bertlequant

Probablie

Something a tad irksome in the way a corporate behemoth is praised. We all use Amazon, but we all used to shop at Wal-Mart. Difference seems to be everyone always seemed to at least sligtly detest Wal-Mart, but people talk about Amazon with awe and an almost joy-like appreciation.

Some of my friends worked at fulfillment centers, and if most of these 100,000 new hires mentioned are headed to those places, the author fails to mention a very important part: retention. Since he seems very impressed by wheels, one could also compare the fulfillment centers to a gristmill, where people are ground up and discarded. Ever seen an ad for an Amazon fulfillment center hiring event? It's akin to seasonal hiring, where everyone who shows up at event is hired on the spot, knowing a lot of them will quit early on. If a job isn't retained past a certain point, it can't really be seen as a win. It would be interesting to see data about how long the average fulfillment center worker stays in a fulfillment center position.

Many of us have read about how grueling it is to work in an Amazon fulfillment center, and after hearing my friends' stories I agree.

The good thing for Amazon is that the customer never has to see this. They don't have to feel bad seeing what all went into getting them that tea kettle in under 6 hours. Sure, there is a lot of amazing logisitics and technology involved, but there is also a human element that is hidden. In Wal-Mart, you can walk right into a store and see the effects & signs of mass consumption, cheap products, and cheap labor. I think its visibility has driven a lot of the protests and blowback against Wal-Mart, successful or not.

I think not being able to easily see the dark side of Amazon plays into Amazon's customer satisfaction in some ways. You order something and a box arrives. The only interaction you see is the one you made with your computer.

Multipass

All of this greatly depends on the teacher. While I have never specifically seen a debugging class offered at university, some professors do a good/decent job ensuring that you have debugged/tested your code.

I know a lot of companies have ancronyms, bullet points, or a list of company culture principals. What's everyone's reaction to all of this? Do you take it seriously? Pretend to? Roll your eyes? Find value in them?

I would've imagined Netflix had their own hardware, both compute and storage.

It's been a while since I read that short story, but the message I took from it wasn't that there was a seed of evil in the society, but that no matter what society or system exists, there will always be those that cannot fit into it. Perhaps someone considered a failure in one society, would be a "king" in another. If someone doesn't have something that society values, perhaps it will be hard to coexist in that environment, causing them to leave or become something deemed worse. Maybe Le Guin had other motives with her story. Maybe Utopia is just a step towards the next Utopia, which will itself be another step, due to an inherent lack of satisfaction. There are many ways to interpret the story, which is why I have always enjoyed it.

How I miss digouyou

Product is the stock price. Cost out so executives keep bonuses. Solid tactics

The pale blue dot will

An interesting perusal: https://www.itdashboard.gov

The father goes around apologizing for his son's behavior? I'm pretty sure that's not helping anyone.

For me, Blue Apron is more something to do every once and a while, as a treat. First, to me at least, the 6 to 9 dollar meal average isn't cheap. Second, like others have posted about, I wonder about the message of pure, fresh, clean food that was rushed to me in a delivery truck with everything packed up all nice and neat.

"Come check out our data center". Tape robots. Compliance's friends.

2nd copy is in tape though

He goes to physical therapy during the week, because he had to pretty much relearn almost everything. The doctors told us, considering how bad the stroke was, it's amazing where he is at. A testament to my dad, I think the one part he enjoys is the improvement. He has this set of tasks he's been given to do each day, and he goes after them like it's a workout. Since he can't really do the things he once enjoyed (at least at the previous level of intensity), he finds new things to focus on. He was a big hiker and bike rider, and I know he misses all of that now.

It's been really hard seeing my dad after he had a stroke. Someone who used to be so physically active, now seems so fragile when he walks. The hardest part for him is how drastically his life changed. One day he was working and had a career he enjoyed, the next day he would never be able to work again in that field in his former capacity (medicine). It has shown me how resilient people are, because even though there is a perceptible lag in his speech, he is still there as he always was.

How I miss my shard over 56k

I remember applying to Verizon when I was still in school. I had to give up because their application kept throwing readable database errors and wouldn't let me continue to the subsequent pages. Weeks later, one of their recruiters contacted me and asked if I wanted to finish my application. I said no.

I lived in China for a few years as well, and most expats you run into are usually teachers. This doesn't mean they are all low skill or lost perse. Many are young and come there after college for a gap year or two, to travel and experience something different. However, many are enticed by the ease of life: 16 hour work week for Uni foreign teachers, relatively decent salary, ability to travel, and other assorted reasons. I've seen many people get into side businesses while over there, but it was usually running a school (most likely with a foggy legal arrangement and no ability to procure residence permits - eliminating the true draw of a school for many parents over there). It's been a while since I was over there, so things might have changed, but I think, for the most part, the poster above is correct.

It will be interesting to see what happens when machines and algorithms really start coming for jobs on that level. I wonder if far down the line, will there be one sole human at the top of all of this automation, protected from its outcomes?

My dad used to have trouble with Enternet Explorer. Mainly, his sister in law would come visit, play a bunch of Flash games, and then his computer wouldn't work right anymore. So, I explained what Chrome was ("what's a browser?), installed an adblocker, removed the shortcut for Enternet Explorer, and replaced it with Chrome. He would say he understood he needed to click the Chrome logo and the internet would still be available like he was used to. When I would return days or weeks later, I would notice that Chrome was still there but IE had crept back somehow and he was using it. I think a similar pattern happens with phones. Whatever is baked in, gets used by the average user, regardless of how bad it sucks to someone in the know.

Although this may seem to be a torture strategy to those not from China, I can assure you after living there for a few years, Nick Cage is extremely popular in China.

Oh the number of people I see using LP at or through work...

A lot of this seems to blame others for a personal lack of attention and productivity. Even the Joe Spolsky article someone linked to below, lists a whole lot of reasons that diminish his productivity, none of them being directly caused by him. I am quite the opposite. I tend to think focusing on maximum productivity makes me less productive, as I will tend to get peeved about things I have no control over.

Sure, if someone interrupts you while you have set it up to be clear you are busy (whether on your work messenger or email) then that is annoying and not cool. But it's hard for me to get annoyed at others when I haven't done the ground work to set up those obvious protections.

At some pt I have to wonder, just because you can do something does that mean you should? I don't really look forward to a future where Amazon is involved in every business possible. Especially if it's Weyland-Yutani-esque and involved in cave exploration.