"The engineers who refuse to engage with politics often complain that their companies make bad technical decisions. But they’re not willing to do what it takes to influence those decisions. They want a world where technical merit alone determines outcomes. That world doesn’t exist and never has." -Matheus Lima
Source: https://terriblesoftware.org/2025/10/01/stop-avoiding-politics/
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“There are no technical problems, only people problems”
[loosely from the little red book The Secrets of Consulting]
Yeah this can be a tough one, even if you accept the advice of the article and try to "engage"... Organizations can (and frequently are, at least outside of Tech) run by non-technical people, so there's culture barrier number one.
I've been in organizations where the management isn't just non-technical, they're also from a different culture (I.e. Asian vs American vs European), so this can be barrier No. 2.
And finally not to sound glib but as a scientist, I've found that engineers can have particular difficulties in advocating for their ideas in verbal or written form. Science always requires communication; engineering can, in principle be completed with a grunt as you present your machine / program to "speak for itself"... I've known brilliant engineers who struggle to explain what they do or why it's important.