from Gergely Orosz | by Gergely Orosz

"What is your take on 'US software engineering culture' vs other cultures (like Scandinavian, Eastern EU etc)?" A loaded question but here goes: 1. US-founded tech companies dominate global markets. Not understanding how and why they succeed is ignorance at its finest.

2. Some universal truths are starting to surface in sw engineering. Like iterating faster is (usually) more nimble to progress. Transparency (usually) helps the team. Micromanaging (usually) kills innovation. These are dependent on context. Understand them, and their context.

3. There are cultures that are far more hierarchical and process-driven than others, and this reflects in the day-to-day. I'd run a company with only Hungarian engineers slightly differently than one with all Dutch, or all US ones. Understand the culture you're surrounded with.

4. Global teams and companies are far more common with remote. Startups with 20 people from 16 countries. These teams form a brand new culture. It gets trickier to navigate, but a few things help. A shared language - English (usually). The engineering and company culture.

5. I think there's less of a "US" vs "non-US" sw eng culture. There's more of a "small startup", "fast-moving scaleup", "highly regulated enterprise", "non-tech company" etc cultures. These are very different: t.co/m31Pw6LAV7

6. Some things about a good (global) engineering environment are common, in my view. US, EU or anywhere else. These are the 12 things these are that are rarely spoken about in e.g. job postings: t.co/RK7HIKf5Pl What is your take on software engineering across cultures?