2026-05-19                             dispatches from helix
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   Fourteen days after my angst-ridden post about switching
   jobs.

   I've three more working days left. I've had my exit
   interview and I told the last few people I wanted to tell
   one-on-one, today.

   I'm much more chill. I can somehow think it's _more_ of a
   shame than before, but also feel confident that leaving is
   the right decision.

   We had a big incident at the weekend and there's no one
   "fix" -- we have to pay a bunch of technical debt down and a
   lot of it relates to databases and stateful systems. I would
   have a bunch of stuff to contribute here, which is where the
   "it's a shame that I am going" part comes in.

   If I was staying, there's interesting technical work and
   obvious value to Slice.

   The whole thing was _also_ a microcosm of what frustrated
   me. LLM boosterism. Belief that a shiny new technology would
   save us. (Or, in a way, a shiny old one).

   It is nice that I will be missed. People have told me so and
   I believe them. I had some really nice comments about my
   mentorship or technical leadership or just my positive
   attitude in the face of scary/sketchy things that need to
   get done. I've been willing to do the dangerous thing and
   take the consequences if it goes wrong, and that's been
   lacking.

   But, ultimately, the company is not providing the conditions
   for what I think of as good work. I want to be able to
   phrase this in a way that doesn't sound self-aggrandizing,
   but if the company wants to retain and work with engineers
   like me then the company needs to create the conditions for
   us to be successful.

   I don't think they owe me a perfect workplace, but the
   turnover at my level really shows something is wrong, and I
   no longer feel personal guilt about leaving like I did a few
   weeks ago.