Jake Bolam, IC8 at Instagram/Meta. guy shipped 500 diffs in a few months.
## tldr
- •"never breaking prod = too slow. breaking daily = too fast. occasional breaks = reasonable speed"
- •defer to accept, not reject/nitpick
- •go where you're valued - switch teams if it's not working
- •cut scope aggressively: turned a 2-year migration into 6 months
- •20-30% of time on uncredited work for long-term reputation
## how he got to IC8
- •joined as IC6, sucked at first (covid, remote onboarding, wrong team fit)
- •switched to instagram web (react background) → suddenly crushing it
- •IC7: took a 2 year migration, shipped core in 6 months. just cut scope aggressively
- •IC8: convinced 95% resistant org to do "impossible" migration by framing it as devx improvement first
## on being an IC vs manager
- •prefers IC because he wants to actually code when needed
- •still leads through others, just without the manager title
- •"force multiplier" type - coordinates people, sees strengths, brings energy
## productivity stuff
- •40hr weeks normally, spikes to 60-70 when excited, drops to 35 in slow periods
- •50% of week is focus blocks, no morning meetings
- •disappears for 2-3 weeks to just code during momentum phases
- •note-taking: one giant VS Code folder, timestamped files, links between them. no folders, just search
## code review takes (spicy)
- •stamps low-risk stuff fast, only goes deep on core/prod code
- •will accept diffs that "will blow up prod" with a comment saying fix it first. trusts people
- •never breaking prod = too slow. breaking daily = too fast. occasional breaks = reasonable speed
- •defer to accept, not reject/nitpick
## random bits
- •uses chatgpt ~10x/day
- •20-30% of time on uncredited work (helping others) for long-term reputation
- •advice: go where you're valued, switch teams if it's not working