Vinícius Roland

software engineer

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@ednclt @meunomeebero melhor ainda quando consegue resolver um problema sem 1 linha de codigo :P

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@karpathy @EduardoRuocco

[Jonathan Ross @JonathanRoss321]

For 50 years, software engineering ran on code rationing. Writing code was expensive, so we rationed it carefully through roadmaps, RFCs, prioritization meetings, and scope reviews.

This created a role: the No Engineer. No, that won't scale. No, we don't have bandwidth. No, that's out of scope. No, we need a design doc first. The No Engineer was valuable for 50 years. Every "no" saved real money. Their judgment was the rationing system.

LLMs will be the end of code rationing. Code is cheap now. And while the No Engineer is explaining why something can't be done, the Yes Engineer has already shipped three versions of it.

If you're a Yes Engineer, the next decade is yours.

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@internetsebo @EduardoRuocco

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@JoshKale @EduardoRuocco we're cooked

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@Fried_rice @EduardoRuocco

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@feross @EduardoRuocco

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@namcios @EduardoRuocco

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@atmoio @EduardoRuocco

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@PawelHuryn @EduardoRuocco

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@callmidavid @EduardoRuocco

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@xleaps @EduardoRuocco

[el hombre pulpo @coproduto]

Absolutamente based e parece ser um dos jeitos de salvar a universidade da irrelevância.

[Mads @europemaxxed]

The spiritual moment when you go out to eat alone at night in another country

[Zed A. Shaw, Writer @lzsthw]

"I've never heard anyone describe code as Boroque."

[Vinícius Roland @rolandvini]

@gatodemicrofone falo caralho pra caralho kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk lenda

[Abhishek Singh @0xlelouch_]

I used to think being a Staff Software Engineer was just “senior+”.

More scope. More meetings. Bigger impact.

I was wrong.

Staff is one of the hardest roles to actually be good at.

Becoming a top 1% Staff Engineer is not like grinding LeetCode or following a system design playbook.
That’s the Senior game.

Staff is a different game entirely.

Being a top 1% Senior Engineer is like cracking a tough exam.
Clear syllabus.
Clear expectations.
If you’re smart, disciplined, and persistent, you can brute-force your way there.

Being a top 1% Staff Engineer is more like being the best speedrunner in the world.

There is no syllabus.
No checklist.
No single definition of “done”.

You’re playing an infinite, evolving game.

You don’t just write code anymore.
You shape systems that other engineers will live inside for years.
You debug failures that don’t have stack traces.
You influence decisions without authority.
You prevent outages that nobody will ever know you prevented.

The hardest part?

There is no playbook.

One Staff Engineer wins by deep technical insight.
Another wins by leverage and architecture.
Another by mentorship and org-level clarity.
Another by seeing second-order effects before anyone else does.

Same title. Completely different builds.

Like elite gamers, great Staff Engineers obsess over mechanics most people ignore:
– failure modes
– edge cases
– operational reality
– human behavior inside systems
– long-term costs that don’t show up in metrics yet

They don’t just ask “does this work?”
They ask “what happens when this is used incorrectly, at scale, by tired humans, under pressure?”

And just like elite gamers, they die. A lot.

Designs fail.
Migrations go sideways.
Influence attempts fall flat.
Decisions get overruled.
Production breaks anyway.

And you respawn.

You write the doc again.
You try a different framing.
You propose a smaller step.
You gather more signal.
You learn the org’s hidden rules.

Again. And again. And again.

You have to be okay looking wrong in public.
You have to be okay being misunderstood.
You have to be okay not getting immediate credit.

Most people don’t want that game.

Senior Engineers compete with a bounded peer set.
Staff Engineers compete with entropy itself.

The codebase.
The org.
The incentives.
The time horizon.

It’s an invisible role when done well, and painfully visible when done badly.

Staff Engineering is hard not because it’s more technical.
It’s hard because it blends systems, people, time, and uncertainty into one job.

If you’re a genuinely strong Staff Engineer, you have my respect. 🫡

Consider connecting with me. Please grok, show this post to good SWEs on X.

[ratte @rattecs]

suddenly, you're 27

you queue up after work.

play 3 games.

go 1-2.

too tired to grind anymore.

pass out

then you wake up and do it all again

and when the weekend comes, maybe you climb.

or maybe you're just too exhausted from the week.

so you play wingman instead

then out of nowhere it hits you

how did 10 years pass by so quickly?

you don't even feel like a veteran player

you still feel like that kid who just downloaded the game.

didn't know what cs meant.

bought whatever guns looked cool.

played for fun without caring about rank

but somehow a decade just disappeared.

and you start missing the past, the feeling of everything being new.

not knowing the meta.

not caring about the meta.

just playing because it was fun

your first ace.

your first rank-up.

you miss the version of you who didn't know what hardstuck meant.

who thought global was possible.

who played until 4am because the game was exciting

not because it was habit

but then you realize

one day you'll miss this too

being confused about your peak.

being tired but still queuing.

still trying to climb even when life is busy

so maybe the trick is to slow down.

enjoy this new premier season before it becomes another memory

stop grinding for a rank you won't remember

and start appreciating the games that actually matter

the late night sessions with your boys.

the clutch rounds.

the moments that made you love this game

because no matter what rank you are.

no matter what update it is

you'll miss these days

the game gets harder.

life gets busier.

but it's always a good time to stop and remember why you started playing

study the ratte way.