bmat

Yes, liquid comp (salary+bonus) exceeds my total Google comp (salary+bonus+equity). I should qualify this by saying I left Google as an L4 SWE and I'm starting at this company as an engineering manager, so that factors in. But FWIW I got an offer for a tech lead position at another all-remote company, and it matched my Google total comp with just salary+bonus as well.

TIL HN doesn't have DMs. If you add a contact method in your bio I'll reach out

Sent you an email :)

Sent you an email!

I don't want to call out the company without their blessing, but they're a unicorn with $100M+ raised so that certainly helps them be competitive.

If you work at one of these companies and are frustrated by the decision to return to the office, I encourage you to seriously consider leaving to pursue a remote-first career. Not only to send a message, but also because there are many great remote opportunities out there right now.

Ironically I had this battle with Google pre-COVID back in 2019. I was worn down by my commute and itching for a change of environment, but I liked my team and my project. I figured I’d push for full remote since the sell seemed obvious: either I stop working for you and you get zero value from me, or you let me work remotely and you continue to get value from me (more value, I argued). I put forth a list of concessions to address their concerns (I’ll commit to stable online hours, I’ll create a virtual desk in the form of an always-on voice or video call, I’ll forfeit remote if my performance rating is anything below “exceeds expectations”). After weeks of back and forth meetings, the final response was: we can’t give you full remote because then everyone will want it. How about 3 days in 2 days out?

I left a month later, did some traveling, then started working as a remote freelancer. Despite no free food, no benefits, no in-office massages, I have zero regrets. It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for my overall well-being. And most recently I took a full-time position at a fully remote company (as in no offices at all) with better comp and benefits than what I had at Google.

The more we actually leave to pursue remote, the more these opportunities will arise.

Comparing a few dozen cherry-picked headlines over 30+ years to a specific warning by 14,000 scientists is hardly apples to apples.

Also, CEI claims the ozone hole was climate alarmism and nothing bad actually happened, but that’s because scientists warned us and we took action. Even the chart CEI cites shows the hole stopped growing and leveled off. But apparently because it didn’t disappear completely, our actions were futile?

Definitely. My takeaway is we should be skeptical of any comparison between COVID and flu statistics.

For people getting hung up on the apples to oranges analogy: imagine you're a farmer. You're hearing reports that there's a huge surplus of oranges and everyone is cutting production. You have a lot of orange trees, so you're understandably upset by this and decide to look into it. Some journalists, politicians, and your uncle Jimmy say it's all overblown—there are about as many apples as there are oranges on the market this year. No surplus, no need to cut production.

Then Agricultural American puts out an article showing that data on oranges is being reported by farmers as oranges are picked, whereas data on apples is being estimated based on much fewer reports. The conclusion is that the apples-to-oranges comparison should be taken with a grain of salt.

This is in addition to reports that show orange yields are likely underreported based on overall measures of fruit on the market[1], as well as anecdotal reports of fruit storage being overwhelmed by oranges[2].

Ok I think we can go ahead and report this analogy as another COVID-19-related death.

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronav...

[2]https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-body-bags-begin-to-fi...

The point was comparing reported COVID deaths to statistically extrapolated flu deaths is apples to oranges. What you quoted was a comparison of reported deaths to reported deaths.

Zero accidents in 200k miles, so "tragedies avoided" was probably the wrong way to put it. My point is: for every one tragedy, there are hundreds of little ways Autopilot makes everyone on the road safer.

That's fair. In ~200k miles of driving I've also had zero accidents so maybe it's a stretch to call these things 'tragedies avoided'. But the point stands that Autopilot does little things every day to improve safety, but they get little media coverage since they're mundane and boring.

> Anyone who has driven with autopilot, how quickly might it react to a perceived obstacle? Would it take a hard turn into a median faster than a person could reasonably react if it thought there was something in the road or that the road took a hard left?

The only thing my car has ever abruptly/unexpectedly done was brake, usually in response to an overpass it mistook as a stopped car. It's happened maybe 10-20 times in 10,000 miles. Not enough to cause a rear end collision or even an angry honk. I've always had time to take over.

It's never taken a hard turn. The only times it catastrophically failed were when I knowingly put it in confusing situations: winding roads, poorly marked lanes, city driving, etc. In those cases I always have a death grip on the wheel, and the software seems to literally loosen its hold when it's feeling uncertain.

Before owning a Tesla I did feel like Autopilot was overhyped, but I now realize that's more because of media coverage than anything Tesla is actively conveying. The vehicle software actively encourages driver attentiveness. Moreover when you actually experience Autopilot, it becomes abundantly clear that it can't drive unassisted.

For every tragedy, there are tragedies avoided. I can attest to a few. In the last 10,000 miles, Autopilot has: safely swerved to avoid a car that would have sideswiped me, preemptively braked after detecting the 2nd car ahead (not visible to me) had slammed on its brakes, and avoided colliding with a completely stopped vehicle in the center lane of the freeway.

And FWIW I've never felt misled about Autopilot's capabilities. I started off skeptical and it's since earned my partial trust in limited scenarios. Ironically its hiccups actually make me more attentive since, ya know, I don't want it to kill me.

Similar story here. 29, had been working at a big tech company for almost 4 years. Didn’t really enjoy the work, definitely didn’t enjoy the 1 hour commute. Tried to convince my manager to let me work remotely but was rejected, so I decided to take the leap and quit* . I didn’t have a specific plan for what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to do some traveling, work on passion projects, and cultivate some new hobbies.

It’s been 2 months and I have zero regrets. In that time I started and finished a video project I had put off for 8 months, started playing drums, and just finished a month of traveling the US and Europe. I still don’t know what I want to do long term, but I’ve never felt more empowered to figure it out. Do it!

* Disclaimer: I have an open offer from my old company to come back any time (same role same compensation), so that took a lot of the pressure off of the decision. You should see if you can negotiate something similar with your job.

As a native of Gainesville, FL (where Grooveshark is based), this is really sad news. Certainly they made mistakes, but what few see is how much they contributed to the tech community here. Their CTO has personally mentored many companies in the area, and they have a presence at pretty much every tech-related event. I can't think of any other company within a 100-mile radius that can fill that role now that they're gone. Hopefully they'll spin off some new businesses in the area. Otherwise this will be a huge blow to Gainesville's already struggling tech and startup communities.