How One Developer Transformed an Organization's Engineering Culture Through Persistence
By
zdw
Crisped on the outside, thoughtful enough on the inside.
Summary
The article shares a personal career lesson about how one individual without formal authority can transform an organization through persistence and persuasive argumentation. The author recounts how Drew DeVault, a young developer at Linode, successfully changed the company's engineering culture from being haphazard to more thoughtful about architecture and code decisions, despite having no special position and facing initial opposition from the entire organization.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledOne of the biggest lessons I learned early in my career was from Drew DeVault at Linode, 10 years ago.
He cared really strongly about thinking through architecture and code decisions when the culture at the time was, and I love those guys, a little haphazard.
Drew had no special position. We all had the same title, 'Developer'.
But he argued so persuasively and so doggedly even when the entire organization seemed against him and somehow he eventually transformed the entire engineering organization.
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