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Hey

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I’m Dan McKinley. That’s me in the hole. It’s a metaphor.

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I work for a company called Mailchimp, or Mailkimp if you listen to podcasts. I was an early employee at Etsy, and that was a formative experience for me, so I’ll refer to my time there a lot. But I’ve worked for a few other places since.

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I’ve worked at big companies and at smaller ones, and at my own tiny startups. I’ve noticed a few things.

Big companies can have a branded way of doing engineering. For example, “The Etsy Way” of doing engineering became a thing. Living inside of that box where your needs are met and questions are answered can spoil you somewhat.

But I’ve also been in situations where “the way engineering is done” is actively being figured out, or in periods of transition. And in those situations I’ve had to ponder a couple of questions.

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First, how do you pick the tools you’re going to use to get your work done?

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