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<title data-rh="true">Ivory Tower Architect - Alex Ewerlöf Notes</title>
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<meta data-rh="true" name="theme-color" content="#001426"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:type" content="article"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:title" content="Ivory Tower Architect"/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:title" content="Ivory Tower Architect"/><meta data-rh="true" name="description" content="Discover why embracing the title of "architect" can be detrimental to both individual careers and organizational efficiency. This blog post delves into the pitfalls of becoming an ivory tower architect and the common issues faced by staff engineers. Learn how role fragmentation creates unnecessary friction and inefficiencies within engineering teams. Understand why versatile generalists who continuously learn and adapt are crucial for innovation and productivity. Explore practical insights and personal experiences that highlight the importance of staying grounded and hands-on in the tech industry. Avoid the common traps and foster a collaborative, efficient engineering culture."/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:description" content="The insult to any self-respecting software engineer"/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:description" content="The insult to any self-respecting software engineer"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:image" content="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1200,h_675,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg"/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:image" content="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r_Ws!,f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Falexewerlof.substack.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Fpost_preview%2F150395718%2Ftwitter.jpg%3Fversion%3D4"/><meta data-rh="true" name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/><meta data-rh="true" property="article:modified_time" content="2024-12-05T08:05:55.688Z"/>
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class="label">Share</div></button></div></div></div></div><div class="visibility-check"></div><div><div class="dt-post-body"><div class="available-content"><div dir="auto" class="body markup"><p><em>Note: I’m fully aware that this essay may rub some people the wrong way especially those who make a living by taking advantage of the fact that in many organizations, the ability to pretend to work is as payable as doing the actual work. Nevertheless, if it wasn't important, I wouldn't write it.</em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg" width="1166" height="500" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":500,"width":1166,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":null,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" alt srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high" class="sizing-normal"/></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>🤬 Call me names! Any curse would work. But not </span><em>architect</em><span>! 😱</span></p><p>That one hurts!</p><p><span>After 20+ years of software development, I have come to grow a specific despise for the title </span><em>architect</em><span>. Becoming an architect is one of my biggest professional nightmares.</span></p><p>That’s because people carrying this title typically:</p><ol><li><p>Claim expertise over what should be in every engineer’s skillset.</p></li><li><p>Abuse power and cause friction.</p></li><li><p>Are avoided by skilled engineers.</p></li></ol><p>In short: they are irrelevant!</p><p><span>The best phrase to describe them is </span><em>ivory tower architects</em><span> or ITA for short.</span></p><blockquote><p>Ivory Tower (noun): a state of privileged seclusion or separation from the facts and practicalities of the real world.</p></blockquote><p><span>This is a classic “monkey with a gun” scenario: </span><strong>mandate</strong><span> without </span><strong>knowledge</strong><span> or </span><strong>responsibility</strong><span>:</span></p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E-8i!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F72091ddc-6191-4ccb-8d06-15a7edbed199_1012x964.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!E-8i!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F72091ddc-6191-4ccb-8d06-15a7edbed199_1012x964.png" sizes="100vw" alt="6 Archetypes of Broken Ownership" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">6 Archetypes of Broken Ownership</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">August 1, 2023</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><p>Architect is a misnomer in the software world. It's a common fallacy to compare it to a building architect. The closest role to the building architect is UX:</p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/architect-ux" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!C5Um!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa2d33f4-4a1c-4b2f-ab80-81ad64f70a16_1014x626.jpeg"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!C5Um!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa2d33f4-4a1c-4b2f-ab80-81ad64f70a16_1014x626.jpeg" sizes="100vw" alt="Architect = UX" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">Architect = UX</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">November 3, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/architect-ux" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><p>Do all architects eventually devolve to become ivory tower? Why having a dedicated architect is bad for the software organizations? What can you do to not become an ivory tower architect?</p><p>I’ll answer those questions but be warned that it’s not easy and involves actual work. Done right, your skillset will be so diversified that you may find it insulting to be reduced to an architect.</p><p>Another article elaborates why breaking one role into multiple titles is bad for quality, speed, and cost efficiency.</p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/breaking-role-to-titles" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-31r!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fa53a7-a072-4dfd-9002-5dfd0ae03424_941x940.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-31r!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fa53a7-a072-4dfd-9002-5dfd0ae03424_941x940.png" sizes="100vw" alt="Breaking a role into multiple titles" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">Breaking a role into multiple titles</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">November 3, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/breaking-role-to-titles" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><p>TLDR; architecture is one concern —one of many— for software engineers.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg" width="428" height="428" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1024,"width":1024,"resizeWidth":428,"bytes":null,"alt":"cartoonish image of a red expanded Swiss Army knife on a dark navy blue background","title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" alt="cartoonish image of a red expanded Swiss Army knife on a dark navy blue background" title="cartoonish image of a red expanded Swiss Army knife on a dark navy blue background" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy" class="sizing-normal"/></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">This is not a knife. It has a knife! Big difference. (image is AI generated: Bing)</figcaption></figure></div><h1 class="header-anchor-post">Symptoms<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§symptoms" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/symptoms" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h1><p>Ivory tower architects typically:</p><p><span>❌ Have beautiful charts and diagrams. Those boxes and arrows don’t map to the reality of how the system actually works. Some argue that this level of abstraction is what distinguishes a </span><em>map</em><span> from </span><em>territory</em><span>. But a map that is outdated and wrong, serves only one purpose: to confuse and eventually lead wrong decisions.</span></p><p>❌ Claim to represent the average engineer on the leadership table where in reality a tiny fraction of their time (if at all) is spent living the life of the average developer. Many developers rarely encounter them and when they do, they try to work around them.</p><p>❌ When you ask them a simple question, you get a complex answer back which doesn’t really solve the problem at hand. You ask them 2 + 2, they give you a lecture in algebra. They take the problem to their comfort zone instead of solving it. Sounds smart but not really the answer.</p><p><span>❌ They resort to rituals like </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/technical-committee-lifecycle">tech committees</a><span> which are objectively too expensive for what they deliver.</span></p><p>❌ They act like retired developers: heavy on opinions and “best practices” (which is someone’s interpretation of how things worked at a certain point in time, often glorified to make a point) while shying away from doing the actual work.</p><p>❌ When there’s success, they claim the credit but when there’s failure, they put the blame on engineers who executed their ideas.</p><p><span>❌ They’re not on-call for the systems they claim to own (this is an archetype of </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership">broken ownership</a><span>).</span></p><p><span>❌ Instead of tackling the problem at hand, resort to name-dropping: “This is how we did it at [big tech]” (</span><a href="https://alexewerlof.medium.com/ex-google-get-over-it-83e0e2366fdc">ex-Google? get over it</a><span>). They have a tendency to cargo cult the rituals from a previous employer to the new ones.</span></p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/cargo-culting" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NHyx!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3f894754-a978-453f-a01b-8af410354ab0_1120x1121.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NHyx!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3f894754-a978-453f-a01b-8af410354ab0_1120x1121.png" sizes="100vw" alt="Cargo culting" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">Cargo culting</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">November 10, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/cargo-culting" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><p>❌ They demand that all decisions go through them and then delay the decision and objectively take wrong decisions due to lack of context and ignoring feedback loops.</p><p>❌ They engage in high visibility low-impact work like tech radars, engineering handbooks, and [premature] standardization without lending a hand to do the actual migration, operation, or refactoring.</p><p><span>❌ They have too much focus on </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/best-practice">best practices</a><span> without context and a thorough understanding of what the tech they claim to own.</span></p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/best-practice" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!scmy!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2d2092fd-2a8c-4ed8-84be-6ef8549314b1_745x744.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!scmy!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2d2092fd-2a8c-4ed8-84be-6ef8549314b1_745x744.png" sizes="100vw" alt="Best practice" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">Best practice</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">December 4, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/best-practice" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><p><span>❌ Calling their engineer colleagues immature while conveniently ignoring their role to motivate the engineering leadership to invest in upskilling and optimizing </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/organization-architecture">organizational architecture</a><span>.</span></p><p>❌ Design systems that look great on paper but are too flaky when implemented. That’s because they miss hands-on experience with the very artifact they’re designing for.</p><p>❌ See their engineering peers who are below them in the career ladder as disposable rows of an spreadsheet because “architect is only concerned with tech not the flesh”.