Comments by "Jeremy" (@josiah5776) on "My First Software Project Was a Political Firestorm" video.

Upper level management is filled with people who have aggressive personality disorders, even outright narcissism or psychopathy. While we, as lay persons, are not qualified to diagnose ... we can learn the tactics, signs and character traits, so as to avoid them. I don't lead projects anymore due to the prevalence of these kinds of people. The overhead in people issues always overshadows any creative satisfaction. From my experience, jousting with these people never ends well. They love drama and deceit. They have practiced it for years so they are better at it than you. People like this are the main reason I consider my job a paycheck rather than a career or profession. Trying to take on these people just results in a lot of time away from other things you love, like family, and can even impact your health. Just fold your tent and leave. A lower paying, less creative, job is worth it if you don't have to deal with these bad actors.
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@HealthyDev Actually, kudos to you for being willing to fight back. I used to, but just got old and tired ;) Yes, many of them eventually self-destruct and get their due. Sadly, the collateral damage along the way is often considerable. They are able to masquerade as "visionaries" or people able to "make tough choices" ... but in the end, it is all just aggressive smoke and mirrors. Unfortunately, others in leadership, as well as team members, fall for the façade. I have done so myself more than once. Keep fighting the good fight. Your content is very valuable.
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@rozzerthat The last 20+ years of my career have just been variations on staying or bailing ... mitigating what I was willing to do and how to best accomplish that. What is the most sad for me is that it has become little more than a paycheck for me. I don't hate it, but I don't love it anymore either.
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@istovall2624 I think it is some of both. In my 40 years in both military and corporate software, I've seen people who used to be nice become tyrannical jerks when given power. You could write volume on the dynamics of why this happens, but in a nutshell power corrupts and it takes a person of very strong character to overcome that. I've also seen others who crave the position and claw their way up by lying, self-nominating and back-stabbing. In my opinion, those two scenarios are the majority, leaving few good leaders who eventually burn out dealing with all the political BS. A lot of psychological studies indicate that people with a high self-opinion and low introspection of their actual selves, (i.e. narcissists and psychopaths) aggressively seek these positions of power. Percentage wise, there are roughly the same number of psychopaths in corporate leadership than in prison.
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@rozzerthat Couldn't have said it better myself. I've gotten some peace by just considering the politics and process as an organic "system" that operates whether I want it or not. I just try to figure out how to best operate within it. I long since stopped caring about optimizing it or using it to my advantage. The bad part about this view is that I don't see people anymore, just parts of the system ... and therefore I care very little about them.
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@rozzerthat I could have stated my views better. I'm 100% in agreement with you that it comes across as selfish and uncaring. Been accused of that in the past, so I introspected to see what I was doing to cause those impressions. I also agree that genuinely not caring is an unhealthy option. I have a lot of sympathy for my colleagues and there are quite a few for whom I will drop anything I am doing to get them what they need, irrespective of my views on anything else. Many of them do the same for me. My perspective is more towards management and leadership. They don't take advice or recommendations, then expect the dev to clean up the mess. It is consistent and cyclical every place I have worked. So, that's where I stopped caring and just go through the motions. Every now and then I will voice a warning or alternate solution, then just sit back and wait for the inevitable. When that happens, I try to let it have as little impact on my life as possible. Where years back I would have busted tail thorough a week of sleepless nights to fix it, today I just put in my 8 while making it look like I am doing more. I am not killing myself for their mismanagement or visionary ideas that didn't pan out. Having said that, if a manager shoots straight with me and doesn't try to burn me out as a tool, I will go a long way towards working for and with them. If they snow me or burn me though, it's over. I'm old and at the end of my career, so things that don't matter to me anymore might be critical to a younger dev.
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@BrianMartensMusic I have seen this a lot too. Then they get a "consultant" on the side who promises the world in a weekend. However, what you get is a franken-system that breaks over and over again.
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