he's had a much larger impact on the
| development of Boundary and Waypoint, to their great benefit.
| ksec wrote:
| It is sort of strange to read about it.
|
| >I founded HashiCorp in 2012 and served as CEO until 2016,
|
| >I'm incredibly proud that as an executive, I helped HashiCorp
| grow from nothing to nearly 1,500 employees with a valuation of
| over $5 billion.
|
| It wasn't that long ago Vagrant was " _the_ " tool for the job.
| Now it is a $5B valuation company! I hope HasiCorp can continue
| to grow and wish them all the best.
| weitzj wrote:
| Is it to early for a technical wishlist? I will just try :)
|
| A HashiCorp solution for something like renovatebot/dependabot
| but with the special HashiCorp touch (and maybe Packer/Vagrant
| support) and suddenly your OCI images run on Nomad
| tosh wrote:
| Reassuring to know that there is a path to transition back into
| an individual contributor role.
|
| If anyone has lessons learned or thoughts in that direction I'd
| love to learn more.
| ed_elliott_asc wrote:
| I think there always is if you can accept it yourself.
| derwiki wrote:
| Sometimes. When a previous manager quit, he told me he had been
| a manager for a year and then tried to stop being a manager for
| another year. No path back to IC at our company so he joined FB
| as a staff eng.
| simonw wrote:
| I really dislike the term "individual contributor".
|
| I know it's an industry standard term for anyone who doesn't have
| direct reports, but it feels very inaccurate to me.
|
| Just because an engineer doesn't have direct reports doesn't mean
| they aren't exhibiting all kinds of leadership behavior that
| elevates their contributions above the level of "individual" -
| teaching, mentoring, strategy work, leading projects.
|
| I don't have a good suggestion for an alternative term though.
| [deleted]
| jaaron wrote:
| I agree about the IC terminology.
|
| The best I've seen so far is "maker" vs "manager"
| dnautics wrote:
| I've definitely been in a company where they referred to me
| pointedly as an IC, as a way to signal they were not interested
| in me taking on tech leadership roles. I got the fuck out.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| Think of "contributor" as the key word in the term. It covers
| all that leadership.
|
| Then note "contributor"'s absence from "manager." :)
| orangepenguin wrote:
| Maybe technical contributors? You're right. In the most
| efficient organizations, leadership lets the technical
| decisions bubble up from the experts, rather than dictating
| them from the top.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > Just because an engineer doesn't have direct reports doesn't
| mean they aren't exhibiting all kinds of leadership behavior
| that elevates their contributions above the level of
| "individual" - teaching, mentoring, strategy work, leading
| projects.
|
| That's a good point, but in my experience "individual
| contributor" is just a code phrase for "not managing direct
| reports".
|
| Being an IC doesn't mean you're not contributing leadership or
| strategy, it just means that you're not doing hiring/firing or
| performance reviews of direct reports.
| simonw wrote:
| Yeah that's how I understand the term too. So it's an
| effective piece of language, I just dislike it!
| Rapzid wrote:
| Yes, but at a lot of larger companies and perhaps the vast
| majority IC is code for "them".
|
| "Us" is management BTW.
| uberdru wrote:
| It's the tortured logic of late capitalism. People who
| actually 'contribute' somehow retain a semblance of
| individuality.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| As someone who has also been on the journey from early employee
| into project and team leadership, a formal management role, and
| then back to individual contributorship, I kind of agree,
| though at the same time I also don't really care about the
| title, and I know that being a "senior" or "staff" level
| individual contributor clearly implies a bunch of those other
| pieces, including things like soft leadership, independence to
| pursue strategic initiatives, etc.
| blacktriangle wrote:
| Eh, it's kinda like the term "stakeholder." It just reeks of
| bureaucratic bullshit, but otoh it's a very real important
| concept that we just don't have another good word for, so we
| stick with it.
| mjlee wrote:
| What Got You Here Won't Get You There is a frequently recommended
| book about changing yourself to get to wherever There is. It
| seems that Mitchell has chosen to stay the same and change where
| There is instead. Sounds like a fantastic way to live.
| orangepenguin wrote:
| As an employee of Hashicorp, I'm very excited for this change.
| Not that Mitchell was anything less than a great leader--on the
| contrary, I thought he was excellent. It's just that he's also
| got such a great ability to identify the _right_ abstractions
| when tackling a problem. The fact that he 'll be "in the
| trenches", so to speak, gives me even more confidence that
| Hashicorp will continue to make tools that strike a nice balance
| between power and simplicity.
| cvhashim wrote:
| How do you like working at Hashicorp ?
| orangepenguin wrote:
| Frankly, I love it. The attitudes that have made the open
| source community welcoming are the same ones that permeate
| the company. Generally speaking, people are very friendly and
| helpful. That said, it's a job and your mileage might vary.
| Personally, it's the best place I've worked, and I don't plan
| on leaving for many years.
| ericyan wrote:
| Stepping down from a leadership position in order to focus on
| engineering is something as rare as a unicorn. This person has my
| respect, as always.
| subsubzero wrote:
| zero ego, just trying to find the best position to make the
| largest impact, love the move and the mark of a true engineer.
| vr46 wrote:
| Such a great guy. At Hashiconf a few years ago he was just one of
| the normal people, a load of us all went to the speakers' dinner
| and he just found a seat and sat down - opposite me, as it
| happened, and we had a laugh. Armon is a top chap too, we would
| talk motorbikes if I ever bump into him. Their tech skills are
| top-notch and I wish them the best of luck. So many tech
| companies would be better off this way.
| weitzj wrote:
| Same here. I was sitting next to them at an after conference
| event and had a good laugh. Only later I recognized their
| faces. Or having a beer at FOSDEM.
| orangepenguin wrote:
| It's strange, it feels this way at Hashicorp, too. I was a
| little shocked when I was new to see Mitchell occasionally
| commenting on RFCs, messaging people to ask questions, and
| updating documentation. If you didn't know his title, you would
| have thought he was just another engineer. He doesn't elevate
| himself above others, and Armon is the same.
|
| I honestly think that sort of kindness and respect is actually
| what allowed Hashicorp to thrive in the open source
| communities.
| vr46 wrote:
| Yeah, Armon is a sweetheart too and both of them have put the
| legwork in to meet and understand the needs of folks like me,
| and everytime there's a new product I get excited to use it.
| Their code has literally given me a livelihood for six years
| and made hard things easy. I've met loads of Hashicorp folks
| over the years and they're a top bunch.
| [deleted]
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-07-22 23:00 UTC)