flâneur

Good engineers are right, a lot

seangoedecke.com · 813 words · saved by 10 readers

Amazon infamously has a leadership principle where they say “good leaders are right, a lot”. It’s unclear to me how useful it is about leaders, but it’s definitely true about engineers. Good engineers are definitely right, a lot. Bryan Cantrill has a good rant about the Amazon principle here. I agree with Bryan that it’s a bit silly-sounding, and that it’s not the kind of fundamental principle that can guide tough decisions (no problem, just pick the right choice, like a good leader would do!) But I do think it’s just a straight-up fact. Good leaders are right a lot. Of course that flows from other qualities: they’re smart, or they surround themselves with good people, or for any of a hundred other reasons. I think the point of Amazon’s principle is that it’s hard to assess those other qualities in the aggregate. It’s easier to ask yourself: is this person right a lot? Okay, it’s easier, but still not easy. You can see whether a leader wins without too much difficulty, based on whether

Amazon infamously has a leadership principle where they say “good leaders are right, a lot”. It’s unclear to me how useful it is about leaders, but it’s definitely true about engineers. Good engineers are definitely right, a lot. Bryan Cantrill has a good rant about the Amazon principle here . I agree with Bryan that it’s a bit silly-sounding, and that it’s not the kind of fundamental principle that can guide tough decisions (no problem, just pick the right choice, like a good leader would do!) But I do think it’s just a straight-up fact. Good leaders are right a lot. Of course that flows from

saved by

related reading