Itzy Sabo

I share Engineering, Management & Tech Ops experience •

CTO x3 • Indie maker x2 •
Built a fintech from 0 - €500M ADTV •
Scaled a marketing platform to 9M MAU

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

Do you go on engineering adventures & expeditions?

“Shiny object syndrome” can cause engineers to skew solutions towards the less optimal.

This is how to stay at the bleeding edge, but in a realistic and measured way: →

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

How I align tech initiatives to business goals:

https://t.co/6HfufWrNw2

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

CTO Logic is booting up ...

I write about how to operate professionally at the intersection of software engineering, tech management, leadership, and business.

https://t.co/ZNHsqzALJu

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

@GergelyOrosz Misalignment of goals vs. incentives is likely a significant cause of this debacle, as well as having a weak and inept board.

Maybe the non-profit aspect was intended to reduce the attack surface for regulators.

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

However, accessing some deeper paths still works, e.g. https://t.co/u6AIIvtQvd

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

LinkedIn seems down due to misconfiguration 😱

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

Layoffs at Lemmings R Us:

"The board made me do it, because the shareholders expect it."

— said no CEO ever.

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

@BielMarcus1 Yes. You really will.

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

C-suite people: Your CTO is probably lying to you.

OK, she's not actually lying, but she does need to represent the truth in a way you can handle.

Otherwise it would be too difficult for you to trust the development process.

https://t.co/WhITTttBmA

#CTO #CEO #founders

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

.@agazdecki

Is @microacquire friendly to foreign acquirers who don’t want to end up owning a US corporation?

Do you have a standard solution for this?

E.g. transfer ownership of the *product* and related intellectual property, rather than sell the *company* that owns it?

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

As a software engineer I cannot look at this without itching to fix the logic error.

There should be 4 options, not 2 !!

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

As a software engineer I cannot look at this without itching to fix the logic error.

There should be 4 options, not 2.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

I am not expressing an opinion, but did promise to conduct this poll.

Should Assange and Snowden be pardoned?

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

@stewartyBoy @GergelyOrosz DevOps are builders rather than administrators.

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

Corollary:

What will engineers tend to choose?
A. Write something from scratch on a clean slate.
B. Refactor/extend something that exists.

If you make it too easy to decide to create a new service, you will end up with lots more of them than necessary!

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

1200 microservices just to render the Twitter timeline. Or is it "just" 200?

Microservices are a double-edged sword.

Like everything else in engineering, they are a trade-off.

If anyone can decide on a whim to create a new microservice, you’re doing it wrong.

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

Creating a new service must be a carefully considered decision.

The more trivial the functionality, the more it should be combined into a related pre-existing service.

Done right, you end up with “macroservices,” which each handle a complete functional or business domain.

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

Welcome to the Popular Front for the Revival of Monoliths!

Personally, I think we need to popularise what you might call "macroservices" rather than complete monoliths.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@sampullara Part of today will be turning off the “microservices” bloatware. Less than 20% are actually needed for Twitter to work!

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

@GergelyOrosz My view, which has got me fired only once:

You (the CEO) are paying me (an executive) to have the courage to tell you when you're wrong, and to figure out what's really wrong and fix it.

You have a duty to insulate your department from such behaviour: https://t.co/doqaFMrQWa

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

Do not be a "yes-man"

An important function of an executive is to act as a buffer against:

🙊 Uncertainty - some industries are on a roller-coaster.

🙈 Whims - the CEO or owner with ADD is always zig-zagging.

👎 Distractions - other things that don’t move the needle.

[Itzy Sabo @itzysabo]

@GergelyOrosz Working with people from different cultures, I learned that I had to eliminate nuances, figures of speech and metaphors and be much more direct.

I also say "Hello" and ask my question on the same line. It's more respectful of the other person's time and attention.