I remember the Print Shop as a kid! Yah I guess specialization won out. We don't even have to see our holiday cards now. Upload a photoshopped picture and mail merge and start getting compliments from friends and family a week later.
You don't start there, but you can get there as you level up. A lot of that would be because the stock on your RSU grants goes up while you work there though. I don't think many SWE have 7 figure targeted comp (highest levels, yes). But plenty get there with refreshers and stock appreciation.
Many people top out at a lower level because they don't play corporate politics games or because the L7s aren't moving on, so there's no real room for promotion among the L5s and 6s.
Microsoft in the Ballmer years (early/mid 2000s) had this problem. Promising L65/L66/L67 (probably equiv to L5/6 at AMZN) would leave because the next step was full. All the "partners" were hanging around and not making room for the next gen of leaders.
> Does a customer care if you shave off 2% of the final cost or do they care about having world-class customer support?
Times and times again, they'll tell you the latter and actually choose the former.
The same bargain as paying more to have no ads: people vocally push for no ads, some will ponny up the money, and the vast majority will make do with the ad supported model, while ad blocking or giving up on the service when they're fed up with it.
> Does a customer care more about how long payment processing takes or do they care that it takes their local mobile payment app?
I'm curious how you find the people to ask that ? If your current service doesn't provide support for the payment app, who would you ask if it was a deal breaker for them and refused to become your customer, not giving you anybof their information ?
> Times and times again, they'll tell you the latter and actually choose the former.
I don't think this is as true anymore.
There was some time between 1990 and 2015(ish?) where physical widget prices was falling faster then the quality decrease, software and computing hardware got better, where the quoted strategy made sense.
Nowadays you will get dropshipped crap (or any service sector equivalent) if you go for the lowest price.
We need a new "appeal to customer" logical fallacy. Talking to the customer is not a panacea for running a business, and the failed company graveyard is full of products that "delighted customers" but still couldn't cut it in the long wrong.
Part of running a business is having to explain to your boss how you spent millions of dollars, and building confidence that you're making sound decisions and not just shooting from the hip. Many times that will mean making decisions in the best interest of the company over the customer, and there's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing perfect about A/B testing, and like any tool it can do both good and harm. But when I have to explain to my boss about how I'm spending their money, there's a limit to how much lip service I can play up about the customer journey before I have to put my money where my mouth is and demonstrate that I'm putting their cash to good use. A story that includes A/B testing along with qualitative customer research is better than a story that just includes one or the other.
I was cooking tacos for my family knowing I had COVID (we all had it at the time). I remember not smelling the seasoning, and threw a small handful of chopped raw onions in my mouth to confirm the bad news...
Luckily it came back in about a week. Beer and wine tasted awful for a few weeks, and I am a fan of both. Luckily a year on, and all seems well for now.
Years later, I'm still registering new scents that I haven't smelled since before my first COVID infection. For a hearing analogy, it's not like the volume is turned down, it's like some frequencies are missing entirely. And then one day, suddenly, it's back. Freshly ground coffee is an especially rich source of new odors. It turns out coffee isn't just one smell, it must be dozens.
Yeah I had a dram or so of cask strength (60% iirc?) whisky per day when I had no taste just because I wanted to have some kind of taste-adjacent feeling even if that was just a bit of burning. I was so happy when I realised it was coming back slowly every day. Nose is still not 100% but I am fine with that, I can enjoy food and drink so I'm lucky and thankful
