Imagine you're a developer, happily writing code, delivering on your tasks, and receiving that paycheck at the end of the month. Everything seems fine—you're valuable to the company, your work matters, and your technical skills are respected. However, unless you're a solo developer, you're part of a larger hierarchy, often near the bottom of the decision-making chain. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it becomes an issue when your goals become misaligned with those higher up. Even if you're technically right in your approach, without understanding the bigger picture, you can lose your place in the company’s value system.
There is an Engineer, who worked for a company that specialized in file conversions. At some point, the company decided to introduce AI into their processes. This engineer pushed back hard, arguing that AI made no sense for their specific use case. He was technically correct—after all, converting lossless image types like PNG into JPEG is a straightforward process. It involves clear, established steps: Color Space Conversion, Subsampling, Discrete Cosine Transform, Quantization, Entropy Coding, and finally, File Structuring. These are algorithmic steps that AI doesn’t really improve. Despite this, the engineer was eventually fired.
Looking back, he might have realized what he missed: the bigger picture. What would the CEO say to investors? If the company didn’t embrace AI, it could easily be seen as outdated, falling behind competitors. This perception wouldn’t just hurt the company—it would affect the entire team, including that very same engineer. Being technically right wasn’t enough; understanding the business and strategic implications was equally important.
So, what should you do in situations like this? It’s simple: be politically aware. Instead of fighting management, listen to their vision. Understand what they’re trying to achieve, then find a way to bridge the gap between existing technology and new trends. This way, you avoid breaking the software with needless hype, but also ensure you’re not left behind by innovation. It’s a balancing act—keeping both your technical integrity and management’s excitement aligned.
By doing this, you avoid hitting your head against the wall, and management won’t be upset. In fact, they’ll have something fresh and exciting to present to stakeholders, all while you keep the company grounded in solid, functional tech.
But let's say you have already fought them and been stubborn already, what shall you do? Accept your short coming and make the higher up aware about your mistake, they would have much more respect for you for your acknowledgement and self awareness, and at the end of the day that ultimately would make you grow personally and also in career wise.
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