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png" width="338" height="478.2142857142857" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":2060,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":338,"bytes":1473867,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" alt srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy" class="sizing-normal"/></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2 class="header-anchor-post">The benign type<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§the-benign-type" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/the-benign-type" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><p><span>While most architects do more harm by existing, there is a </span><em>benign</em><span> type that I just want to single out: the “wise” one who asks smart questions, answers simple questions, points people to search results, talks about the history, writes documentations, copy/pastes LLM results, holds presentations, organizes meetups, and generally tries to not get in the way.</span></p><p>I respect that.</p><p>It is still worth to evaluate their role in relation to their salary level but at least they don’t generate negative value by getting in the way of other engineers.</p><h1 class="header-anchor-post">Staff, Principal, Distinguished<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§staff-principal-distinguished" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/staff-principal-distinguished" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h1><p><span>In recent years, Staff, Principal, and Distinguished Engineer gained popularity. Aware of the negative connotations of their role many architects disguise as Staff+. In fact, Will Larson counts architect as an </span><a href="https://staffeng.com/guides/staff-archetypes/">archetype for Staff+ roles</a><span> in his book. I believe it’s an anti-pattern for the reasons we get to.</span></p><p>This is not to say that all Staff+ engineers are ivory towers. In fact one of the beauties of not having the world “architect” in the title unboxes the Staff/Principal/Distinguished engineers to diversify their contribution. Architecture may be one thing they do, but they’re expected to do much more as we’ll discuss.</p><p>Becoming ivory tower is one of the most common pitfalls ahead of Staff+ roles. I’ve seen several senior engineers being hired/promoted prematurely to the Staff/Principal level where they don’t know how to handle the increased autonomy and mandate. As a result, with the best of intentions, they engage in practices that cause harm.</p><p>Unfortunately, they’re less likely to get feedback (or even care about it) due to the power imbalance that’s embedded in the career ladders.</p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/introduction-to-the-role-of-staff" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1H3y!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F38b0377a-c0ee-4776-8509-0b9ddcb133da_1071x1020.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1H3y!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F38b0377a-c0ee-4776-8509-0b9ddcb133da_1071x1020.png" sizes="100vw" alt="Introduction to the role of Staff Engineer" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">Introduction to the role of Staff Engineer</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">February 26, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/introduction-to-the-role-of-staff" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/principal-engineer" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0-wl!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F92c19afc-0989-4a11-a39d-f20540e02ff8_1033x1033.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0-wl!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F92c19afc-0989-4a11-a39d-f20540e02ff8_1033x1033.png" sizes="100vw" alt="Principal Engineer" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">Principal Engineer</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">April 15, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/principal-engineer" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><h1 class="header-anchor-post">Should engineers code?<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§should-engineers-code" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/should-engineers-code" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h1><p>Coding is the best way to earn street credit with other engineers.</p><p>Again, the higher autonomy of these upper IC roles is a slippery slope. It's easy to go to executive room and ask smart questions or even untie a technical problem and feel useful but I'm firm in my stance: many of these "tasks" are engineering leaders' responsibility.</p><p>IC's should be deeply technical and up to date.</p><p><span>Pairing a technical Staff with a non technical engineering manager </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-staff-engineer-is-an-anti-pattern">is an anti-pattern</a><span>. Staff+ should increase the execution bandwidth of technical engineering leaders, not to replace the need to have engineering knowledge.</span></p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-staff-engineer-is-an-anti-pattern" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!VUAz!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ebaf1c2-783b-4467-8b4b-266025e5cdf4_1096x1022.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!VUAz!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ebaf1c2-783b-4467-8b4b-266025e5cdf4_1096x1022.png" sizes="100vw" alt="When Staff Engineer is an anti-pattern" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">When Staff Engineer is an anti-pattern</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">February 12, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-staff-engineer-is-an-anti-pattern" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><h1 class="header-anchor-post">3L<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§3l" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/3l" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h1><p><span>I got a good piece of advice a few years ago that was summed up as </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/3l">3L</a><span>: look, listen, and learn.</span></p><div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/3l" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"><div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!uxoF!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b794eba-950a-45da-b929-20e620c0cc38_1065x641.png"/><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!uxoF!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b794eba-950a-45da-b929-20e620c0cc38_1065x641.png" sizes="100vw" alt="3L" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"/></picture></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"><h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ">3L</h4><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"><a href="https://substack.com/profile/87732486-alex-ewerlof" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ">Alex Ewerlöf</a></div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ">·</div><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA">March 4, 2024</div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/3l" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"><span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ">Read full story</span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-arrow-right"><path d="M5 12h14"></path><path d="m12 5 7 7-7 7"></path></svg></div></a></div></div></div></a></div><p>One can learn a lot by observing architects:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Look:</strong><span> Ivory tower architects put up a show and engage in high visibility low value work (also known as </span><a href="https://staffeng.com/guides/work-on-what-matters/">preening</a><span>). They're often insecure in their technical abilities and towards the end of their tech skill shelf life so they resort to politics to stay in power, instead of upskilling to stay relevant</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Listen:</strong><span> Ivory tower architects tend to use "engineers" to describe a group that does not involves them (e.g., "engineers implement my designs"). They're typically more fluent when talking about tech and that skill alone prolongs their career. That works because incompetent leaders easily confuse </span><em>confidence</em><span> with </span><em>competence</em><span> and </span><em>eloquence</em><span> with </span><em>substance</em><span>. ITA's employment opportunities however is typically limited to those kinds of environments (e.g. old school enterprise going through "digital transformation" hiring from big tech to save the day). If you listen to them, they're delivering value. If you listen to the "engineers" they haven’t heard of them or actively work around them.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Learn:</strong><span> not much here. If you drag them to actual technical conversations you see their lack of competence in full glory. Skilled engineers avoid them. Usually ITAs have good social skills, so their presence acts as a classifier: they attract the junior type who likes to outsource thinking while simultaneously repelling the experienced ones who assess competence by outcome.</span></p></li></ul><h1 class="header-anchor-post">FAQ<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§faq" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/faq" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h1><h3 class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Is architecture a full-time job?</strong><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§is-architecture-a-full-time-job" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/is-architecture-a-full-time-job" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h3><p>In every organization, there are SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) who can be pulled to architectural decisions. Are there enough work to fill a full-time bandwidth? Even if there is, shouldn’t this work be distributed to a large group of people?</p><h3 class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Does having a dedicated architect hinder the growth of the other engineers into this important matter?</strong><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§does-having-a-dedicated-architect-hinder-the-growth-of-the-other-engineers-into-this-important-matter" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/does-having-a-dedicated-architect-hinder-the-growth-of-the-other-engineers-into-this-important-matter" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h3><p>When the architects turn what should be one-off consultations into a monopoly and demand that all decisions run through them, they create a bottleneck. Essentially, they cannot know the context and technical nuances of all problems to take objectively good and timely decisions. Centralizing the architecture concern takes away the growth opportunity from the rest of the organization to own their architecture.</p><h3 class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Why do skilled engineers avoid Ivory Tower Architects (ITA)?</strong><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§why-do-skilled-engineers-avoid-ivory-tower-architects-ita" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/why-do-skilled-engineers-avoid-ivory-tower-architects-ita" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h3><p>There are multiple reasons, which can collectively be summed up to: counter-productivity.</p><p>ITAs turn themselves into gate keepers for decisions, developers have to go through them. But the developers soon learn that they needed to educate the ITA due to lack of context, outdated technical skills, and world views that requires some unlearning.</p><p>This adds to the cost of the decisions. The pragmatic engineers learn to work around ITAs:</p><ul><li><p>Downplay the importance of a decision so it doesn’t end up on ITA’s table</p></li><li><p>Implement the idea before it gets the chance to be decided</p></li><li><p>Skipping the improvement altogether</p></li><li><p>…</p></li></ul><h3 class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Do all architects converge to become ivory tower?</strong><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§do-all-architects-converge-to-become-ivory-tower" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/do-all-architects-converge-to-become-ivory-tower" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h3><p>Doing architecture full-time starves the architect’s ability to update their technical skills.</p><p>It is hard to learn a skill without any requirement to use it hands-on and implement a solution with it.</p><p>One who voluntarily chooses to spend their time only on architecture gradually becomes blunt in implementation skills.</p><p>Excuses like “coding isn’t the best use of my time”, just communicate elitism and poor understanding of technical evolution.