brutus1213

I think a sad part of the calculus is there are lots of bodies willing to be thrown in the grinder. The only danger is a real competitor with a different business model that lets them treat people better.

Case in point is AWS. I've been reading they are a PIP factory for the last couple of years. Doesn't seem like they have a major issue hiring (partly due to lack of a competitor who is doing better).

Hello! Can I ask you for some random career advice? I am mid-career, in a low-level mgmt position but want to return to being an IC. My team's tech stack is Python and Kotlin, but in my position I don't get to code. I code for fun at home but it gravitates towards Python (as it is highly relevant for doing Deep Learning work). My question is if I ever go into a backend role, what language best lets me get into a deep tech position at a MANG. With Python's limited use in production in MANGS, I don't see how I'll pass the Leetcode coding interviews. I used to do distributed systems a long time ago and really miss it (Did professional work in C,C++, Java, Go and Erlang/Elixir but it has been a while). I have a child now that takes up a lot of time, so I can't invest in getting good (again) in too many languages. I also have generally bad memory (remembering all the functions in std lib in Java or STL in C++ is just impossible anymore). I generally love coding but my algorithms are pretty rusty too. Advice on how to pick a darn tech stack? Thank you.

I think this is somewhat misleading. I have seen enough in my life to convince me that elite schools are worth it in the long-term. It always seems too expensive. But if you aren't willing to invest in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to?

Disclaimer: I did not go to an elite school. Went to a top CS program in a publicly funded institution. Have spoken to enough people in both camps to be sure my experience was not a fluke.

Pay for premium. On my work machine, I don't co-mingle my personal accounts. it is impossible to watch lectures with the amount of ads.

I didn't see the 6.5 million figure in the article. Did I miss it?

I wonder if part of the issue is no bank is willing to finance such a deal (given cashflow doesn't make sense with such a low prevailing vacancy rate).

I've heard of large firms stop making payment on commercial real-estate. How the heck does this work? If a regular person would do that on a mortgage, their credit would be destroyed. So you would still possibly make payments in hope of saving credit (although California is no recourse so not sure if that makes a difference; new york is not and companies are also stopping payments on properties there). Anyone have an explanation?

Yup .. that's the one.

I hunted for my question and found an interesting Economics Explained video on youtube. That hypothesizes that Baby Boomers essentially voted to change policies to favor themselves as a cohort.

It kind of bothers me that animals probably do this stuff because they are so freakin hungry. Nature is beautiful but harsh.

Housing seems to be a disaster almost everywhere in the world these days. This makes me think the issue is not a local one (or perhaps there are some traits in all of us as humans that are causing this mess). What is odd to me is that previous real-estate bubbles have been localized. Now, every single place I would consider living has had significant housing price increases/bidding wars, etc.

From an economics perspective, lets assume there was no govt regulation at all. I am not sure if the problem would be fixed. There is a trite old sayings .. "they aren't making any more land" or "location-location-location". But this inelastic supply of land is nothing new. So why is this happening now?

Haha .. that is exactly the number I was thinking of. I was mulling whether that includes the house or not. According to the definition of net-worth, of course, a house should be counted. But for the magic retirement number, it doesn't make sense to include the house (just as long as you have shelter that is paid off).

I do have kids and was also starting to think about college costs (or just let them pay it off).

I think this disease is pretty prevalent in tech these days. It has become untenable. I can imagine lots of folks with FU money (presumably folks with the most experience) are considering retiring out of the rat race. I'm not at G but have seriously started to calculate what my number would be (sadly, nowhere close).

Can this do function-calling?

Thank you for your comment. These are all great points. I absolutely appreciate #1. #2 is a bit harder to accept as it implies I don't have agency. I always had the dogma that my hard work would make a difference from the perspective of financial success. And it has made a difference no doubt. The thing that has preoccupied my thinking is the magnitude. We're talking 100 to 1 when it comes to the impact of luck vs. hard work. This is a bit unsettling for me. Cest la vie I guess.

I have to say honestly, the whole episode with NVidia's recent rise has left me quite demotivated about capitalism and the value of hard work. NVidia used to be a second tier job from the perspective of software professionals. The folks that worked there worked hard but it was not harder than any other top or mid-tier software company. That these folks hit the jackpot is great for them but quite senseless from the perspective of "you get rewarded for your efforts" perspective.

AI has been known to work and be important for many years. The reason NVidia is in the position it is, is more due to the work of OpenAI, which of course builds on the entire community's effort.

