I'm not sure this distinction holds either. At Google, I'm given a fairly vaguely-specified task ("Provide this benefit for users") and then told to do what it takes to make it happen. It's not unlike launching a product in a startup, because, well, it is launching a product. I've heard this is pretty much Google's definition of a senior software engineer - one who can take a vaguely specified user requirement and then make it happen.
There's a fair amount of gruntwork at a startup that's pretty obvious too, eg. when I was doing mine, I had to do all the server admin. This falls out naturally from actually having servers that need to stay up. I'd say that probably 80% of startup work is gruntwork, which isn't all that different from a job description in a big company.
There's a fair amount of gruntwork at a startup that's pretty obvious too, eg. when I was doing mine, I had to do all the server admin. This falls out naturally from actually having servers that need to stay up. I'd say that probably 80% of startup work is gruntwork, which isn't all that different from a job description in a big company.