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Discussion on: Invest in building custom tools

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Scott Simontis

I can't say I've ever worked at a place where this attitude was encouraged. I still wrote custom tooling, but I had to do it in secrecy or I'd get in trouble for over-complicating things and taking too much risk. It takes effective leadership to foster an environment where you get real innovation...I probably could have come up with some really awesome tools if I wasn't being micromanaged to death. I definitely see the risks where I can get caught up working on something that is cool but provides no discernible return on investment, but some of the more pointless projects (from my manager's perspective) taught me the most.