Boo. Let's not be too close minded. I'm a FANNG guy. A lot of our problems aren't even these mystical "FANNG problems" people talk about and get solved by REMARKABLY boring tech. So, I'd welcome his opinion in an interview. ^_^
Picking a non-sexy, non-scalable, "wrong" technology that does nothing more than solve the actual requirements at hand is a rare and amazing quality for engineer to have imo.
Everyone wants to build infinitely flexible, infinitely scalable machines using the most rapid iteration tools possible as though that's what "engineering" is. But sometimes... all you need is a REST API. Sometimes you need GraphQL. Sometimes, all you need is to stuff data in a bucket somewhere and call that an "integration point". All solutions have trade offs. Pretending otherwise, or faulting others for weighing those trade offs differently than you, is silly.
That is exactly the kind of problem solver I like to work with. Most of the time, “boring” tech will solve the problem cheaper, faster and as reliable and scalable as any shiny new tech.
I work with GraphQL, REST APIs and even JSON RPC APIs on a daily basis and when you truly use those tools, you get to know where they really shine.
And then 50 people stuff data into different "buckets" and call them "integration points" and you spend months refactoring their horrible choices after you have identified why your services can't scale.
Non sexy "wrong" tech is exactly that. Pick smart tools that do the work for you so that you don't have to babysit your teams choices and micromanage every project.
I have weighed the trade offs, and it is literally my job to identify the problems that come from them.
Ah, ok, guy. We get it. It's either your way and your preferred tech or it's total unbridled chaos which is doomed to fail. Turns out there IS a silver bullet after all. I'm embarrassed.
Yes, because I am the only person on the planet advocating for gql, and more broadly advocating against allowing individual developers to drop data into "buckets" or whatever point you were trying to make about how freelancing in production systems should work.
Picking a non-sexy, non-scalable, "wrong" technology that does nothing more than solve the actual requirements at hand is a rare and amazing quality for engineer to have imo.
Everyone wants to build infinitely flexible, infinitely scalable machines using the most rapid iteration tools possible as though that's what "engineering" is. But sometimes... all you need is a REST API. Sometimes you need GraphQL. Sometimes, all you need is to stuff data in a bucket somewhere and call that an "integration point". All solutions have trade offs. Pretending otherwise, or faulting others for weighing those trade offs differently than you, is silly.