</p><blockquote><p>…with all apologies to my many wonderful, highly skilled "Architect" friends, I tend to think it's a bullshit role. 🙃</p><p><span>I believe that only the people building software systems get to have opinions on how those systems get built. —</span><a href="https://x.com/mipsytipsy/status/1628295050215182336">Charity Majors</a></p></blockquote><p>Read more:</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://charity.wtf/2023/03/09/architects-anti-patterns-and-organizational-fuckery/">Charity Majors on Architects, Anti-Patterns, and Organizational Fuckery</a><span> (blog post)</span></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.oreilly.com/content/michael-nygard-on-architecture-without-an-end-state/">Michael Nygard on architecture without an end state</a><span> (podcast)</span></p></li></ul><h1 class="header-anchor-post">Personal Story<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§personal-story" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/personal-story" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h1><p>This essay may look like a personal rant about a specific person. It kinda is: I listed 12 actual examples of ivory tower architects that I've encountered in my own career over the years.</p><p><span>Coincidentally many of them are my own </span><em>negative role models</em><span> (the opposite of a role model, people you aspire NOT to become).</span></p><p><span>On a given day I may design systems, code, review PRs, measure system performance, use data to improve security, reliability, and scalability. I may spend time reading, doing POC also write or contribute to ADRs (architecture design records), tech </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/strategy-basics">strategy</a><span>, hold knowledge sharing workshops for my engineer peers, and presentations for leadership. Interviewing, and improving our recruitment pipeline is also something I contribute to. These days I act part-time as a technical product manager for an internal developer platform (IDP) and am on-call for the tech that I’m accountable for. Sometimes I venture to areas that are formally outside my tech domain like </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/organization-architecture">organizational architecture</a><span> because it impacts the health of tech which is my responsibility.</span></p><p>But it wasn’t always like that.</p><p>I was a simple front-end developer working with jQuery. I couldn’t deploy code. That was too advanced for me. I relied on testers to find my bugs. I was happy, they were happy, we all shared responsibilities.</p><p><span>That all changed when back in 2018 I was working at a company which due to lack of money decided to get rid of many roles like QA and DevOps (full story </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-companies-feel-stressed">here</a><span>).</span></p><p>I was horrified. Over night I got admin access to our cloud infrastructure and was put on-call.</p><p>Little did I know this inconvenience is going to catapult my understanding of software systems, SRE, quality, security, and reliability.</p><p>Me and my team learned by making mistakes until the company got us multiple formal training.</p><div data-component-name="SubscribeWidget" class="subscribe-widget"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-justifyContent-center pc-reset"><div class="container-IpPqBD"><form action="/api/v1/free?nojs=true" method="post" novalidate class="form form-M5sC90"><input type="hidden" name="first_url" value/><input type="hidden" name="first_referrer" value/><input type="hidden" name="current_url"/><input type="hidden" name="current_referrer"/><input type="hidden" name="first_session_url" value/><input type="hidden" name="first_session_referrer" value/><input type="hidden" name="referral_code"/><input type="hidden" name="source" value="subscribe-widget"/><input type="hidden" name="referring_pub_id"/><input type="hidden" name="additional_referring_pub_ids"/><input type="hidden" name="source_post_id" value="150395718"/><div class="sideBySideWrap-vGXrwP"><div class="emailInputWrapper-QlA86j"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-minWidth-0 pc-position-relative pc-reset flex-auto-j3S2WA"><input name="email" placeholder="Type your email..." type="email" class="pencraft emailInput-OkIMeB input-y4v6N4 inputText-pV_yWb"/></div></div><button tabindex="0" type="submit" disabled class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft rightButton primary subscribe-btn button-VFSdkv buttonBase-GK1x3M"><span class="button-text ">Subscribe</span></button></div><div id="error-container"></div></form></div></div></div><p>Gradually we got hold of it. As it turns out, you don’t need all those roles to build software. All you need is generalists who don’t suffer from technophobia and are willing to learn. And the combination of having all those skills paid dividends: on a given day I would code, test, deploy, troubleshoot, and even manage product to some extent.</p><p><span>Once I learned how to learn instead of being scared, that trajectory continued to a Staff SRE role and later Senior Staff role (I wrote about my journey to Sr Staff </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/beyond-staff-engineer">here</a><span>).</span></p><p>☝️Above, I wrote what I do these days. None of that spells architecture yet all of that impacts architecture.</p><p>The combination of a high level title, escalated autonomy, years of experience, and having the leadership’s ear is a huge abuse pitfall.</p><p>On multiple occasions I’ve had the chance to bloat my results and sell it as transformational initiatives, represent engineering voice to non-technical leaders, or shine a light at the end of a tunnel.</p><p>It is much easier to wing it up there, especially when the org is composed of tall silos with thick walls.</p><p>I resist the urge. Not because I’m some wise a** with a benevolent intention. But because the moment I take advantage of a broken system, I’ll be part of that system.</p><p>That’s why you see many architects stay at the company for too long! They don’t have anywhere better to be. Over the years, their technical knowledge level becomes too shallow that they’re practically unrecruitable to any company with a sane hiring process. Their career choice is limited to staying within one broken system or switching to another broken system.</p><p>I have a theory that everyone is in the best place they can possibly be. If you come across someone who complains and nags too much, it is often a symptom that they are trapped and got nowhere better to be.</p><p>Ivory tower may sound like an amazing place to be, but it’s a trap. Keep your axe sharp and build options. Options put YOU in power.</p><div data-attrs="{"url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share","text":"Share"}" data-component-name="CaptionedButtonToDOM" class="captioned-button-wrap"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">If you find this post insightful, please share it in your circles to inspire others.</p></div><p data-attrs="{"url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share","text":"Share"}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton" class="button-wrapper"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share" class="button primary"><span>Share</span></a></p></div><h1 class="header-anchor-post">Pro tips<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§pro-tips" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/pro-tips" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h1><p><em><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/faq#%C2%A7payment">My monetization strategy</a><span> is to give away most content for free. However, these posts take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to draft, edit, research, illustrate, and publish. I pull these hours from my private time, vacation days and weekends.</span></em></p><p><em><span>You can support me by sparing a few bucks for a paid subscription. As a token of appreciation, you get access to the Pro-Tips sections as well as my online book </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/rem">Reliability Engineering Mindset</a><span>. Right now, you can get 20% off via </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/protipsdiscount">this link</a><span>. You can also </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/leaderboard">invite your friends</a><span> to gain free access.</span></em></p><div><hr/></div><p>Let’s dig a bit deeper into:</p><ul><li><p>How to identify ivory tower architects and neutralize their negative impact?</p></li><li><p>What is that negative impact of ivory tower architects and how to reduce that?</p></li><li><p>How not to become an ivory tower architect?</p></li><li><p>How to hire/promote senior IC (individual contributor) roles like Staff, Principal, and Distinguished Engineers while minimizing the risk of creating an ivory tower architect?</p></li></ul><h2 class="header-anchor-post">How to identify ivory tower architects?<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§how-to-identify-ivory-tower-architects" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/how-to-identify-ivory-tower-architects" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><p>We touched on some symptoms above, here are more with reasoning and examples:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Spending more time in meetings than coding</strong><span>. Senior IC roles require up to date, hands-on experience in order to effectively deliver impact. For example, when LLMs were new, I invested from my own pocket to try Github code pilot to use it on my open source projects to learn about its limitations and strengths (before it was even allowed at my current company).</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Interacting more with leadership than the engineers</strong><span>. When interacting with engineers, mostly doing so with a handful of their favorites (e.g. </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/technical-committee-lifecycle">technical committee</a><span>) than all the engineers in their org. For example, when rolling out SLOs across my org (100+ teams), I could ask leadership to demand SLOs from all teams. Instead, I systematically took the time to meet every team at their own pace, learned about their system architecture, and together with their consumers set their service levels. I learned a ton along the way which I write about </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/rem">here</a><span>.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Relying on mandate and policing than empowering others</strong><span>. Engineers are smart and respond to logic. Mandate is not a replacement for that. A good example happened at one job where there were multiple processes for incident management. This apparent inconsistency, hurt the ability to general central incident reports. An ivory tower architect borrowed the mandate of upper management to kill all those processes but one. There was resistance, politics, and essentially the engineers didn’t buy into that unification effort. I saw those extra incident processes as a symptom. The real root cause was that the official incident handling process was cumbersome and had poor tooling. By removing those pain points with the feedback from teams, I created a process and tooling that was more reasonable to its users: engineers.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Not being on-call either because the system is too complex or it’s beneath them.</strong><span> If EM is responsible for engineers and PM is responsible for product, Staff+ is best described as “Tech Manager”. The health of the tech is primarily the accountability of the Staff+ role (for organizations that have this role). Being on-call helps gain first hand experience with how things work and break. Plus, making system reliability a Staff+ problem motivates them to use their elevated mandate to actually do something about it.</span></p></li></ul><p>Overall, turning ivory tower is the biggest risk ahead of senior IC roles and it takes deliberate effort to not let the higher position in the career ladder detach you from the other engineers.</p><h2 class="header-anchor-post">What is that negative impact of ivory tower architects and how to reduce that?<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§what-is-that-negative-impact-of-ivory-tower-architects-and-how-to-reduce-that" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/what-is-that-negative-impact-of-ivory-tower-architects-and-how-to-reduce-that" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><ul><li><p><strong><span>By assuming mandate over the architectural decisions, they </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership">break ownership</a><span>. Just by mere existing and assuming architectural responsibilities, you limit the ability of other engineers to grow their system design skills.