Hacker News: a_square_peg

New comment by a_square_peg in "An engineering history of the Manhattan Project"

a_square_peg — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 19:16:04 +0000

It's amusing to think about what the technical hiring process would have been like if it were to happen now.

"Need 10+ years of experience in nuclear detonation device."

New comment by a_square_peg in ""Normal" engineers are the key to great teams"

a_square_peg — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 02:04:52 +0000

I'm sure everyone has worked with engineers who might be 10x on their own but drag the team down being inflexible or insisting on solving the wrong problem.

I like the saying that "engineering is a team sport" and agree that the multiplier should be on the productivity of the entire team as mentioned in the article. The concept of whole being greater than the sum of its parts applies to both engineering systems and technical teams (which we'd probably say is a type of system on its own).

Not meaning to downplay the role of great engineers... I suppose the best scenario would be 10x engineers who can also help the rest of the team perform better.

New comment by a_square_peg in "Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls"

a_square_peg — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:33:16 +0000

This is fantastic to see - I've been thinking about the need for something like this for a while.

I think there are two markets for this and I feel like you are already addressing the homeowners. Have you reached out to utilities who are looking to shave peak loads with DER?

New comment by a_square_peg in "The Tyranny of Structurelessness (1970)"

a_square_peg — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 16:10:10 +0000

Wow - that was painful to read because I can relate so much. Thanks for sharing. Another aspect of such dysfunction is the diffusion of responsibility that comes with it. The stubborn people who pushed for a particular solution rarely suffer ill consequence because the decision was technically made as a group.

I think a functional engineering decision process is more akin to a veto process. Someone, say Olivia in your example, would be tasked with selecting the language for the job and submitting the technical rationale for it and the relevant authorities (e.g. CTO or product owner) would sign off on the decision. They will normally have the power to approve or reject but not to impose certain solution. In a traditional hardware engineering, this is how it's done, where an engineer submits a design and it needs to be approved by relevant subject matter experts in various domains, such as material, thermal, structure, safety etc.

New comment by a_square_peg in "The Tyranny of Structurelessness (1970)"

a_square_peg — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 16:54:34 +0000

I recommend this essay often to people, especially in a start up. When someone describes their organization as being "flat", it's often a red flag because it means that there are unwritten power structure that newer employees will likely be excluded from.

New comment by a_square_peg in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney, who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

a_square_peg — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 17:57:27 +0000

Thanks for sharing!

New comment by a_square_peg in "I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney, who does work for YC and startups. AMA"

a_square_peg — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 17:26:48 +0000

I understand there is updates being made to the space export control rules (https://www.space.commerce.gov/new-space-export-control-rule...) regarding space/satellite components that were previously classified as ITAR. I've been curious to know if this will enable Canadians to apply to some space/aerospace technology companies in the US that were restricted to US citizens only?

New comment by a_square_peg in "Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?"

a_square_peg — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 18:55:59 +0000

Woah - this is strange. This was posted yesterday but I see that the timestamp has changed so it's only 4 hours old now. The timestamps for the comments seem to have changed also.

New comment by a_square_peg in "Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?"

a_square_peg — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 19:35:46 +0000

You're absolutely right on both accounts - it did work to engage us and that I would rather that such posts don't get upvoted.

Thanks for your understanding. :)

New comment by a_square_peg in "Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?"

a_square_peg — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 17:32:33 +0000

Fair enough. I feel like I've been seeing a lot of questions on Reddit along this line that comes off as very low effort to generate engagements so that's really the reason behind my comment but I see how my response also comes off as snarky.

New comment by a_square_peg in "Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?"

a_square_peg — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 16:48:04 +0000

I think this is as meaningful as the question "what's the best food you've ever eaten?", which is to say, it's not a very meaningful question.

Ask HN: How do you convince a company to transition away from its own jargons?

a_square_peg — Fri, 24 May 2024 02:29:26 +0000

Like many start-ups, the company that I work with has developed its own definitions and terminologies that are unintelligible to outsiders. I experienced this before and found it very hard even when there were business/financial/legal implications (e.g. calling something a safety device when it wasn't).

For people who have been with the company for a very long time, everything is very consistent and it all makes sense which it sort of does once the whole history is explained. However, this makes poor UI/UX and quite confusing to everyone else, including customers.

Wondering if anyone has experience dealing with this and how they approached adopting more standardized nomenclature consistent with the product industry that they're in?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40462284

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by a_square_peg in "What if I’m wrong? (2023)"

a_square_peg — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 02:04:31 +0000

I never got to ask this as an interview question, but I always thought it would be interesting to ask - 'if you were wrong, would you want to know?' Not on any particular topic but in general. When I asked this in casual settings, I thought it was illuminating that no one gave a simple 'yes' as an answer.

New comment by a_square_peg in "Scrum Sucks"

a_square_peg — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 19:44:24 +0000

Interesting to know - thanks for the info. Strange to think that something designed for 'known, understandable, repeatable work' got adopted by software development.

New comment by a_square_peg in "What's Gone Wrong at Boeing"

a_square_peg — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:55:42 +0000

Not an issue if one can do both but when there's a conflict, a great engineering firm will prioritize safety & quality over profit, whereas a business will prioritize profit & stock price over safety & quality.

New comment by a_square_peg in "Scrum Sucks"

a_square_peg — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:05:56 +0000

Wonder how 'Sprint', 'Scrum', 'Kanban' etc. all evolved out this? I really can't understand how it went from 'individuals and interactions over processes and tools' became formalized processes of daily standups, 2-week sprints, etc.

New comment by a_square_peg in "Updates on Grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 Aircraft"

a_square_peg — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 18:51:53 +0000

Yep - certainly lessons learned through painful experiences.

Supply chain management is incredibly challenging and it's interesting to see one school of thought moving away to vertical integration as an alternative solution and another doing just as well with suppliers (Airbus, Apple, ASML, etc).

New comment by a_square_peg in "Updates on Grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 Aircraft"

a_square_peg — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 16:14:24 +0000

The way the project was structured, it was in the interest of everyone to succeed since everyone paid for their own development cost and only made money when the planes were sold. Not the easiest client to work for mind you - I've been told that many companies flat out refuse to work with them, but again, thinking back, I think that's what made the project a success, although extremely stressful.

New comment by a_square_peg in "Updates on Grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 9 Aircraft"

a_square_peg — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 14:37:39 +0000

Can confirm. I worked as Airbus' tier 1 supplier and they were even accompanying us to manage our own supplier, which in hind-sight, ensured that things like this didn't happen.

New comment by a_square_peg in "What made Apollo a success? (1971) [pdf]"

a_square_peg — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 19:37:19 +0000

This was the practice of 'configuration management' - I mentioned it in another thread but a lot of this is discussed in the book 'The Secret of Apollo'. It's a quite a good read and gave me a whole new appreciation for the practice of configuration management and document control, something that many engineers abhor.