101–110 of 130 posts
Your first ever job is at Google? At 24? And no loan debt? How is that even possible. Not to be a dick, but honestly it sounds like your family is wealthy enough that you can do whatever you want.
You go to school in Canada ($10k/year tuition) and do internships in the US ($8k/month salary). Not uncommon at all and doesn't require any family money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So your mentor seems to be right, even though what he's suggesting is not 100% ethical: if you read your contract you'll see that all of your software related ideas are property of Google. It is most definitely not unethical to not comply with a bullshit authoritarian contract like that.
This links sums up nicely why that's the only practical way for software companies: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-pr... > Your game designer works for a year and invents 7 games. At the end of the year, she sues you, claiming that she owns 4 of them, because those particular games were invented between 5pm and 9am, when she wasn’t on duty. > Ooops. That’s not what you meant. You wanted to…
She wasn't paid for ideas, she was paid for intellectual property: code.
"hey listen, I know that inventing happens all the time, and it’s impossible to prove whether you invented something while you were sitting in the chair I supplied in the cubicle I supplied or not."
You don't need to prove whether something was invented while sitting on the chair. There's a pretty simple explicit transferral of intellectual property - you pushed it to the company github.
"that ONE GUY from 1998 who didn’t sign the agreement is going to be a real jerk about signing it now, because he knows that he’s personally holding up a $350,000,000 acquisition and he can demand a lot of money to sign."
Which happened when, exactly?
My question is: Have you stopped learning/growing at Google? Staying at Google is probably the safe path. But you're stuck at the Mothership; And as guilded the cage is, it's still a cage. I left my company and now enjoy my days visiting friends, family, biking, dog-walking etc. and work at nights (on the nights I want). My capacity to learn has increased 10-fold now that I'm not slogged down in a 9to5 job (I should…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So your mentor seems to be right, even though what he's suggesting is not 100% ethical: if you read your contract you'll see that all of your software related ideas are property of Google. It is most definitely not unethical to not comply with a bullshit authoritarian contract like that.
This links sums up nicely why that's the only practical way for software companies: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-pr... > Your game designer works for a year and invents 7 games. At the end of the year, she sues you, claiming that she owns 4 of them, because those particular games were invented between 5pm and 9am, when she wasn’t on duty. > Ooops. That’s not what you meant. You wanted to…
Also, considering how much money megacorps can make of employees' ideas, I'd say that many aren't fairly compensated at all.
Doesn't the "we own all your output" line also sway employees against pursuing their own potentially world-changing ideas as well? Is that good for everyone?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This links sums up nicely why that's the only practical way for software companies: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-pr... > Your game designer works for a year and invents 7 games. At the end of the year, she sues you, claiming that she owns 4 of them, because those particular games were invented between 5pm and 9am, when she wasn’t on duty. > Ooops. That’s not what you meant. You wanted to…
"Your game designer works for a year and invents 7 games. At the end of the year, she sues you, claiming that she owns 4 of them, because those particular games were invented between 5pm and 9am, when she wasn’t on duty." She wasn't paid for ideas, she was paid for intellectual property: code. "hey listen, I know that inventing happens all the time, and it’s impossible to prove whether you invented something while yo…
I wasn't close enough on the selling side to figure out what concessions they needed to make to make the problem go away, but it absolutely can and does hold up acquisitions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Your game designer works for a year and invents 7 games. At the end of the year, she sues you, claiming that she owns 4 of them, because those particular games were invented between 5pm and 9am, when she wasn’t on duty." She wasn't paid for ideas, she was paid for intellectual property: code. "hey listen, I know that inventing happens all the time, and it’s impossible to prove whether you invented something while yo…
I've been involved in two diligence exercises (on the buy side), where not having IP assignment was an issue for the selling company. I wasn't close enough on the selling side to figure out what concessions they needed to make to make the problem go away, but it absolutely can and does hold up acquisitions.
Was this specifically about a clause in an employees contract that allowed for side projects?
Or was it, say, about a software license purchased from another company? (which probably does happen, yes)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been involved in two diligence exercises (on the buy side), where not having IP assignment was an issue for the selling company. I wasn't close enough on the selling side to figure out what concessions they needed to make to make the problem go away, but it absolutely can and does hold up acquisitions.
"not having IP assignment" Was this specifically about a clause in an employees contract that allowed for side projects? Or was it, say, about a software license purchased from another company? (which probably does happen, yes)
If you have a good relationship with your employer you should be able to say "Hey I want to try something else for a while, but if things don't work out, I'd love to keep the doors open on both sides." I've done this before with a few jobs, one of which I went back to after I left and the other thing I was pursuing didn't pan out. In the time I was gone I learned a tremendous amount about myself and what's possible.…
So are you suggesting that the 95% of people who are not to engineers are just waiting their time?
If you have a good relationship with your employer you should be able to say "Hey I want to try something else for a while, but if things don't work out, I'd love to keep the doors open on both sides." I've done this before with a few jobs, one of which I went back to after I left and the other thing I was pursuing didn't pan out. In the time I was gone I learned a tremendous amount about myself and what's possible.…
> If you can't make a convincing case that you're in that top category of engineer, then what has working for Google earned you these past few years? So are you suggesting that the 95% of people who are not to engineers are just waiting their time?