</span></strong><span> A better alternative is to diversify your role by contributing to code (e.g. refactoring) while participating in architecture discussion on a case-by-case basis. Rest assured that the organization doesn’t burn into flames if you don’t babysit every single decision. Mistakes aren’t bad. That’s where most of the learning comes from. It is better to stay within a safe distance and offer a helping hand when needed instead of proactively storming into every room and demand that decisions go through you.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Having a high level abstract view of the systems and organization often leads to bad decisions that look nice in theory but create a mess when they go through.</strong><span> Modern software is complex. Human systems are even more complex. It takes time and effort to get a good understanding of both to an extent that allows informed decisions. A trick I use is to limit my vertical scope. For example as I said I am responsible for over 100 teams. There is no way in hell I can know all the systems made by such a large organization. Instead, I focus primarily on reliability engineering aspect and offload the other aspect to others. Even within reliability engineering context, I use </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/sli">SLI</a><span>s and </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/slo">SLO</a><span>s in a specific way to let the teams and their consumers decide what to measure and </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/lagom-slo">how good is good enough</a><span>. Following my own </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/you-build-it-you-own-it">definition of ownership</a><span>, I don’t claim mandate where I don’t have responsibility.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Illusion of knowledge is worse than no knowledge.</strong><span> Architects often rely on out of date system design diagrams and technical know how. This outdated knowledge —illusion of knowledge— can lead to bad decisions that sometimes work against the very purpose of having an architect. The truth of the matter is that modern systems evolve rapidly and new technologies solve old problems. It is better to honestly say “I don’t know” and use that knowledge gap to learn, than just wing it with pretty diagrams and beautiful charts.</span></p></li></ul><h2 class="header-anchor-post">How not to become an ivory tower architect?<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§how-not-to-become-an-ivory-tower-architect" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/how-not-to-become-an-ivory-tower-architect" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><ul><li><p><strong>Be on-call:</strong><span> many job ads for Staff/Principal/Distinguished engineers require on-call. But many companies implement these roles without any on-call responsibilities. It is important to be in the loop when an incident happens even if you’re not the primary responder. It helps gaining experience about a system’s weak points and be more deliberate when it comes to improve reliability, security, and general health of the tech —which is your responsibility.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Be available:</strong><span> it feels good to go to a meeting room with high level leaders and talk about important stuff. But don’t mistake that for impact. Most probably customers don’t pay the company for those meetings but the product. Stay close to the product and product developers. Once you try that, you may realize that your title and reporting line may get in the way of feedback loop. Do everything necessary for engineers to know that you’re one of them. Any minute spent working with other software engineers is a minute that makes you more efficient when working with leadership to drive high impact decisions.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Stay up to date:</strong><span> I can’t stress this enough. The primary value of IC roles is their technical depth. You need to actively spend time learning about new technologies to be able to assess which ones can solve the old problems more effectively. But I hear you, there’s not enough time to learn everything. ThoughtWorks </span><a href="https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-in/radar">tech radar</a><span> is a good example of how to allocate your energy. No need to learn everything with equal depth. Only the parts that relate to your area is enough. One way to learn deeper is to do some hobby projects or proof of concepts, but be careful not to fall in love with your hobby project and push it to production by force. A tip is to try to teach what you learn. That way, not only you spread the knowledge and demonstrate good technical leadership but you get to learn from all the questions that the “students” may ask.</span></p></li></ul><h2 class="header-anchor-post">How to hire/promote senior IC (individual contributor) roles like Staff, Principal, and Distinguished Engineers while minimizing the risk of creating an ivory tower architect?<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent"><div class="pencraft pc-display-contents pc-reset pubTheme-yiXxQA"><div id="§how-to-hirepromote-senior-ic-individual-contributor-roles-like-staff-principal-and-distinguished-engineers-while-minimizing-the-risk-of-creating-an-ivory-tower-architect" class="pencraft pc-reset header-anchor offset-top"></div><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Link" data-href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/i/150395718/how-to-hirepromote-senior-ic-individual-contributor-roles-like-staff-principal-and-distinguished-engineers-while-minimizing-the-risk-of-creating-an-ivory-tower-architect" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_secondary-S63h9o"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-link"><path d="M10 13a5 5 0 0 0 7.54.54l3-3a5 5 0 0 0-7.07-7.07l-1.72 1.71"></path><path d="M14 11a5 5 0 0 0-7.54-.54l-3 3a5 5 0 0 0 7.07 7.07l1.71-1.71"></path></svg></button></div></div></h2><p>When hiring for or promoting people to senior IC roles like Staff/Principal/Distinguished engineers, look for these signals:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Only architectural work:</strong><span> Architecture is not a full time job. It’s part of the duty of software engineers. Give equal weight to actual contributions to the source code.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Try to understand their motivation:</strong><span> you can ask it straightforward, but it’s better to ask indirectly and read between the lines. If their motivation with senior IC role is to avoid work, it’s a red flag. If they are motivated by leading others and multiply their impact through follow-me leadership, coaching/mentorship, while working shoulder to shoulder with other engineers, you got the right person. A good signal is to ask about the build and deploy process for one of the products or details about one incident. This is where you want to ask a lot of follow up questions instead of jumping to different questions. The deeper you go, the better signals you get about one’s technical literacy, contribution, and motivations.</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Sound opinions:</strong><span> there’s no perfect tech. All technical decisions are trade-offs. Try to understand how they made high level technical decisions? What feedback loops they used? Did they go big bang or gradually rolled out the new decision? How did they measure success and why?</span></p></li><li><p><strong>Up to date knowledge:</strong><span> over the past years, system design interview became more established and preparation material became more available. As a hiring manager or member of the promotion committee, you cannot assess the qualities you don’t understand. So take some time to familiarize yourself with modern system design. You can subscribe to </span><span style="min-width:0;" data-state="closed"><a href="https://open.substack.com/users/135589200-neo-kim?utm_source=mentions" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-attrs="{"name":"Neo Kim","id":135589200,"type":"user","url":null,"photo_url":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c103940f-0d8b-47e7-9a33-013202e17bb8_389x389.jpeg","uuid":"46b88cc8-004d-47ed-8012-da4857f3357e"}" data-component-name="MentionUser" class="mention-pnpTE1">Neo Kim</a></span><span> or </span><span style="min-width:0;" data-state="closed"><a href="https://open.substack.com/users/22329494-alex-xu?utm_source=mentions" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-attrs="{"name":"Alex Xu","id":22329494,"type":"user","url":null,"photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F10cd1afb-9a92-433e-bbf4-f726eb8ffdb3_375x375.jpeg","uuid":"28b4254e-db77-4618-a5ac-5a7341a0e578"}" data-component-name="MentionUser" class="mention-pnpTE1">Alex Xu</a></span><span> for a weekly dose of system design newsletter for example. This is very important because we as humans have a cognitive bias to confuse confidence with competence. Without having a good knowledge about architecture, you’re more likely to hire/promote incompetent but confident candidates to senior IC level with elevated mandate. They can cause serious harm before you know it. Do your homework first.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span>Beware of the </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-staff-engineer-is-an-anti-pattern">Staff anti-pattern</a></strong><span> where a skilled engineer assumes the knowledge while an incompetent leader has the mandate. This is the sign of a </span><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership">broken ownership</a><span>. I have not seen a single such leader voluntarily do what’s best for the org and get the hell out. So I’ll just put it there to raise awareness. If you’re not technical enough to lead an engineering organization, actively coach your senior ICs to create the next generation of leaders. Or you can honestly ask their help, do the work, and gain the technical skills. It’s not rocket science. Many software engineers don’t even have an engineering degree. If you really want to learn, you can do it.</span></p></li></ul><p>If you find this post insightful, please share it in your circles to inspire others.</p><p data-attrs="{"url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share","text":"Share","action":null,"class":null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton" class="button-wrapper"><a href="https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share" class="button primary"><span>Share</span></a></p><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.alexewerlof.com%2Fp%2Fivory-tower-architect&t=Ivory%20Tower%20Architect">Share or discuss on Hacker News</a></p></div></div><div class="visibility-check"></div></div><div class="post-footer"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-16 pc-paddingBottom-16 pc-justifyContent-space-between pc-alignItems-center pc-reset 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class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-reset"><button tabindex="-1" type="button" class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-height-20 pc-paddingLeft-6 pc-paddingRight-6 pc-paddingTop-2 pc-paddingBottom-2 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset font-text-qe4AeH size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC pencraft tag-XbOVLt theme_accent-Y2sqZY priority_secondary-outline-RpooJS pencraft pc-display-flex pc-height-20 pc-paddingLeft-6 pc-paddingRight-6 pc-paddingTop-2 pc-paddingBottom-2 pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset cursor-inherit-LxLBJ6 pc-borderRadius-xs font-text-qe4AeH size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-reset leading-mI5Ihl fillIcon-dQ0mii"><svg aria-hidden="true" style="height:14px;width:14px;" width="14" height="14" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-width="2.5" stroke="#000" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path stroke="none" d="M9.99915 16.7256C9.90515 16.7256 9.79102 16.692 9.65674 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16.7256Z"></path></g></svg></div>Liked by Alex Ewerlöf</button></div></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset flex-grow-rzmknG"></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-reset comment-menu-trigger-container triggerContainer-eX588u"><button tabindex="0" type="button" aria-label="Ellipsis" id="radix-P0-83" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-expanded="false" data-state="closed" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft trigger-j08Uop iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_quaternary-kpMibu"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-ellipsis"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="19" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="5" cy="12" r="1"></circle></svg></button></div></div><div class="comment-body expanded"><p><span>Just wanted to say, this is an incredible and well-written article, that puts into words exactly how I feel, several years into my career as a developer who became an architect.