alistproducer2

I, personally, closed my account in January. I became wary of my personal outrage echo chamber. Every time I logged in my feed was just things or links to things pissed about or people's opinions on what they were pissed about. I felt like the good of feeling connected to folks that were, in reality, now strangers was being far outweighed by the pervasive negativity I was being subjected to.

I don't know how universal my experience is, but I walked away from FB feeling like I was part of a massive experiment gone wrong.

I just want to point out the author simultaneously admits that he doesn't know much JavaScript, still uses smalltalk, and advocates for transpilers so I'm going to have to take his opinion with a massive gran of salt.

I work for a large company in the automotive space. I can say that most of the accidental complexity I see is related to shoe horning solutions into technologies that we happen to have licenses for as opposed to what is the simplest and most robust solution.

The kind of over-engineering for the CV polishing almost always comes from our college hires. It's not really their fault, as I understand the attraction to the shiniest object when your a newb. When their monstrosities are allowed to make it into production, however, is when you have a dev manager that doesn't really understand software engineering.

For my part, I used to scream from the mountain tops that we were over-engineering everything, but now I just let them fuck shit up cause I'm tired of trying to save people from themselves.

I've recently had an idea that I'm really excited about, but it's totally outside of my wheelhouse. It's a biotech idea and I have no training in biology or chemistry. I started watching open courseware lectures but then decided to try using a biology text book instead. I went to a local salvation army and picked up a biology book for $2. It's been working pretty well, but I'm trying to figure how to self sustain my motivation. That's always the hardest​ part of self learning for me.

It's pretty much what we have today but the veneer of meritocracy is what makes it insidious. There is rarely anything more dangerous than people who don't realize what they're doing because people can't change what they don't realize they are doing.

Part of me wants to flag this, but it is actually a pretty good read. If things turn out bad here in America, I could see a lot of folks giving the same answers that the author's grandma is giving in the piece.

At some point, some politician is going to have to man up and speak the truth. The public will have to either accept that the government can try and protect it from low probability events by invading every aspect of our lives or people will have to accept the idea that there is a sub 1% chance of being killed by a crazy person.

This is a subject I am deeply ambivalent about. On the one hand, there is merit in the concept. On the other, one has to be blind, willfully or not, to the facts of implicit bias and generational advantage to be a true believer.

Another reason I keep JS turned off on my phone and most news sites on desktop. Seriously, try it.

I'm wondering the same thing. Should I start blowing through my 401k money now or what?

I made an Ask HN related to this earlier that got no traction [0]. Due to this regulation repeal, I don't consider VPN's optional anymore. I asked people to share their VPN setups. I'd like to have my router route my traffic through one.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13942059

you really don't need studies. look at the polling data of things that get passed. The AHCA is being rushed through despite being wanted by only 17% of the public [0].

0: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/poll-gop-trump-obamaca...

If an employee can do nothing and remain employed, the issue is not where the employee does nothing from. It's the fact that the company doesn't expect anything from said employees. Telecommuting has nothing to do with it. Lack of a managerial layer that a.) makes sure employees have anything to do or b.) consistently accept late deadlines or a total dereliction of duty has everything to do with it. I'm not getting paid million of dollars a year like Mayer, or any c-suite executive is, but I managed to figure that out. They know it too, but again, it's easier to pick the lowest hanging fruit (the abused "privilege" of your employees) and say "look at how decisive I am making this major cultural shift."

The only reason Mayer was brought into the discussion is because she employed a similar tactic: not because I was "enthused" with tearing her down. I haven't read any criticism in this thread that was base or that smacked of sexism. The criticism has stuck to the facts of her tenure.

The knives are definitely out now. The common theme is that almost all of these monumental blunders have to have been known and approved at the highest levels. I'm curious, what kind of leverage do VCs have on pushing for leadership change?

are you seriously arguing Mayer's tenure was a success? Every major decision she had her fingerprints on (sumly, tumblr, etc) turned out to be massive, expensive failures. Lots of external factors go into stock price so I would argue stock price alone is not a good indicator of leadership.

Marissa Mayer did the same thing shortly after getting to Yahoo. I think the results there speak for themselves. There's never a case where a move like this will boost morale or attract/keep top talent. IMO moves like this are all about showing dominance and being a "person of action." It's corporate politics showmanship at the expense of results.

For anyone interested in the Alcatel horror story mentioned in the article, it's even worse than you thought:

Therefore his thoughts, which were characterised as “invention” in the decision, should be disclosed to Alcatel. The judge also ordered Brown to pay Alcatel’s legal fees, which exceeded $330,000.[1]

1: https://www.law360.com/ip/articles/1899/appeals-court-affirm...

The same thing happens to people at my company. If you have options, try an internal transfer. If not, get back on the market. Don't do a job you hate unless you have to.

Interesting point. Cheeky counter point: Google having done the research knows better than most that Uber's future profitability dependence on autonomous vehicles is doomed and is trying to recoup it's $250 million while Uber's still flush with other VC's money.

This is my assessment as well. People at the c-suite level had to be aware that viability of the company is highly reliant on the magical thinking that they could get to market with driver-less tech before the VC money runs out. The (very real) prospect of complete restart of that research program has likely freed them of the fantasy.

I'm not totally discounting the PR issues as a partial cause of the exits. As a c-level employee, you (more than most hires) have to answer for rotten company culture. I also, however, think both issue (lawsuit and PR issues) make it untenable for the current batch of executives to stay on.

On a similar note, Florida (and I'm sure other states) have laws that prevent government employees and their relatives' mugshots from being public records. [1]

1: http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/1247277.html

All the speculation around the turmoil over seems to be missing one key component. I think a bigger driving force then this sexual harassment and CEO antics is the waymo lawsuit. Uber itself has acknowledged that without self-driving capabilities the company will most likely not find profitability. From reporting I've read, it appears the waymo lawsuit has a high probability of success.

If the waymo lawsuit essentially forces Uber to start its self driving program back from scratch then the path to self-driving viability has essentially been scrapped. To me, this is a better explanation of the recent spat of high-level exits from the company.

I think this reflects Baidu playing catch-up with Google more than the mobile bet bring dead.

This is a terrible comment. The OP makes valid points. I run Linux on several boxes and have been a user for years and I still have trouble dealing with it sometimes. For all its faults, Windows just works.

I second this. I avoided W7 for so long because after the ME and Vista debacles, I just wanted a stable system and figured W7 was just more of the same. I was so wrong. W7 is an awesome OS.

Serious question: does MS sell a version of Window 10 outright that doesn't include all of the snooping? I've been a Windows user my whole life but I will NEVER use an OS that collects data on the OS level.

I actually have not. Thanks for sharing that. Now I've got something to watch tonight.

all the up votes for that. I kept trying to remember what Biggie song had sampled that. I could hear the beat in my head but not the lyrics.

Sort of relevant. I was watching an old movie that featured the original writer and performer of "I put a spell on you." His name is screamin' j Hawkins. I actually thought he was doing a cover. Apparently he is the real father of shock rock. I consider myself to be a music afficionado and I was completely unaware of this guy's contributions. I'm sure there are many that don't know how much Chuck contributed to the creation of rock. Rest in peace man.