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We're hearing about troubles at Nest

businessinsider.com

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Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#81

Post by [deleted] »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #42
outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

Also worked there, but not on hardware, and the crunch-ness was no better. It's also an org driven more by design and marketing than by QA and sound development and engineering. You always felt like you were failing and behind. It was a very discouraging experience. 1/5, would not recommend.

[deleted]

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#82

Post by CaptSpify »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #12

Inevitablities from the Internet of things: Software glitches, personal data sold or served to the government, personal data stolen by a foreign government, hackers that freeze your house or crank up the heater till it breaks, hackers that spy on your kids with the cameras you installed, automated customer support lines. For some reason I get the feeling that adopting all of these "smart" devices actually makes me mo…

I hate IOT too, but I love smart devices. The answer I see to smart things: manual overrides, and no phone-home requirements. Give the control back to the user.

If I put up a smart device, and someone breaks into my network, that's on me. If google screws up my house, that's on them, and they should be held liable.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#83

Post by aledalgrande »

w1ntermute wrote: post #52
asdfologist wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but I'm asking how. If you piss off your employees and they leave, how do you grow your business into a multibillion-dollar company?

Because not that many employees actually left, despite being pissed off. There was no way the Valley élite would let one of their own (Tony Fadell) have a hard fall, so at least a semi-successful exit was guaranteed from the beginning. The reason why Jobs and Fadell could be assholes and still succeed is because they were/are Jobs/Fadell. That doesn't mean you or I can act like assholes and still succeed. Perhaps we…

I agree. I've seen a*holes who were nobodies, and they went nowhere. This is because he is Tony Fadell.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#84

Post by aledalgrande »

nostromo wrote: post #25
atonse wrote: post #8

I have a nest and it is a real piece of shit. I usually don't curse on HN but I can barely contain my hate for this product. My absolutely ugly, crappy old thermostat with a needle on it works WAY better than the nest (thankfully we have it upstairs where we sleep). When it's cold, we turn that needle up, and we get warm. With the nest, which is downstairs, when we're cold, we turn the nest up, we get weird "+2 hour"…

The Nest thermostat is a dream compared to the smoke detector. The smoke detector goes off all the time -- without rhyme or reason. With a normal detector, you can just pull the battery if it refuses to shut off. With Nest, you actually need a screw driver to open the battery compartment to turn it off. So, when it decides to wake up the entire house at 3am (yes, the entire house, since they all go off in unison) you…

Never understood why in US the smoke detectors are such a nightmare. I never had a problem in Europe.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#85

Post by fivesigma »

brown9-2 wrote: post #56
asdfologist wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how did someone with such an abusive management style lead his company to success? I'd think that his employees would just leave and go work elsewhere.

How are we defining success? As raising capital and being acquired?

Success = selling hyped up "smart thermostat" for $3.2 billion

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#86

Post by threeseed »

[deleted] wrote: post #81
dclowd9901 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worked there, but not on hardware, and the crunch-ness was no better. It's also an org driven more by design and marketing than by QA and sound development and engineering. You always felt like you were failing and behind. It was a very discouraging experience. 1/5, would not recommend.

[deleted]

> Tony's ambition to be the next CEO of Apple

Weird. He's only 9 years younger than Tim Cook and Jeff Williams (current COO) would be a great replacement should anything to Tim.

Plus the Tony Fadell era culture at Apple has noticeably shifted under Tim. Not sure it would change back anytime soon.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#87

Post by threeseed »

brandon272 wrote: post #20
outside1234 wrote: post #11

I worked there. It was literally the worst experience of my career - and I have worked at all of the hardest charging blue chips and two successful startups - so it is not about high expectations - but abuse. I still wake up with something like PTSD occasionally from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell almost literally every day while I was there. I have a distance from it now -- and a way better job. It mad…

> I still wake up with something like PTSD from getting yelled at and bullied by Tony Fadell. This is so depressing. My gut tells me that absolutely no one should have to put up with this in an employment situation, but what are your options, other than to either "deal with it" or face the income and career insecurity that comes with quitting?

There are no other good options.

You can complain but you will get forced out eventually for rocking the boat plus it may affect your reputation in the market place. You just need to do what everyone does. Grit your teeth, stay positive and plan your exit strategy to another company.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#88

Post by zippergz »

atonse wrote: post #8

I have a nest and it is a real piece of shit. I usually don't curse on HN but I can barely contain my hate for this product. My absolutely ugly, crappy old thermostat with a needle on it works WAY better than the nest (thankfully we have it upstairs where we sleep). When it's cold, we turn that needle up, and we get warm. With the nest, which is downstairs, when we're cold, we turn the nest up, we get weird "+2 hour"…

It's always fascinating (and disappointing) to me to read stories like this. I have had two Nest thermostats in my house for three years now, and I regularly think of them as the single best upgrade we made when we moved in. Ours work great, and provide a far better experience than the old-style programmable thermostats we had in our previous places. I don't know if we just got lucky, or what. I wish that everyone could have the same experience we have, because for us it really is a great product...

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#89

Post by protomyth »

Software written by people who are working weekends / 50+hr weeks sucks. It is bad and buggy. It is really painful if it is running an appliance that has to work. The sooner managers get overworked programmers / engineers will lead to bad things which might lead to lawsuits, the better.

I am hopeful that the Nest way of doing things is not replicated in their self driving cars.

Re: We're hearing about troubles at Nest

#90

Post by letitleak »

kuschku wrote: post #79
letitleak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to go OT[1], but is there a link to their general (encryption/integrity) policies? I was shocked they are sometimes delivering the android studio via http and providing only sha1 sums. If your IDE is compromised, then who knows what code you might be signing.. [1](Well I considered it a related matter, as I have trouble telling what googles actually policies are and whether my attempts at feedback will be filte…

Android? Security? Are you joking? In the past weeks, several independent exploit chains from "App with no permissions" to "Bootloader takeover" have been published. Completely working on all versions except for Marshmallow, unpatchable on the older devices due to Android’s update model. It doesn’t matter what code you sign when literally any app could be a rootkit. Edit: Some of the chains are from the author of thi…

I'd not heard from no permissions, but as with a website, I still prefer things with my signature correspond to things from me and are nice even if the rest is a cesspool. Given these problems, I would seriously hope that the ~8 app makers I trust feel the same way.
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