I guess this is applicable to any social media platform or other similar systems. Is it because there are always bugs to address, so it’s never really running smoothly, or other reasons?
In: 153
It actually can.
The reason you need hundreds of engineers is because you add complexity to the platform.
A set team of engineers can only support say 15 core services/functions.
With every single new line of code added you are adding complexity and possible bugs and failures. This is inevitable at current state of programming.
Companies like Twitter, google, Facebook, and other corporations tend to add hundreds and tons of unnecessary features, programs and services for various reasons.
One is – engineers always want to try something new.
Another – managers needs to showoff, etc.
So, say you have a healthy running Twitter, you want to add emojis support, you have only text now. Unfortunately, your team is at capacity.
So, you need to hire a new team. They add emoji, complexity of the system grows, but it’s OK because you have that additional team to support that. Emljis work is done, so you have two problems now:
a) additional complexity and bugs added by emoji effort that your core team cannot handle because they are at capacity
b) extra team that can maintain and operate emoji but, other than that they have nothing to do
So what do you do next?
You toss new work at the extra team, admin panel, moderator panel, dmca panel and kanji support.
Some of these features are not required and not core, but nice to have.
And you just keep adding and adding and adding.
And because your platform is cool you have money to do that.
All these teams and managers now claim that are indispensable because they support emoji and kanji and moderator panel and the platform CANNOT RUN WITHOUT IT.
Of course it can.
Now, this crazy new boss comes in and says, 80% of this stuff is bullcrap – which infact – it is.
– We don’t need all these people supporting emoji- they don’t.
Hence they are all fired.
Now, you have some people that are insecure and don’t like the politics, they also leave.
You end up with 20% of staff. You tell them to make the core work and emoji and kanji and moderator panel bugs will get lower priority.
You turn off time tracking systems and bunch of other internally developed tools, by developers who prior management didn’t know what to do with, and outsource this shit as its not your core business.
Do you know that Google has employees that change xml files for google doodle?
Do you know that an average investment bank has thousands of people in IT that take care of useless programs, services and procedures?
I mean, your company would still run just fine without all this crap.
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