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The biggest benefit of a long tenure at a company was learning to write software that ages well — the simple solution someone put together in a week or two often outlasted the big, multi-team RFC-driven solutions.
After eight years at Shopify, Simon found that the most valuable lesson was how to build durable software, observing that simple, pragmatic solutions frequently outlived complex, committee-designed architectures. ✦ AI generated
Simon Eskildsen · The Pragmatic Engineer · 2026-07-21 · original ↗
The biggest benefit of a long tenure at a company was learning to write software that ages well. Simon told me that this was the lesson that made it so worthwhile, and how often the simple solution someone put together in a week or two outlasted the big, multi-team RFC-driven solutions. That was a lesson he still uses today.
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- ·Biggest benefit of a long tenure: learning to write durable software
- ·Simple, pragmatic solutions often outlast complex architectures
- ·A lesson Simon still uses today
- ·One-person, one-week solutions outlasted multi-team RFC designs
- ·Committee-driven architectures proved less durable
- ·Speed and simplicity beat elaborate planning
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