Recycling some replies. More context on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 (understanding codebases, etc.)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26591067 (testing pipelines, scaffolding, issue templates)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 (making the most out of meetings, leveraging your presence)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 (product development)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 (giving a damn)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 (If I disappear, what will happen)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 (about consulting and clients, but you can abstract that as "stakeholders", and understanding the problem your "client", who can be your manager, has.)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 (on taking notes. When you're told something, or receive a remark, make sure to make a note and learn from it whether it's a mistake, or a colleague showing you something useful, or a task you must accomplish.. don't be told things twice or worse. Be on the ball and reliable).

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 (product, architecture, and impact on the team)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 (onboarding new hires to a codebase, what if it were you, improve code)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 (being efficient learning from video, hacks. Subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 (communication with the team, and subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 (template for taking minutes of meetings to dispatch to the team. Notes are in GitHub/GitLab so the team can access them, especially if they haven't attended).

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 (communication, alignment)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 (useful things for the team and product that add leverage)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 (more meeting notes. Reply to a person who had trouble talking in corporate meetings)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 (management involvement as a spectrum)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 (researching topics)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 (keeping up with a firehose of information)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 (fractal communication: communication that can penetrate several layers of management and be relevant to people with different profiles and skillsets)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 (remote work, use existing tooling and build our own. Jitsi videos, record everything, give access to everyone so they can reference them and go back to them, meetings once a week or two weeks to align)

>No real coding, just testing.

Testing, or reading the tests, is a really good way to know a codebase. It's valuable. It enables the team to move with confidence.

>Maybe software engineers that haven't been performing at high levels are mostly given the job of testing code

Don't read too much into it.

>it's just a standard to have certain developers do all of the testing

The next phase will be new commits including tests.

There are many ways to go about getting what you want. One of them is to be very helpful for the team and the project. Write good tests. Write tooling to make life easier. Make metaphorical buttons so people can push them and magical things happen.

On top of your "testing duties", own the product. Improve it in any way you can. Fix a bug, implement a feature, add great docs, refine the copy, think of ways to make it more profitable, make it more stable, think of integrations, extract useful bits into libraries. This is not for everyone and the decision is yours to go above and beyond or not.

>P.S. hope I didn't complain too much, but if I am just let me know :)

One definition of a problem is when there is a gap between a desired state and a current state that we do not how to remove. You have a problem, in that there is a gap between your desired state and your current state that you do not know how to "bridge". If this were a more thorough effort, we'd probably be talking about what is it you really want, and what the "actual" thing you're looking for is, but ...

People will gladly let you deal with more complexity once you have demonstrated you can handle more complexity. You of course can take a stand and wait to be given more complexity before you have shown you can handle more. I am not going to get into a conversation about how "just" or "unjust" this reality is. I am just telling you how to change it quickly. It may not be popular and it's understandable and to each their circumstances but, often, if you do what most people do, you'll live like most people live.