Does Steve Huynh think engineers need permission to work at the next level?

Steve Huynh says almost nothing a next-level engineer does requires permission. Exceptions exist, such as junior engineers not interviewing senior candidates or non-managers not approving expenses, but he says there is no floating tag over your head showing your level. He learned this when a long, careful email to a more senior engineer outside his team got a one-word reply: okay.

• Huynh notes that at Meta it is hard to tell what level people are, and work still gets done.
• Huynh's exercise: ask how someone one or two levels above you would complete your current work.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on A Life Engineered (2026-10-23). Read the whole episode summary →

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