A Hacker News post asks whether most corporate software engineering jobs are performative, with the author describing experiences at FAANG where much work seems useless and managers spend time on 1:1s. The post has 112 points and 124 comments, sparking discussion about engineering culture.
The large companies I’ve worked at (including FAANG) seemed to thrive on kudos via performative actions. Like the majority of the team is doing useless stuff that management thinks is impressive while the couple all stars get the team closer to the goal.<p>Meanwhile, a lot of managers calendars are purely just 1:1s with devs on the team which clearly has very little value add to the team.<p>Anyone else notice this? Not sure if there’s a word for it, but it’s somewhat demoralising working with a bunch of corporate office workers cosplaying as engineers
# Ask HN: Are most corporate SWE jobs performative?
Source: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48475871](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48475871)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/vote?id=48475871&how=up&goto=item%3Fid%3D48475871](https://news.ycombinator.com/vote?id=48475871&how=up&goto=item%3Fid%3D48475871)[Ask HN: Are most corporate SWE jobs performative?](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48475871)112 pointsby[hnthrow10282910](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=hnthrow10282910)[4 hours ago](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48475871)\|[hide](https://news.ycombinator.com/hide?id=48475871&goto=item%3Fid%3D48475871)\|[past](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Ask%20HN%3A%20Are%20most%20corporate%20SWE%20jobs%20performative%3F&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)\|[favorite](https://news.ycombinator.com/fave?id=48475871&auth=e51abfa813ea084760b9169e86225e5bf9b87dfc)\|[124 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48475871)The large companies I’ve worked at \(including FAANG\) seemed to thrive on kudos via performative actions\. Like the majority of the team is doing useless stuff that management thinks is impressive while the couple all stars get the team closer to the goal\.
Meanwhile, a lot of managers calendars are purely just 1:1s with devs on the team which clearly has very little value add to the team\.
Anyone else notice this? Not sure if there’s a word for it, but it’s somewhat demoralising working with a bunch of corporate office workers cosplaying as engineers
[help](https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc)
Despite rapid advances in AI coding agents like Devin, which have dramatically increased code writing and shipping, the article argues that the most valuable aspects of software engineering remain illegible to benchmarks and require human judgement and organizational coordination that cannot be easily automated.
The article critiques the proliferation of AI-generated work in the workplace, where employees use tools like Claude to produce expert-seeming outputs without genuine expertise, leading to systemic issues in management and accountability.
This article argues that software engineers should work fewer hours and maintain slack time to be available for high-impact opportunities, rather than constantly grinding low-priority tickets.
A developer reflects on using AI agents and questions whether the apparent productivity gains are genuine or merely performative, noting that while tasks are completed faster, deep understanding and real value may be lost.
An engineering leader observes that AI coding assistants enable startups to appear productive while masking the absence of strategic architectural thinking and management oversight, creating an illusion of health that delays necessary organizational investment.