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Randall Koutnik
Personal blog · rkoutnik.com · on HN as RKoutnikstartupscareerprogramming
Randall Koutnik's personal blog at rkoutnik.com covers startups, career and programming. Since 2015, 10 different Hacker News readers have linked it 32 times, most often “Implementers, Solvers, and Finders”. The last post was in 2020, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Commenters link Randall Koutnik's posts on engineering careers: the Implementers, Solvers and Finders framework for seniority and autonomy, and a list of questions for candidates to assess engineering culture.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
You've found my corner of the internet! I opine on various topics that interest me (mostly tech, startups & the like). Stick around and enjoy yourself!
Most-linked posts?
- Implementers, Solvers, and Finders7 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2016-04-21
- Questions to ask your interviewer2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-01-19
- Wanted: Ninja Rockstar Code Monkey Hacker Unicorn2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-06-01
What Hacker News says?
I wrote up an article about probing for culture in the interview [0]. Here's the tl;dr: It's really hard to pull out the truth sometimes. Those that aren't looking through rose-colored glasses are outright lying to you. No company sends disgruntled employees to interview. It's important to figure out if the company has a plan for you. If the plan seems like "Change everything, but without any power to do it", book i…
Comment linking /articles/Questions-to-ask-your-interviewer.html
on “Ask HN: How do detect a crappy boss / toxic environment when interviewing?”Submitted Implementers, Solvers, and Finders as a story · 205 points
HN discussionFor me, promotions me more autonomy rather than more reports. I think the essay *Implementers, Solvers, and Finders"[0] expresses this well. [0] https://rkoutnik.com/2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-fin...
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “What does a Director of Engineering do?”Submitted How I Interview as a story · 150 points
HN discussion> I used to think hard work leads to promotion. This is because I didn't understand why different positions exist outside of a title change. Now I see things a bit differently. If an individual on my team is working hard, I'm going to keep them where they are because they're getting the job done. Rather, I'm looking to elevate my 10x engineer - not the one that's the doing their job well but the one thats mentoring…
Comment linking /articles/Questions-to-ask-your-interviewer.html
on “What does a Director of Engineering do?”Submitted Valley Talent as a story · 98 points
HN discussionThis is true. However, I think at the highest levels of autonomy is when people actually get to define what their goals are[0]. That is not to say that it cannot be done remotely. In fact, in most large tech organizations, the highest autonomy positions will almost certainly entail a lot of remote collaboration (with customers, sales, suppliers, support, remote engineering teams, etc.). However, the more autonomy on…
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Workplace flexibility is the way to win the war for talent”Submitted Companies with a flat structure are weird as a story · 81 points
HN discussion>The final stage of programmer evolution is the Finder. These folks are considered experts in their chosen domain (and are prudent about others). Writing Finder job descriptions is an exercise in futility. As my boss put it: “I can’t tell you the specifics of what you’ll be doing here because your first task will be to figure that out.” A Finder will be able to anticipate problems before they happen, usually because…
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Ask HN: When are you considered a “senior” programmer?”Submitted The Myth of Equity as Motivation as a story · 80 points
HN discussionI think a large part of this is that we didn't have a technical career ladder until recently, and that a "seniority" has different meanings depending upon whether the company treats software development as a strategic business asset[0]. Now that we have technical career paths where one can expect to continue as technical individual contributor, the official "Senior Engineer" title falls roughly in the middle (slight…
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Senior Engineers Reduce Risk”Submitted Wanted: Ninja Rockstar Code Monkey Hacker Unicorn as a story · 65 points
HN discussionsama, if you're reading this, I'd love to hear more about > Senior People: In the early days, hiring senior people is usually a mistake. I know a lot of folks (including myself) are of the opposite opinion - it's a mistake to hire non-seniors to build the first round. Senior folks can often see pitfalls ahead of time and dodge them, saving valuable time while the company is pre-product/market fit. I can think of ple…
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Later Stage Advice for Startups”Submitted Hacking Calculords as a story · 49 points
HN discussionI like that framing of culture fit, and I think it is incredibly important as a candidate one should also try to answer determine that fit (rather than leave that up to an employer). I really like Randall Koutnik's list[0] of questions to ask your interviewer, as a good way for a candidate to assess the engineering culture of a company. [0] https://rkoutnik.com/articles/Questions-to-ask-your-intervie...
Comment linking /articles/Questions-to-ask-your-interviewer.html
on “Strengthening our workplace with neurodiverse talent”Submitted Hacking Calculords part 2: Who needs fingers? as a story · 45 points
HN discussionI think it's possible to stay a developer without being just a ticket monkey, but it's certainly true that not every organization is prepared to grant developers greater autonomy[1]. [1] https://rkoutnik.com/2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-fin...
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Do you want to be making this much money when you're 50? (2012)”Submitted The git's guide to git: Bisect as a story · 33 points
HN discussionThere's an easy way to tell if someone is junior or not. Are you an implementer, a solver or a finder? An implementer is someone who gets given a task and does it. That's a definition of a junior. Middle of the range is a problem solver. You give someone a high level problem and they solve it. A senior is a problem finder. They tell you problems before you even know they're a problem. This guy puts it much better th…
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Ask HN: How do you define a junior developer?”Submitted Questions to ask your interviewer as a story · 9 points
HN discussionOne really good thing to do is to switch from the mode of "when someone gives me a problem, I can solve it" to "I can find problems on my own." This is: * Much more satisfying, since it gives you control over your environment ( https://rkoutnik.com/2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-fin... ). * Allows you get more done in less time ( https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/ ), which means you can…
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Ask HN: What is your best advice for a Senior Software Engineer?”Submitted How I Interview as a story · 8 points
HN discussionWhen you're selling yourself, don't just focus on technologies. E.g. if you're experienced enough to not just solve problems, but also identify problems in the first place, that's hugely valuable, but you need to make sure to convey that to potential employers. (Specifically I'm thinking of the difference between "Solver" and "Finder" in https://rkoutnik.com/2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-fin... ).
Comment linking /2016/04/21/implementers-solvers-and-finders.html
on “Ask HN: Are there many opportunities for part-time remote work in software?”Submitted Incentivize Teams, not People as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Building Data Warehouses for Fun and Profit as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Corporate Culture Gap as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Hacking Calculords part 3: A math-free intro to neural networks as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Implementers, Solvers, and Finders as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Implementers, Solvers, and Finders (2016) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The git's guide to git: Commits and their messages as a story · 1 points
HN discussion