23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline • Hacker News Board

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#61

Post by theflyinghorse » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

igetspam wrote: post #57

theflyinghorse wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People working in tech not in the bay aren't second tier. Are we though? If we were to establish criteria by which to judge tiers how would anywhere else in the world compare to the Bay? My intuition is that the Bay is probably more productive and gets paid far more for it. The bay certainly drives just about about every tech trend worth a note. Innovation as well how much tech came out out of that region. Disclaim…

30 year bay area veteran here. There is nothing special about the bay area that isn't geography. The density of workers means you meet a ton of talentless people who shuffle along with the crowd and are rewarded for it because it's unnoticed. I'm paid more to be remote than I was in the bay area and my money goes a lot further. I'm also exponentially more productive not being in a sardine can office. Your intuition i…

> Your intuition is shaped by your inexperience of the reality of the situation

Yes, largely. Though, frankly the grass IS greener on the other side in my case. I am in the middle of nowhere in Canada and my window into the tech world at large is github and YC.

> 30 year bay area veteran here

Do you believe you would have the same opportunities today if you did not spend time in the Bay (didn't get experience, network, insider knowledge)?

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#62

Post by irrational » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:24 PM UTC

mdszy wrote: post #51

irrational wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't really true though. You aren't some kind of clone of your parents. Imagine that both of your parents sit down at a table. Each one has 100 dominoes in front of them. Each parent will randomly take 50 of their dominoes and put them in the center of the table. Those are your 100 dominoes. It could be that your mother has 20 "scottish" dominoes, but not a single one of those dominoes are in the set given to y…

>You might look at your mother's dna results and say "I'm 20% scottish!" No you're not. You got zip from the scottish side of the family. So then the DNA results themselves are wrong since they're based on exactly this logic, just for your parents... Therefore making the entire thing completely useless.

No, all it means is you can't look at someone else's results (even parents or siblings) and think that your results would be the same.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#63

Post by irrational » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:24 PM UTC

itronitron wrote: post #41

irrational wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't really true though. You aren't some kind of clone of your parents. Imagine that both of your parents sit down at a table. Each one has 100 dominoes in front of them. Each parent will randomly take 50 of their dominoes and put them in the center of the table. Those are your 100 dominoes. It could be that your mother has 20 "scottish" dominoes, but not a single one of those dominoes are in the set given to y…

that line of reasoning sort of proves the uselessness of even using 23andMe in the first place

No, all it means is you can't look at someone else's results (even parents or siblings) and think that your results would be the same.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#64

Post by yalogin » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:24 PM UTC

This is a functionality that no one asked for. Why does one need them? Let me ask an extreme question, how different is this from me naming a star after someone for their birthday? I go to some site and print out a certificate that that particular star in a given galaxy is now named Michael. Point is its a novelty thing. If a doctor asks me to get it done for a medical reason, sure. Other wise this is just a curiosity with no use.

Also, one way to look at it is we are paying to make our DNAs sellable to third parties. These have value for a long long time and the company is going to make money on that for ever. Sure there will "anonymization" of the DNA or some other privacy blurb used but we all know it will be sold.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#65

Post by irrational » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:25 PM UTC

laurencerowe wrote: post #56

irrational wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't really true though. You aren't some kind of clone of your parents. Imagine that both of your parents sit down at a table. Each one has 100 dominoes in front of them. Each parent will randomly take 50 of their dominoes and put them in the center of the table. Those are your 100 dominoes. It could be that your mother has 20 "scottish" dominoes, but not a single one of those dominoes are in the set given to y…

With 23 pairs of chromosomes we have 46 dominoes each (ignoring recombination.) This changes the odds of inheriting none of your mother's Scottish dominoes from 1 in a million (2^20) to 1 in 512 (2^9).

Right, but unless you get your own results you have no idea how the dice rolled for you (how many other game metaphors can I use?).

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#66

Post by rolltiide » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:29 PM UTC

mterrel wrote: post #2

I just wonder what happens to everyone's DNA data as the company faces financial trouble and/or sells itself. That's in addition to any concerns about possible security breaches that might occur.

Which contributes to why sales declined.

Enough people have had their awkward family gatherings after trying to have fun with a novelty gift.

Enough people have watched others mess up otherwise cohesive family structures over what was supposed to be a novelty toy.

Enough people have watched the availability for genetic information to go to law enforcement. And that maybe they don't need your specific information to use that effectively, so why give more whether you agree with it or disagree with it.

And the uncertainty of this information being stored in perpetuity, available to the highest bidder.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#67

Post by zamadatix » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:30 PM UTC

yalogin wrote: post #64

This is a functionality that no one asked for. Why does one need them? Let me ask an extreme question, how different is this from me naming a star after someone for their birthday? I go to some site and print out a certificate that that particular star in a given galaxy is now named Michael. Point is its a novelty thing. If a doctor asks me to get it done for a medical reason, sure. Other wise this is just a curiosit…

Knowing your genetic risks would be useful, it's just a shame their share the data with 3rd parties.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#68

Post by x86_64Ubuntu » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:30 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #3

> Wojcicki has theories, but she doesn’t have clear proof for why consumers are shying away from getting tests Because the ones that want them have gotten them and there's no reason to ever buy the product again once you've done it once. I mean, smartphones are great, but the market for them would have hit a wall pretty quickly if no one ever had a reason to replace them after buying their first.

Not just that, but when you read about them, they pretty much host their data on law enforcement hardware. Not that I think the Golden State Killer should be on the lam, but it's kind of concerning that a person with whom you share a great-grandparent with can put you in a police dragnet.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#69

Post by natch » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:31 PM UTC

>Wojcicki has theories

I have a theory for her. It's too expensive. It was really cheap when I got it (on deep discount) but there are discounts, and then there are discounts. The discounts in the last few years have been very weak.

For the past few years I would have bought it for as many as five family members if only it had gone back to the price I got it for.

And now that the privacy concerns have understandably scared everyone, maybe privacy has overtaken that theory. But the prices are still too high for the value offered.

Re: 23andMe lays off 100 people as DNA test sales decline

#70

Post by maps7 » Thu, Jan 23, 2020, 9:32 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16

spike021 wrote: post #12

Interviewed here a year or so ago. Honestly I'll admit I didn't do well technically, but every interviewer I had just seemed super impersonal and not very friendly. They asked very interrogative questions, and while I get it and am mostly ok with it, I felt like they were asking due to the existing environment they have there. I just didn't get a great vibe. Disclaimer: But again, I know I didn't do well on the techn…

This breaks my heart to hear. I interviewed there in 2011 as an infra guy, and not only was the infra team personable (the winning question was rapidly identifying the symptoms of a duplex mismatch on a switch ethernet port), the VP of Engineering was awesome as well. He even went so far as to say, "As a tech person, you belong out here in the Bay, even if it's not with us". I turned down the offer, but it was one of…

> (the winning question was rapidly identifying the symptoms of a duplex mismatch on a switch ethernet port)

What did this question win? Who asked who?