2024-07-04

Well, I started at Internet Archive and have no regrets.

I'm pretty frazzled at the end of the day right now, but that's from working and not from frustration.

Unrelatedly, someone I know left Shopify and they somewhat heavily hinted it was because they would make decisions and then later someone extremely senior would come along and directly change that decision. I have a lot of reasons for leaving but that is definitely one of them.

I think the model I've been looking for is sovereignty -- as a leader you should be responsible for what happens in your domain but also you should be the arbiter of it. Being on the hook for a department but then not being allowed to make the final decisions sucks and is unworkable. You can do it for a bit, and there's money in that, but eventually nobody ends up getting what they want. And if the people above you don't like that, they should tell you and not the people who report to you.

I'm finding it easier to be less annoyed at Shopify now that I'm working somewhere else full-time, but I'll probably continue to be frustrated by these things for a long time.