</span></p><p><span>I actively try to avoid becoming an ITA, but annoyingly, my other architect peers resent me for my desire to remain involved deeply in the engineering side. The issues are all on their side, the cracks are forming in their solution designs, while I remain relevant and respected.</span></p></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-8 pc-justifyContent-flex-start pc-alignItems-center pc-reset comment-actions withShareButton-hQzuEn"><span class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM reset-IxiVJZ"><a class="pencraft pc-reset link-_X6et2 link-LIBpto"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-6 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="var(--color-fg-secondary-themed)" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-message-circle"><path d="M7.9 20A9 9 0 1 0 4 16.1L2 22Z"></path></svg><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA 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class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-width-32 pc-height-32 pc-justifyContent-center pc-alignItems-center pc-position-relative pc-reset bg-secondary-UUD3_J flex-auto-j3S2WA outline-detail-vcQLyr pc-borderRadius-full overflow-hidden-WdpwT6 sizing-border-box-DggLA4 container-TAtrWj"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ubrl!,w_32,h_32,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F97cd78f0-9dd8-4456-b299-a256a8cbf294_144x144.png 1x, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ubrl!,w_64,h_64,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F97cd78f0-9dd8-4456-b299-a256a8cbf294_144x144.png 2x, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ubrl!,w_96,h_96,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F97cd78f0-9dd8-4456-b299-a256a8cbf294_144x144.png 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type="button" aria-label="Ellipsis" id="radix-P0-89" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-expanded="false" data-state="closed" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft trigger-j08Uop iconButton-mq_Et5 iconButtonBase-dJGHgN buttonBase-GK1x3M buttonStyle-r7yGCK size_sm-G3LciD priority_quaternary-kpMibu"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-ellipsis"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="19" cy="12" r="1"></circle><circle cx="5" cy="12" r="1"></circle></svg></button></div></div><div class="comment-body expanded"><p><span>This is a rant over experience with past people. </span></p><p><span>There are jobs that need to be done in software engineering. How you divide it in roles and responsabilities change from company to company. Having an architect or not, just move the responsability of that role to someone else. </span></p><p><span>You gave the example that you went from Jquery front end to being a generalist that “knows and learns everything”. Is that the solution to every company? I’ll say it to you: it’s not. </span></p><p><span>Every company, every team, every product and every person is different. There is no solution fits-all, specially only because you had this experience in the past, it does not mean it works for everyone.</span></p></div><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-8 pc-justifyContent-flex-start pc-alignItems-center pc-reset comment-actions withShareButton-hQzuEn"><span class="pencraft pc-reset decoration-hover-underline-ClDVRM reset-IxiVJZ"><a class="pencraft pc-reset link-_X6et2 link-LIBpto"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-6 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="var(--color-fg-secondary-themed)" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-message-circle"><path d="M7.9 20A9 9 0 1 0 4 16.1L2 22Z"></path></svg><div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA 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This blog post delves into the pitfalls of becoming an ivory tower architect and the common issues faced by staff engineers. Learn how role fragmentation creates unnecessary friction and inefficiencies within engineering teams. Understand why versatile generalists who continuously learn and adapt are crucial for innovation and productivity. Explore practical insights and personal experiences that highlight the importance of staying grounded and hands-on in the tech industry. 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Nevertheless, if it wasn't important, I wouldn't write it.</em></p><div class=\\\"captioned-image-container\\\"><figure><a class=\\\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg\\\" data-component-name=\\\"Image2ToDOM\\\"><div class=\\\"image2-inset\\\"><picture><source type=\\\"image/webp\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\"><img src=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg\\\" width=\\\"1166\\\" height=\\\"500\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":500,"width":1166,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":null,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}\\\" class=\\\"sizing-normal\\\" alt=\\\"\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Rxmq!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98af8fba-f38a-42a0-b0ed-922129600aca_1166x500.jpeg 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\" fetchpriority=\\\"high\\\"></picture><div class=\\\"image-link-expand\\\"><div class=\\\"pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset\\\"><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image\\\"><svg aria-hidden=\\\"true\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 20 20\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke-width=\\\"1.5\\\" stroke=\\\"var(--color-fg-primary)\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\"><g><path d=\\\"M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882\\\"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image\\\"><svg xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 24 24\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke=\\\"currentColor\\\" stroke-width=\\\"2\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" class=\\\"lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2\\\"><polyline points=\\\"15 3 21 3 21 9\\\"></polyline><polyline points=\\\"9 21 3 21 3 15\\\"></polyline><line x1=\\\"21\\\" x2=\\\"14\\\" y1=\\\"3\\\" y2=\\\"10\\\"></line><line x1=\\\"3\\\" x2=\\\"10\\\" y1=\\\"21\\\" y2=\\\"14\\\"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>\uD83E\uDD2C Call me names! Any curse would work. But not <em>architect</em>! \uD83D\uDE31</p><p>That one hurts!</p><p>After 20+ years of software development, I have come to grow a specific despise for the title <em>architect</em>. Becoming an architect is one of my biggest professional nightmares.</p><p>That\u2019s because people carrying this title typically:</p><ol><li><p>Claim expertise over what should be in every engineer\u2019s skillset.</p></li><li><p>Abuse power and cause friction.</p></li><li><p>Are avoided by skilled engineers.</p></li></ol><p>In short: they are irrelevant!</p><p>The best phrase to describe them is <em>ivory tower architects</em> or ITA for short.</p><blockquote><p>Ivory Tower (noun): a state of privileged seclusion or separation from the facts and practicalities of the real world.</p></blockquote><p>This is a classic \u201Cmonkey with a gun\u201D scenario: <strong>mandate</strong> without <strong>knowledge</strong> or <strong>responsibility</strong>:</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"41f50433-6002-443b-ace9-7b2581c732de","caption":"Have you been in any of these situations?","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"6 Archetypes of Broken Ownership","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2023-08-01T17:10:54.401Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F72091ddc-6191-4ccb-8d06-15a7edbed199_1012x964.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership","section_name":"Reliability Engineering","video_upload_id":null,"id":135623153,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":54,"comment_count":7,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><p>Architect is a misnomer in the software world. It's a common fallacy to compare it to a building architect. The closest role to the building architect is UX:</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"6cb42578-1f22-46a5-8348-cabd217e4439","caption":"In the world of software, architect is a misnomer.","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"Architect = UX","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-11-03T12:01:07.019Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa2d33f4-4a1c-4b2f-ab80-81ad64f70a16_1014x626.jpeg","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/architect-ux","section_name":"Techical Leadership","video_upload_id":null,"id":151103048,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":0,"comment_count":0,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><p>Do all architects eventually devolve to become ivory tower? Why having a dedicated architect is bad for the software organizations? What can you do to not become an ivory tower architect?</p><p>I\u2019ll answer those questions but be warned that it\u2019s not easy and involves actual work. Done right, your skillset will be so diversified that you may find it insulting to be reduced to an architect.</p><p>Another article elaborates why breaking one role into multiple titles is bad for quality, speed, and cost efficiency.</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"26874549-16e4-4677-8358-b5b4f471141f","caption":"Some organizations have a tradition of breaking one role into multiple titles which in turn are assumed by different people.","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"Breaking a role into multiple titles","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-11-03T14:47:40.435Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0fa53a7-a072-4dfd-9002-5dfd0ae03424_941x940.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/breaking-role-to-titles","section_name":"Techical Leadership","video_upload_id":null,"id":151105939,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":0,"comment_count":0,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><p>TLDR; architecture is one concern \u2014one of many\u2014 for software engineers.</p><div class=\\\"captioned-image-container\\\"><figure><a class=\\\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg\\\" data-component-name=\\\"Image2ToDOM\\\"><div class=\\\"image2-inset\\\"><picture><source type=\\\"image/webp\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\"><img src=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg\\\" width=\\\"428\\\" height=\\\"428\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1024,"width":1024,"resizeWidth":428,"bytes":null,"alt":"cartoonish image of a red expanded Swiss Army knife on a dark navy blue background","title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}\\\" class=\\\"sizing-normal\\\" alt=\\\"cartoonish image of a red expanded Swiss Army knife on a dark navy blue background\\\" title=\\\"cartoonish image of a red expanded Swiss Army knife on a dark navy blue background\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3dSf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc20df9c4-cf7d-4f9b-935f-8a32dc66f2ff_1024x1024.jpeg 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\" loading=\\\"lazy\\\"></picture><div class=\\\"image-link-expand\\\"><div class=\\\"pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset\\\"><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image\\\"><svg aria-hidden=\\\"true\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 20 20\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke-width=\\\"1.5\\\" stroke=\\\"var(--color-fg-primary)\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\"><g><path d=\\\"M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882\\\"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image\\\"><svg xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 24 24\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke=\\\"currentColor\\\" stroke-width=\\\"2\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" class=\\\"lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2\\\"><polyline points=\\\"15 3 21 3 21 9\\\"></polyline><polyline points=\\\"9 21 3 21 3 15\\\"></polyline><line x1=\\\"21\\\" x2=\\\"14\\\" y1=\\\"3\\\" y2=\\\"10\\\"></line><line x1=\\\"3\\\" x2=\\\"10\\\" y1=\\\"21\\\" y2=\\\"14\\\"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class=\\\"image-caption\\\">This is not a knife. It has a knife! Big difference. (image is AI generated: Bing)</figcaption></figure></div><h1>Symptoms</h1><p>Ivory tower architects typically:</p><p>\u274C Have beautiful charts and diagrams. Those boxes and arrows don\u2019t map to the reality of how the system actually works. Some argue that this level of abstraction is what distinguishes a <em>map</em> from <em>territory</em>. But a map that is outdated and wrong, serves only one purpose: to confuse and eventually lead wrong decisions.