Beyond the Buzz: The Unseen Challenges of Adopting Big Tech's Engineering Insights

One standard advice in social media is to ask people to follow Big Tech companies' blog posts and treat them as a source of wisdom.

We need to be aware of one thing before internalizing or religiously following the blogs mentioned here - Common Sense!

In the early stages of my career, I also felt these blogs were the gold mines of knowledge. But later, I realized this is just "one way" of solving a problem in a specific context.

Most of the blog posts from these blogs highlight only the glamorous sides of their solution. We have no clue about the "Second Order Effects" of these solutions.

Ironically, some are written as part of their content marketing strategy to hire folks.

Another thing that we need to be aware of is the complexity of their solutions. Not every organization is Google, Amazon, or LinkedIn. The parameters under which each of them operates are drastically different. What made sense from them may not make sense in your organization or your product!

Sadly, some solutions are implemented by folks who want to boost their ratings in their performance appraisals and power up their resumes. In some instances, they suffered from the "Curse of Knowledge" and were affected by the "Bandwagon effect."

I am not saying that you should not be reading these blog posts. Do read it. But treat it as a case study and apply your common sense. Apply your critical thinking before accepting and internalizing what was written.

Most importantly, don't try to replicate it in your organization or your interviews; justify it as "so and so" does it, and hence we need it.

The Software Industry needs "Thinkers," not "Mindless Copycats"!