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Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

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31–40 of 117 posts

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#31

Turns out that there’s a strong correlation between a student’s grade and their assessment of the professor’s abilities. Very interesting. I don’t listen too carefully when a poor performer tells me how awful their previous manager was. Wait, what? Are we confusing correlation with causation here? Let's say, for example, that a manager tends to give female employees poor ratings (or whatever BigCo calls a grade). Do…

>Turns out that there’s a strong correlation between a student’s grade and their assessment of the professor’s abilities.

One possible explanation is that the student's evaluation of the prof is based on how well he understands the course material (since the prof's job is to induce that understanding) - which, of course, also impacts the student's grade.

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#32
post #19

Two things struck me, one kind of minor - a Pentium 66? In 1997 my desktop machine at my new startup job was a Pentium Pro 200. It replaced the SGI Indy R4400 200 from my previous startup job. No offices with doors, though, of course. The other thing was, and I don't mean these questions in a derogatory way, how do you start working for Microsoft in 1997, of all years. And how do you stay there for 12 years running?…

My first "multimedia" computer was a Pentium 120mhz bought in 1995...Maybe he meant a 166mhz or 266mhz. I think the 266mhz was first released in 1997.

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#33

Turns out that there’s a strong correlation between a student’s grade and their assessment of the professor’s abilities. Very interesting. I don’t listen too carefully when a poor performer tells me how awful their previous manager was. Wait, what? Are we confusing correlation with causation here? Let's say, for example, that a manager tends to give female employees poor ratings (or whatever BigCo calls a grade). Do…

Interesting data point for you. First, Break All The Rules found that average managers put most of their time into their worst performers. Great ones put most of their time into their star performers. The reason? Both groups can improve, and a 10% improvement in a star is worth a lot more than a 10% improvement in a dud.

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#35

Turns out that there’s a strong correlation between a student’s grade and their assessment of the professor’s abilities. Very interesting. I don’t listen too carefully when a poor performer tells me how awful their previous manager was. Wait, what? Are we confusing correlation with causation here? Let's say, for example, that a manager tends to give female employees poor ratings (or whatever BigCo calls a grade). Do…

[deleted]

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#36
post #24
post #19

Two things struck me, one kind of minor - a Pentium 66? In 1997 my desktop machine at my new startup job was a Pentium Pro 200. It replaced the SGI Indy R4400 200 from my previous startup job. No offices with doors, though, of course. The other thing was, and I don't mean these questions in a derogatory way, how do you start working for Microsoft in 1997, of all years. And how do you stay there for 12 years running?…

What kind of startup employee will you be when the only professional environment you have known is Microsoft? Good thing he's not going to a startup, he's going to Facebook.

Facebook, behemoth that it is, is still a startup. We get a little carried away calling every little personal website project a startup and perhaps that's just right for the forum. But don't get tunnel vision. Facebook is a startup.

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#37
post #36
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of startup employee will you be when the only professional environment you have known is Microsoft? Good thing he's not going to a startup, he's going to Facebook.

Facebook, behemoth that it is, is still a startup. We get a little carried away calling every little personal website project a startup and perhaps that's just right for the forum. But don't get tunnel vision. Facebook is a startup.

Then how do we categorize a startup if not by age (Facebook is already 5 years old) and size (hundreds of employees, billions in stock)?

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#38
post #25
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the "TL;DR" sentiment really belong at HN at all? I'd like to think this community is above that. The whole thrust of the site is about/for people who aren't interested in taking the easy way out.

we just need an automated way to extract that information so it doesn't clutter the comments.

> we just need an automated way to extract that information

Figure out that one and the world will beat a path to your door ....

BTW, timing is everything, I guess - this was posted by justinweiss a couple of weeks ago as http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1733702 (thank you Better HN extension for Google Chrome at http://goo.gl/PcMz).

Re: Resignation letter from Microsoft Employee

#39
post #36
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of startup employee will you be when the only professional environment you have known is Microsoft? Good thing he's not going to a startup, he's going to Facebook.

Facebook, behemoth that it is, is still a startup. We get a little carried away calling every little personal website project a startup and perhaps that's just right for the forum. But don't get tunnel vision. Facebook is a startup.

[deleted]
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