The Wolf – Rands in Repose

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You’ve heard of the 10x engineer, but I am here to tell you about the Wolf. They are an engineer, and they consistently exhibit the following characteristics: The Wolf moves fast because they can avoid the encumbering necessities of a group of people building at scale. This avoidance of most processes-related shenanigans and their exceptional engineering ability allows them to move at a speed that makes them unusually productive. It’s this productivity that the rest of the team can… smell. This scent of pure productivity allows them further to skirt documentation, meetings, and annual reviews. It’s easy to hate the Wolf when you’ve just spent the day writing integration tests, but it’s also easy to admire the fact that they appear to be dictating their terms. In my career, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a handful of Wolves. They appreciate that I have identified them, and we have interesting ongoing conversations regarding their Wolf-i-ness. Two times now, I’ve attempted to reve

You’ve heard of the 10x engineer, but I am here to tell you about the Wolf. They are an engineer, and they consistently exhibit the following characteristics: They appear to exist outside the well-defined process we’ve defined to get things done, but they appear to suffer no consequences for not following these rules. Everyone knows they’re the Wolf, but no one ever calls them the Wolf. They have a manager, but no one knows who it is. They have a lot of meetings, but none of them are scheduled. Inviting them to your meeting is a crap shoot. They understand how “the system” works, they understa

The Wolf – Rands in Repose

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