</p><p>\u274C Claim to represent the average engineer on the leadership table where in reality a tiny fraction of their time (if at all) is spent living the life of the average developer. Many developers rarely encounter them and when they do, they try to work around them.</p><p>\u274C When you ask them a simple question, you get a complex answer back which doesn\u2019t really solve the problem at hand. You ask them 2 + 2, they give you a lecture in algebra. They take the problem to their comfort zone instead of solving it. Sounds smart but not really the answer.</p><p>\u274C They resort to rituals like <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/technical-committee-lifecycle\\\">tech committees</a> which are objectively too expensive for what they deliver.</p><p>\u274C They act like retired developers: heavy on opinions and \u201Cbest practices\u201D (which is someone\u2019s interpretation of how things worked at a certain point in time, often glorified to make a point) while shying away from doing the actual work.</p><p>\u274C When there\u2019s success, they claim the credit but when there\u2019s failure, they put the blame on engineers who executed their ideas.</p><p>\u274C They\u2019re not on-call for the systems they claim to own (this is an archetype of <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership\\\">broken ownership</a>).</p><p>\u274C Instead of tackling the problem at hand, resort to name-dropping: \u201CThis is how we did it at [big tech]\u201D (<a href=\\\"https://alexewerlof.medium.com/ex-google-get-over-it-83e0e2366fdc\\\">ex-Google? get over it</a>). They have a tendency to cargo cult the rituals from a previous employer to the new ones.</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"484eaef7-19fa-4ce1-bfcf-73090800e050","caption":"Cargo culting refers to a phenomenon where people imitate the superficial aspects of a practice or process without understanding the underlying logic or reasons behind it.","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"Cargo culting","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-11-10T16:08:39.663Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3f894754-a978-453f-a01b-8af410354ab0_1120x1121.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/cargo-culting","section_name":"Technical Leadership","video_upload_id":null,"id":151384586,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":12,"comment_count":0,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><p>\u274C They demand that all decisions go through them and then delay the decision and objectively take wrong decisions due to lack of context and ignoring feedback loops.</p><p>\u274C They engage in high visibility low-impact work like tech radars, engineering handbooks, and [premature] standardization without lending a hand to do the actual migration, operation, or refactoring.</p><p>\u274C They have too much focus on <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/best-practice\\\">best practices</a> without context and a thorough understanding of what the tech they claim to own.</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"c67be68c-87e5-418b-905e-a7b112008555","caption":"Earlier in my career, I was an advocate of best practice. But as my understanding of the technology, product, operations and people grew, I realized that most best practices don\u2019t live up to their promises.","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"Best practice","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-12-04T16:39:05.120Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2d2092fd-2a8c-4ed8-84be-6ef8549314b1_745x744.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/best-practice","section_name":"Growth","video_upload_id":null,"id":152571623,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":0,"comment_count":0,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><p>\u274C Calling their engineer colleagues immature while conveniently ignoring their role to motivate the engineering leadership to invest in upskilling and optimizing <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/organization-architecture\\\">organizational architecture</a>.</p><p>\u274C Design systems that look great on paper but are too flaky when implemented. That\u2019s because they miss hands-on experience with the very artifact they\u2019re designing for.</p><p>\u274C See their engineering peers who are below them in the career ladder as disposable rows of an spreadsheet because \u201Carchitect is only concerned with tech not the flesh\u201D.</p><div class=\\\"captioned-image-container\\\"><figure><a class=\\\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" href=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png\\\" data-component-name=\\\"Image2ToDOM\\\"><div class=\\\"image2-inset\\\"><picture><source type=\\\"image/webp\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\"><img src=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png\\\" width=\\\"338\\\" height=\\\"478.2142857142857\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":2060,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":338,"bytes":1473867,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}\\\" class=\\\"sizing-normal\\\" alt=\\\"\\\" srcset=\\\"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_gOk!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F185f8ed7-3319-434f-9c87-c8b60006866f_1979x2800.png 1456w\\\" sizes=\\\"100vw\\\" loading=\\\"lazy\\\"></picture><div class=\\\"image-link-expand\\\"><div class=\\\"pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset\\\"><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image\\\"><svg aria-hidden=\\\"true\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 20 20\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke-width=\\\"1.5\\\" stroke=\\\"var(--color-fg-primary)\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\"><g><path d=\\\"M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882\\\"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex=\\\"0\\\" type=\\\"button\\\" class=\\\"pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image\\\"><svg xmlns=\\\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\\\" width=\\\"20\\\" height=\\\"20\\\" viewBox=\\\"0 0 24 24\\\" fill=\\\"none\\\" stroke=\\\"currentColor\\\" stroke-width=\\\"2\\\" stroke-linecap=\\\"round\\\" stroke-linejoin=\\\"round\\\" class=\\\"lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2\\\"><polyline points=\\\"15 3 21 3 21 9\\\"></polyline><polyline points=\\\"9 21 3 21 3 15\\\"></polyline><line x1=\\\"21\\\" x2=\\\"14\\\" y1=\\\"3\\\" y2=\\\"10\\\"></line><line x1=\\\"3\\\" x2=\\\"10\\\" y1=\\\"21\\\" y2=\\\"14\\\"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2>The benign type</h2><p>While most architects do more harm by existing, there is a <em>benign</em> type that I just want to single out: the \u201Cwise\u201D one who asks smart questions, answers simple questions, points people to search results, talks about the history, writes documentations, copy/pastes LLM results, holds presentations, organizes meetups, and generally tries to not get in the way.</p><p>I respect that.</p><p>It is still worth to evaluate their role in relation to their salary level but at least they don\u2019t generate negative value by getting in the way of other engineers.</p><h1>Staff, Principal, Distinguished</h1><p>In recent years, Staff, Principal, and Distinguished Engineer gained popularity. Aware of the negative connotations of their role many architects disguise as Staff+. In fact, Will Larson counts architect as an <a href=\\\"https://staffeng.com/guides/staff-archetypes/\\\">archetype for Staff+ roles</a> in his book. I believe it\u2019s an anti-pattern for the reasons we get to.</p><p>This is not to say that all Staff+ engineers are ivory towers. In fact one of the beauties of not having the world \u201Carchitect\u201D in the title unboxes the Staff/Principal/Distinguished engineers to diversify their contribution. Architecture may be one thing they do, but they\u2019re expected to do much more as we\u2019ll discuss.</p><p>Becoming ivory tower is one of the most common pitfalls ahead of Staff+ roles. I\u2019ve seen several senior engineers being hired/promoted prematurely to the Staff/Principal level where they don\u2019t know how to handle the increased autonomy and mandate. As a result, with the best of intentions, they engage in practices that cause harm.</p><p>Unfortunately, they\u2019re less likely to get feedback (or even care about it) due to the power imbalance that\u2019s embedded in the career ladders.</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"00d9a9d9-b9fd-4362-869c-a2ba403845de","caption":"Where I stand, there is so much written about the role of Staff Engineer. So why another post?","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"Introduction to the role of Staff Engineer","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-02-26T05:30:08.358Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F38b0377a-c0ee-4776-8509-0b9ddcb133da_1071x1020.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/introduction-to-the-role-of-staff","section_name":"Technical Leadership","video_upload_id":null,"id":142016933,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":49,"comment_count":10,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"4a3f3aa1-29a0-4580-9cdb-37fc9d93e982","caption":"In Senior Engineer to Staff Engineer, we made an argument that the change in the title signifies a change in responsibilities and requires new skillset.","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"Principal Engineer","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-04-15T04:30:30.548Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F92c19afc-0989-4a11-a39d-f20540e02ff8_1033x1033.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/principal-engineer","section_name":"Technical Leadership","video_upload_id":null,"id":143581775,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":38,"comment_count":2,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><h1>Should engineers code?</h1><p>Coding is the best way to earn street credit with other engineers.</p><p>Again, the higher autonomy of these upper IC roles is a slippery slope. It's easy to go to executive room and ask smart questions or even untie a technical problem and feel useful but I'm firm in my stance: many of these \\\"tasks\\\" are engineering leaders' responsibility.</p><p>IC's should be deeply technical and up to date.</p><p>Pairing a technical Staff with a non technical engineering manager <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-staff-engineer-is-an-anti-pattern\\\">is an anti-pattern</a>. Staff+ should increase the execution bandwidth of technical engineering leaders, not to replace the need to have engineering knowledge.</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"0fa4c052-8cde-4571-852a-0106c75413e7","caption":"Years ago, I & Gabbon were interviewing a candidate for an EM (engineering management) position. By that point I had carried out dozens of technical leadership interviews for Staff Engineer and EM positions but this one was noteworthy. It felt like we took a guy off the streets!","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"When Staff Engineer is an anti-pattern","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-02-12T13:05:27.963Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9ebaf1c2-783b-4467-8b4b-266025e5cdf4_1096x1022.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-staff-engineer-is-an-anti-pattern","section_name":"Techical Leadership","video_upload_id":null,"id":135946550,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":37,"comment_count":14,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><h1>3L</h1><p>I got a good piece of advice a few years ago that was summed up as <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/3l\\\">3L</a>: look, listen, and learn.