9
rui902
5y

For the people working on small startups:

How do you keep updated on best practices, engineering, and all that when you're 24/7 focused on the startup (implementing, testing, fixing stuff)?

I feel like I love doing things the best way, but we always go with the "do fast, break fast" and it always feels like a mess because the engineering is done after a really small MVP is done (and after a long time usually).

I was hoping to be able to at least do a really small engineering part *before* starting anything new, but CEO always wants stuff done *yesterday*. But for this I think I should be reading more, and playing around with new patterns and all that, so at least I know out of the box what would be a good thing to start with and not having to change the entire project/script from scratch.

Comments
  • 3
    This is exactly me 100%. I'm fairly inexperienced but I'm the only one in this building who knows what a variable is.

    It's fun to code at my own pace, but it sucks when I genuinely want to do things the best way and am interested in learning best practices, and all I have to go by is google - which often isn't helpful when it comes to broad, generic, yet per-case concepts.

    Spending a week laying the groundwork for a big new feature because you want it to be done properly while your boss "would like to see some progress" because the frontend is still untouched can be pretty frustrating - and scary.

    I'd love to offer advice based on my experience, but my solution was literally to find a new job which I'm starting in a couple of months.
  • 2
    As someone who works for a small startup - generally speaking, you don't have the time to learn new frameworks, languages, etc. from scratch. Certainly not on the job, anyway; it's just too hectic and pretty much *everything* is business critical, so it's not like you can be freed up to work on something experimental for a month (as might be the case in a larger company.)

    If you want to do this, you've basically got two options:

    - Push for a training budget, and then use that to go on at least a couple of workshops or courses a year for technoogy that you're inteested in. This sort of thing is a reasonably cheap attraction for new devs joining as well, so you can make a business case for it.
    - Use "side project" time, outside of business hours, to do what you want.
  • 1
    I work at a startup but we have enough time to learn frameworks and learn things in general. Maybe it's because the company now exist almost 3 years.
  • 3
    @AlmondSauce side project time. Funny 😂

    We dont have free time for this kind of investment, all my free time goes for company's projects. My startup is now entering a new market and I have double the work and a new language to learn almost... but the other idea seems good. If i have time for it, I'll definitely have time for some side projects as well!

    Thanks
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