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> most fast-growing startups have oral cultures where the way to learn about the software is to ask the last person who worked on it

"Oral culture" - I like that euphemism.

It's not disorganized, confused, poorly-planned, and glaring technical debt, no, it's "culture."

> Most real-world products face new requirements on a weekly, sometimes hourly basis

If your requirements are changing on an hourly basis, it's time to have a serious talk with your project manager.

> Google/Alphabet, which wasn't even the same company last week

Let's not pretend that some corporate moniker shuffling had overnight effects upon their codebases.

> Because software changes so rapidly.

So you don't have time to change your tests or other dependencies?



It's arguably not really a fair use of the term "oral culture" either. Most actual oral cultures placed a high premium on the ability to accurately retain core information (e.g. the whakapapa in Maori) with prestige for being able to convey it well.


You must have a nice cushy well defined corporate job if you think that constantly changing requirements are something unusual.


Changing requirements are quite normal, but changing by the hour is just poor project management, no matter what the environment.




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