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A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

thehustle.co

301–310 of 379 posts

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>even the lowest employees Why is the janitor considered "the lowest employee" by you?

Amusing aside: once I was talking to this engineer on the phone and he was talking about driver development and I, in an attempt to relate, remarked that that sounds rather hard and that it's been a while since I wrote low-level software like that. Somehow that came across as insulting what he did as of low skill level. Oops! Awful faux pas. I think I managed to clarify but I've decided to use less ambiguous words ne…

I think you are unnecessarily censoring yourself. Low-level software in computer circles means that it is closer to the metal and no computer engineer in their right mind will consider low-level software to mean software that require less skill to write.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thehustle.co as a publication is catered to young 'hustlers' who very much buy into the capitalist American Dream. Good. We need more of this kind of thing around here, and less negativity and the "luck is everything, effort is irrelevant, sit on your ass and wait for the government to fix all your problems" bullshit that we've been overrun with lately. This is a hype-article for the 'anyone can make it' myth There's…

Working in the fields in sweltering heat for less than minimum wage means you're not trying hard enough, all you have to do (in addition to dying of heat exhaustion) is to work hard and pursue your dreams! - guy with a website with a bunch of enterprise software gibberish

> Working in the fields in sweltering heat for less than minimum wage means you're not trying hard enough

It means that although you are working hard but not working smart.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#303
post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amusing aside: once I was talking to this engineer on the phone and he was talking about driver development and I, in an attempt to relate, remarked that that sounds rather hard and that it's been a while since I wrote low-level software like that. Somehow that came across as insulting what he did as of low skill level. Oops! Awful faux pas. I think I managed to clarify but I've decided to use less ambiguous words ne…

I think you are unnecessarily censoring yourself. Low-level software in computer circles means that it is closer to the metal and no computer engineer in their right mind will consider low-level software to mean software that require less skill to write.

> no computer engineer in their right mind will consider low-level software to mean software that require less skill to write.

In my experience, it's generally the opposite. Low level is seen as very hard and arcane.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this interesting data point. Would you/they prefer to just be called latino? Is this common sentiment among Mexicans outside of your family? I can see latinx only being preferred by non-gender-conforming individuals to whom it applies, as opposed to when referring to individuals rather than to communities (families, neighborhoods, food, etc).

I think more specific is always better. I’m of Mexican descent, I prefer to keep that identity. I’ve actually noticed people in the US sometimes struggle to say that as if being “Mexican” is a bad thing; it’s not, don’t be afraid of the term. Latino and Latina are also fine. Hispanic as well although that has a slightly different meaning. I think it’s best to call people by the terms that they use themselves. Foistin…

>I think it’s best to call people by the terms that they use themselves

Black people call each other nigga and if I go around saying same, I'll not be having a good time. So what you are proposing is not always true.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#305
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to leave a similar comment, but decided not to. Anyway, I mostly agree with you -- I never refer to myself as "X-American" where X is some European country, because first of all I don't care much about it, and second I know how ridiculous it sounds to people who were born and raised in country X. On the other hand, I also think the Swedish-American OP has an understandable point. Cultural group identifica…

I get a kick out of people asking me what I am. Umm, American? But what is you’re ancestry, they will persist. “From America”. Honestly my parents have told me X generations ago where someone immigrated from, but I can never remember? For some reason the factoid just won’t stay in my brain, and it has zero relevance to me. For some people the roots of their identity is intensely personal. For others mostly irrelevant…

23andme will you about ancestors if you want to know.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 100% agree. But it's important that diversity be considered in all forms, not just based on race/sex. If your "diverse" team is made up of different ethnicities and genders but only consists of ivy league members who grew up in California... well, not really diverse then, is it?

Class diversity is pretty hard to achieve because you usually need some baseline class to actually be able to succeed in a role, i.e. you can't show up to a meeting with customers or shareholders chewing dip and wearing camo jorts. And social mobility from lower classes into corporate-ready roles is rather low in this country, so while there certainly are people who grew up poor and would be useful for companies to f…

Please. Large tech companies are happy to have their Ivy Leaguers show up in flip flops while ridiculing anyone making an effort. All they have to do is not actively ruin the chances of outsiders and hire some of those contractors as equal employees.

No focus group is going to tell you something obvious you don't want to hear. Walk into any library and see what you find in terms of computing from all those companies saving the world. Most likely, very little. Is that because you can't make a billion dollars selling computers to libraries, hotels and airports? Or that it wouldn't be a good marketing opportunity? Probably not. More likely because people don't give a shit and that tech companies are perfectly happy to live in their own bubble of superiority.

This isn't a "blindspot" it's arrogance, and ignorance, and incompetence. Large tech companies can't makes things that are primarily useful to other people. They are busy capturing markets with touch bars and clones of one of their own service that will be shutdown as soon as it grants someone a promotion. Then their employees can go on Hacker News, or their own internal forums, out of view of any opinion that is slightly uncomfortable and fault political correctness for how everyone else just don't understand that the state of computing is their own fault. Because $500k salaries, sophisticated tax planning and probably the least amount of regulation of any market just isn't enough to not see the world through a straw.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My takeaway was that not only was a janitor directly employed by the company (as cleaning services are basically 100% outsourced in my experience now) but was paid well and felt part of the company such that he was motivated to stay interested and contribute.

Yes that is quite the anachronism these days.

Too bad. Perhaps there is an opportunity cost argument for a better alternative.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#309
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that a push for diversity is somehow in conflict with a meritocracy is deeply flawed because it relies on the idea that people with diverse backgrounds either haven't shown they are capable or that there are no people with diverse backgrounds that are capable. A good diversity program does two things: 1. It identifies and removes certain unnecessary credentials that might rule out people with diverse backgro…

That’s a fantasy. The reality is that there aren’t enough diverse candidates to reach the diversity goals of every company without hiring incompetent people. If every company wants 50% women and the graduates with interests in CS come out at a 4:1 male to female ratio, the strive for diversity either needs to give up and hire what the pool provides or start giving underqualified women. TL;DR - Companies absolutely ne…

Invest in people and that problem goes away.

Re: A janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (2017)

#310
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a fantasy. The reality is that there aren’t enough diverse candidates to reach the diversity goals of every company without hiring incompetent people. If every company wants 50% women and the graduates with interests in CS come out at a 4:1 male to female ratio, the strive for diversity either needs to give up and hire what the pool provides or start giving underqualified women. TL;DR - Companies absolutely ne…

The pipeline problem is a concern long term, but I don’t think it is the primary problem at the moment for a couple reasons. First, it assumes that the pool of diverse candidates has already been exhausted. Anecdotally I have not seen evidence of that. If it was the problem you claim, we would expect female engineers to make much higher salaries than their male counterparts. There is no evidence that is happening. Th…

I'm not sure companies could legally pay women more than men. Sex is a protected class.
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