I'm trying to rationalize so this is a genuine feeling and perhaps a question. How does one rationalize such wind-falls. I know about lottery tickets but the number of people that got a payoff on this one is vast. And yes, I'll admit I'm jealous.

How does one go about such a land purchase? Are there specialized brokers or websites?

Actually, MSFT made the same blunder when it came to HoloLens. Well .. they did start to build some of the core spatial context (and had a fabulous headstart). But somewhere along the way, they yielded to Unity/Unreal. This was mind boggling to me as giving away the keys to the platform to another party was literally the founding story of Microsoft (with IBM having made the blunder). I wonder if engineering leadership recalls history when making such strategic goofs.

Is there any tooling that lets one profile the individual parts of the compute graph? In CUDA land, I can imagine how to build such a thing. No clue how it would work on Mobile.

On mobile devices, specifically Android, there are some benefits. Also, in the embedded/tinyml space.

There is a famous Marissa Meyers party at Yahoo! that this reminds me of. I thought with all the layoffs, Google was getting disciplined and everyone in line. Maybe that is not the case. When Microsoft brought in Nadella, they did some belt tightening as I recall. My understanding is that Meta is using the whip to get everyone focused. So maybe they have a better future? Or maybe G doesn't think they have an existential threat.

Article said households are not the major share of GDP. So is it the govt?? Who has all this excess savings?

There is a double whammy. Typically, someone sells their home to buy a different home that is better suited for them. Right now, there is a massive disincentive tp sell (as the seller would lose their sweet low rate 30 year). This depresses supply even more. In Canada, this isn't even a big factor (we don't have 30 year fixed rates) but shelter inflation is one of the biggest elements of inflation. I am surprised this is not causing inflationary pressure in the US.

This reminds me of the Balmer days at Microsoft. While share price and other metrics improved, MSFT missed mobile in a way that seemed inconceivable. I worked there in those days and it was pretty shocking how dismissive senior folks were to the iphone and ipad. Satya N seems to have made some seemly crazy decisions (or should I say bold?) that reek of putting the customer first. I moved back from a Mac for most of my usage due to technologies such as WSL or Linux support on Azure or Office on ipad, and so on. Microsoft continues to make bad decisions but on the whole I am pretty positive. With Google, I think something is broken. They have employed super smart people but does anyone give a shit about the customer? Take File access in Android as an example. They have made it monumentally bad. I think is because Google and its people don't operate in the real world (or whatever I inhabit). Most devs are so pressed for time, they just want stuff to work. The File API I mentioned is Mary Antoinette-level out of touch. There are so many other examples I perceive as a user/customer. Google can still be great again but they need to have a serious rethink to understand why they faltered.

I don't work in the ad industry but am quite curious to learn the high level software components. For instance, I have heard of Audience Intelligence Platforms from the likes of Google and Adobe. Curious if anyone has come across a book, blog or lecture that lays out the landscape.

Can you explain the "issuing stock to pay people"? 15% per year sounds quite a bit to me .. is this the norm in Silicon Valley? I presume this in the 10K?

That sounds batshit insane! Why the heck did Unity hire so much???

AI Scientist here. Learn about LLMs .. the tools are starting to get there .. it looks like API calls. Super easy to get into. Check out ChatGPT's APIs to start.

I am getting some second thoughts about applications that will truly stick and generate value (ala iphone). My gut says same as yours but I have some skepticism as I can see the problems with the tech preventing the hockey stick.

I think person meant they can't think by "theft of executive function". You just put out the fire in front of u (or what u are told I guess).

Read about assertive communication. You should push back. Also, make your manager aware how this is affecting your deadlines. Don't think .. well I am getting paid so whatever. That is wrong. Either it eats your hours, your brain energy or something else. Software is too competitive.

I had to deal with a function not in my role, because the person responsible quit. The org was on a hiring freeze so I sucked it up. It was terrible as my goal was not to let the ship sink (that is a terribly low goal to have, frankly, but best under the circumstances). I asked for a pomo (which I believe I will be getting shortly). I also pushed for a new hire to fulfil the function (which has happened now).

So don't just accept shit. My 2 cents.

Worked on an old ipad.

I remember when they did random stuff like the whole IoT push (frankly, their offerings made no sense to humble me .. Microsoft had a better IoT than Intel). They did drone crap .. gave a kick ass keynote at CES I recall .. also .. made little sense. Finally, the whole FPGA thing .. makes little sense. So much value being destroyed :(