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Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

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Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#121

Post by PakG1 »

purple_ferret wrote: post #97
PakG1 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really a watcher of Netflix, but could you give some examples of what you're talking about? I didn't even know that Netflix did reality TV for example. And everything I've ever read or heard about top-tier actors and directors who work with Netflix is that they really respect the art and let the artists work. I've only read a lot of stories of a lot of creative freedom and a long leash. So would be curious to…

The Circle (was very popular), Love is Blind, Too Hot To Handle, 100 Humans, Dating Around, Glow UP, Back with the Ex, Nailed It, Interior Design Masters, Next In Fashion, Sugar Rush, Skin Decision, etc Every show about dating, cooking, design, fashion, plastic surgery you could imagine. These are just some Netflix Originals that showed up when I searched The Circle

Hah, I guess since I don't really watch reality TV shows, the Netflix algorithm will just never recommend them to me.

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#122

Post by dktoao »

cbanek wrote: post #104
dktoao wrote: post #77

I think 100x is hyperbol however you slice it, run away from anyone who tells you they are a 100x developer. 10x may be achievable... but I argue that it is at least partly due to the prevailing code-base. Every competent developer is a 10x developer on a green field project just like every competent developer is a 0.1x developer on a messy legacy spaghetti-code disaster of a project (Making the differential 100x I g…

I don't think I'm a 100x developer or anything, but I think people underestimate the compounding interest of being a 5x-10x developer. If you architect things just right today, that can save you a lot of time tomorrow. Spending time testing today can save weeks of bug time later, which can be spent to create something useful, compounding on itself. If we say green field is 10x, and someone is doing good things, I thi…

Yes, but I don't think it compounds forever. There is a natural thermodynamic limit somewhere. In practice if your company has a 1x code-base you are working for a decent company. If your company has a 5x code-base, you are working for a world class company.

EDIT: On the other hand, there is no limit in the other direction and that is where companies end up in big time trouble with a 0.01x codebase.

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#123

Post by jacques_chester »

bob33212 wrote: post #92
dktoao wrote: post #77

I think 100x is hyperbol however you slice it, run away from anyone who tells you they are a 100x developer. 10x may be achievable... but I argue that it is at least partly due to the prevailing code-base. Every competent developer is a 10x developer on a green field project just like every competent developer is a 0.1x developer on a messy legacy spaghetti-code disaster of a project (Making the differential 100x I g…

Reed is taking that into account. Reed and Netflix have been creating software for many years. They certainly have had "Rockstars" who could bust out functional but unmaintainable code. Those people are not valuable to Netflix because Netflix is looking for long term success. A 100x engineer exists in the context of a global company like Netflix. Because if a developer makes something just 1% better that translates i…

> Because if a developer makes something just 1% better that translates into millions of dollars of savings or increased revenue because on the margins just 0.001% increase of new subscribers is thousands of customers.

Generally, the idea of an Nx programmer is comparing programmers on their output, not their outcomes.

Otherwise you go from trying to compare levels of skill to levels of luck.

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#124

Post by yibg »

dktoao wrote: post #77

I think 100x is hyperbol however you slice it, run away from anyone who tells you they are a 100x developer. 10x may be achievable... but I argue that it is at least partly due to the prevailing code-base. Every competent developer is a 10x developer on a green field project just like every competent developer is a 0.1x developer on a messy legacy spaghetti-code disaster of a project (Making the differential 100x I g…

I don't know if it's 100x or 10x, but I assume that's just a figure of speech and used for effect rather than stated as an objective quantity.

"The thing with "10x" developers, is often times they (or a group of them) can do things that the average developer can't. Take Netflix as an example, would they have even started on the whole cloud thing if they had average engineers? Or if they did, would they have been thought leaders in the space for so many years.

> Maybe a 100x developer is really just a 5x developer who enables 20 teammates to also be 5x developers?

Or just a developer that makes the lives of 2000 engineers a little bit easier.

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#125

Post by lolsal »

commandlinefan wrote: post #27

> We didn’t have any mad geniuses building everything from scratch. But our productivity was never higher. Of course, since "productivity" in software is completely subjective, every claim of higher productivity attributable to whatever cause is by definition correct.

Is it totally subjective? Can't you measure feature delivery velocity? I can look at delivered velocity for engineers and see trends over 10+ sprints.

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#126

Post by [deleted] »

dktoao wrote: post #77

I think 100x is hyperbol however you slice it, run away from anyone who tells you they are a 100x developer. 10x may be achievable... but I argue that it is at least partly due to the prevailing code-base. Every competent developer is a 10x developer on a green field project just like every competent developer is a 0.1x developer on a messy legacy spaghetti-code disaster of a project (Making the differential 100x I g…

[deleted]

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#128

Post by aaronblohowiak »

birdyrooster wrote: post #67
ketamine__ wrote: post #11

What happens when the Rockstar programmer needs time off because of a death in the family? Is Hastings okay with that if it's in the middle of an important project that can't easily be taken on by others? If great programmers are limited by supply I suppose he has no choice but to keep them.

My manager was forced to go help his family in a foreign country for a month and they fired him before he returned. They did this almost routinely (and still do from those I speak to) to people who had to take time off. It’s a highly political and backstabby kind of place. It’s the only company in SV I’ve worked at (been at more than half of FAANG) where yelling matches were not uncommon in meetings. The culture slid…

I have never heard someone raise their voice in a meeting in my 5 years here, have taken multiple long leaves (and during my stint as a manager supported others doing the same,) and while there certainly are differing points of view passionately debated, everything I have seen has been “on the table” and without the subterfuge I’ve seen elsewhere. It is an intense culture (no slackers) but I’ve found it very forthright.

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#129

Post by omgwtfbyobbq »

drdebug wrote: post #85
ArlenBales wrote: post #38

Exactly what is Netflix doing that requires such skilled programmers? As a consumer of its product I haven't noticed any significant groundbreaking changes to the platform in years. I find more people complaining about the software experience as years go by. What have these rockstar programmers done exactly? I can tell you it's for sure not the UX, or its recommendation engine, which are frankly both abysmal. I'm gue…

They lead in several areas such as video quality measurement (VMAF https://github.com/Netflix/vmaf ), robustness (Chaos Monkey https://netflix.github.io/chaosmonkey/ ), video compression optimization ( https://netflixtechblog.com/optimized-shot-based-encodes-for... ) and probably more.

I feel like they might be going a bit overboard with video compression optimization. As an example, Star Trek Voyager in HD looks significantly worse than OTA 480i. On the plus side, it looks good in 4k.

Re: Netflix CEO explains why he pays technologists huge salaries

#130

Post by anm89 »

dktoao wrote: post #77

I think 100x is hyperbol however you slice it, run away from anyone who tells you they are a 100x developer. 10x may be achievable... but I argue that it is at least partly due to the prevailing code-base. Every competent developer is a 10x developer on a green field project just like every competent developer is a 0.1x developer on a messy legacy spaghetti-code disaster of a project (Making the differential 100x I g…

I very much believe in 100x developers related to the .2 or -.5 x developer. These people have the potential to accomplish little or even slow everyone else down by focusing on the wrong things, and writing difficult to maintain code.

In that sense a 1x developer is infinitely more efficient than someone who is a net loss to the team and 100x is nothing.

I do agree that it would be very difficult to be 100x better than someone who has decent technical skills and generally displays common sense and stays focused on useful paths.

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