</p><div class=\\\"digest-post-embed\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"nodeId":"929d3844-e474-417d-a6e1-8c4233a65f36","caption":"Looking back at the past 2 decades of my career, it looked like this:","cta":null,"showBylines":true,"showDescription":true,"showImage":true,"size":"sm","isEditorNode":true,"title":"3L","publishedBylines":[{"id":87732486,"name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f","bio":"Writes about technical leadership, growth mindset, and system reliability engineering.\\\\n\\\\nSenior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist.\\\\n\\\\nRead more here: https://www.alexewerlof.com/who","photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2713990-da82-481b-b579-01a7aaa5b85b_560x560.jpeg","is_guest":false,"bestseller_tier":null}],"post_date":"2024-03-04T05:00:31.991Z","cover_image":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b794eba-950a-45da-b929-20e620c0cc38_1065x641.png","cover_image_alt":null,"canonical_url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/3l","section_name":"Growth","video_upload_id":null,"id":142259629,"type":"newsletter","reaction_count":23,"comment_count":4,"publication_id":null,"publication_name":"Alex Ewerl\u00F6f Notes","publication_logo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c58cb07-9341-402b-bcdb-9fa767c2cdac_500x500.png","belowTheFold":true,"youtube_url":null,"show_links":null,"feed_url":null}\\\"></div><p>One can learn a lot by observing architects:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Look:</strong> Ivory tower architects put up a show and engage in high visibility low value work (also known as <a href=\\\"https://staffeng.com/guides/work-on-what-matters/\\\">preening</a>). They're often insecure in their technical abilities and towards the end of their tech skill shelf life so they resort to politics to stay in power, instead of upskilling to stay relevant</p></li><li><p><strong>Listen:</strong> Ivory tower architects tend to use \\\"engineers\\\" to describe a group that does not involves them (e.g., \\\"engineers implement my designs\\\"). They're typically more fluent when talking about tech and that skill alone prolongs their career. That works because incompetent leaders easily confuse <em>confidence</em> with <em>competence</em> and <em>eloquence</em> with <em>substance</em>. ITA's employment opportunities however is typically limited to those kinds of environments (e.g. old school enterprise going through \\\"digital transformation\\\" hiring from big tech to save the day). If you listen to them, they're delivering value. If you listen to the \\\"engineers\\\" they haven\u2019t heard of them or actively work around them.</p></li><li><p><strong>Learn:</strong> not much here. If you drag them to actual technical conversations you see their lack of competence in full glory. Skilled engineers avoid them. Usually ITAs have good social skills, so their presence acts as a classifier: they attract the junior type who likes to outsource thinking while simultaneously repelling the experienced ones who assess competence by outcome.</p></li></ul><h1>FAQ</h1><h3><strong>Is architecture a full-time job?</strong></h3><p>In every organization, there are SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) who can be pulled to architectural decisions. Are there enough work to fill a full-time bandwidth? Even if there is, shouldn\u2019t this work be distributed to a large group of people?</p><h3><strong>Does having a dedicated architect hinder the growth of the other engineers into this important matter?</strong></h3><p>When the architects turn what should be one-off consultations into a monopoly and demand that all decisions run through them, they create a bottleneck. Essentially, they cannot know the context and technical nuances of all problems to take objectively good and timely decisions. Centralizing the architecture concern takes away the growth opportunity from the rest of the organization to own their architecture.</p><h3><strong>Why do skilled engineers avoid Ivory Tower Architects (ITA)?</strong></h3><p>There are multiple reasons, which can collectively be summed up to: counter-productivity.</p><p>ITAs turn themselves into gate keepers for decisions, developers have to go through them. But the developers soon learn that they needed to educate the ITA due to lack of context, outdated technical skills, and world views that requires some unlearning.</p><p>This adds to the cost of the decisions. The pragmatic engineers learn to work around ITAs:</p><ul><li><p>Downplay the importance of a decision so it doesn\u2019t end up on ITA\u2019s table</p></li><li><p>Implement the idea before it gets the chance to be decided</p></li><li><p>Skipping the improvement altogether</p></li><li><p>\u2026</p></li></ul><h3><strong>Do all architects converge to become ivory tower?</strong></h3><p>Doing architecture full-time starves the architect\u2019s ability to update their technical skills.</p><p>It is hard to learn a skill without any requirement to use it hands-on and implement a solution with it.</p><p>One who voluntarily chooses to spend their time only on architecture gradually becomes blunt in implementation skills.</p><p>Excuses like \u201Ccoding isn\u2019t the best use of my time\u201D, just communicate elitism and poor understanding of technical evolution.</p><blockquote><p>\u2026with all apologies to my many wonderful, highly skilled \\\"Architect\\\" friends, I tend to think it's a bullshit role. \uD83D\uDE43</p><p>I believe that only the people building software systems get to have opinions on how those systems get built. \u2014<a href=\\\"https://x.com/mipsytipsy/status/1628295050215182336\\\">Charity Majors</a></p></blockquote><p>Read more:</p><ul><li><p><a href=\\\"https://charity.wtf/2023/03/09/architects-anti-patterns-and-organizational-fuckery/\\\">Charity Majors on Architects, Anti-Patterns, and Organizational Fuckery</a> (blog post)</p></li><li><p><a href=\\\"https://www.oreilly.com/content/michael-nygard-on-architecture-without-an-end-state/\\\">Michael Nygard on architecture without an end state</a> (podcast)</p></li></ul><h1>Personal Story</h1><p>This essay may look like a personal rant about a specific person. It kinda is: I listed 12 actual examples of ivory tower architects that I've encountered in my own career over the years.</p><p>Coincidentally many of them are my own <em>negative role models</em> (the opposite of a role model, people you aspire NOT to become).</p><p>On a given day I may design systems, code, review PRs, measure system performance, use data to improve security, reliability, and scalability. I may spend time reading, doing POC also write or contribute to ADRs (architecture design records), tech <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/strategy-basics\\\">strategy</a>, hold knowledge sharing workshops for my engineer peers, and presentations for leadership. Interviewing, and improving our recruitment pipeline is also something I contribute to. These days I act part-time as a technical product manager for an internal developer platform (IDP) and am on-call for the tech that I\u2019m accountable for. Sometimes I venture to areas that are formally outside my tech domain like <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/organization-architecture\\\">organizational architecture</a> because it impacts the health of tech which is my responsibility.</p><p>But it wasn\u2019t always like that.</p><p>I was a simple front-end developer working with jQuery. I couldn\u2019t deploy code. That was too advanced for me. I relied on testers to find my bugs. I was happy, they were happy, we all shared responsibilities.</p><p>That all changed when back in 2018 I was working at a company which due to lack of money decided to get rid of many roles like QA and DevOps (full story <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-companies-feel-stressed\\\">here</a>).</p><p>I was horrified. Over night I got admin access to our cloud infrastructure and was put on-call.</p><p>Little did I know this inconvenience is going to catapult my understanding of software systems, SRE, quality, security, and reliability.</p><p>Me and my team learned by making mistakes until the company got us multiple formal training.</p><p class=\\\"button-wrapper\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/subscribe?","text":"Subscribe now","action":null,"class":null}\\\" data-component-name=\\\"ButtonCreateButton\\\"><a class=\\\"button primary\\\" href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/subscribe?\\\"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p>Gradually we got hold of it. As it turns out, you don\u2019t need all those roles to build software. All you need is generalists who don\u2019t suffer from technophobia and are willing to learn. And the combination of having all those skills paid dividends: on a given day I would code, test, deploy, troubleshoot, and even manage product to some extent.</p><p>Once I learned how to learn instead of being scared, that trajectory continued to a Staff SRE role and later Senior Staff role (I wrote about my journey to Sr Staff <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/beyond-staff-engineer\\\">here</a>).</p><p>\u261D\uFE0FAbove, I wrote what I do these days. None of that spells architecture yet all of that impacts architecture.</p><p>The combination of a high level title, escalated autonomy, years of experience, and having the leadership\u2019s ear is a huge abuse pitfall.</p><p>On multiple occasions I\u2019ve had the chance to bloat my results and sell it as transformational initiatives, represent engineering voice to non-technical leaders, or shine a light at the end of a tunnel.</p><p>It is much easier to wing it up there, especially when the org is composed of tall silos with thick walls.</p><p>I resist the urge. Not because I\u2019m some wise a** with a benevolent intention. But because the moment I take advantage of a broken system, I\u2019ll be part of that system.</p><p>That\u2019s why you see many architects stay at the company for too long! They don\u2019t have anywhere better to be. Over the years, their technical knowledge level becomes too shallow that they\u2019re practically unrecruitable to any company with a sane hiring process. Their career choice is limited to staying within one broken system or switching to another broken system.</p><p>I have a theory that everyone is in the best place they can possibly be. If you come across someone who complains and nags too much, it is often a symptom that they are trapped and got nowhere better to be.</p><p>Ivory tower may sound like an amazing place to be, but it\u2019s a trap. Keep your axe sharp and build options. Options put YOU in power.</p><div class=\\\"captioned-button-wrap\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share","text":"Share"}\\\" data-component-name=\\\"CaptionedButtonToDOM\\\"><div class=\\\"preamble\\\"><p class=\\\"cta-caption\\\">If you find this post insightful, please share it in your circles to inspire others.</p></div><p class=\\\"button-wrapper\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share","text":"Share"}\\\" data-component-name=\\\"ButtonCreateButton\\\"><a class=\\\"button primary\\\" href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share\\\"><span>Share</span></a></p></div><h1>Pro tips</h1><p><em><a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/faq#%C2%A7payment\\\">My monetization strategy</a> is to give away most content for free. However, these posts take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to draft, edit, research, illustrate, and publish. I pull these hours from my private time, vacation days and weekends.</em></p><p><em>You can support me by sparing a few bucks for a paid subscription. As a token of appreciation, you get access to the Pro-Tips sections as well as my online book <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/rem\\\">Reliability Engineering Mindset</a>. Right now, you can get 20% off via <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/protipsdiscount\\\">this link</a>. You can also <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/leaderboard\\\">invite your friends</a> to gain free access.</em></p><div><hr></div><p>Let\u2019s dig a bit deeper into:</p><ul><li><p>How to identify ivory tower architects and neutralize their negative impact?</p></li><li><p>What is that negative impact of ivory tower architects and how to reduce that?</p></li><li><p>How not to become an ivory tower architect?</p></li><li><p>How to hire/promote senior IC (individual contributor) roles like Staff, Principal, and Distinguished Engineers while minimizing the risk of creating an ivory tower architect?</p></li></ul><h2>How to identify ivory tower architects?</h2><p>We touched on some symptoms above, here are more with reasoning and examples:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Spending more time in meetings than coding</strong>. Senior IC roles require up to date, hands-on experience in order to effectively deliver impact. For example, when LLMs were new, I invested from my own pocket to try Github code pilot to use it on my open source projects to learn about its limitations and strengths (before it was even allowed at my current company).</p></li><li><p><strong>Interacting more with leadership than the engineers</strong>. When interacting with engineers, mostly doing so with a handful of their favorites (e.g. <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/technical-committee-lifecycle\\\">technical committee</a>) than all the engineers in their org. For example, when rolling out SLOs across my org (100+ teams), I could ask leadership to demand SLOs from all teams. Instead, I systematically took the time to meet every team at their own pace, learned about their system architecture, and together with their consumers set their service levels. I learned a ton along the way which I write about <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/rem\\\">here</a>.</p></li><li><p><strong>Relying on mandate and policing than empowering others</strong>. Engineers are smart and respond to logic. Mandate is not a replacement for that. A good example happened at one job where there were multiple processes for incident management. This apparent inconsistency, hurt the ability to general central incident reports. An ivory tower architect borrowed the mandate of upper management to kill all those processes but one. There was resistance, politics, and essentially the engineers didn\u2019t buy into that unification effort. I saw those extra incident processes as a symptom. The real root cause was that the official incident handling process was cumbersome and had poor tooling. By removing those pain points with the feedback from teams, I created a process and tooling that was more reasonable to its users: engineers.</p></li><li><p><strong>Not being on-call either because the system is too complex or it\u2019s beneath them.</strong> If EM is responsible for engineers and PM is responsible for product, Staff+ is best described as \u201CTech Manager\u201D. The health of the tech is primarily the accountability of the Staff+ role (for organizations that have this role). Being on-call helps gain first hand experience with how things work and break. Plus, making system reliability a Staff+ problem motivates them to use their elevated mandate to actually do something about it.</p></li></ul><p>Overall, turning ivory tower is the biggest risk ahead of senior IC roles and it takes deliberate effort to not let the higher position in the career ladder detach you from the other engineers.</p><h2>What is that negative impact of ivory tower architects and how to reduce that?</h2><ul><li><p><strong>By assuming mandate over the architectural decisions, they <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership\\\">break ownership</a>. Just by mere existing and assuming architectural responsibilities, you limit the ability of other engineers to grow their system design skills.</strong> A better alternative is to diversify your role by contributing to code (e.g. refactoring) while participating in architecture discussion on a case-by-case basis. Rest assured that the organization doesn\u2019t burn into flames if you don\u2019t babysit every single decision. Mistakes aren\u2019t bad. That\u2019s where most of the learning comes from. It is better to stay within a safe distance and offer a helping hand when needed instead of proactively storming into every room and demand that decisions go through you.</p></li><li><p><strong>Having a high level abstract view of the systems and organization often leads to bad decisions that look nice in theory but create a mess when they go through.</strong> Modern software is complex. Human systems are even more complex. It takes time and effort to get a good understanding of both to an extent that allows informed decisions. A trick I use is to limit my vertical scope. For example as I said I am responsible for over 100 teams. There is no way in hell I can know all the systems made by such a large organization. Instead, I focus primarily on reliability engineering aspect and offload the other aspect to others. Even within reliability engineering context, I use <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/sli\\\">SLI</a>s and <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/slo\\\">SLO</a>s in a specific way to let the teams and their consumers decide what to measure and <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/lagom-slo\\\">how good is good enough</a>. Following my own <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/you-build-it-you-own-it\\\">definition of ownership</a>, I don\u2019t claim mandate where I don\u2019t have responsibility.</p></li><li><p><strong>Illusion of knowledge is worse than no knowledge.</strong> Architects often rely on out of date system design diagrams and technical know how. This outdated knowledge \u2014illusion of knowledge\u2014 can lead to bad decisions that sometimes work against the very purpose of having an architect. The truth of the matter is that modern systems evolve rapidly and new technologies solve old problems. It is better to honestly say \u201CI don\u2019t know\u201D and use that knowledge gap to learn, than just wing it with pretty diagrams and beautiful charts.</p></li></ul><h2>How not to become an ivory tower architect?</h2><ul><li><p><strong>Be on-call:</strong> many job ads for Staff/Principal/Distinguished engineers require on-call. But many companies implement these roles without any on-call responsibilities. It is important to be in the loop when an incident happens even if you\u2019re not the primary responder. It helps gaining experience about a system\u2019s weak points and be more deliberate when it comes to improve reliability, security, and general health of the tech \u2014which is your responsibility.</p></li><li><p><strong>Be available:</strong> it feels good to go to a meeting room with high level leaders and talk about important stuff. But don\u2019t mistake that for impact. Most probably customers don\u2019t pay the company for those meetings but the product. Stay close to the product and product developers. Once you try that, you may realize that your title and reporting line may get in the way of feedback loop. Do everything necessary for engineers to know that you\u2019re one of them. Any minute spent working with other software engineers is a minute that makes you more efficient when working with leadership to drive high impact decisions.</p></li><li><p><strong>Stay up to date:</strong> I can\u2019t stress this enough. The primary value of IC roles is their technical depth. You need to actively spend time learning about new technologies to be able to assess which ones can solve the old problems more effectively. But I hear you, there\u2019s not enough time to learn everything. ThoughtWorks <a href=\\\"https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-in/radar\\\">tech radar</a> is a good example of how to allocate your energy. No need to learn everything with equal depth. Only the parts that relate to your area is enough. One way to learn deeper is to do some hobby projects or proof of concepts, but be careful not to fall in love with your hobby project and push it to production by force. A tip is to try to teach what you learn. That way, not only you spread the knowledge and demonstrate good technical leadership but you get to learn from all the questions that the \u201Cstudents\u201D may ask.</p></li></ul><h2>How to hire/promote senior IC (individual contributor) roles like Staff, Principal, and Distinguished Engineers while minimizing the risk of creating an ivory tower architect?</h2><p>When hiring for or promoting people to senior IC roles like Staff/Principal/Distinguished engineers, look for these signals:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Only architectural work:</strong> Architecture is not a full time job. It\u2019s part of the duty of software engineers. Give equal weight to actual contributions to the source code.</p></li><li><p><strong>Try to understand their motivation:</strong> you can ask it straightforward, but it\u2019s better to ask indirectly and read between the lines. If their motivation with senior IC role is to avoid work, it\u2019s a red flag. If they are motivated by leading others and multiply their impact through follow-me leadership, coaching/mentorship, while working shoulder to shoulder with other engineers, you got the right person. A good signal is to ask about the build and deploy process for one of the products or details about one incident. This is where you want to ask a lot of follow up questions instead of jumping to different questions. The deeper you go, the better signals you get about one\u2019s technical literacy, contribution, and motivations.</p></li><li><p><strong>Sound opinions:</strong> there\u2019s no perfect tech. All technical decisions are trade-offs. Try to understand how they made high level technical decisions? What feedback loops they used? Did they go big bang or gradually rolled out the new decision? How did they measure success and why?</p></li><li><p><strong>Up to date knowledge:</strong> over the past years, system design interview became more established and preparation material became more available. As a hiring manager or member of the promotion committee, you cannot assess the qualities you don\u2019t understand. So take some time to familiarize yourself with modern system design. You can subscribe to <span class=\\\"mention-wrap\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"name":"Neo Kim","id":135589200,"type":"user","url":null,"photo_url":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c103940f-0d8b-47e7-9a33-013202e17bb8_389x389.jpeg","uuid":"46b88cc8-004d-47ed-8012-da4857f3357e"}\\\" data-component-name=\\\"MentionToDOM\\\"></span> or <span class=\\\"mention-wrap\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"name":"Alex Xu","id":22329494,"type":"user","url":null,"photo_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F10cd1afb-9a92-433e-bbf4-f726eb8ffdb3_375x375.jpeg","uuid":"28b4254e-db77-4618-a5ac-5a7341a0e578"}\\\" data-component-name=\\\"MentionToDOM\\\"></span> for a weekly dose of system design newsletter for example. This is very important because we as humans have a cognitive bias to confuse confidence with competence. Without having a good knowledge about architecture, you\u2019re more likely to hire/promote incompetent but confident candidates to senior IC level with elevated mandate. They can cause serious harm before you know it. Do your homework first.</p></li><li><p><strong>Beware of the <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/when-staff-engineer-is-an-anti-pattern\\\">Staff anti-pattern</a></strong> where a skilled engineer assumes the knowledge while an incompetent leader has the mandate. This is the sign of a <a href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/broken-ownership\\\">broken ownership</a>. I have not seen a single such leader voluntarily do what\u2019s best for the org and get the hell out. So I\u2019ll just put it there to raise awareness. If you\u2019re not technical enough to lead an engineering organization, actively coach your senior ICs to create the next generation of leaders. Or you can honestly ask their help, do the work, and gain the technical skills. It\u2019s not rocket science. Many software engineers don\u2019t even have an engineering degree. If you really want to learn, you can do it.</p></li></ul><p>If you find this post insightful, please share it in your circles to inspire others.</p><p class=\\\"button-wrapper\\\" data-attrs=\\\"{"url":"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share","text":"Share","action":null,"class":null}\\\" data-component-name=\\\"ButtonCreateButton\\\"><a class=\\\"button primary\\\" href=\\\"https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/ivory-tower-architect?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share\\\"><span>Share</span></a></p><p><a href=\\\"https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.alexewerlof.com%2Fp%2Fivory-tower-architect&t=Ivory%20Tower%20Architect\\\">Share or discuss on Hacker News</a></p>\",\"has_dynamic_content\":false,\"truncated_body_text\":\"Note: I\u2019m fully aware that this essay may rub some people the wrong way especially those who make a living by taking advantage of the fact that in many organizations, the ability to pretend to work is as payable as doing the actual work. 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Senior Staff Engineer, MSc Systems Engineering from KTH, Stockholmer, dad, amateur artist. 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